COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Alex Murdaugh has settled a lawsuit brought by the family of a teen killed in a boat crash involving Murdaugh's youngest son that prosecutors said provoked the disgraced South Carolina attorney to later kill his wife and their son who wrecked the boat.
The agreement by an insurer to pay the $500,000 policy Alex Murdaugh had on the boat ends the wrongful death suit that ultimately pried open Murdaugh's finances and laid bare his schemes to steal millions from his clients and his law firm.
The family of 19-year-old Mallory Beach sued the Murdaugh family and others after authorities said the boat Paul Murdaugh was driving crashed into a Beaufort County bridge in February 2019. Beach was killed and several others were injured.
Paul Murdaugh, who was 19 at the time of the crash, was charged with felony boating under the influence. Investigators said he had a blood alcohol level over 0.28% — more than three times the legal limit.
Beach's family already received more than $15 million from a settlement with the Parker’s Kitchen chain of convenience stores and others, as well as lawsuits with a family that held an oyster roast the group on the boat attended, a bar that served Paul Murdaugh liquor just before the crash, and Paul Murdaugh's older brother, Buster, whose ID he used to buy the beer.
A snag with the insurer of the boat, Progressive, prevented the entire case from being settled last summer. Progressive wouldn't pay until Alex Murdaugh was dropped as a defendant in the Beach family's lawsuit, according to court records.
Once special receivers assured all Murdaugh's assets were paid out, Beach's family agreed to end the case and the insurer paid the $500,000, Judge Daniel Hall wrote in an order filed Monday.
Court records indicate the other passengers on the boat who were injured have also settled their lawsuits against Murdaugh and others involved in the crash.
Alex Murdaugh, 56, is serving life without parole for the June 2021 shooting deaths of his wife, Maggie, and son Paul at their Colleton County home. He has denied killing them and is appealing his murder convictions.
But even if his murder convictions are overturned, he will remain in prison. Murdaugh admitted stealing around $12 million from his family's law firm and from clients including a man who became a quadriplegic after a crash and from a trust fund intended for children whose parents were killed in a wreck. He was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison.
Prosecutors said one of the last things Murdaugh did before heading home the night of the killings was work on a financial statement he would likely have to present at a court hearing for the Beach lawsuit scheduled three days later.
Murdaugh feared an investigation into his statement would show he stole millions from clients and his law firm, prosecutors said, and the killings were a sinister, methodical plan to buy time to straighten out his finances and derail the wrongful death suit over the boat crash.
The lawsuit, which became known in the true crime world as the “Boat Case,” showed both his family's longtime influence over Hampton County where for decades they controlled much of the criminal and civil courts and cracks in their control of their rural empire.
Nurses at the hospital where the injured teens were taken said Paul Murdaugh and his father tried to talk to them alone in the emergency room. One teen said it appeared the family was trying to convince them to say someone other than Paul Murdaugh was driving the boat.
Beach's lawyer Mark Tinsley testified at Alex Murdaugh's murder trial that he wanted him to pay $10 million, and Murdaugh’s lawyer said he was broke and might be able to scrape together $1 million.
Tinsley said that didn’t make sense with Murdaugh’s reputation and outward signs of wealth and asked for records of all of Murdaugh’s finances for the lawsuit hearing, which was postponed following the killings.
Alex Murdaugh killed his son Paul with two shotgun blasts and his 52-year-old wife, Maggie, with four or five rifle shots outside their home, authorities said.
Alex Murdaugh said he called 911 after finding the bodies following a brief visit to see his ailing mother.
He told investigators who arrived that he wondered if the anger toward his son over the boat crash led to the killings.
FILE - Witness Mark Tinsley, attorney for Mallory Beach's family, answers questions during Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse, Feb. 10, 2023, in Walterboro, S.C. (Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool, File)
FILE - Alex Murdaugh is led to the Colleton County Courthouse by sheriff's deputies for sentencing, March 3, 2023, in Walterboro, S.C., after being convicted of two counts of murder. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File)
The funeral of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general killed alongside Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah drew the largest crowd of top leaders in the paramilitary organization together Tuesday for the first time since Tehran launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel.
Rumors circulated for weeks over the status of the head of the Guard's expeditionary arm, Gen. Esmail Qaani, but the Quds Force leader was seen in a black bomber jacket wiping away tears early Tuesday morning at the body repatriation at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport.
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip killed at least 15 people overnight, including six children and two women, Palestinian medical officials said Tuesday. In northern Gaza, where Israel has been waging an air and ground campaign in Jabaliya for more than a week, residents said families were still trapped in their homes and shelters.
It’s been more than a year since Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.
In solidarity with Hamas, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has exchanged cross-border fire with Israel almost daily for the past year. Israel has escalated its campaign against the group in recent weeks.
Here's the latest:
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. State Department has dismissed remarks by Iran’s foreign minister who said Tehran shut down an indirect communication route between the two countries in Oman.
Responding to a query from The Associated Press, the State Department said Tuesday: “We have direct and open lines of communication with Iran when it is in our interest.”
“There is no misunderstanding in our position,” the State Department said. “Thus, there is no need at the current time for indirect talks in Oman or anywhere else.”
On Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iranian state media in Muscat, Oman, that Iran has stopped indirect talks with the U.S. there.
Iran remains braced for a possible retaliatory strike by Israel to Iran’s Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack on Israel, its second direct attack on Israel amid the ongoing wars in the Middle East.
GENEVA — The U.N. human rights office is calling for an independent probe into an Israeli airstrike that hit an apartment block in northern Lebanon and left at least 23 people dead.
Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights ( OHCHR ), says the agency has received reports that 12 women and two children were among those killed Monday in the airstrike on the village of Aito.
“With these factors in mind, we have real concerns with respect to … the laws of war and principles of distinction, proportion and proportionality,” he told reporters in Geneva Tuesday.
Laurence is calling for a “prompt, independent and thorough investigation into this incident.”
JERUSALEM -- The Israeli Defense Ministry says it is speeding up development of new technologies to counter drone attacks like the Hezbollah strike this week that killed four soldiers.
Israel’s air defenses have performed well during a year of war against enemies across the region, particularly against rocket and missile attacks. But at times, they have struggled against drones, with unmanned aerial vehicles responsible for several deadly attacks.
The Defense Ministry said it tested a number of technologies being developed by Israeli companies as part of an “expedited process” to find new solutions. It says it will analyze the results and select several technologies for further development with the aim of deploying them within months.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. and Canada on Tuesday imposed sanctions on the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, or “Samidoun,” a charity that serves as an alleged fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine militant group.
The group operates in Gaza and the West Bank and has been a designated foreign terrorist organization since 1997.
Also designated is Khaled Barakat, a member of the group’s leadership.
Acting Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith said that organizations like Samidoun “masquerade as charitable actors that claim to provide humanitarian support to those in need, yet in reality divert funds for much-needed assistance to support terrorist groups.”
The penalties aim to block them from using the U.S. financial system and bar American citizens from dealing with them.
BEIRUT — Hezbollah’s deputy chief and acting leader, Sheikh Naim Kassem, said in a televised speech Tuesday that the group is now focused on “hurting the enemy,” exemplified by targeting the Israeli city of Haifa and areas beyond it, including Tel Aviv.
The pre-recorded speech marked his third appearance since Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sept. 27.
“We will defeat our enemies and drive them out of our lands,” Kassem said. He accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of seeking a “new Middle East” aligned with Israeli and American interests.
He urged Hezbollah supporters to remain steadfast amid Israeli attacks. “Our hope for victory is limitless,” he said. “I give you good news that we are the ones who will hold the enemy’s reins and return it to the fold.”
Addressing Israelis, Kassem said that a cease-fire is the only solution to return residents of northern Israel to their homes. “We are not seeking a cease-fire because we are weak,” he said.
If Israel continues its bombardment and ground invasion in Lebanon, he said that Hezbollah’s strikes will expand over a geographically wider area and “more than 2 million will be in danger.”
Israeli officials have said the operation in Lebanon is intended to push back Hezbollah and return displaced Israelis to their homes.
Kassem linked the ongoing conflict in Lebanon to the broader struggle of the Palestinians, and to the ongoing war in Gaza.
“We cannot separate Lebanon from Palestine, or Palestine from the world,” he said.
JERUSALEM — A team of American troops supporting a missile defense system in Israel has arrived in the country, the U.S. military said.
A statement from Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder announced the team’s arrival in Israel on Monday. They’ll operate a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery there to defend against ballistic missile attacks from Iran. Tehran has launched two missile attacks on Israel as the wars in Gaza and Lebanon rage.
“Over the coming days, additional U.S. military personnel and THAAD battery components will continue to arrive in Israel,” Ryder said. “The battery will be fully operational capable in the near future, but for operations security reasons we will not discuss timelines.”
Iran has warned U.S. troops would be in harm’s way if Iran launches another attack on Israel.
GENEVA — The U.N. health agency says more than 92,000 children aged under 10 in central Gaza received doses of novel oral polio vaccine as a second phase of a vaccination campaign got underway.
World Health Organization spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters Tuesday that the kick-off a day earlier to the second round of polio vaccinations was part of efforts to reach over 179,000 kids in central Gaza – and over 590,000 across the entire strip.
“What we have received from colleagues is that the vaccination went without major issues yesterday,” he told reporters at a regular U.N. briefing in Geneva. He expressed hopes that a “humanitarian pause” will be respected in north and south Gaza over the next six-to-eight days.
Jasarevic said 92,821 children aged under 10 received the vaccine on Monday, the first day of the new phase of the vaccination campaign.
“No one wants to see any child paralyzed (because of polio),” Jasarevic said. “But there are so many other problems that people in Gaza are facing, and we need sustained access.”
JERUSALEM — Israeli police say one officer was killed and four civilians were wounded in a shooting Tuesday on a highway in central Israel.
Police did not immediately provide the identity of the shooter, but police spokeswoman, Mirit Ben Mayor, said that it was a militant attack.
Police said the attacker approached the highway and shot the officer before firing on civilians, wounding four. The attacker was then shot by a paramedic arriving on the scene, Israel’s rescue services said, without saying whether the attacker was killed.
The shooting occurred on a two-lane highway near the city of Yavne, just south of Tel Aviv.
Ohad Yehezkeli, a spokesperson for nearby Assuta Hospital, said the officer died on the way there and another civilian was being treated for moderate injuries. He said two more wounded people were being transported to the hospital.
Palestinians have carried out dozens of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks against Israelis since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack triggered the war in Gaza.
Israel has ramped up military operations in the occupied West Bank, killing more than 750 Palestinians. Most have been killed during gunbattles with the army or violent protests, but the dead also include civilian bystanders.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A general in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard directly threatened the lives of Israelis during a funeral service in Tehran for a general slain alongside Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The comment from Gen. Ali Fadavi, a deputy commander in chief of the Guard, comes as Iran awaits a threatened retaliation by Israel over its Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack.
“That land is a small land. It’s not even as big as one of Iran’s small provinces,” Fadavi said. “If we will, we can obliterate all the Zionists.”
Iranian officials routinely refer to Israelis as “Zionists.”
The Guard’s leadership attended a funeral service for Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, who was killed alongside Nasrallah in an airstrike in Beirut. Guard leaders and others in Iran’s theocracy have threatened to destroy Israel in the past during the more than four decades since the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
JERUSALEM — Israeli police accused Hamas operatives in Turkey of directing a militant attack in August in Tel Aviv in which an explosive went off on a busy street, killing the attacker and wounding a bystander.
There was no immediate comment from Turkey. Relations between the two countries have plunged since the start of the war in Gaza.
Turkey has long provided political support for Hamas, including welcoming its top leaders on visits, but denies involvement in its military activities.
The bomb appeared to have gone off before it was planned to, and it was unclear if the attacker had planned to carry out a suicide bombing or plant the explosives. Both Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group claimed the attack.
Police said Tuesday that they filed indictments against eight suspects. They said the attacker was a militant from Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, who had been directed by an operative in Turkey. They said one of the attack planners had traveled to Turkey several times for explosives training, and that a raid in Nablus uncovered more bombs and funds transferred from Turkey. The police did not provide evidence.
“The findings of this investigation clearly indicate the establishment of Hamas headquarters in Turkey and their extensive efforts abroad to incite violence and carry out bombings in Israel,” the police statement said.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian first responders say they recovered 11 bodies, nearly all women and children, from a home destroyed in an airstrike in northern Gaza, where Israel has been waging an air and ground operation for over a week.
The Gaza Health Ministry’s ambulance service said the dead recovered Tuesday were all from the same family and included seven women and three children.
Fares Abu Hamza, head of the emergency service, said ambulances were only able to reach the area in the Jabaliya refugee camp around 12 hours after the airstrike late Monday. He said funeral prayers for the dead, which included a medic killed in Jabaliya, were held Tuesday in the courtyard of the Kamal Adwan Hospital.
First responders from the Civil Defense said its teams evacuated three families Tuesday who were stuck inside their homes in Jabaliya for several days because of heavy fighting.
Since the start of the war, the Israeli military has carried out several large operations in Jabaliya — a densely populated urban refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation — only to return months later after saying militants had regrouped there. Israel launched a large operation there on Oct. 6.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The funeral of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general killed alongside Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah drew the largest crowd of top leaders in the paramilitary organization together Tuesday for the first time since Tehran launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel.
The Guard’s leadership hasn’t been as visible in the two weeks since Iran’s Oct. 1 attack on Israel. The Guard is the main power behind Iran’s theocracy and oversees its arsenal of ballistic missiles — which would be crucial in any future attack on Israel.
At the funeral in Tehran for Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, the Guard’s chief commander, Gen. Hossein Salami, attended alongside President Masoud Pezeshkian and the head of the country’s judiciary. Other Guard generals also attended, including Gen. Esmail Qaani of the Guard’s expeditionary Quds Force, about whom rumors had circulated for days regarding his status after the strike that killed Nasrallah.
At least two prominent Guard generals were not on hand: Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of Guard’s aerospace division that oversees its missile program, and Gen. Ali Reza Tangsiri, commander of the Guard’s navy, did not attend.
Iran offered no explanation for their absence, though Israel has threatened to carry out a serious retaliatory strike against Iran.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip killed at least 15 people overnight, including six children and two women, Palestinian medical officials said Tuesday.
A strike early Tuesday hit a house in the southern town of Beni Suhaila, killing at least 10 people from one extended family, according to Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis. The dead include three children and one woman, according to hospital records. An Associated Press camera operator at the hospital counted the bodies.
In the nearby town of Fakhari, a strike hit a house early Tuesday, killing five people, including three children and a woman, according to the European Hospital, where the casualties were taken.
The Israeli military rarely comments on individual strikes. It says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas, accusing the militants of sheltering in civilian areas.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — In northern Gaza, where Israel has been waging an air and ground campaign in Jabaliya for more than a week, residents said families were still trapped in their homes and shelters Tuesday.
Adel al-Deqes said his relatives tried to move to another place in Jabaliya in the morning, but the military shelled them.
“We don’t know who died and who is still alive,” he said.
Ahmed Awda, another Jabaliya resident, said they heard “constant bombing and gunfire” overnight and Tuesday morning. He said the military destroyed many buildings in the eastern and northern parts of the camp, which dates back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.
“They bombed many buildings; some of them empty buildings,” he said.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The head of the expeditionary arm of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has appeared in television footage aired Tuesday by Iranian state television.
Rumors circulated for weeks over Gen. Esmail Qaani’s status in the time since an Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut in late September. But Qaani, the head of the Quds Force, was seen in a black bomber jacket, wiping away tears at an event early Tuesday morning at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport.
While Iranian state television did not acknowledge the rumors, it made a point to film Qaani for over a minute and later share the footage from the airport ceremony online.
Qaani was on hand for the repatriation to Iran of the body of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, 58, who was killed in the airstrike.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Australia’s government has imposed targeted financial sanctions and travel bans on five Iranians contributing to the country’s missile defense program, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Tuesday.
Iran’s launch of at least 180 ballistic missiles against Israel on Oct. 1 was “a dangerous escalation that increased the risk of a wider regional war,” Wong said in a statement.
The fresh sanctions target two directors and a senior official in Iran’s Aerospace Industries Organization, the director of the Shahid Bagheri Industrial Group, and the commercial director of the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group.
The decision brings to 200 the number of Iran-linked individuals and entities now sanctioned by Australia.
“Australia will continue to hold Iran to account for its reckless and destabilizing actions,” Wong said.
Israeli security forces examine the scene of a shooting attack where they said a police officer was killed and several others were wounded near Yavne, Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
Lebanese army soldiers stand on the rubble of a destroyed building at the site of Monday's Israeli airstrike in the village of Aito, north Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Lebanese Red Cross volunteers remove the remains of killed people from the rubble of a destroyed building at the site of Monday's Israeli airstrike in Aito village, north Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Quds Force, Gen. Esmail Qaani, chants a slogan "Death to Israel" during the funeral ceremony of the late Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut in late September, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People attend the funeral ceremony of the late Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut in late September, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People chant slogans during the funeral ceremony of the late Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut in late September, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People and officials attend the funeral ceremony of the late Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut in late September, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Commander of the Iran's Revolutionary Guard Quds Force, Gen. Esmail Qaani, mourns during the funeral ceremony of the late Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut in late September, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Mourners carry the coffin of Iranian Revolutionary Guards' deputy commander Brigadier Gen. Abbas Nilforushan who died alongside Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut last month during his funeral in Karbala, Iraq, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)
Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Pro-Israel protesters holds Israeli flags as demonstrators protest Israel's war against Hamas outside the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A displaced family fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, sits next to their tent on Beirut's corniche, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Families fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, sit in front of the Mohammad al-Amin Mosque in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Mourners carry a picture of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah during the funeral procession of their relatives, in Maisara near the northern coastal town of Byblos, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Middle East latest: Israeli strikes on southern Gaza kill at least 15 people overnight
Middle East latest: Israeli strikes on southern Gaza kill at least 15 people overnight
