20-year-old charged in Beaufort County boat crash pleads not guilty in packed courtroom

Paul Murdaugh, the Hampton man facing three felony counts of boating under the influence in the February crash near Parris Island that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach and injured others on board, pleaded not guilty Monday morning to all charges at the Beaufort County Courthouse.

Judge Steven John of the 15th Judicial Circuit granted Murdaugh’s attorneys’ request that Murdaugh be released on his own recognizance, a decision one of the attorneys called standard.

“This is being handled in a very normal way,” said state Sen. Dick Harpootlian after the hearing.

As part of the agreement, Murdaugh turned over his passport to the prosecution and signed a waiver of extradition.

Megan Burchstead, a prosecutor with the S.C. Attorney General’s Office, said she wanted the record to reflect the state’s position on their concerns about Murdaugh’s alcohol use.

“We do have concern of a danger to the community given that this case involves the use of alcohol,” she said. “... I don’t know what parameters would be put in place for bond under the usual conditions, but for record purposes, that is a concern of the state.”

The only other restriction included in the conditions of Murdaugh’s release was that he cannot leave the 14th Judicial Circuit, which includes Beaufort, Hampton, Allendale, Colleton and Jasper counties, without permission of the court.

John ruled that Murdaugh be released on a $50,000 recognizance bond, and earlier noted that the public often misunderstands the meaning of “bond.”

“The public is confused as to the purpose,” John said. “The purpose is to make sure the defendant comes back to court. It is not for punishment.”

The case has drawn widespread media attention, as well as outrage from commenters on social media, who have been particularly watchful for any perceived special treatment given to 20-year-old Murdaugh, a member of a politically powerful South Carolina family that includes three generations of solicitors in the 14th Judicial Circuit.

Murdaugh’s family history was mentioned by the defense when arguing why he wasn’t a flight risk.

“Paul has very strong family ties to the community, so much that his family ties have led to an increase in media coverage of this tragic accident,” Murdaugh’s attorneys wrote in a memorandum filed in the court. “... Paul’s family ties in this state run deep. Paul does not know a life beyond this state.”

Murdaugh’s financial resources were also mentioned at the hearing. Harpootlian said Murdaugh is a sophomore at the University of South Carolina.

“In terms of his financial resources, obviously he has little to none of his own,” Harpootlian said. “But his family has significant financial resources.”

On Monday, the courtroom was packed with reporters, local attorneys, family members of both the defendant and victim, as well as community members.

Murdaugh walked into the courtroom at 11:20 a.m. with his attorneys and parents.

His father, Alexander Murdaugh, leaned over to shake the hand of Mallory Beach’s father, Phillip, who was sitting in the gallery behind the prosecution.

The hearing began at 11:26 a.m. and lasted less than 15 minutes. Murdaugh did not speak during the proceeding.

At the end of the hearing, Murdaugh was escorted out of the back of the courtroom by Beaufort County Detention Center personnel. One of the officers attempted to cuff Murdaugh, but stopped after Burchstead made a comment.

Murdaugh returned 20 minutes later with his attorney and then walked out of the courtroom silently with his mother and father.

By Monday afternoon, there was not a record of Murdaugh being processed at the Beaufort County Detention Center, according to Philip Foot, assistant county administrator for Beaufort County Public Safety Division.

“He didn’t come to us, so we don’t have a mugshot,” Foot said.

Murdaugh was processed at the courthouse by the Attorney General’s Office in the presence of South Carolina Department of Natural Resources officials, Robert Kittle, spokesman for the state Attorney General’s Office, said late Monday.

He said the practice is common for direct indictments.

Kittle provided a mugshot of Murdaugh late Monday. The picture doesn’t include the orange shirt often worn by those processed for criminal charges.

A Beaufort County grand jury directly indicted Murdaugh on April 18 — what would have been Beach’s 20th birthday — on one count of boating under the influence causing death and two counts of boating under the influence causing great bodily injury.

Beach, also of Hampton, was ejected from the 17-foot boat Murdaugh is accused of driving when it crashed into a bridge around 2:20 a.m. in Archers Creek. Her body was found a week later in a marshy area about 5 miles from the crash.

The five surviving passengers in the boat, including Murdaugh, were injured, according to police reports. Law enforcement officers at the scene also noted that all five appeared to be “grossly intoxicated.”

Columbia lawyers Harpootlian and Jim Griffin are representing Murdaugh. Griffin is known as a “white collar crime specialist,” The State newspaper reported. Harpootlian is “a prominent, multimillionaire trial lawyer and former prosecutor” who represents the Richland area as a Democrat, according to the newspaper.

Attorney General’s Office decided to prosecute the case after current 14th Judicial Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone’s office recused itself the day after the crash. Three of the occupants of the boat, including Murdaugh, are related to current solicitor’s office employees.

Two judges in the 14th Judicial Circuit, Judge Perry Buckner and Judge Carmen T. Mullen, recused themselves in April from a wrongful death case filed by Beach’s mom, Renee Beach.

Kittle previously said John was already scheduled oversee cases in Beaufort County prior to Murdaugh’s charges.

From 1920 to 2006, three generations of Murdaughs have held the elected position of solicitor of the 14th Judicial Circuit, which includes, Beaufort, Allendale, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties.

Randolph Murdaugh III served as solicitor from 1986 to 2006 and is now a contract employee with the solicitor’s office, according to solicitor’s office spokesperson Jeff Kidd.

Paul Murdaugh’s father, Alexander Murdaugh, is a prominent Hampton County attorney. He also assists with cases in the solicitor’s office but is not a paid employee, Kidd said.

At the scene of the crash, Paul Murdaugh was not offered a sobriety test by law enforcement.

He was taken to Beaufort Memorial Hospital, where S.C. Department of Natural Resources officers say Randolph and Alexander Murdaugh blocked investigators from questioning him and another boater who had also been identified as a possible driver, agency officials later said.

The elder Murdaughs also told investigators that neither Paul Murdaugh nor the other boater would submit to sobriety tests, DNR officials have said.

On March 29, Renee Beach filed a lawsuit against former solicitor Randolph Murdaugh III, his son Alexander Murdaugh, and his grandson Richard Alexander Murdaugh Jr.

The lawsuit also includes claims against Luther’s Rare & Well Done on Bay Street in Beaufort, Parker’s 55 convenience store in Ridgeland, and homeowners Kristy and James Wood, alleging all three provided or sold alcoholic beverages to the six boaters, who were between the ages of 18 and 20.

The Hampton County suit alleges that Richard Alexander Murdaugh Jr. allowed his younger brother — who is not named in the lawsuit— to use his driver’s license to purchase alcohol at Parker’s. After purchasing the alcohol, Richard Alexander Murdaugh Jr.’s brother (Paul) shared the alcohol with Beach and the other four people under the age of 21, according to the lawsuit. The group then consumed alcohol on Randolph Murdaugh’s property, referred to in the lawsuit as “The Island.”

“The Island” is property located on Chechessee Creek that is an asset of the Murdaugh Trust 2, of which Randolph Murdaugh is a trustee, Mark Tinsley, Renee Beach’s attorney, said.

He said the boaters launched from “The Island” on the evening of Feb. 23.

The lawsuit accuses Randolph Murdaugh of allowing underage drinkers to consume alcohol on his property and allowing them to leave in an “intoxicated state.”

It also said the group drank alcohol that was “available for consumption” on “The Island” and “(Randolph Murdaugh) undertook a duty to supervise minors’ consumption of alcohol so as to not allow them to unnecessarily endanger themselves or others, including Mallory Beach,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit accuses Alexander Murdaugh of “failing to supervise his son when he knew or should have known his son was illegally using a license to buy and consume alcohol.”

It took DNR officials seven weeks to charge Murdaugh in the death of Beach. He was directly indicted — which bypasses the warrant, arrest, booking into jail and preliminary hearing process, during which the facts of the case are presented publicly in open court.

No other charges have been filed in the case.

“That is often the way it happens in our office,” Kittle previously told The Island Packet. “We just go straight to the grand jury and indictment. Most of our cases, these are state agencies that come to us and the investigation is way further along in the process. We can say, ‘Yeah, there is enough to go straight to the grand jury.’”

Typically, individuals directly indicted are not arrested ahead of their first scheduled court hearing, Kittle said.

This story was originally published May 6, 2019 at 11:38 AM.