Killer dad to spend another 40 years in jail

A husband and father who was convicting of murdering both his wife and son has now been given an extra four decades in prison by a US judge.

Alex Murdaugh is escorted out of the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro on Wednesday, July 20, 2022, after pleading not guilty and being denied bond hearing on charges of murdering his wife and son. (Tracy Glantz/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Convicted US double murderer Alex Murdaugh has been hit with an addition a 40-year prison term for a slew of financial crimes he pleaded guilty to last year.

The disgraced former lawyer has already been sentenced to two life terms for the shocking murders of his wife and 22-year-old son in one of the most closely watched criminal cases in recent history, reported the New York Post.

The federal term handed down on Monday (US time) in South Carolina is in addition to another 27-year sentence Murdaugh received in state court for similar financial offences.

“There’s not enough time and I don’t possess a sufficient vocabulary to adequately portray to you in words the magnitude of how I feel about the things I did,” Murdaugh said at Monday’s proceeding.

Alex Murdaugh is escorted out of the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro on Wednesday, July 20, 2022, after pleading not guilty and being denied bond hearing on charges of murdering his wife and son. (Tracy Glantz/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Prosecutors in both financial crime cases said Murdaugh brazenly billed clients at his personal injury firm out of millions of dollars, burying him in conspiracy, fraud and money laundering raps.

In handing down the four-decade sentence Monday, US District Judge Richard Gergel opted for a far harsher term than had been recommended by federal prosecutors, who sought 17 to 22 years.

Judge Gergel told the court that he victimised “the most needy, vulnerable people” — including a quadriplegic client, a state trooper injured in the line of duty, and a trust fund meant for children whose parents died in a car wreck.

“They placed all their problems and all their hopes on Mr Murdaugh and it is from those people he abused and stole. It is a difficult set of actions to understand,” Judge Gergel said.

The jurist scoffed at Murdaugh’s longstanding claim that an opioid addiction spurred his crimes.

“No truly impaired person could pull off these complex transactions,” the judge said of Murdaugh’s two-decade criminal run.

From left, Buster Murdaugh, his mother Maggie, his brother Paul and his father Alex. Alex fatally shot Maggie and Paul on June 7, 2021.

A jury convicted Murdaugh, 55, of murdering his wife, Maggie, and son Paul in 2021 in an attempt to divert investigations into his financial misdeeds.

Murdaugh vehemently denied any role in the killings while copping to the mounting financial allegations against him.

While all of the terms are concurrent, the financial crime sentences would kick in the unlikely event that the murder convictions are ever overturned on appeal.

Monday could mark the last time Murdaugh enters a courtroom, and the federal case was the final outstanding legal proceeding he faced.

Alex Murdaugh looks towards his defence lawyer at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023. Mandatory Credit: Andrew J. Whitaker/Pool via USA TODAY NETWORK

The disbarred lawyer was denied a new trial by a South Carolina judge in January after his defence team accused a court clerk of tampering with the jury.

The attorneys said Colleton County Clerk Becky Hill influenced the jury by suggesting they watch Murdaugh’s actions and body language as he testified.

But Judge Jean Toal ruled that they failed to prove that the comments directly swayed the panel.

Prior to his downfall, Murdaugh ran a highly lucrative law practice in Hampton County, inland from the city of Charleston.

He hailed from a prominent local family who served as elected local prosecutors and attorneys in the area for roughly 100 years.

Murdaugh is slated to pay nearly $13.88 million in restitution to his victims and their relatives.

This story was published in the New York Post and is reproduced with permission.