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<\/div>\nThe former court clerk in South Carolina who helped out with the murder trial of attorney Alex Murdaugh pleaded guilty Monday to criminal charges for showing sealed court exhibits to a photographer and lying about it in court.<\/p>\n
Former Colleton County Clerk of Court Mary Rebecca \u201cBecky\u201d Hill pleaded guilty in Colleton County Circuit Court to four charges \u2014 obstruction of justice and perjury for showing a reporter photographs that were sealed court exhibits and then lying about it \u2014 as well as two counts of misconduct in office for taking bonuses and promoting through her public office a book she wrote on the trial.<\/p>\n
Judge Heath Taylor sentenced Hill, 58, to three years of probation. The judge told Hill her sentence would have been much harsher if investigators had found that she had tampered with the Murdaugh jury.<\/p>\n
Hill read a short statement where she asked the judge for a chance to do better.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no excuse for the mistakes I made. I\u2019m ashamed of them and will carry that shame the rest of my life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Hill<\/a> was in charge of taking care of the jury, overseeing exhibits and helping the judge during Murdaugh\u2019s six-week trial that ended with murder convictions for killing his wife and son. The case involved power, danger, money and privilege and an attorney whose family had lorded over<\/a> his small South Carolina county for nearly a century.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Prosecutors said they investigated jury tampering allegations. Three jurors or alternates suggested Hill said things that may have been an attempt to influence them. Eleven others who were questioned by state agents said she did nothing wrong. Solicitor Rick Hubbard said that would have made it impossible to prove a tampering charge.<\/p>\n During Monday\u2019s hearing, 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.<\/p>\n The photos were briefly posted online and Hubbard said metadata from the images matched up with a time where Hill\u2019s courthouse key card said she was inside the locked room where the photos were kept.<\/p>\n Murdaugh is also serving a separate sentence of decades in prison<\/a> for admitting to stealing millions of dollars from settlements for clients who suffered horrible injuries or deaths \u2014 and from his family\u2019s law firm.<\/p>\n An initial appeal by Murdaugh\u2019s lawyers was denied. But Judge Jean Toal said she wasn\u2019t sure Hill told the truth<\/a> about her dealings with jurors and was \u201cattracted by the siren call of celebrity\u201d status.<\/p>\n Along with showing the sealed exhibits, an arrest warrant said Hill lied to Toal during a January 2024 hearing when the judge asked: \u201cDid you allow anyone from the press to view the sealed exhibits?\u201d<\/p>\n One of Murdadugh\u2019s lawyers said Hill pleading guilty didn\u2019t surprise him. Attorney Dick Harpootlian said he also wasn\u2019t surprised the same State Law Enforcement Division that investigated the Murdaugh killings didn\u2019t find jury tampering.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Becky admittedly perjured herself in the jury tampering hearing held by Judge Toal, what else could she have lied about?\u201d Harpootlian said in a statement.<\/p>\n One of the charges \u2014 misconduct in office \u2014 involved money that investigators said Hill took for herself. She brought a check to court on Monday to pay back 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\u2019s office.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The judge said he knows Hill has been more humiliated than most people who come before him because of all the attention from the true crime world on the Murdaugh case.<\/p>\n \u201d A lot of boats got swept up in the hoopla that was at that trial,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cA lot of folks probably made a lot of money, but you didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Hill was also accused last May of 76 counts of ethics violations. Officials said Hill allowed a photo of Murdaugh<\/a> in a holding cell to be taken to promote her book on the trial and used county money to buy dozens of lunches for her staff, prosecutors and a vendor.<\/p>\n Hill also struck a deal with a documentary maker to use the county courtroom in exchange for promoting her book on the trial, which later she admitted had plagiarized passages, according to the South Carolina Ethics Commission complaint.<\/p>\n