Alex Murdaugh murder jury to hear financial crimes evidence
Associated PressA judge ruled Monday he will allow jurors to hear evidence that disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh was stealing money from his law firm and clients and committing other financial crimes long before his wife and son were killed in 2021. In explaining his ruling, Judge Clifton Newman said the jury is entitled to consider whether Murdaugh’s “apparent desperation” and “dire financial situation” resulted in the killings of his family. Newman’s decision to allow evidence of Alex Murdaugh’s possible financial crimes came after hearing from a potential witness Monday — a lawyer representing a family suing Murdaugh over a boat crash killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach in 2019. Beach family attorney Mark Tinsley said Alex Murdaugh and his lawyer were working hard to keep his financial information out of Tinsley’s hands when the killings happened. He said Murdaugh’s lawyer told him Alex Murdaugh was broke, but Tinsley didn’t believe it given what appeared to be a successful law practice and his family’s generational wealth.