For the first time since Alex Murdaugh was convicted of murdering his wife and son, the disgraced former lawyer appeared in court on Thursday to learn the anticipated start date of his first white collar crime trial.
Donning an orange prison jumpsuit and a buzzed haircut, a shackled Murdaugh smiled and greeted each of his lawyers before he sat at the defense table in Beaufort County Court for the status hearing in connection with state charges alleging he stole upward of $4.3 million in insurance money intended for the family of his late housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield.
During the fiery hearing, defense attorney Dick Harpootlian argued for a delay of the trial and change of venue on the state charges, arguing that his team needs to prepare after Murdaugh’s February murder trial. The lawyer also alleged that the South Carolina attorney general’s office is attempting to make this latest case a national spectacle and noted there is still too much pretrial publicity, asking, “Where are you going to get a jury? Mars?”
Prosecutor Creighton Waters pushed back on the allegations, calling the request for a delay an assault on the judiciary. Judge Clifton Newman, who also presided over Murdaugh’s murder trial, ignored the defense’s protests and scheduled the Satterfield trial for Nov. 27.
Prosecutors say that in 2018, after Satterfield died from a fall at Murdaugh’s home, the former lawyer urged her two sons to file a claim against him to collect on his homeowner’s insurance policy. Then, instead of handing them the payout as agreed, Murdaugh allegedly conspired with his longtime friend Corey Fleming to divert the funds for his financial gain. The Satterfield sons did not learn about the payout until after the 2021 double homicide of Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, and son Paul. (Murdaugh has since agreed to pay the Satterfields the missing money and apologized for the scheme.)
Fleming was sentenced to 46 months in prison last month after pleading guilty to federal charges for his role in the Satterfield theft. On Thursday afternoon, Fleming was also sentenced to 10 years in prison on similar state charges.
Murdaugh, who is currently serving two life sentences, faces almost 100 state charges after prosecutors allege he swindled money from his law firm and clients for years to maintain his luxurious lifestyle in the Lowcountry. He is also expected to plead guilty to similar federal financial charges in a hearing scheduled for next week.
The state conference comes five months after Murdaugh was found guilty of all charges in connection with the June 2021 killings of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh. Throughout the six-week trial, prosecutors argued that in a twisted attempt to evade mounting questions about his financial misdeeds, Murdaugh fatally shot his wife and son near the sheds of their family’s hunting estate.
Last week, Murdaugh’s legal team filed a motion for a new trial, alleging that a court clerk tampered with the jury during the murder trial and influenced them toward a swift deliberation and conviction.
In the bombshell motion, defense lawyers allege that Colleton County clerk of court Rebecca Hill advised the jurors “not to believe Murdaugh’s testimony and other evidence presented by the defense, pressuring them to reach a quick guilty verdict, and even misrepresenting critical and material information to the trial judge in her campaign to remove a juror she believed to be favorable to the defense.”
The defense team also sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney Adair Boroughs to request a federal investigation into whether Murdaugh’s civil rights were violated during the trial by the alleged witness tampering.
“Mr. Murdaugh may be the most unpopular man in South Carolina right now,” the lawyers said in the letter. “He has become the symbol of the Lowcountry judicial corruption. Disgust at his frauds unfortunately has created in some minds a ‘but not Alex Murdaugh’ exception to the due process rights enjoyed by all Americans, regardless [of] guilt or innocence. Those minds may delight in the irony that he may very well be a victim of the corruption he symbolizes.”
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) on Thursday announced an investigation into the allegations, and the South Carolina attorney general’s office has until Friday to respond to the defense’s motion.
Hill previously denied any wrongdoing to The Daily Beast, calling the allegations “totally not true.”
