Cory Fleming gets 20-year sentence for aiding Murdaugh | Murdaugh News
BEAUFORT — Former attorney Cory Fleming was sentenced in state court to 20 years in prison for helping his longtime friend Alex Murdaugh steal millions of dollars, significantly extending a prison term he has already begun.
In a searing address to Fleming, Judge Clifton Newman on Sept. 14 brushed aside the ongoing 46-month federal prison sentence he is already serving, deciding it wasn’t punishment enough for the ex-lawyer’s betrayal of his clients.
After some four hours of testimony and arguments before a courtroom crowded with Fleming’s supporters, Newman handed down two back-to-back 10-year sentences for Fleming. His time in federal lock-up is expected to count toward his 20-year term.
“You must suffer the consequences of your actions,” Newman told Fleming in the same Beaufort County courthouse where he practiced until the fraud schemes came to light in 2021.
State prosecutors accused Fleming, 54, of working in concert with Murdaugh to steal from two clients the notorious ex-attorney referred to him: Pamela Pinckney, who was badly hurt with her family in a car wreck, and the family of Murdaugh’s late housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield. All told, state prosecutors have said, Fleming was responsible for the theft of some $3.7 million — money they say he and Murdaugh pilfered in their victims’ lowest moments.
Fleming pleaded guilty to one charge in federal court and 23 charges at the state level.
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The judge in the federal case said the sentence he imposed was intended to cover the totality of Fleming’s actions in both state and federal court. But Newman was not bound to follow those wishes and made clear he paid them little mind. He said leniency was not his responsibility.
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Cory Fleming (right) walks out of Charleston’s federal court after pleading guilty in May to conspiring with his long-time friend Alex Murdaugh to commit wire fraud. File/Henry Taylor/Staff
In fact, Newman said he didn’t even read the federal court’s decision before making his. He said Fleming’s actions cast a shadow over the legal profession, sowing doubt into every client’s mind when they interact with their attorneys.
“This is unprecedented. This is unimaginable,” Newman said. “This is, I think, the greatest crime for a lawyer in the history of the state of South Carolina.”
When he pleaded guilty to a federal crime earlier this year, Fleming acknowledged that he knew Murdaugh planned to take money that belonged to Satterfield’s heirs, but he claimed he didn’t know the full extent of his friend’s plans. Satterfield’s family did not receive a dollar of the $4.3 million Murdaugh’s insurance companies paid after she succumbed to injuries sustained at his remote Colleton County home in 2018.
Relatives of Gloria Satterfield, a dead housekeeper who allegedly had millions of dollars stolen from her estate by convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh and former attorney Cory Fleming, sit in court on Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023, in Beaufort. Murdaugh and Fleming both appeared at a Beaufort County courthouse Thursday for case updates on the state charges they face. James Pollard/AP
“We not only trusted the system; we trusted what we thought was family to us,” Satterfield’s sister, Ginger Hadwin, said before Fleming’s sentence was imposed. “As a Christian family, we believe in forgiving, but it still does not take away the hurt that he caused us.”
But while federal prosecutors have said they don’t believe Fleming knew the extent of Murdaugh’s plans, the state attorney General’s Office has asserted that Fleming participated actively with Murdaugh, his former law school roommate.
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Though Fleming pleaded guilty to the state’s charges, lead prosecutor Creighton Waters offered him little leniency. He questioned Fleming’s remorse and said he hadn’t taken responsibility for his crimes until after the state grand jury “caught him red-handed.”
Waters said Fleming took steps independent of Murdaugh to divert money from the Satterfields, for instance. Waters also said Fleming chartered a plane to the College World Series for himself and Murdaugh and claimed it as an expense in Pinckney’s file. Other times, he diverted money when his bank account was running low, Waters said, using it to pay taxes and his mortgage.
“It doesn’t fit with the evidence,” Waters said of the notion that Fleming wasn’t aware of the full scheme. “It doesn’t fit with common sense.”
Fleming apologized to Satterfield’s sons and Pinckney before he received his federal sentence in August, acknowledging he had betrayed their trust and saying he didn’t expect their forgiveness. He said he had turned in his license to practice law and had started pursuing training as a contractor before he was incarcerated.
At his state sentencing hearing, Fleming repeated his apology and thanked the victims of his crimes for the forgiveness they had expressed. Speaking softly in a hoarse voice, wearing handcuffs and a grey-striped prison jumpsuit, Fleming told Newman he was putting himself at the mercy of a court system he had betrayed. He sobbed as he apologized for letting down his victims, his community and his family.
“Today, I offer this court no excuses. There are no excuses,” he said, adding that he harbored “a profound and deep disappointment in myself.”
Fleming turned himself in to federal custody immediately after he received his sentence in Charleston, starting the clock on his 46-month federal term. He has since been housed at the Charleston County jail awaiting a prison assignment.
To date, he is the only person to begin serving a prison sentence related to Murdaugh’s alleged fraud schemes. Former Hampton banker Russell Laffitte hasn’t yet reported for his 7-year term in federal prison, though he could as soon as Sept. 21.
Meanwhile, Murdaugh has not been tried on any of his alleged financial crimes. Murdaugh, 55, is expected to plead guilty to federal charges on Sept. 21.
Murdaugh is currently serving two life sentences in state prison for the June 2021 murder of his wife, Maggie, and son Paul, a conviction he is seeking to overturn. He is scheduled to stand trial on charges related to the alleged Satterfield theft in November.
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