A grand jury is expected to indict controversial South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh for the murder of his wife and son last year, sources told NBC News on Tuesday.† the latest twist in the sprawling scandal sweeping a local legal dynasty.
According to three sources close to the investigation, the grand jury is expected to charge a double murder later this week. They will release the findings of the indictment shortly thereafter. The family has been notified of the charges and so has Murdaugh. Some of the charges are based on new evidence.
Murdaugh’s attorneys were not immediately available for comment Tuesday afternoon.
Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52, and youngest son, Paul Murdaugh, 22, were found shot to death on the night of June 7, 2021 at their Colleton County, South Carolina, estate and hunting lodge. Murdaugh, 54, called 911 and said he had discovered the bodies of his wife and son.
Murdaugh has also been charged with dozens of financial crimes.
In the wake of the deaths of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, state law enforcement said they had uncovered a financial scheme involving Murdaugh that began to unravel when he told authorities in September that he had been randomly attacked in a shooting along the street. away near the family estate.
He survived, but the claim came under scrutiny, and days later authorities said Murdaugh arranged for a man to kill him so that another son, Buster Murdaugh, Paul Murdaugh’s older brother, could collect a $10 million life insurance policy. .
Maggie Murdaugh left her property to her husband in her will before she and their son were mysteriously murdered, according to a copy of her will.
Alex Murdaugh’s law license was indefinitely suspended by the state’s highest court last fall.
Earlier this year, he was indicted by a grand jury who charged him with 21 counts of breach of trust with fraudulent intent and six counts of computer crime. The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office has announced:†
The charges allege he stole more than $2.6 million from clients Natarsha Thomas, Arthur Badger, Deon Martin and the Hakeem Pinckney family.
In all four cases, Murdaugh allegedly used funds intended for his clients for his own personal use, the indictment said.
Murdaugh was indicted in November and December by a South Carolina Grand Jury on 48 counts, including breach of trust with fraudulent intent, forgery, money laundering, computer crime, and obtaining property through false pretenses.
Curtis Edwards Smith, then 61, who is accused of aiding Murdaugh in the botched suicide plot to collect life insurance money, was arrested in June, according to South Carolina’s Law Enforcement Division. The charges include four counts of money laundering, three counts of forgery and criminal conspiracy, NBC affiliate WCBD-TV of Charleston reported.
Smith was arrested earlier in September after investigators said Murdaugh gave him a gun and ordered Smith to kill him. Smith was charged with assisted suicide, assault and battery of a very serious nature, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and drug offences.
