Former South Carolina attorney Cory Fleming awaits his sentencing in Beaufort, South Carolina, on September 14, 2023.
CNN —
A former South Carolina attorney and longtime friend of Alex Murdaugh was sentenced Thursday to spend an additional decade in state prison after pleading guilty to charges related to helping the convicted murderer steal millions of dollars from his clients.
Cory Fleming, 54, was sentenced in a Beaufort County courtroom after pleading guilty to the state charges last month over his involvement in scheming with Murdaugh to steal from two clients Murdaugh referred to him. He is currently serving a federal sentence for a related charge.
Most of the stolen funds were from an insurance settlement Fleming helped secure for the estate of Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaugh family housekeeper who died after a “trip-and-fall” accident at the Murdaugh home in 2018. An investigation into her death has been reopened.
Fleming is also charged with stealing from the family of Hakeem Pinckney, who was severely injured in a car crash in 2009 and died in 2011. Prosecutors have said the settlement money that was supposed to go to the Pinckney and Satterfield families instead went to a fake bank account and was used by Murdaugh and, in some cases, Fleming.
Judge Clifton Newman, who handed down Fleming’s sentence, said the disbarred attorney must “suffer the consequences of (his) actions,” while noting Fleming’s victims were “vulnerable people” who trusted him as their attorney.
Fleming is currently serving a federal sentence of three years and 10 months after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, pledging in exchange to work with state and federal prosecutors, according to his plea agreement. His sentence on the state charges is far longer.
Fleming’s attorney requested Newman issue a sentence that directly matched his client’s federal sentence, but the judge sentenced him to two 10-year sentences on the state charges – a decade for the crimes against the Satterfield family and a decade for the crimes against the Pinckney family. One of those ten-year state sentences begins after Fleming is released from federal prison while the other ten-year state sentence is to be served concurrent to both the federal and other state sentence.
This means Fleming could spend up to 10 additional years behind bars in a state prison after he finishes serving his federal sentence.
“Today, I offer this court no excuses. There are no excuses. I place the blame for my actions on my shoulders, nobody else’s,” said Fleming, handcuffed and wearing a striped prison jumpsuit, as he read his statement to the court. “I have a profound and deep disappointment in myself. It is a very difficult and constant feeling I will carry with me for the rest of my life.”
“The foundation of our justice system remains strong,” attorneys for the Satterfield family, Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter, said after the sentencing. “The Satterfield’s feel like justice was done in connection with Cory Fleming’s crimes committed against the estate of Gloria Satterfield and her sons.”
Murdaugh, a disbarred personal injury attorney, is appealing his conviction for murdering his wife and grown son. However, his attorneys requested that appeal be suspended as they hope to seek a new trial for Murdaugh based on their allegations of jury tampering. The court has not made any decisions on that motion for a new trial.
Murdaugh is currently serving two life sentences in a South Carolina state prison.
Murdaugh has agreed to plead guilty to nearly two dozen charges related to fraud and financial crimes, according to a plea agreement signed and filed September 18 in the Beaufort Division of the South Carolina U.S. District Court. He is scheduled to appear in federal court later in the week.
Separately, Murdaugh is also set to stand trial in November on the first of 101 state charges, with victims’ alleged total losses amounting to almost $8.8 million, according to prosecutors.
Correction: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized how Cory Fleming's multiple sentences would be served. He could face nearly 14 years in federal and state prison.
CNN’s Kevin Conlon contributed to this report.
