Alex Murdaugh federal sentencing set for April 1

Defendant Alex Murdaugh prepares for jury selection to resume during his murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C. on Monday, Jan. 23, 2023.( Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool)

(WCIV) — Convicted murder and confessed fraudster Alex Murdaugh soon will face another round of sentencing for his litany of crimes.

U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel has scheduled a sentencing hearing for Murdaugh on Monday, April 1, 2024,

The hearing is set for 10 a.m. at the J. Waties Waring Judicial Center in Charleston.

Murdaugh in September 2023 pleaded guilty to a 22-count federal indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.

The charges stem from Murdaugh abusing his position of trust as an attorney and conspiratorial relationships with friends in business to rob his clients and his law firm of millions of dollars.

State and federal investigators have estimated losses of anywhere from $8 to more than $10 million are directly attributable to Murdaugh.

Four of Murdaugh’s pleaded federal charges carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. Federal sentencing guidelines require inmates to serve at least 85% of their true sentence.

Neither prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office nor Murdaugh’s defense lawyers have publicly filed their pre-sentencing recommendations with the court.

Murdaugh defense attorney Dick Harpootlian speaking to reporters outside a court hearing in 2023 said he believed Murdaugh’s final federal sentence would be in the range of 15-20 years.

If it feels like déjà vu reading Murdaugh has pleaded guilty and will face sentencing for his yearslong fraud, theft and money laundering schemes, it’s because Murdaugh has already done so on largely similar charges in state court.

Murdaugh in November 2023 pleaded guilty in a Beaufort County courtroom to 22 of 101 financial crime charges state prosecutors lodged against him.

Murdaugh and his defense attorneys admitted to all 101 charges despite not pleading guilty to all of them as part of the plea agreement.

The arrangement called for a negotiated 27-year prison sentence, which both Murdaugh and state prosecutors agreed to, and Judge Clifton Newman approved.

Under South Carolina law, the crimes to which Murdaugh pleaded guilty in state court carry a mandatory minimum service time equal to 85% of the full sentence.

Under that structure, Murdaugh would be eligible for parole from state prison in the fraud and money laundering cases for the first time after 22 years.

However, the prospect of Alex Murdaugh ever walking free from prison remains in extreme doubt. Murdaugh is currently also serving two life prison sentences for the June 2021 murders of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul.

Murdaugh has appealed his March 2023 conviction on those state murder charges. That appeal remains pending. A bid for a retrial amid accusations of jury tampering failed in January.