Alex Murdaugh pleads not guilty as judge mulls gag order, speedy trial in murder case

Disbarred lawyer Alex Murdaugh was denied bond Wednesday in the June 2021 murders of his wife and son, as a South Carolina judge said he’ll consider how much evidence in the case should be kept secret before trial and whether to allow the trial to begin soon, likely in January.

Judge Clifton Newman denied bond in Colleton County, where Murdaugh’s wife Maggie and and son Paul were found shot to death on June 7, 2021.

In an 18-minute hearing, Murdaugh pleaded not guilty.

When asked by the prosecutor how he wished to be tried, in a strong, clear voice, Murdaugh said in a generations-old legal formula, “By God and my country.”

Murdaugh, 54, wearing a white face mask with his head shaved, stood in the courtroom wearing a button down white shirt and khaki pants, a change from his navy blue jail jumpsuit and red/orange Nikes he was seen wearing while entering the courthouse.

He had been transported the roughly 90 miles to Walterboro from the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Richland County, where he’s been held on a $7 million bond.

A fourth-generation member of a Lowcountry legal dynasty, Murdaugh was indicted last week by a Colleton County jury on two counts of murder in the deaths of his wife and son and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, were found shot to death — Maggie by a rifle and Paul by a shotgun, the indictments said — in the evening of June 7, 2021, on their 1,700-acre hunting lodge estate in rural Colleton County, which locals referred to as Moselle. Their bodies were found separated from one another near the dog kennels on the property.

Murdaugh has said he found their bodies on returning home to Moselle and called 911.

The courtroom on Wednesday was crowded with dozens of reporters representing state and national publications, television producers and several people who working on Murdaugh true crime books.

Attorney General’s Office top prosecutor Creighton Waters said some of the victims in the case — apparently relatives of Maggie — were not in the courtroom but watching the proceedings by a remote hookup. He did not identify them. Waters also said Attorney General Alan Wilson, who was not present, was traveling.

Wednesday’s hearing took place in an old-timey courtroom with a high ceiling and seats for some 250 on the second floor of Colleton County’s historic courthouse.

Hanging on the rear wall of the courtroom behind Murdaugh was an oil portrait Murdaugh’s grandfather, Randolph “Buster” Murdaugh, a legendary 14th Judicial Circuit solicitor known for fiery jury arguments who held office some 48 years, from about 1940 to 1988.

Murdaugh lawyers say gag order, speedy trial necessary

Newman told Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, Murdaugh’s attorneys, Wednesday that he would consider a limited gag order that aims to limit disclosures to mostly the media and seal evidentiary-related motions.

“Further discussion of the alleged facts in this case we think continues to run the risk of polluting the jury pool.” Harpootlian said.

Harpootlian said the defense’s motion would include putting a seal of confidentiality over all the evidence in the case, meaning neither the prosecution nor the defense could talk publicly about such matters. In criminal cases, the prosecutors are required to turn over all relevant evidence to the defense.

South Carolin Attorney General’s office prosecutor Creighton Waters agreed with Harpootlian’s motion, noting the case “has generated a lot of media attention.” He motioned an adjacent jury box packed with more than a dozen reporters, while dozens more sat beside him.

“A lot of the financial material provides motive and background,” Waters told the judge.

A string of 16 state grand jury indictments issued since November against Murdaugh charges him with stealing more than $8.4 million from his law firm, fellow lawyers, associates and clients. Murdaugh has been in jail unable to make a $7 million bond.

At the time his wife and son were killed, Murdaugh was heavily in debt and his finances were in danger of being made public as a result of an ongoing civil lawsuit, according to The State newspaper’s analysis of evidence made public in lawsuits and criminal charges against him.

Three months after Maggie and Paul’s deaths, in September 2021, Murdaugh was kicked out of his law firm for allegedly stealing out of the firm’s client trust account. The S.C. Supreme Court later suspended his law license, and, later, disbarred him.

That same month, Murdaugh was charged with staging a botched suicide attempt in what authorities said was a failed effort to collect on a $10 million life insurance policy for his surviing son Buster. The alleged shooter, close friend and relative Curtis “Eddie” Smith, also was charged.

Separately, Harpootlian told the judge that Murdaugh wants a speedy trial because he is innocent.

Harpootlian, a state senator, said he is willing to waive his legislative duties if there are conflicts. Senators who are lawyers have the right to be excused from many courtroom duties while the Legislature is in session.

“He (Murdaugh) believes the killer, or killers, are still at large and this will allow SLED (the State Law Enforcement Division) to move forward and look for the real killers,” Harpootlian said.

Waters called the evidence in the case, such as forensic and other evidence, “substantial,” saying “it all points back to Alex Murdaugh.”

Our response to that is he (Waters) is wrong,” Harpootlian said.

According to sources in this case, evidence that prosecutors have includes cell phone data, blood or flesh material and location data from the SUV that Murdaugh was driving the night of the killings.

Waters said prosecutors will be turning over to the defense all the evidence gathered in the state grand jury’s monthslong investigation of not just the murders of Paul and Maggie, but also information from the probe of Murdaugh’s many alleged fraudulent financial dealings.

Newman said he would study the motions, sounding somewhat skeptical because he said he rarely issues gag orders, telling lawyers, “I just want it clearly understood it’s a public matter, a public trial.. Matters that need to be sealed can be sealed. I want it clear we will not have any private motion hearings. Public matters will be public.”

One lingering question to be resolved is whether the trial would occur in Colleton County.

Columbia attorney Joe McCullough told reporters outside the courthouse Wednesday that he wasn’t sure what county the case could be located in given everyone knows about it.

“I know the people in Hampton County would like this to go away and get back to what they’re accustomed to,” he said.

Reporters Sarah Haselhorst and Bristow Marchant contributed to this report.