Boat accident victim Mallory Beach’s father snubs Alex Murdaugh’s family in court
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The father of boating accident victim Mallory Beach refused to shake hands with Alex Murdaugh’s family in court after the legal scion was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of his wife and son, claiming that “justice was served”.
Phillip Beach’s daughter Mallory was killed in 2019 when a boat driven by Murdaugh’s drunken son Paul crashed. Two years later, Murdaugh shot and killed Paul and his wife Maggie on their South Carolina estate.
Beach told reporters on Friday after sentencing that he was at peace with Murdaugh’s guilty verdict and life sentence, adding that he was “grateful that justice has been served.”
Beach was sitting in the back of the courtroom during Friday’s hearing when Murdaugh’s brother, John Marvin, tried to shake his hand. But Beach refused, telling him, “I have nothing to tell you.”
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Phillip Beach’s daughter Mallory was killed in 2019 when a boat driven by Murdaugh’s drunken son Paul crashed. Nearly two years later, Murdaugh shot and killed Paul and his wife Maggie on his property in South Carolina.
Beach, 19, was thrown from the boat when it crashed on the Archers Creek Bridge in Beaufort, South Carolina, in 2019. Her body was found five days later.
The Beach family has reached a tentative agreement with Buster Murdaugh in a $50 million lawsuit.
Earlier this year, the Mallory Beach family reached a tentative settlement with Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, in a $50 million lawsuit after she died during the fatal late-night boat ride on February 23, 2019.
The other passengers on the boat were Anthony Cook, Connor Cook, Miley Altman, and Morgan Doughty, who was Paul’s girlfriend.
Paul is believed to have been driving drunk when the six-person boat crashed into Archer’s Creek near Parris Island, and Buster was accused of lending his younger brother his ID to buy the alcohol.
According to legal documents seen by DailyMail.com, Paul was “heavily intoxicated”, “drunk” and “belligerent” on the February night two years ago when he crashed his boat into a piling.
The six youths on board that night, who were all under the age of 21, were thrown off the ship, with all but Beach washed ashore. His body was not found for a week.
Paul was charged with three counts of boating under the influence in April 2019.
But while awaiting trial, the 22-year-old along with his mother Maggie were found shot to death in their hunting lodge in June 2021.
Paul’s father, Alex Murdaugh, who has since been convicted of the murders of his wife and son, tried to convince the jury that someone else had killed Maggie and Paul in revenge for the shipwreck.
The boating accident victims and their families were recently featured in a new Netflix documentary series called Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal.
Paul was charged with three counts of boating under the influence in April 2019. But while awaiting trial, the 22-year-old was shot to death in 2021.
Alex Murdaugh was convicted this week of their murders and would later claim someone else was responsible for the killings in response to the boating accident.
The six youths on board that night, who were all under the age of 21, were ejected from the ship and all but Mallory Beach washed ashore. His body was not found for a week.
Before the murders, one of the six teenagers on board the ship had stated that they were afraid to talk about the Murdaugh family because they knew how to ‘cover things up’.
All of the survivors told authorities that Murdaugh was drunk, and there were discussions about his determination to drive his boat.
Beach’s boyfriend, Anthony Cook, offered to give them all an Uber ride home, but Murdaugh insisted that they travel by boat despite the fog and lack of light on the ship.
Cook told lawyers that Murdaugh had a “crazy” alter ego named “Timmy” who came out when he was drunk.
On the night in question, Cook stated: ‘Everyone was fighting and arguing. We went around in circles numerous times. We were slacking off… Miley kept yelling that she had to work the next morning. She was ready to go.
‘All Paul was doing was making a fool of himself…then for some reason Paul acted like he was on drugs or something.
“She started taking her clothes off during one of the arguments and it’s 40 degrees outside.”
According to Cook, Murdaugh stripped ‘down to his underpants’ and belligerently refused to let anyone else drive his boat.
Both Cook and Altman recounted how Murdaugh “slapped, shoved and spat” at his girlfriend Doughty as the bitter argument continued.
When asked if Murdaugh had ever spit on him when sober, Doughty replied: ‘No.’ She admitted to seeing him smoking weed and taking cocaine on other occasions.
Describing the terrifying scenes when the youths begged Murdaugh to let someone else drive or just give them a ride home, Altman recalled: “I yelled at him once and he told me…he told me…shut your mouth and sit down.” . below. No one else drives my boat.
Earlier this year, the Mallory Beach family reached a tentative agreement with Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, in a $50 million lawsuit after she was murdered.
Paul is believed to have been drunk at the time the six-person boat crashed into Archer’s Creek near Parris Island, and Buster was accused of lending his younger brother his identification to buy the alcohol.
One of the boat’s passengers told lawyers that Paul Murdaugh had a “crazy” alter ego named “Timmy” who would come out when he was drunk.
Doughty recounted how she and Beach huddled in the boat with their arms “locked together”, as Murdaugh continued on the voyage that was doomed to end in such tragedy.
Finally, Cook recalled, the ship suddenly took off. In a chilling recollection, he said, “We went from a two-mile-an-hour idle to the bow of the ship sticking up in the air and I went to the back.”
Cook pulled Beach to his side and hugged her, but the next thing she knew, she testified, she was ‘waking up’ in the water, grabbing at piles of grass and debris and fighting the fast current and frigid temperatures.
Survivors quickly established that no one could locate Beach. Her body was found a week later.
In January 2023, after months of negotiations, hearings, and a failed mediation, “several defendants,” including Buster, settled with the Beach family and three of the other surviving passengers in the fatal crash.
Four years after the tragedy of the boating accident and nearly two years after Maggie and Paul were murdered in their South Carolina home, family patriarch Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison for the deaths of his wife and son. .
Family patriarch Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison for the death of his wife and son
Both Maggie and Paul were found shot at the South Carolina estate in June 2021.
His surviving son, Buster, was crestfallen Friday when Judge Clifton Newman announced his father would spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Murdaugh will serve two consecutive life sentences for murdering Maggie and Paul at the family’s hunting lodge in June 2021. He faces between 30 years and life in prison.
As Murdaugh was herded into a prison van, a rioter yelled, ‘Buster’s next!’
He added: “Justice for Stephen Smith!”, referring to the unsolved 2015 death of a 19-year-old friend of Buster’s.
Stephen’s body was found on the side of the road and his death was initially ruled a hit and run.
However, the police reviewed the case and found that he had a blunt force trauma injury to his head.
Many have linked Buster to the boy’s death because his family name appears more than nine times in the investigative file on Smith’s death.
Buster has never been arrested or charged in connection with Smith’s death.
After Friday’s sentencing, Murdaugh’s attorney, state Sen. Dick Harpootlian, announced plans to appeal.