Alex Murdaugh is already in prison for the murders of his wife and son, but as ABC News reports, Tuesday brought a different piper for the disgraced South Carolina legal scion to pay: His former clients. Murdaugh pleaded guilty to bilking them out of millions of dollars over the course of years, and agreed to a plea deal that will add another 27 years in prison to his tally. And unlike Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, the AP reports that these 18 victims were in the court room with all the time in the world to look their former lawyer in the eye and say whatever was on their minds.
One of the victims who spoke was Tony Satterfield, one of the adult sons of housekeeper Gloria Satterfield, who died after an accident at the Murdaugh home, the BBC reports. Prosecutors said a $3.5 million life insurance ended up in one of Murdaugh's account, with the family receiving nothing. "You lied. You cheated. You stole. You betrayed me and my family and everyone else," Satterfield told Murdaugh. He said his Christian faith obliged him to forgive the former lawyer.
Murdaugh had "an insatiable need for money," said prosecutor Creighton Waters of the state Attorney General's Office. The 27-year sentence is an insurance policy for prosecutors in case his murder conviction is overturned on appeal. Under South Carolina law, Murdaugh will have to serve almost 23 years of the sentence, even if he is a model prisoner. He would be 76 before he could be released. Judge Clifton Newman, who also presided over the murder trial, accepted the plea deal. He said that apart from a man who killed an off-duty police officer and burned the body, Murdaugh has the "emptiest soul" of anyone he has seen in his 23 years as a judge, the AP reports. (More Alex Murdaugh stories.)
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