Judge who sentenced Alex Murdaugh to life tells disgraced lawyer his murdered wife and son 'will visit you at night'
- Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to two consecutive life in prison sentences on Friday.
- The sentencing came a day after the disgraced attorney was convicted of killing his wife and son.
A judge sentenced Alex Murdaugh to life in prison on Friday, a day after the disgraced lawyer was found guilty of murdering his wife and son, telling Murdaugh that the murders would continue to haunt him as an additional punishment.
Judge Clifton Newman gave Murdaugh a life sentence each for the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, who were found shot to death at the family's hunting compound in Islandton, South Carolina on June 7, 2021. The judge said the two sentences would be served consecutively.
Newman called the trial "one of the most troubling cases, not just for me as a judge but for the state, for the defense team, for all of the citizens of this community."
He said it was "especially heartbreaking" to see Murdaugh "go in the media from being a grieving father who lost their wife and son to being the person indicted and convicted of killing them."
"I'm sure they come and visit you at night," Newman said to Murdaugh at one point, referencing his dead wife and son.
Murdaugh responded: "All day and every night."
But Murdaugh continued to profess his innocence at the hearing. Before the judge handed down his sentence, Murdaugh's lawyers declined to make an argument on what kind of sentence he should receive and said Murdaugh wanted to address the court himself.
"I'm innocent. I wouldn't hurt my wife Maggie and I would never hurt my son Paw-Paw," Murdaugh said.
Newman said that the Murdaugh standing in front of him may very well not have been the man who killed Maggie and Paul, but the person Murdaugh became when he succumbed to his prescription painkiller addiction.
"It might not have been you. It might have been the monster you've become when you take 15, 20, 30, 40, 60 opioid pills. Maybe you become another person. I've seen that before. The person standing before me was not the person who committed the crime, though it's the same individual. We'll leave it at that," Newman said.
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters had more cutting remarks for Murdaugh at the hearing on Friday, saying Murdaugh had shown himself to be a "cunning manipulator, a man who puts himself above all others, including his family."
Waters said Murdaugh deceived everyone around him but that he saw Murdaugh's true colors come out during the trial.
Maggie and Paul, "like everyone else, was unaware of who he really was. No one who thought they knew this man ... knew who he really was and your honor that's chilling."
Waters said that at several points Murdaugh started him down in the courtroom and "I could see the real Alex Murdaugh when he looked at me. The depravity, the callousness, the selfishness, the lack of remorse."