SC lawyer Murdaugh guilty of murder in shootings of wife, son news briefing

WALTERBORO, S.C. - Disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh was convicted of murder Thursday in the shooting deaths of his wife and son in a case that chronicled the unraveling of a powerful Southern family with tales of privilege, greed and addiction.

The jury deliberated for less than three hours before finding Murdaugh guilty of two counts of murder at the end of a six-week trial that pulled back the curtain on the once-prominent lawyer's fall from grace.

The judge said sentencing would take place Friday morning.

Murdaugh, 54, faces 30 years to life in prison without parole for each murder charge.

Through more than 75 witnesses and nearly 800 pieces of evidence, jurors heard about betrayed friends and clients, Murdaugh's failed attempt to stage his own death in an insurance fraud scheme, a fatal boat crash in which his son was implicated, the housekeeper who died in a fall in the Murdaugh home and more.

In the end, Murdaugh's fate appeared sealed by cellphone video taken by his son.

Testimony culminated in Murdaugh's appearance on the witness stand, when he admitted stealing millions from clients and lying to investigators about being at the dog kennels where the shootings took place but steadfastly maintained his innocence in the deaths of Maggie, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22.

Murdaugh's wife was shot four or five times with a rifle and their son was shot twice with a shotgun at the kennels near at their rural Colleton County home on June 7, 2021.

Prosecutors didn't have the weapons used to kill the Murdaughs or other direct evidence like confessions or blood spatter. But they had a mountain of circumstantial evidence, led by a video on Paul Murdaugh's cellphone - video shot minutes before the killings that witnesses testified captured the voices of all three Murdaughs.

Murdaugh's lawyers will almost certainly appeal the conviction based on the judge allowing evidence of his financial crimes - the now-disbarred attorney admitted stealing millions of dollars from the family firm and clients, saying he needed the money to fund his drug habit - which they contend were unrelated to the killings and were used by prosecutors to smear Murdaugh's reputation.

Ohio derailment: The fire that erupted after last month's train derailment in Ohio melted a key part of the tank cars filled with toxic chemicals, so federal officials warned rail car owners Thursday to check their fleets for similar flaws.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday that investigators determined the aluminum covers over the pressure relief valves on three of the five tank cars carrying vinyl chloride melted and that some of the metal was found around the valves.

The NTSB said melted aluminum may have degraded the performance of the valves and kept them from releasing some of the flammable gas to relieve pressure inside the tank cars. Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw has said the failure of the valves was part of why officials decided to breach the cars and burn off the vinyl chloride. The resulting toxic fire prompted the evacuation of half the town of East Palestine, Ohio, and the surrounding area near the Pennsylvania border.

Shaw said the railroad agreed with all the officials responding to the Feb. 3 derailment that venting the hazardous materials cars was the best way to prevent a disastrous explosion.

UK arena bombing: Britain's domestic intelligence agency didn't act swiftly enough on key information and missed a significant opportunity to prevent the suicide bombing that killed 22 people at a 2017 Ariana Grande concert in northwest England, an inquiry found Thursday.

Retired judge John Saunders, who led the inquiry into the Manchester Arena attack, said that one MI5 officer admitted they considered intelligence about suicide bomber Salman Abedi to be a possible national security concern but didn't discuss it with colleagues quickly enough.

In a rare televised statement, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum, who normally keeps a low public profile, said he was "profoundly sorry that MI5 did not prevent the attack."

Abedi, 22, set off a knapsack bomb in the arena's foyer at the end of the May 22, 2017, concert, as thousands of fans were leaving the pop star's show. More than 100 people were injured. Abedi died in the explosion.

UN food program: U.S. Ambassador Cindy McCain was appointed head Thursday of the U.N. World Food Program, the world's largest humanitarian organization that aims to help nearly 150 million people confronting conflicts, disasters and impacts of climate change this year.

The appointment of McCain, widow of Arizona senator and 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain, was announced jointly by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Qu Dongyu.

McCain has been the U.S. envoy to the Rome-based World Food Program and Food and Agriculture Organization since November 2021. The U.N. and Food and Agriculture Organization chiefs called her "a champion for human rights" with "a long history of giving a voice to the voiceless."

McCain succeeds David Beasley, a former South Carolina governor who has led the World Food Program over the last six years.

Nigeria election: Nigeria's opposition renewed calls for the election result to be overturned Thursday, a day after the country announced its new president-elect, Bola Tinubu.

"We won the election and we will prove it to Nigerians," third-place Labour Party candidate Peter Obi said at a news conference in the capital.

At least four other parties are also challenging the results. They have three weeks from the day the final tally was announced to appeal.

Calif. drought: Tremendous rains and snowfall since late last year have freed half of California from drought, but low groundwater levels remain a persistent problem, U.S. Drought Monitor data showed Thursday.

The latest survey found that moderate or severe drought covers about 49% of the state, nearly 17% of the state is free of drought or a condition described as abnormally dry. The remainder is still abnormally dry.

"Clearly he amount of water that's fallen this year has greatly alleviated the drought," said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. "It has not ended the drought completely, but we're in a very different place than we were a year ago."

Caption: The colors of the Russian flag are painted Thursday on the stone that supports the statue of Hans Christian Andersen's "Little Mermaid" after it was vandalized. The 5-foot-high statue, one of Copenhagen's biggest tourist draws, sits at the entrance of the city's harbor in Denmark. It was not known when the vandalism took place. Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix

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