Alex Murdaugh shamelessly exploited a quadriplegic client he cheated out of $1m in a commercial to promote how using emotive footage of injury victims in court helps win bigger settlements.
The disgraced legal scion, 54, last week failed to apologize to the many clients he stole millions from – stating only that he was ’embarrassed’ by the thefts – as the prosecutor grilled him over the most egregious cases when he sensationally took the stand in his double murder trial.
Among them was Hakeem Pinckney, who was paralyzed in a car wreck in 2009. He died two years later aged 21. Murdaugh earned $4.1m in fees and stole another $1m owed to Hakeem, using some of the cash to charter a private jet to a baseball game.
Murdaugh, who is accused of brutally murdering his wife and son, appeared in a promotional video in January 2021 for MediaZeus, a company which creates videos for attorneys to ‘dramatically increase the value of a case’. The commercial resurfaced today as Murdaugh’s trial entered its sixth week.
Footage of Pinckney being fed through a straw is played as Murdaugh says: ‘I can’t tell you how many times we have used your videos in mediation and seen the attorneys on the other side moved to tears…
Murdaugh, who is accused of brutally murdering his wife and son, appeared in a promotional video in January 2021 for MediaZeus, a company which creates videos for attorneys to ‘dramatically increase the value of a case’. The commercial resurfaced today as Murdaugh’s trial entered its sixth week. Footage of Pinckney being fed through a straw is played as Murdaugh says: ‘I can’t tell you how many times we have used your videos in mediation and seen the attorneys on the other side moved to tears’
Hakeem Pinckney was paralyzed in a car wreck in 2009. He died two years later aged 21. Murdaugh earned $4.1m in fees and stole another $1m owed to Hakeem, using some of the cash to charter a private jet to a baseball game
‘To be able to show a jury those things, instead of telling a jury about them, the benefit is unexplainable. There’s absolutely no better tool in the courtroom than to capture that in video.’
Hakeem died on October 11, 2011, of cardiac arrest after his ventilator was unplugged for more than 30 minutes at his nursing home in North Augusta.
His death came four days after the multi-million dollar settlement had been won by Murdaugh.
In April, Murdaugh was indicted over defrauding Pamela, along with his banker Russell Laffitte, and a third alleged co-conspirator, Cory Fleming, another lawyer.
The indictment says Murdaugh, Laffitte and Fleming conspired to steal some of the settlement money owed to the Pinckneys, including $309,581 that was used in part to pay a Murdaugh family member and to pay off other conservatorship accounts that Murdaugh ‘previously borrowed money from.’
Fleming also is accused of failing to disperse $130,192 to Pinckney and using part of it to pay a debt owed to a private plane company for a charter flight for him, Murdaugh and another lawyer to go to the 2012 College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
Separately, Fleming allegedly transferred money to a ‘case expense for Pamela Pinckney’ account which was actually for Murdaugh’s personal use.
Pamela previously revealed Murdaugh’s betrayal of Hakeem and their family was a constant source of anguish.
‘To know that you put your trust and your emphasis in someone who says they have your best interest in mind, and looks you in your face, and tells you and your entire family that they have your best interest — that you got us 100 percent,’ Pamela told FITSNews in January 2022.
‘And then you go and you steal from us, even though you got paid through legal fees to work the case, then you turn around and you steal on top of that from the family. And my son is deceased. That really it tears me apart literally every day.’
As well as Pinckney’s case, prosecutor Creighton Waters last week grilled Murdaugh over money he stole from the Plyler sisters.
Alania and Hannah Plyler were just nine and 12 when their mother Angela, 37, and 14-year-old brother Justin were killed in a car wreck in which they were both injured in 2005.
Pamela Pinckney previously revealed Murdaugh’s betrayal of Hakeem and their family was a constant source of anguish. ‘To know that you put your trust and your emphasis in someone who says they have your best interest in mind, and looks you in your face, and tells you and your entire family that they have your best interest — that you got us 100 percent,’ Pamela told FITSNews in January 2022. ‘And then you go and you steal from us, even though you got paid through legal fees to work the case, then you turn around and you steal on top of that from the family. And my son is deceased. That really it tears me apart literally every day’
In April, Murdaugh was indicted over defrauding Pickney’s mother Pamela, along with his banker Russell Laffitte, and a third alleged co-conspirator, Cory Fleming, another lawyer. The indictment says Murdaugh, Laffitte and Fleming conspired to steal some of the settlement money owed to the Pinckneys, including $309,581 that was used in part to pay a Murdaugh family member and to pay off other conservatorship accounts that Murdaugh ‘previously borrowed money from’
Murdaugh was hired by their family to look after their finances until they turned 18. More than $1m in settlements related to the crash were stolen.
Under cross examination, Murdaugh failed to remember they lost their brother as well as their mother.
Alania tweeted Thursday: ‘Mr Alex Murdaugh you just highly disrespected my brother who died in the wreck along with my mother. You represented them, you made millions, and you couldn’t remember he also died.’
Earlier this month Alania and Hannah reached a settlement with the Lafitte family-owned Palmetto State Bank.
Murdaugh recruited Laffitte to serve as conservator to the Plyler sisters. The seven-figure settlements vanished under his watch and he was later convicted on six federal bank fraud charges in November 2022.
While the Plyler sisters have settled with the bank, attorney Eric Bland says they are continuing to seek justice from Laffitte personally.
Alania (left) and Hannah Plyler were just nine and 12 when their mother and brother were killed in a car wreck in which they were both injured in 2005. Alania tweeted Thursday: ‘Mr Alex Murdaugh you just highly disrespected my brother who died in the wreck along with my mother. You represented them, you made millions, and you couldn’t remember he also died.’
Alania and Hannah Plyler were just nine and 12 when their mother Angela, 37, and 14-year-old brother Justin were killed in a car wreck in which they were both injured in 2005
Waters also questioned Murdaugh about Arthur Badger, a widower whose wife Donna was killed in a car crash in 2011. Murdaugh stole more than $1.3m that was owed to the 35-year-old woman’s family.
He represented Arthur in his lawsuit against UPS – one of their trucks had veered into oncoming traffic in the smash that killed Donna.
Instead of paying the $1.3m to her husband of 12 years, he pocketed the 14 settlement payments – moving them into the accounts of his family, associates and to pay off credit card bills.
Murdaugh was also questioned over $4m he stole from his housekeeper’s sons after she died in a fall at his home in 2018.
Murdaugh’s banker Russell Laffitte of Palmetto State Bank
He promised Tony Satterfield and his brother Bryan, a vulnerable adult, he would ‘take care’ of them after their mother Gloria fell on the stairs at the Murdaugh property.
But he went on to steal more than $4.3million from two insurance policies without giving them a cent.
Even though Gloria Satterfield died in an accident, her death was never reported to the Hampton County coroner.
State Law Enforcement Division agents said they would exhume her body about a year after the deaths of Murdaugh’s son and wife, but never announced any findings.
The Murdaugh family told the sons their mother tripped over the family dog. Gloria died in hospital around four weeks later from a head injury. She was never able to relay the events of that day.
However, the boys’ lawyer Eric Bland has stated that they do no suspect foul play was at work. Bland later secured $4.3million for Gloria’s children after suing Murdaugh.
Under cross-examination Thursday, Murdaugh admitted he lied and stole to clients, although he made no apology for the litany of malfeasance which began in 2011.
‘I admit candidly in all of these cases that I took money that was not mine, and I shouldn’t have done it,’ Murdaugh said. ‘I hate the fact that I did it. I’m embarrassed by it.’
The grilling came after Murdaugh made the sensational last-ditch decision to take the stand to deny he killed his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, at the family’s hunting estate in Moselle, South Carolina, on the night of June 7, 2021.
Tony Satterfield answers questions during Alex Murdaugh’s trial for murder at the Colleton County Courthouse on February 9
Gloria Satterfield is said to have died after falling at the Murdaugh home in 2018. She was the family’s housekeeper and nanny for 25 years
Murdaugh told Satterfield’s sons at her February 2018 funeral that he would get insurance settlements for her death and take care of them, according to the lawsuit filed by the sons.
The grilling came after Murdaugh made the sensational last-ditch decision to take the stand to deny he killed his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, at the family’s hunting estate in Moselle, South Carolina, on the night of June 7, 2021
The State argues that he killed the pair to distract from his financial crimes which were coming to a head like a ‘gathering storm.’
On the day of the killings, Murdaugh had been confronted over $792,000 that had gone ‘missing’ from a recent case by the chief financial officer at his family firm, Peters Murdaugh Parker Eltzroth and Detrick (PMPED).
PMPED would later uncover he stole more than $10m from clients and partners over a decade.
Murdaugh claims that somebody else killed his wife and son in revenge for Paul’s boat accident in which his friend 19-year-old Mallory Beach was killed.
The girl’s family were suing Murdaugh for a reported $30m at the time of Paul and Maggie’s murders.
