Phillip Beach, father of deceased Mallory Beach, apparently declined a handshake with Alex Murdaugh's brother, John Marvin Murdaugh, inside the Colleton County courtroom where Alex was sentenced to life in prison last week, according to witnesses.
Attorney Mark Tinsley, who is representing the Beach family in their wrongful death lawsuit against the Murdaughs after their 19-year-old daughter died in a 2019 accident on the Murdaugh boat, confirmed to Fox News Digital that John Marvin had made eye contact with Phillip when they both arrived late to the courthouse for Alex's sentencing.
Tinsley was told that John Marvin later came up to Beach and said something along the lines of, "I didn't see you back there," and but Beach declined a handshake with the Murdaugh brother.
"I think it was that Phillip felt like that John Marvin did see him. I mean, they made eye contact. And then for John Marvin to say, 'I didn't know you were back here,' and him then coming over to speak, you know… John Marvin was pretty heavily involved in helping Alex at different times during the case. So, yeah, I think there's a fair amount of tension and some hard feelings," Tinsley explained.
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The South Carolina attorney recalled another instance when Beach "ran into" Alex at a grocery store, and apparently told Beach that "he'd been thinking about him and praying about him, but it came off in an insincere kind of way" as "Philip perceived it at the time."
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Since the Colleton County jury found Alex guilty in the June 2021 murders of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, the Beach family has felt some sense of "relief" and "accountability," Tinsley said.
A trial date in the family's wrongful death lawsuit against the Murdaughs, a once prominent and influential legal dynasty in South Carolina's Lowcountry, is set for Aug. 14 – about four years after Beach's family filed the case against the Murdaugh family in 2019.
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Paul Murdaugh had taken five of his friends out on his family's boat on the evening of Feb. 23, 2019. He used his older brother Buster's ID to purchase alcohol for the group before they went on the excursion that ultimately turned deadly. Despite his friend's pleas to stop driving, the visibly inebriated Paul continued, eventually crashing into Archers Creek Bridge in Beaufort on the South Carolina coast.
The crash left passengers injured. Beach, who was in the rear of the boat, was thrown into the water in the crash and went missing. Boaters found her lifeless body near the crash scene more than a week later.
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Tinsley testified during Alex's double-murder trial that Paul used his family's legal prestige in the South Carolina Lowcountry to get preferential treatment after the crash.
Tinsley also said Alex Murdaugh approached him at a bar while he was representing the Beach family and tried to bully him "into backing off" the case.
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Prosecutors said the Beach lawsuit was a catalyst in Alex's decision to murder his wife and younger son as it threatened to expose his other numerous financial crimes totaling nearly $9 million. The disgraced attorney is accused of embezzling millions from his family's personal injury law firm and its clients.
The Beaches reached a settlement with Maggie's estate and Buster, Alex's sole surviving son, in January.
The two remaining defendants in the case are Alex and Parker's Kitchen, a convenience store where Paul, who was then underage, is believed to have purchased alcohol for the excursion.
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