陪审团发现名誉扫地的南卡罗来纳州律师亚历克斯·默多克犯有残忍谋杀了他的妻子和小儿子2021年在家里。

周四，陪审团在听取了70多名证人长达五周的证词后，经过近三个小时的商议后做出了裁决，其中包括亚历克斯·默多克本人他否认谋杀，但承认对调查人员撒谎和欺骗他的客户。

他被判所有四项罪名成立----两项谋杀罪和两项在暴力犯罪中拥有武器罪。

克利夫顿·纽曼法官表示，法庭将于当地时间周五上午9:30再次开庭宣判。亚历克斯·默多克因谋杀指控面临30年至终身监禁。

亚历克斯·默多克在宣读判决时没有表现出任何情绪。他被戴上手铐，默默地被押送出法庭。

陪审团参观了家族的庄园周三，摩泽尔，在商议前查看犯罪现场。当局称，2021年6月，52岁的玛格丽特·默多克和22岁的保罗·默多克的尸体被发现死于该家族庄园狗舍附近的多处枪伤。

54岁的亚历克斯·默多克打911报告了这一发现，一年多后他被控谋杀。

检察官声称，亚历克斯·默多克(Alex Murdaugh)是该地区著名律师的后代，他杀害了自己的妻子和儿子，以获得同情，并转移对其金融不法行为的注意力。

与此同时，辩方将他描绘成一个慈爱的丈夫和父亲，并辩称警方忽视了其他人可能杀害他们的可能性。在作证时，亚历克斯·默多克指责对调查人员撒谎是因为他对止痛药上瘾，他说这导致了“偏执思维”

在周三近四个小时的结案陈词中，首席检察官克雷顿·沃特斯(Creighton Waters)宣布，亚历克斯·默多克(Alex Murdaugh)是唯一“有动机、有手段、有机会犯下这些罪行”的人，他“在这些罪行发生后的犯罪行为背叛了他。”

沃特斯告诉陪审员，可信度很重要，并把默多克描绘成一个擅长说谎的人，他习惯于预测陪审员如何解读事情。

“这是一个受过训练的人，他知道如何把复杂的案件放在一起。他当过检察官，”沃特斯说。“他以前给过陪审团结案陈词。所以，当你有这样的被告时，要考虑这个人是否在构建辩护和不在场证明。”

沃特斯讲述了调查人员在谋杀案发生当天收集的三个默多克手机的时间表，包括保罗·默多克手机上的一段视频，该视频显示亚历克斯·默多克在当局认为枪击发生前几分钟在狗舍，这与他之前说他从未在狗舍的说法相矛盾。

沃特斯说，亚历克斯·默多克最后一次见到他活着的妻子和孩子是他本可以告诉执法部门的“最重要的事情”。

“一个无辜的、通情达理的父亲和丈夫为什么要撒谎，而且还这么早就撒谎?”沃特斯说。

辩方辩称，该州未能履行其证明有罪的责任，调查人员在该案中“惨败”，立即决定亚历克斯·默多克应对杀害他的妻子和儿子负责，并且从未在其他地方寻找。

辩护律师吉姆·格里芬(Jim Griffin)在周四的结案陈词中向陪审员讲述了多次错过的机会，指出了调查人员没有收集的证据，包括脚印、指纹和DNA。他还回放了一些视频，在这些视频中，控方证人证明亚历克斯·默多克有多爱他的妻子和儿子。

2023年3月2日，在南卡罗来纳州沃尔特伯勒的科顿县法院，辩护律师吉姆·格里芬在陪审团开始审议亚历克斯·默多克的双重谋杀案之前，听取了克利夫顿·纽曼法官对陪审团的指控。

约书亚·鲍彻/美联社报道

“这就引出了一个问题，为什么?”格里芬说，不考虑州政府提出的动机，即多年的谎言和盗窃即将赶上亚历克斯·默多克，谋杀是转移注意力的一种方式。

“即使财务清算日即将到来，如果它就在那里，他也不会杀害他在这个世界上最爱的人，”他说。"没有证据表明他会那样做。"

格里芬还提到，亚历克斯·默多克承认在枪击案当晚向调查人员谎报了不在场证明。

“如果他没有撒谎，我现在可能不会坐在那里。但他确实撒谎了，他告诉你他撒谎了，”格里芬告诉陪审团。“他撒谎是因为瘾君子都会这么做。他撒谎是因为他有一个装满骷髅的壁橱，他不想对他进行更多的审查。”

在妻子和儿子被谋杀后的几个月里，亚历克斯·默多克从他的律师事务所辞职，该律师事务所起诉他涉嫌多年来将从客户和律师事务所窃取的资金转移到一个虚假的银行账户。他还说他进了一家戒毒中心。

亚历克斯·默多克面临大约100项其他指控，从洗钱到伪造自己的死亡，以便他幸存的儿子可以兑现他1000万美元的人寿保险。他还被指控涉嫌挪用其管家格洛丽亚·萨特菲尔德(Gloria Satterfield)死亡的和解资金，据报道，后者于2018年2月在Murdaugh家发生坠落事故后死亡。

Alex Murdaugh found guilty in murder of wife, son

A jury has found disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh guilty of brutallymurdering his wife and younger sonat the family's property in 2021.

The jury reached the verdict after deliberating for nearly three hours Thursday after hearing five weeks of testimony from more than 70 witnesses -- includingAlex Murdaugh himself, who denied the murders but admitted to lying to investigators and cheating his clients.

He was found guilty on all four counts -- two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon in the commitment of a violent crime.

Judge Clifton Newman said the court would reconvene Friday morning at 9:30 a.m. local time for sentencing. Alex Murdaugh faces 30 years to life in prison for the murder charge.

Alex Murdaugh did not appear to display any emotion during the verdict reading. He was placed in handcuffs and silently escorted out of the courtroom.

The juryvisited the family's estate, Moselle, on Wednesday to see the crime scene ahead of deliberations. The bodies of Margaret Murdaugh, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22, were found dead from multiple gunshot wounds near the dog kennels at the family's estate in June 2021, authorities said.

Alex Murdaugh, 54, who called 911 to report the discovery, was charged with their murders more than a year later.

Prosecutors claim that Alex Murdaugh, who comes from a legacy of prominent attorneys in the region, killed his wife and son to gain sympathy and distract from his financial wrongdoings.

Meanwhile, the defense has portrayed him as a loving husband and father, and argued that police ignored the possibility that anyone else could have killed them. While testifying, Alex Murdaugh blamed lying to investigators on his addiction to painkillers, which he said caused "paranoid thinking."

During his nearly four-hour closing argument on Wednesday, lead prosecutor Creighton Waters declared that Alex Murdaugh was the only person "who had the motive, who had the means, who had the opportunity to commit these crimes" and that his "guilty conduct after these crimes betrays him."

Waters told the jurors that credibility is important and painted Murdaugh as someone good at lying who was used to anticipating how jurors read things.

"This is an individual who was trained to understand how to put together cases, complex cases. He's been a prosecutor," said Waters. "He's given closing arguments to juries before. So, when you have a defendant like that, be thinking about whether or not this individual is constructing defenses and alibis."

Waters recounted a timeline investigators put together of the three Murdaughs' cell phones the day of the murders, including a video from Paul Murdaugh's phone that placed Alex Murdaugh at the kennels minutes before authorities believe the shootings occurred -- contradicting earlier statements in which he said he was never at the kennels.

Waters said the last time Alex Murdaugh saw his wife and child alive was the "most important thing" he could have told law enforcement.

"Why in the world would an innocent, reasonable father and husband lie about that and lie about it so early?" Waters said.

The defense argued that the state had failed to meet its burden to prove guilt and that investigators "failed miserably" in the case, deciding immediately that Alex Murdaugh was responsible for killing his wife and son and never looking elsewhere.

Defense attorney Jim Griffin recounted to jurors during his closing argument on Thursday the multiple missed opportunities, pointing out evidence that investigators did not collect including foot imprints, fingerprints and DNA. He also replayed videos in which prosecution witnesses testified about how much Alex Murdaugh loved his wife and son.

"Which brings us to the question, why?" said Griffin, discounting the state's proposed motive that years of lies and theft were about to catch up to Alex Murdaugh and the murders were a way to divert attention.

"Even if the financial day of reckoning was impending, if it was right there, he would not have killed the people he loved the most in the world," he said. "There's no evidence that he would do that."

Griffin also addressed that Alex Murdaugh admitted to lying to investigators about his alibi the evening of the shootings.

"I probably wouldn't be sitting over there right now if he did not lie. But he did lie, and he told you he lied," Griffin told the jurors."He lied because that's what addicts do. He lied because he had a closet full of skeletons and he didn't want any more scrutiny on him."

In the months following his wife's and son's murders, Alex Murdaugh resigned from his law firm, which sued him for allegedly funneling stolen money from clients and the law firm into a fake bank account for years. He also said he entered a rehab facility for opioid addiction.

Alex Murdaugh faces about 100 other charges for allegations ranging from money laundering to staging his own death so his surviving son could cash in on his $10 million life insurance policy. He was also charged for allegedly misappropriating settlement funds in the death of his housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, who reportedly died after a falling accident at the Murdaugh family home in February 2018.