SC judge sets Nov. 27 date for Alex Murdaugh’s first financial crimes trial

South Carolina’s most notorious criminal, Alex Murdaugh, will have his first financial crimes trial on Nov. 27 in Beaufort County.

Before a Beaufort County courtroom full to the brim with media, lawyers, state lawmakers and members of the public, Murdaugh entered in a bright orange jumpsuit, hands shackled. Attendees looked on silently, all aware of the long, twisting saga Murdaugh has authored through his alleged financial crimes and the murders of his wife and son, which he was convicted for in March.

That notoriety, Murdaugh’s lawyers argued, will make it nearly impossible to find a jury that hasn’t already formed on opinion of the man or his alleged financial crimes.

The financial trial will involve the $4.3 million allegedly stolen from the heirs of the late Murdaugh family housekeeper Gloria Satterfield, who died after a 2018 slip-and-fall at the Murdaugh’s family estate in rural Colleton County.

The Satterfield case is the state’s top priority of all of Murdaugh’s financial crimes, Attorney General’s office lead prosecutor Creighton Waters told state Judge Clifton Newman.

Newman set the date over the objections of Murdaugh defense lawyer Dick Harpootlian, who argued for a 2024 court date.

Harpootlian also told the judge that with all the publicity following Murdaugh’s March murder convictions for killing his wife, Maggie, and son Paul, it will be hard to find an impartial jury. “Where are we going to find one — Mars?” Harpootlian asked Newman.

Harpootlian also told Newman that he has a major trial this fall coming up in Lexington County involving the deaths of five children -- an event that will make it difficult for him to prepare for any Murdaugh trial.

In all, Murdaugh faces more than 100 counts of various financial crimes involving nearly $8 million in stolen funds, Waters told the judge. Other, informal estimates of the total amount of money stolen by Murdaugh over 15 years top $10 million.

The date was set during a 31-minute hearing at the Beaufort County courthouse.

It was one of three hearings set for Thursday involving Murdaugh or two of his alleged co-conspirators in various thefts.

Beginning in the fall of 2021 and continuing into 2022, Murdaugh was indicted the various county grand juries for a host of financial crimes including money laundering, fraud, embezzlement and forgery. Victims in his thefts included his law firm, his former clients, friends and even his own brother Randy, also a lawyer in Murdaugh’s former firm. The grand juries included those in Beaufort, Hampton, Colleton and Alandale counties.

The three hearings for Murdaugh and his two co-conspirators — Cory Fleming and Russell Laffitte —in various financial crimes were supposed to have started at 9:30 in the Beaufort County courthouse main courtroom. But state Judge Clifton Newman had not yet taken the bench.

By 9:30, nearly every seat was taken, and a low buzz of conversation filled the courtroom, whose walls are lined with portraits of judges and other officials. Unlike Murdaugh’s murder trial in Colleton County, where a portrait of his grandfather was removed from the wall, no Murdaugh portraits hang in Beaufort County’s courtroom.

Lawyers representing Murdaugh and his two co-conspirators were in the room, as well as a team from the state Attorney General’s office led by prosecutors Waters, Don Zelenka and Johnny James.

Sitting directly behind the prosecution team were members of the Satterfield family., from whom Murdaugh, aided by Cory Fleming, is alleged to have stolen $4.3 million. Fleming recently pleaded guilty in federal court to financial crimes involving the Satterfields and was sentenced by U.S. Judge Richard Gergel to nearly four years in federal prison.

Murdaugh’s main lawyers, Jim Griffin, Phil Barber and Harpootlian, were in the courtroom, as well as attorneys Mark Moore and Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, for Russell Laffitte.

Eric Bland and Rep. Justin Bamberg, D-Bamberg, lawyers who represent some of Murdaugh’s financial crimes victims, were also in the courtroom.

This story was originally published September 14, 2023 at 11:18 AM.