Alex Murdaugh has been sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for the murder of his wife, Maggie Murdaugh and son, Paul Murdaugh. Just prior to the sentencing, Judge Clifton Newman addressed the opioid addiction that Alex Murdaugh had confessed to in court.
Murdaugh was still contending his innocence and saying he would never hurt his wife and son when Newman replied, “It might not have been you. It might have been the monster that you become when you take 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 opioid pills. Maybe you become another person. I have seen that before. The person standing before me was not the person who committed the crime, though it is the same individual,” as reported by CNN.
While under examination during the trial, Murdaugh had admitted that he used daily doses of up to 2000 milligrams of the powerful opioid oxycodone. A standard prescription for the drug rarely exceeds more than 100 milligrams, even for severe and chronic pain.
Murdaugh was a member of the prominent South Carolinian Murdaugh family. On June 7, 2021, he called local police at 10:06 PM saying that he had discovered the bodies of his 52-year-old wife and their 22-year-old son at his family’s hunting lodge in Islandton, South Carolina. In October authorities revealed that Murdaugh was regarded as a person of interest in the investigation and had been since it started.
Murdaugh was arrested and later indicted in July of 2022 and accused of murdering his family with a shotgun. Authorities informed the press that his location had been established by cell phone footage. It was suggested that the motive for the crime was to garner sympathy in the wake of Murdaugh’s mounting financial issues and drug dependency which were about to become public.
Murdaugh, an attorney, is still facing 99 financial-related crimes related to years of stealing from his legal clients.
Upon dismissing the court Judge Newman stated “Our business is done here in Colleton County,” as reported by NBC News.
Murdaugh’s legal team is scheduled to make a public statement at 11:45 a.m. in front of the Colleton County Courthouse.
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