A South Carolina judge on Tuesday approved a settlement agreement between members of the Murdaugh family and victims of a deadly 2019 boat crash on the Murdaughs’ boat.
Earlier this month, the family of 19-year-old Mallory Beach, who died aboard the Murdaughs’ boat during the accident, reached a settlement with Buster Murdaugh, 26, the only living son of disgraced South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh, 54, as well as the estate of Alex Murdaugh’s deceased wife, Maggie Murdaugh. Alex Murdaugh is accused of murdering his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, in June 2021.
While the Beach family is “pleased” with Judge Daniel Hall’s ruling, they do not feel it was the “best decision given the circumstances,” Beach family attorney Mark Brandon Tinsley told Fox News Digital in a statement. It was, however, “the only decision for all who had any real interest,” he said.
“We also believe the ruling will help give some closure to the people who so desperately deserve it,” Tinsley added.
MURDAUGHS REACH SETTLEMENT WITH FAMILY OF MALLORY BEACH, WHO DIED IN FATAL 2019 BOAT CRASH
Clockwise from left: Anthony Cook, Connor Cook, Miley Altman and Mallory Beach. The friends were in boat with a drunken Paul Murdaugh when it crashed into a bridge killing Beach and injuring the other three.
(Facebook)
The two remaining defendants in the case were Alex Murdaugh and Parker’s Kitchen, a convenience store where Paul Murdaugh, who was then underage, is believed to have purchased alcohol for the boating excursion. Hall finalized the settlement on Tuesday.
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Mallory Beach died during an allegedly booze-fueled boating trip along the South Carolina coast in the Murdaugh family’s boat, which Paul Murdaugh was driving at the time, before it crashed into a bridge near Parris Island, sending several passengers flying overboard.
The boat Paul Murdaugh was driving when he drunkenly crashed into a bridge in Beaufort, South Carolina, killing Mallory Beach and injuring four others.
(Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office)
A general view of Archers Creek Bridge in Beaufort, South Carolina. Paul Murdaugh was charged with the death of 19-year-old Mallory Beach after crashing his family’s boat in 2019.
(Mark Sims for Fox News Digital )
Beach never made it out of the water that night, and her body was found eight days later, about five miles from the crash site.
Paul Murdaugh’s booking photo after his arrest for the 2019 boat crash that killed Mallory Beach.
(South Carolina Attorney General’s Office/WTAT-TV/DT)
Paul Murdaugh allegedly used a credit card belonging to his mother, Maggie Murdaugh, and ID belonging to elder brother Buster Murdaugh, to illegally purchase alcohol while underage from a convenience store owned by Parker’s Corporation earlier that day.
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The boat Paul Murdaugh was driving that evening belonged partially to Maggie and partially to Alex Murdaugh, Tinsley previously explained.
From left, Buster Murdaugh, 26, his mother Maggie Murdaugh, his brother Paul Murdaugh and his father Alex Murdaugh. Alex is accused of fatally shooting Maggie, 52, and their son, Paul, 22, June 7, 2021.
(Facebook)
Renee Beach, Mallory’s mother and personal representative of her daughter’s estate, along with co-receivers Alex Murdaugh and John Murdaugh, will receive a $275,000 settlement from the sale of the Murdaugh family’s nearly $4 million Moselle property across Hampton and Colleton Counties. Buster Murdaugh will receive $530,000 from his mother’s estate once the property is sold, and attorneys fees will also be settled.
“The Co-Receivers have determined that the Settlement Agreement is reasonable and in the best interested of the Receivership as a whole,” the settlement agreement states.
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Alex Murdaugh, a former defense attorney and assistant prosecutor from a prominent family that wielded power in the state’s Low Country for a century, has been accused of confronting other injured teen passengers of the fatal 2019 boat crash at the hospital, telling them not to speak to law enforcement.
Alex Murdaugh is led into Colleton County courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina on Tuesday, January 24, 2023.
(Mark Sims for Fox News Digital )
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The former attorney faces a total of 99 financial criminal charges stemming from 19 indictments.
He has pleaded not guilty to the killing of his wife and younger son, and the jury selection in his trial began on Monday.
Fox News’ Rebecca Rosenburg contributed to this report.
