SC attorney accused of murder faked his way through his career: associates

Alex Murdaugh, the South Carolina attorney now on trial for the murder of his family, came from a powerful dynasty of lawyers and has an impressive résumé to his name, volunteering in a local prosecutor's office and heading up the state trial lawyers' association.

But according to The Daily Beast, colleagues who know Murdaugh and spoke at his trial do not paint a picture of a man who is as hardworking or knowledgeable in the law as his pedigree and reputation suggest — but rather, a man with good people skills who was able to charm his way out of doing the harder parts of his job.

"Two of them described Murdaugh as a loud and 'frenetic' lawyer who kept different hours than everyone else — and was able to keep a 'good clientele' roster because he had the 'gift of the gab,'" reported Pilar Melendez. "'He was successful not from his work ethic, but his ability to establish relationships and to manipulate people into settlements and clients into liking him,' Jeanne Seckinger, the firm’s chief financial officer, testified on Tuesday. 'The art of bullsh*t, basically.' Ronnie Crosby, another former law partner who has known Murdaugh for over two decades, simply told the jury that Murdaugh 'wasn’t a real student of the law.'"

Murdaugh, who caught the nation's attention spectacularly last year when he admitted to a strange scheme in which he faked his own death to arrange a $10 million insurance payout to his surviving son, is accused of murdering his wife and other son. He has pleaded not guilty to the killings.

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The trial has revealed a wealth of damning evidence against Murdaugh, including a family friend who said he is "99 percent sure" it's Murdaugh's voice on a tape that showed the minutes before the killings, and gunshot residue on a blue raincoat Murdaugh wore to his parents' house just days after the killings happened.

The judge presiding in the case also allowed prosecutors to submit as evidence the "dire financial situation" Murdaugh was in at the time, with concealed debts totaling over $1 million.