By Kanishka Singh
(Reuters) – A South Carolina attorney, who was indicted last week by a grand jury on charges of murdering his wife and youngest son in June 2021, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to the charges.
Alex Murdaugh, already facing dozens of state charges, including embezzlement, was indicted by a Colleton County grand jury on Thursday on two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon in connection with the murders, state Attorney General Alan Wilson had said.
Asked if he was guilty or not guilty, Murdaugh, who appeared in the Walterboro courtroom on Wednesday, responded, “Not guilty,” according to footage from the court proceedings broadcast by WLTX. He was wearing a white shirt and khaki pants.
His lawyers said last week they would file a motion for a speedy trial. The judge denied him bond on Wednesday.
Murdaugh’s wife Margaret and son Paul were killed on June 7, 2021, at the family’s property in Colleton County.
Murdaugh was charged last September with insurance fraud in a scheme to have himself killed after he was shot and survived. The attack was designed so that his surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, could collect a $10 million insurance payout, police have said.
In an affidavit Murdaugh admitted to plotting his own death, a state police agency said last September.
A state grand jury indicted him in November on 27 charges stemming from schemes to defraud law clients and associates, as well as launder more than $4.8 million.
Murdaugh, a scion of a South Carolina legal dynasty, was suspended from practicing law in September.
Separately, he was accused of embezzling settlement funds related to his housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, who died in 2018 after a “trip and fall” accident in the Murdaugh home, according to court records.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
