Former President Donald Trump offered his thoughts over the weekend on Alex Murdaugh being sentenced to life in prison for murdering his wife and youngest son.
Trump was asked about the double-murder conviction, which was handed down Friday, during a brief gaggle with reporters before his keynote address at the 2023 Conservative Political Action Coalition in National Harbor, Maryland. Murdaugh, the disgraced patriarch of one of the most prominent legal dynasties in South Carolina, was handed two consecutive life sentences for the June 2021 killings of his wife, Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22.
ALEX MURDAUGH TRIAL: WATCH THE KEY VIDEO THAT COULD’VE SEALED GUILTY MURDER VERDICT
“It looked bad, OK?” Trump told the Daily Mail of Murdaugh and the trial. “It looked very bad to me. He looked guilty to me. I will say that.”
Trump deflected when asked if he thought Murdaugh should’ve faced the death penalty for his crimes, saying, “I don’t know. I don’t want to get involved with that, but a lot of people should face the death penalty.”
Maggie and Paul’s shocking murders at family’s Islandton hunting lodge garnered national attention. Alex Murdaugh denied any involvement in the shooting deaths of his wife and youngest son, though his alibi began to crumble as investigators realized that he was being dishonest about his whereabouts at the time of the murders.
Prosecutors placed the motive for the shootings on Murdaugh’s financial troubles, for which he faces a slew of charges. The defense’s case centered on scanty police work and a lack of solid evidence that Murdaugh committed the crime.
Murdaugh took to the stand during the trial and admitted he repeatedly lied to officers about his activities on the night of the murders, swindled legal clients out of millions of dollars, and asked someone to shoot him in the head as part of an elaborate scheme to allow his surviving son to collect life insurance off of his death. His lawyers said after the conviction that they plan to appeal.
The disbarred legal scion maintained his innocence in what became a testy exchange as Judge Clifton Newman sentenced him Friday morning.
“I’m innocent,” Murdaugh said. “I would never hurt my wife, Maggie, and I would never hurt my son Paw Paw.”
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“It might not have been you. It might have been the monster you’ve become,” Newman replied, referring to the effect Murdaugh’s drug addiction could have had on his actions.
“I’ll tell you again,” Murdaugh said before being sentenced. “I respect this court, but I am innocent, and I would never under any circumstances hurt my wife Maggie, and I would never under any circumstances hurt my son Paul.”
