Mallory Beach’s father, a boating accident victim, refused to shake hands with Alex Murdaugh’s family in court after the legal scion was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife and son – claiming that “the right happened’.
Phillip Beach’s daughter Mallory was killed in 2019 when a boat driven by Murdaugh’s drunken son Paul crashed.
He was in court Friday to review Alex’s conviction for the 2021 murder of his son Paul and wife Maggie at their South Carolina estate.
Beach was sitting in the back of the courtroom during Friday’s hearing when Murdaugh’s brother John Marvin tried to shake hands with him. But Beach refused, telling him, “I have nothing to say to you.”
He told reporters 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.”
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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 at their South Carolina estate
Beach, 19, was thrown off 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 reached a tentative settlement 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 was killed in the fatal night boat ride on Feb. 23, 2019.
The other passengers on the boat were Anthony Cook, Connor Cook, Miley Altman and Morgan Doughty, Paul’s girlfriend.
It is believed Paul was driving drunk when the boat carrying six people crashed into Archer’s Creek near Parris Island, and Buster was accused of lending his younger brother his ID so he could buy the alcohol.
According to legal documents seen by DailyMail.com, Paul was “heavily intoxicated,” “intoxicated,” and “combative” on the night of February two years ago when he drove his boat into a pole.
The six youths on board that night, who were under the age of 21, were ejected from the ship—and all but Beach made it to shore. Her body was not found for a week.
Paul was charged in April 2019 with three counts of driving while intoxicated.
But while awaiting trial, the 22-year-old was found shot to death in their hunting lodge along with his mother Maggie in June 2021.
Paul’s father Alex Murdaugh, now convicted of the murders of his wife and son, had tried to convince the jury that someone else killed Maggie and Paul in revenge for the boat wreck.
The victims of the boating accident and their families recently appeared in a new Netflix docuseries called Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal.
Paul was charged in April 2019 with three counts of driving while intoxicated. But while awaiting trial, the 22-year-old was shot in 2021.
Alex Murdaugh was convicted of their murders this week and would later claim someone else was responsible for the murders in response to the boating accident
The six youths on board that night, who were under the age of 21, were ejected from the ship, and all but Mallory Beach made it to shore. Her body was not found for a week
Prior to the murders, one of the six teenagers aboard the boat had stated that they were afraid to talk about the Murdaugh family because they knew how to “cover things up.”
All of the survivors had told authorities that Murdaugh was drunk and there had been an argument over his determination to operate his boat.
Beach’s friend Anthony Cook offered to get them all an Uber home, but Murdaugh insisted 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” that came out when he was drunk.
On the night in question, Cook stated: ‘Everyone was fighting and arguing all the way. We wandered in circles countless times. We lazed on….Miley kept screaming that she had to work the next morning. She was ready to go.
“All Paul did was make a fool of himself…then for some reason Paul acted like he was on drugs or something.
“He started taking his clothes off during one of the fights and it’s 40 degrees outside.”
According to Cook, Murdaugh “stripped down to his boxers” and belligerently refused to let anyone else drive his boat.
Both Cook and Altman recounted how Murdaugh “pushed, shoved and spat” his girlfriend Doughty as the bitter argument continued.
Asked if Murdaugh ever spat on her when he was sober, Doughty replied, “No.” She admitted to witnessing smoking weed and using cocaine on other occasions.
Describing the terrifying scenes when the youths begged Murdaugh to let someone else drive, or just take them home, Altman recalled, “I yelled at him one time and he just told me…down.” No one else is driving my boat.’
The Mallory Beach family (pictured) reached a tentative settlement earlier this year with Murdaugh’s surviving son Buster Murdaugh in a $50 million lawsuit after she was murdered
Paul was thought to be drunk when the boat with six people on board crashed into Archer’s Creek near Parris Island, and Buster was accused of lending his younger brother his ID so he could buy the alcohol
One of the boat passengers told lawyers that Paul Murdaugh had a “crazy” alter ego named “Timmy” who came out when he was drunk
Doughty related how she and Beach huddled in the boat with their arms “entwined” as Murdaugh continued on the journey doomed to end in such tragedy.
Finally, Cook recalled, the boat suddenly took off. In a chilling recollection, he said, “We went from idling at two miles an hour to the bow of the boat sticking up in the air and I went aft.”
Cook pulled Beach down next to him and held her, but before he knew it he was testifying, “awaking” in the water, grabbing piles of weed and debris and battling the fast current and frigid temperatures.
The survivors then quickly determined that no one could find 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 accident.
Four years after the tragedy of the boat crash 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.
The family patriarch Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison for the deaths of his wife and son
Both Maggie and Paul were shot at the South Carolina estate in June 2021
His surviving son Buster was dejected 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 the June 2021 murders of Maggie and Paul, the family’s hunting lodge. He faces between 30 years and life in prison.
As Murdaugh was ushered into a prison van, a heckler 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 by 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 trauma wound to the head.
Many have linked Buster to the boy’s death, as his family’s name appears more than nine times in the investigative file into Smith’s death.
Buster was never arrested or charged in connection with Smith’s death.
Following Friday’s sentencing, Murdaugh’s attorney – Senator Dick Harpootlian – announced plans to appeal.
