Paul recording Alex at the kennel that night was a very smart thing for him to do.
Is this accurate? Around here it would be treated as a bad DUI-vehicular homicide. He’d get maybe 4 or 5 years. Twenty years is for intentional murders.
3 felony counts of boating under the influence. that would carry a penalty of 25 years.
I’ve only sort of been following this case, but what is the status of the surviving son? His mother and brother are dead, his father is going away forever, probably, and is exposed as a shithead. I can’t imagine his turmoil.
I’m sure that’s part of it. From what I understand, the death of the housekeeper and the young guy found on their property are being reopened. I can’t remember if people thought it was Paul or Buster that may be involved in those.
Was that on purpose? I thought he was recording the dog and it was an accident that he caught his dad on tape.
It sounds like he’s squarely behind his dad’s story, which is no surprise. Who wants to believe their dad murdered the rest of his family? Financially, I would think he would be okay at least until they unravel all his dad’s crimes. I’m sure there is other family money too.
Alex must have asked Paul to be there, right? Otherwise why bother with bringing two guns to make it look like there was more than a single shooter?
There’s a book in the pipeline, scheduled to be released August 8th. (Yeah, let’s see about that.) It’s called “Tangled Vines.”
It could be more than that. He is the one under suspicion in the death of the teenage boy. His father may know things Buster would rather not be revealed. After all, Alex tried to cover up Paul’s involvement with the boating accident. Who is to say he wasn’t involved in covering up the death of the teenager. Better to stay on his father’s good side.
I believe the young man (Steven Smith) was found down the road, not actually on the Murdaugh property. There were lots of rumors amongst the public that Buster, the surviving son, was somehow involved. Not sure how much stock to put in those rumors.
Yes, Alex asked both Maggie and Paul to be there that evening.
I’m curious about this as well. Not a lawyer and know nothing about SC law. Surely since it was not an intentional murder, he wouldn’t have gotten 20 years? Especially since the other young adults were also drinking? I don’t know. Not that I think it was nothing and he should have gotten a slap on the wrist if found guilty, just that I didn’t think it would be such a long sentence.
Ah, I thought it was Paul that was thought to be involved. So it’s possible father and his two sons each killed people. Quite the family.
So the plan was to kill them both all along. I realize he was drug addled, but I wonder if we will ever know just exactly what his plan was? Seems like it’s a variation of the 1) kill family, 2) ?, 3) Profit!!! plan.
Yeah but in Paul’s defense, Mallory Beach’s death was accidental. Extremely negligent, but still accidental.
Three felonies. Boating under the influence. Boating under the influence resulting in injury. Boating under the influence resulting in death. He also lied about being the driver. Punishable up to 25 years in SC according to a lawyer in the documentary and numerous news reports.
Add underage drinking and the use of a fake ID, usually misdemeanors in most areas, to those charges, were he still alive to face them.
i believe 2 was gain sympathy, get charges dropped (on his son), not deal with a possible forensic account due to divorce filing.
leading to 3, continue to keep his house of money cards standing; keep the fraud going.
I think he wanted to kill his wife, and had to get rid of Paul because he was a witness.
That probably seemed like a good plan to a drug addict, but didn’t his financial crimes only come out after the murders? Or were they found when the suspicious wife was looking into divorce?
I see no reason to take as sincere his assertions that drug addiction impaired his decision making in this matter. That’s a cop out. Not that it’s always a cop out, but in this specific case we’re not talking someone who breaks into homes, steals to get money to feed his addiction, and ends up in a “him or me” situation with a homeowner making to exercise a bit of castle doctrine on them.
This is a man of privilege, with a massive estate and a lavish lifestyle who apparently couldn’t handle the thought of finding out that he is actually a FAR FAR WORSE human being then the impoverished individuals him, his father, his father’s father, and his father’s father’s father have been locking up for petty offenses going back generations.
Fuck him.
ETA: And I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that far from being a drug addict, he is actually a drug dealer.
I think we can agree on that. Doesn’t mean I can’t still want to know what his thought process was that deciding to kill his wife and son seemed like a good option. Not to mention the fake murder/suicide plot.
I saw an article yesterday where his brother said he can’t imagine that Murdaugh killed his wife and son, but he doesn’t believe he was telling the truth in his testimony. He’s also the only family member that didn’t attend the trial. Not sure what exactly he thinks happened.
He’s also still a lawyer in the same firm that his brother was with. That’s got to be a little awkward.
The Legal Eagle and his DA buddy (DAgull?) have a breakdown: Alex Murdaugh Shouldn't Have Testified - YouTube
That is a brilliant video. Very well done.
Thanks to @Love_Rhombus for the video.
I like that the video lays out the timeline of all his crimes. That helped me out because I hadn’t really followed the case in real time.
Interesting that the brother that didn’t believe his trial testimony turned him in to police for trying to use a nurse’s phone when he was in the hospital for the fake murder/suicide.
I wonder if this guy can even tell the truth. He obviously took after his father and grandfather. Luckily, his brother seems to be able to tell the truth. I wonder if there was bad blood between them before the thefts came to light.