July 20 (UPI) -- Disgraced former South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges that he killed his wife and youngest son about a year ago.
Murdaugh, 54, was indicted for the deaths last week and the murder charges are the latest to be filed against the once-prominent attorney, who also faces 15 other criminal indictments that have been filed over the past nine months, including financial crimes and embezzlement.
Defense attorneys requested a formal arraignment at what was originally scheduled as a bond hearing on Wednesday. Judge Clifton Newman asked Murdaugh, wearing a white shirt and khaki pants, if he was guilty or not guilty and he responded "not guilty."
The judge also denied bond Wednesday and said he will consider whether to keep evidence in the case sealed in response to motions by Murdaugh attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin.
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"I just want it clearly understood it's a public matter, a public trial ... matters that need to be sealed can be sealed," Newman said according to The State. "I want it clear we will not have any private motion hearings. Public matters will be public."
Harpootlian requested a speedy trial because he said Murdaugh is innocent and "believes the killers are still at large."
The bodies of Murdaugh's wife Maggie and youngest son Paul were found on June 7, 2021 on the family's 1,700-acre hunting estate in Colleton County. Maggie Murdaugh was 52 and Paul was 22. Alex Murdaugh has denied responsibility.
"Alex wants his family, friends and everyone to know that he did not have anything to do with the murders of Maggie and Paul," Harpootlian and Griffin said previously in a joint statement. "He loved them more than anything in the world."
The disbarred Murdaugh is also being investigated for other alleged incidents, including a botched attempted suicide and defrauding the family of a housekeeper who mysteriously died in 2018. He has been in jail since last October.
A separate grand jury indicted Murdaugh several months ago of misappropriating $2.27 million of his clients' money. Other charges were filed last year accusing him of defrauding 17 victims out of $9 million in insurance settlements between 2011 and 2017.
Murdaugh's family is well known in South Carolina. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were elected prosecutors in Hampton County for almost 90 years -- and a portrait of Murdaugh's grandfather hangs on the rear wall of the courtroom where he entered the plea on Wednesday.
