'Great deal of relief' with Murdaugh's conviction: Mark Tinsley
The Beach family's attorney, who testified in the double murder trial, says Alex Murdaugh's legal troubles are far from over.
Alex Murdaugh already admitted to some of his alleged financial crimes during his double murder trial, which could potentially result in amended pleadings, according to a South Carolina lawyer familiar with Murdaugh's monetary misdeeds.
"I don't know how alleged they are at this point," Mark Tinsley, an attorney representing the family of Mallory Beach in their wrongful death lawsuit against the Murdaughs after she died in a 2019 boating accident, told Fox News Digital.
Murdaugh, 54, was sentenced to life in prison last week for murdering his 52-year-old wife, Maggie, and 22-year-old son, Paul, on their family hunting estate in Islandton, South Carolina, in June 2021.
Prosecutors said Murdaugh killed his wife and son to divert attention away from his alleged embezzlement schemes. The former attorney is charged with stealing nearly $9 million from clients and his family's generations-old personal injury former firm.
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Alex Murdaugh, right, with his family, Buster, Maggie and Paul Murdaugh. (Facebook)
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters told jurors that Murdaugh was a cunning con man who tried to deceive them when he took the stand.
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"I don't do any criminal work, but in a civil case, sometimes we can amend our pleadings even after the case is over if there were an admission like the admissions [Murdaugh] made. I wondered about that in the criminal context, whether or not they could amend the claims that were being brought against Alex in terms of the things he admitted to," Tinsley said.
Mark Tinsley takes the stand in Alex Murdaugh’s trial for murder at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, on Feb. 9, 2023. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post and Courier/Pool)
Tinsley added that there were a "certain number of indictments that he clearly… admitted to."
Murdaugh admitted on the witness stand more than once that he lied about various actions he took after his wife and son's deaths but maintained that he did not shoot them.
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"Would you agree that you… when you needed money, occasionally borrow five and six figures from your father, Mr. Randolph?" Waters asked Murdaugh during cross-examination on Feb. 23.
Alex Murdaugh admitted on the witness stand more than once that he lied about various actions he took after his wife and son's deaths but maintained that he did not shoot them. (Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool, File)
"I did," Murdaugh replied.
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"Would you also agree that over the years, particularly as moved to June of 2021, you used stolen money to pay that back?" Waters asked.
"I don't dispute that," Murdaugh said.
Alex Murdaugh on the witness stand at the Colleton County Courthouse, Feb. 23, 2023. (Grace Beahm Alford/The Post and Courier/Pool)
He went on to state that part of the reason he needed so much money, other than to pay off his personal debt, was to fund his opioid addiction, saying it gave him "energy."
"This is a man who made his trade on lying," Waters said of Murdaugh's testimony in closing remarks. "He lied about the most important facts in the case and effortlessly and easily pivoted to a new lie when confronted by something he wasn’t prepared for."
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Prosecutors also said the Beach lawsuit was a catalyst in Alex's decision to murder his wife and younger son as it threatened to expose his other numerous financial crimes, which began to come to light in 2021.
Mallory Beach's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Murdaughs in 2019 after she died aboard their boat, which was driven by Paul Murdaugh. (Facebook/Mallory Beach and Colleton County Jail)
Murdaugh's deceased son, Paul Murdaugh, had taken five of his friends out on his family's boat on the evening of Feb. 23, 2019. He used his older brother Buster's ID to purchase alcohol for the group before they went on the excursion that ultimately turned deadly. Despite his friend's pleas to stop driving, the visibly inebriated Paul continued, eventually crashing into Archers Creek Bridge in Beaufort on the South Carolina coast.
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The crash left passengers injured. Beach, who was in the rear of the boat, was thrown into the water in the crash and went missing. Boaters found her lifeless body near the crash scene more than a week later.
Fox News' Rebecca Rosenberg contributed to this report.
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