Murdaugh's attorneys have accused the court clerk in his double murder trial of jury tampering
Alex Murdaugh is scheduled to appear in court for the first time since he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife and son.
The 55-year-old disbarred attorney is expected to be in a Beaufort, South Carolina, courtroom Thursday morning for a status hearing on a separate criminal case stemming from the alleged theft of millions in insurance payments intended for the family of his late housekeeper Gloria Satterfield.
Satterfield died in 2018 from complications of a slip and fall after tumbling on the steps of the family’s main residence at Moselle.
WATCH: ALEX MURDAUGH'S SURVIVING SON SPEAKS OUT IN FOX NATION EXCLUSIVE
Alex Murdaugh, right, leans over to talk with his attorney Jim Griffin in the double murder trial of Alex Murdaugh at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, Friday, Feb. 3, 2023. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post and Courier/Pool)
Murdaugh tried to skip the court appearance, but Judge Clifton Newman, who also presided over his murder trial, ordered him to show up. Attorneys are expected to set a trial date.
ALEX MURDAUGH SEEKS NEW TRIAL, ALLEGES JURY TAMPERING IN BOMBSHELL MOTION
The convicted killer's former friend and co-conspirator Corey Fleming is also scheduled for sentencing on Thursday in the same case. He pleaded guilty to 23 charges for conspiring with Murdaugh to steal from former clients and friends.
A third co-defendant, former Palmetto Bank CEO Russell Laffitte, may also be in court.
The appearance comes on the same day that the South Carolina Attorney General's Office is scheduled to respond to an explosive motion for a new trial filed by Murdaugh's attorneys last week accusing Colleton County Clerk Becky Hill of jury tampering in his double murder trial.
Newman sentenced Murdaugh in March to two life terms in prison for gunning down his 52-year-old wife, Maggie, and his son, Paul, 22, in June 2021. Hill read the jury's verdict.
Murdaugh has maintained his innocence and is appealing.
FOX Nation aired the hit docuseries "The Fall of the House of Murdaugh" which featured an interview with Hill recounting her role in the blockbuster six-week trial.
Murdaugh's only living son, Buster, also spoke exclusively with FOX Nation and said his father did not receive a fair trial.
"I think it was a tilted table from the beginning," he told Martha MacCallum. "And I think, unfortunately, a lot of the jurors felt that way prior to when they had to deliberate. It was predetermined in their minds, prior to when they ever heard any shred of evidence that was given in that room."
Rebecca Rosenberg is a veteran journalist and book author with a focus on crime and criminal justice. Email tips to