A former court clerk who worked on Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial has admitted to showing sealed court exhibits to a photographer and lying about it in court.
Former Colleton County Clerk of Court Mary Rebecca “Becky” Hill pleaded guilty Monday to four charges including obstruction of justice and perjury for showing a reporter photographs that were sealed court exhibits and then lying about it.
She also admitted to two counts of misconduct in office for taking bonuses and promoting through her public office a book she wrote on the trial.
Judge Heath Taylor sentenced Hill to a year of probation. The judge told Hill her sentence would have been much harsher if prosecutors had found that she had tampered with the Murdaugh jury.
Hill read a short statement where she asked the judge for a chance to do better.
“There is no excuse for the mistakes I made. I’m ashamed of them,” she said.
Hill was in charge of taking care of the jury, overseeing exhibits and helping the judge during Murdaugh’s six-week trial that ended with murder convictions for killing his wife and son. Murdaugh’s family had lorded over his small South Carolina county for nearly a century.
Hill has played a prominent part as Murdaugh appeals his convictions and a sentence of life without parole. His lawyers said Hill tried to influence jurors to vote guilty and that she was biased against Murdaugh for her book.
During Monday’s hearing, solicitor Rick Hubbard told the judge that a journalist told investigators that Hill showed graphic crime scene photos to several media members. He did not name the journalist.
Murdaugh is also serving a separate sentence of decades in prison for admitting to stealing millions of dollars from settlements for clients who suffered horrible injuries or deaths — and from his family’s law firm.
An initial appeal by Murdaugh’s lawyers was denied. But Judge Jean Toal said she wasn’t sure Hill told the truth about her dealings with jurors and was “attracted by the siren call of celebrity” status.
Some of Hill’s charges concern Murdaugh’s murder trial. The arrest warrant said Hill violated a judge’s order to keep sealed photographs from the public. A second warrant said Hill lied to Toal during a January 2024 hearing when the judge asked: “Did you allow anyone from the press to view the sealed exhibits?”
One of the charges — misconduct in office — involved money that investigators said Hill took for herself. They said that included nearly $10,000 meant for bonuses from federal money meant to improve child support collection and about $2,000 in money from the Clerk of Court’s office.
The warrant on the other misconduct charge said Hill used her public role as clerk of court to promote her book on the Murdaugh trial on social media.
