A series of lawsuits centering on the deadly February 2019 crash of a boat purportedly driven by Alex Murdaugh’s son before his high-profile murder at the hands of his father has reportedly been settled for about $15m.
Most of the money from the settlement, confirmed Sunday, is destined to go to the family of Mallory Beach, 19, who was killed on the night of the wreck near Parris Island, South Carolina, according to the local news outlet WSAV.
Other passengers on the boat which crashed had joined Beach’s relatives in filing the lawsuits in question. The suits, which are all now reportedly resolved, targeted Alex Murdaugh – because he owned the boat – as well as a store named Parker’s where the former attorney’s then underage son Paul had bought alcohol using a fake identification before purportedly driving and wrecking the boat.
An attorney for Beach’s family, Mark Tinsley, provided a statement to WSAV which held up the settlement as a warning to alcohol retailers that they are indeed responsible when teenagers drink their products.
“The Beach family believes this settlement will serve as a warning to all the Parker’s of the world, who might make an illegal sale of alcohol to a minor, that they will be held to account for their wrongful conduct if they do,” Tinsley’s statement said.
Meanwhile, Parker’s attorney PK Share issued a statement explaining that the retailer’s insurers preferred to settle the plaintiffs’ litigation rather than go to trial and risk being forced to pay an even higher amount because of Alex Murdaugh’s infamy over his convictions in the June 2021 murders of his wife, Margaret, and their son Paul.
“Parker’s insurance carriers … resolve[d] these suits to avoid paying the likely award intended to punish Alex Murdaugh,” Shere’s statement said, according to NBC News. “We sincerely hope that all involved parties will find some measure of closure.”
The settlement discussed by Shere came as at least one of the claims from the boat wreck was advancing toward a trial expected to unfold in the coming months, NBC added.
Earlier on the night of the boat crash, Paul Murdaugh was recorded on store security video buying alcohol. He was 19 at the time and couldn’t yet legally buy alcohol, so investigators believe he made the purchase using the ID of his older brother, Richard Alexander “Buster” Murdaugh Jr.
Paul Murdaugh spent that night reveling and drinking with his girlfriend Morgan Doughty, Beach, her boyfriend Anthony Cook, his cousin Connor Cook, and Connor’s girlfriend Miley Altman, who were all underage as well. He ended up driving all of them in his father’s boat – which had a beer-filled cooler aboard – when he plowed into a bridge.
Beach was killed while four of the five others aboard were hospitalized with injuries, investigators said.
Authorities have said Paul Murdaugh registered a blood-alcohol level of .24 – three times over the legal limit – shortly after the crash.
He was out on bail awaiting a criminal trial stemming from Beach’s death when he and his mother were later shot to death at their family home.
A jury in March convicted Alex Murdaugh of the murders after prosecutors argued that he carried out the killings in a desperate bid to create a distraction after being caught stealing millions from his law firm as well as others, a stunning chain of events outlined in documentaries on HBO and Netflix.
He received two life prison sentences for the killings.
#Family #Murdaugh #boat #crash #victim #Mallory #Beach #settles #15m #report #Alex #Murdaugh