Dove and Murdaugh Reveal a Dog that Isn’t: The Victims of the Moselle Shootings

The only other voice besides the victims is also believed to belong to Murdaugh, and that voice is the one in the video at the time of the murders. The witness Wednesday backed up that claim.

An almost minute long video filmed on Paul’s phone began at 8:44PM and appears to show a family dog that has been taken at the kennels. The supervisor in the computer crimes center is David Dove.

Three different voices could be heard in the footage, Dove testified Wednesday. Dove did not know what the voices were like, but he said you could tell that they were different.

Rogan, who was close to Paul and the Murdaughs, told investigators shortly after the killings that he was almost certain that the third person heard was Alex Mur. In court Wednesday, he repeated that he was 100% sure.

Murdaugh acknowledged his voice can be heard in a video appeared to be filmed that evening at the dog kennels before the killings, and testified he previously lied about being there because of “paranoid thinking” stemming from his addiction to painkillers.

Murdaugh reported to police that he had found his wife and son dead at the family property in Islandton, South Carolina, which was known as Moselle. The defense has portrayed Murdaugh as a loving father and husband being prosecuted after a poorly handled investigation while the real killers are at large.

The audio merely showed a normal conversation between Murdaugh and his wife, which he said was devoid of animosity. Paul is “very happy,” Harpootlian said. “Nobody’s down there threatening him. Daddy is not pulling out a shotgun and killing him.”

Griffin established that Murdaugh’s mother’s property in Almeda was not searched until months after the killings, in September 2021. Owen testified that there were no weapons found on that property.

He told investigators that after returning home to the vast estate, he found his wife and son dead by the dog house and called the police.

In his testimony Tuesday, Dove, the 15th witness called by the prosecution, detailed the communications of Maggie’s phone the night of the killings, including a text from Alex at 9:47 p.m. that read, “Call me babe.” It was never read.

In his opening statement last week, Waters told the jury Murdaugh repeatedly called his wife that evening before texting her that he was going to visit his mother and driving to Almeda, South Carolina.

Griffin ran through phone data reflecting the minutes after 8:49, laying out a theory in which the slain mother and son might have simply set down their phones at the kennels. He said that orientation changes and other movements on her phone might have made her think that she wasn’t holding her own phone.

Dove said that it would appear that way, noting there was no way to know who deleted the calls or who was responsible.

“A gap like that would indicate” that calls were “actually removed from there,” Dove said, adding the only way to remove the calls from the log would be to do so manually.

A Judge’s Open Door to Murdaugh’s alleged Financial Misfortunes on the Night of June 7, 2021, as he pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife and son

Murdaugh told the court that on his way back from his mother’s house, he tried to call his wife twice, but she did not answer. He said he also left her a text. However, he said he did not find her non-response unusual, because she was with Paul and because of sometimes-spotty cell service.

Murdaugh testified that his financial problems weren’t the only cause of his use of the drug. He said he was using some of the money he stole from clients to buy pills. Murdaugh wouldn’t object to a term such as “wealthy lifestyle” that was used to refer to money being used to pay for it.

Two investigations in particular that could have exposed Murdaugh’s alleged wrongdoing were coming to a head at the time of the murders. For one, the chief financial officer of his law firm testified she had confronted Murdaugh about missing funds on the morning of June 7, 2021, hours before the killings. After the murders, the internal investigation into the funds took a back seat.

Wilson is one of a series of witnesses who have accused Murdaugh of extensive financial wrongdoing at his namesake law firm. Prosecutors have argued Murdaugh killed his wife and son as an attempt to distract attention from his financial crimes and stave off a “day of reckoning.”

Much of this week’s testimony has focused on Alex Murdaugh’s financial issues. The judge ruled that the proof of it was important to complete the story, and that it was necessary to allow it.

He and Murdaugh had worked on a personal injury case together and won a verdict of $5.5 million, with each attorney earning about $792,000. Wilson was asked to write the check to Murdaugh personally, rather than by his law firm.

Judge Clifton Newman allowed prosecutors to present allegations that Murdaugh stole huge amounts of money from his law firm, clients and friends. Newman said the defense “opened the door” by asking witnesses about Murdaugh’s character and possible motive.

Also in court Thursday, Michael “Tony” Satterfield, the son of Murdaugh’s former housekeeper Gloria Satterfield, testified about being defrauded by Murdaugh.

Satterfield testified that he learned of the settlement from his family, who heard about it through media reports. He said when he asked Murdaugh about it in June 2021, Murdaugh told him “it was still making progress” and to be ready to settle by the end of the year.

Alex Murdaugh and the family of a 19-year old killed in a boat, and their lawsuit was filed in the early 2021 trial

The CEO of a local bank testified that the Murdaugh account had been overdrawn by about $350,000. As of August 2021, Murdaugh had a total debt to the bank of $4.2 million, according to Palmetto State Bank CEO Jan Malinowski.

The family of a 19-year old who died when a boat owned by Murdaugh and allegedly driven by his son Paul crashed was about to file a lawsuit. A hearing in that civil case was scheduled for June 10, 2021, and had the potential to reveal his financial problems, prosecutors argued, but it was delayed after the killings.

Waters said that one of Paul’s favorite guns was the shotgun that killed him. The two shells that killed Paul had class characteristics, which is similar to a 12-gauge shotgun. Alex Murdaugh and Waters had a shotgun together on the night of the killings and the gun had traces ofMaggie’s blood on it.

Tinsley was asked about the lawsuit on Thursday. He testified he was seeking $10 million from Murdaugh, but was told Murdaugh was broke and might only be able to come up with $1 million. Tinsley is expected to resume his testimony Friday morning after not being cross-examined Thursday.

“We weren’t going to go in there and harass him about money when we were worried about his mental state and the fact that his family had been killed,” the CFO, Jeanne Seckinger, testified.

The day of reckoning that his law firm had been waiting for didn’t happen for another three months.

Maggie Murdaugh was worried about money possibly being demanded of her family in a lawsuit and suspicious her husband wasn’t being entirely honest with her in the days before her killing, housekeeper Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson testified Friday in the double-murder trial of Alex Murdaugh.

“She was concerned about the amount of money that they were requesting in that lawsuit – $30 million is what she told me,” Turrubiate-Simpson said. “She said she knew the amount of money they were asking.

Turrubiate-Simpson said that he had said that people would probably stop by and bring food. He told me to make the house look the way he wanted it to look. So, I said OK and I went to the house.”

The Murdaugh Spectator at Islandton’s Judge’s Density Testimony Sessions in South Carolina on July 7, 2021

Alex Murdaugh is on trial for the killings on June 7, 2021. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and two weapons charges, with the trial expected to last about two more weeks.

The Murdaugh relatives were ordered to sit farther back in the South Carolina courtroom due to inappropriate contact and conduct by them, according to the clerk of court.

In court Wednesday, Alex Murdaugh’s sister Lynn Murdaugh Goettee passed him a book through a member of his defense team. It was not shared with the victim’s advocate, and Goettee had been admonished just five minutes before that, a source with knowledge of the incident told CNN.

The previous version of the story stated that Mark Tinsley was the witness who began testifying when Buster Murdaugh made an obscene gesture. John Grisham’s book was taken from Alex Murdaugh but was not named “The Judge’s List”.

The younger Murdaugh was admonished for the incident, Hill said. Lynn Murdaugh Goettee and Buster Murdaugh have been warned that any more violations will result in them being barred from the courtroom.

Amid the book incident, Wednesday’s testimony was interrupted when a bomb threat was called into the clerk’s office and the courthouse in Walterboro was evacuated, Hill said. Hours later the court resumed.

Legal teams on Thursday offered a glimpse into the remaining trial schedule: Closing arguments could start around February 23, based on attorneys’ estimates – weeks after Friday’s originally scheduled end date.

The state hoped to rest its case by the middle of next week, prosecutor Creighton Waters said, while the defense will need at least a week, defense attorney Dick Harpootlian said, noting it could be on the shorter side because of how long testimony already has lasted.

Harpoonlian pointed out that the lengthy state’s case makes it difficult and expensive to schedule out-of-state expert witnesses. More than 400 exhibits of evidence have been presented by the state so far.

Judge Clifton Newman approved a request from the defense on Monday to allow the jury to view Murdaugh’s property in Islandton, particularly its dog kennels where the bodies of Murdaugh’s wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, and son Paul Murdaugh were found. Newman did not specify a date for that visit, but said it would happen sometime after the rebuttal witnesses testimony.

Throughout the trial, prosecutors have tried to place Murdaugh at the scene of the killings shortly before the crime, with the assistance of a video clip authorities say was recorded shortly before the shootings.

In the video, a sheriff’s sergeant talks about his job. Daniel Greene encounters Murdaugh, who is dressed in a white T-shirt and cargo shorts, outside the property’s kennels. Murdaugh is standing near the bodies that are blurred in the video and informs Green that he went get a gun and brought it down here because of the scene.

The deputy asks where the gun is, and Murdaugh tells him it is leaning against Murdaugh’s vehicle. Murdaugh’s shirt is checked by the deputy before he talks anymore.

“This is a long story. My son was in a wreck a long time ago. Murdaugh says that he has been getting threats. Most of it has been just non-threatening. He has been getting punched, and we didn’t take it seriously. I know that it is.

When he was asked about the last time he and the pair were together, Murdaugh answered, “We were last together earlier tonight.” After explaining that he had left the house to visit his mother, he said, “We were last together earlier tonight.”

The Riemer- Murdaugh Case: Guns, Ropes, and Casings in the Family Property of Maggie and Paul

Ellen Riemer, a pathologist at the Medical University of South Carolina, gave graphic testimony to the jury Monday about the injuries caused by Maggie and Paul.

The force of the shot caused his brain to be ejected, Riemer said, and it arrived to the autopsy separately. At this testimony, Alex Murdaugh was visibly upset, and grabbed a tissue and wiped his eyes and nose.

Waters said that Paul had a favorite gun and that it was the one that killed him. They determined that the two fired shells that killed Paul were similar to a 12-gauge shotgun, according to the prosecutor.

“I don’t see anything on his hands that would indicate he had his hands up to his face in anticipation of the injury that was about to happen,” Riemer testified. His arm was down, and I don’t see any injury to his hands from the second shot.

Maggie was killed by a Blackout rifle and Paul was killed by a shotgun, prosecutor Creighton Waters said, adding that both were family weapons. Testimony from a weapons expert proved that Blackout rifle bullet casings discovered near Maggie’s body matched casings found on other parts of the family’s property.

The Murdaugh trial in Colleton County, South Carolina: A jury hearing the murders of a 17-year-old boy and a girl

The remaining jurors were tested Monday and will be tested again Wednesday. The judge said that jurors would wear masks and have a positive attitude, despite prosecutors and defense attorneys discussing postponing the day’s proceedings.

Editor’s Note: The HBO docuseries “Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty” chronicles the family’s influence in South Carolina. It will be aired on CNN on February 19th.

Murdaugh also offered jurors alternatives as to who may have committed the crime – therefore helping sow reasonable doubt, Jackson said. Murdaugh discussed his addiction and also nodded to the death threats Paul allegedly received after he crashed a boat in which a young woman was killed.

On May 26, there was a search for green gel pill p30, which matches the description of a nonprescription nighttime cold and flu medication.

Defense attorney Phillip Barber showed a text Alex Murdaugh sent to his wife the following day, on May 7, 2021, which read: “I am very sorry that I do this to all of you. I adore you.

The defense says Murdaugh is being wrongly accused of the killings due to an investigation and crime scene that has been mishandled.

The defense on Friday called to the stand its first two witnesses, including Colleton County Coroner Richard Harvey who said he estimated the time of death for Paul and Maggie to be around 9 p.m. that night, based on armpit checks he conducted. Harvey said yes when asked if they could have been shot between 8 and 10 p.m.

An investigator who was hired by Alex Murdaugh to look into the murders of his wife and her friend gave the court a glimpse of what happened that night, showing that his wife’s phone was found in the parking lot of a store where his car was parked and that he called police

During his testimony on Friday, Peter Rudofski, an investigator with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, said he was able to plot Murdaugh’s movements on the night of the killings through latitude, longitude and speed data provided by General Motors.

The vehicle records show that Murdaugh was travelling well above the posted speed limits on some rural roads, as he reached speeds up to 80 mph. He drove past the place where the phone was found.

Murdaugh turned into the front entrance at the Moselle property at roughly 10 p.m. that night, and shortly after, headed over to the family’s dog kennels located on the property, arriving there at 10:05 p.m., the investigator testified.

The Murdaugh family and the Attorney General’s Office investigated a video taped by the murderer of a 14th Circuit Solicitor

He told investigators on the night of the killings that he tried to turn Paul over, then tried to check Paul’s cell phone and call the police, but he couldn’t.

The case was transferred that same day from the local solicitor to the Attorney General’s Office, which has been prosecuting the case due to the Murdaugh family’s long ties with the local solicitor: Three generations of Murdaughs served as the 14th Circuit Solicitor over about 87 years.

The SLED agents confronted Murdaugh after seeing evidence that was contrary to what he had said to law enforcement.

Owen said that Rogan had been around the family for a long time. “And he recognizes your voice, and you have a distinct voice. Can you think of anybody else that has a voice similar to yours that he may have misinterpreted?”

The agents confronted Murdaugh about a video he watched on his app that was filmed by Paul the night of the killings. Murdaugh is wearing pants and a shirt. He wore shorts and a white shirt after that.

“There’s a video on Paul’s phone of you and him on the farm that night. You’re wearing khaki pants and a dress shirt … When I met you that night, you were in shorts and a T-shirt,” Owen said. “At what point in the evening did you change clothes?”

Two witnesses disagree about Murdaugh’s testimony of the murder of her son and wife, Moselle, Alabama, on June 21st, 2012

Two witnesses disagree: On Tuesday, Maggie’s sister testified it was Murdaugh who wanted Maggie to come to Moselle. Maggie was staying in the family’s Edisto Beach property and did not want to go to Islandton, Marian Proctor said, recalling a conversation they had the day of the murders.

You weren’t concerned about those clothes, that’s why you didn’t. Your investigation had been focused since early June on the T-shirt he was wearing, the shorts he was wearing and shoes he was wearing at the time he called 911,” Griffin said.

Owen testified that he had told a grand jury that an expert had found some blood spatter on the front of a T-shirt and that it had to be tested. The test, however, found no blood on the shirt.

The HemaTrace test that you did to confirm the presence of blood came up negative. Wasn’t that overlooked?” asked Griffin.

“Whoever killed Maggie and Paul would likely have biological material on them from the blasts that killed the two victims, right?,” Griffin asked Owen.

In one instance Wednesday, Judge Newman ruled against allowing testimony about what happened to Murdaugh. Authorities have alleged that Murdaugh arranged for another man, Curtis Edward Smith, to shoot him so his surviving son could obtain millions of dollars in life insurance.

Owen said he was told the gang was not concerned about the money because they knew it was going to be paid.

Alex Murdaugh had previously mentioned someone that could have been involved in his son or wife’s murder to the prosecutor, who asked if he had ever mentioned anyone else.

Asked if a cell phone analysis had been performed to see if any of the drug gang members were in the area the night of the killings, Owen said drug gang members typically use burner phones, and he didn’t have their phone numbers. Owen said that state investigators had identified only the first responders that were coming to the scene.

The defense attorney also asked Owen if any DNA analysis had been done to match a small amount of unknown male DNA found under Maggie Murdaugh’s fingernail. Owen said no.

Interpretation of details is crucial in this case: Prosecutors are asking jurors to find Murdaugh guilty beyond reasonable doubt, based on circumstantial rather than direct evidence.

Defense attorneys point to what they describe as a mishandled police investigation, adding Murdaugh is a troubled but loving father and husband whose other misdeeds still do not add up to him being a murderer.

There are no witnesses. “There is nothing on the camera,” Harpootlian said. There is no evidence tying him to the crime. None.”

“It does make the case more difficult,” said trial attorney Misty Marris. “But at some point, if the prosecutors have enough evidence that they can put together that story, and show motive and opportunity, it can certainly rise to the level needed to get a conviction.

“Jurors want science, jurors want DNA, jurors want something that’s persuasive,” Azari said. “But because (prosecutors) lack it … their focus is now on the tenuous motive and the lies after the fact, but neither of those things … substitute the evidence that they need.”

The murder of a family dog and his wife in Islandton, South Carolina: A stranger-than-fiction account of the Murdaugh family boat accident

The video focuses on one of their dogs and appears to have been recorded at the kennels at their family home in Islandton. In the background, three different voices can be heard in the footage, and family friends identified those voices as that of Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh.

The prosecution used that video to try to prove his sleep claims, as well as testify about how long he had been with his mother.

State prosecutors tried to explain to the public why Murdaugh would slaughter his wife and son.

Alex Murdaugh’s defense team is making its final bid to prevent him from spending decades in prison, delivering their closing argument in the trial of the disbarred South Carolina attorney charged in the murders of his wife and son.

The defense called their first witness,Buster Murdaugh. He is expected to be followed by an accident reconstructionist who will likely focus on investigators’ findings at the killing scene, including how the it was treated and what conclusions were drawn as a result, a source familiar with the case previously told CNN.

The stranger-than-fiction case has brought national attention – including Netflix and HBO Max documentaries – on Alex Murdaugh, the former personal injury attorney and member of a dynastic family in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, where his father, grandfather and great-grandfather served as the local prosecutor consecutively from 1920 to 2006.

It wouldn’t have hurt to use a narrator for the true-crime docuseries, but the producers allowed the group of friends who were swept up in the tragic boat accident to tell their story.

Those who were on board speak of Paul, who often drank excessively, driving the boat, and the Murdaugh family – thanks to patriarch Alex, a well-connected South Carolina attorney – allegedly using its wealth and influence over the authorities to protect him.

As the details gradually come out, there are other inconsistencies and allegations about occasions where the Murdaughs escaped scrutiny in the face of suspicious events, including the death of a housekeeper and nanny, Gloria Satterfield, who, they claimed, was seriously injured when the family dog caused her to fall down a flight of stairs.

He told the prosecutor that he shouldn’t have done what he did and that he stole millions of dollars from his clients and law firm.

“I admit, candidly, in all of these cases, Mr. Waters, that I took money that was not mine, and I shouldn’t have done it,” Murdaugh said in response to prosecutor Creighton Waters during the prosecution’s cross-examination.

Murdaugh, of Islandton, died of a heart attack in 2005, and his son, Paul, died at the same hospital

After visiting his mother in Islandton, Murdaugh went back to the house he thought Margaret and Paul were at, because they weren’t there.

While on the phone, Murdaugh tried to tend to Paul and Maggie, going back and forth between them. Paul’s injuries were particularly bad, Murdaugh said, and he recalled trying to check his son’s body for a pulse and trying to turn him over.

“I don’t know why I tried to turn him over,” an emotional Murdaugh said. “I mean, my boy’s laying face down. He has done it the same way as before. His head was not different from what he was. His brain was laying on the sidewalk. I was not aware of what to do.

Referring to cell phone data and other evidence from the night of the slayings, Waters sought to poke holes in Murdaugh’s account of his whereabouts at the time.

In the weeks leading to the deaths of his wife and son, Murdaugh took more than 2,000 milligrams of the pain killer every day. Opioids, he testified, gave him energy and made “whatever I was doing … more interesting.”

Murdaugh, who says he is now drug-free, testified he took the high doses in part to avoid the symptoms of withdrawal, which can include vomiting, dizziness, depression and confusion.

A South Carolina attorney general investigates the Murdaugh family’s boat crash at a bridge on February 24, killing 19-year-old Mallory Beach

Three generations of the Murdaugh family held power in the prosecutor’s office in South Carolina over the course of 87 years.

The family has now been connected to a terrible tragedy with allegations of corruption and a murder-for-hire plot to get more life insurance.

Duffie Stone is the first non-Murdaugh to serve in the position of 14th Circuit Solicitor. He was elected four times, most recently in 2020, according to the website.

June 3: South Carolina law enforcement officials announce they sought and received permission from the family of Gloria Satterfield, Murdaugh’s housekeeper, to exhume her remains.

A boat crashes at a bridge near Parris Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, on February 24, killing 19-year-old Mallory Beach, according to the South Carolina Attorney General in documents obtained by CNN.

Paul Murdaugh is indicted in April on charges of boating under the influence (BUI) causing great bodily harm and causing death in connection to the crash, court records show. He pleads not guilty.

July 22: SLED releases redacted audio of Alex Murdaugh’s 911 call the night of the killings. The distraught Murdaugh told the dispatchers his wife and son were not breathing and were on the ground.

September 10: A family spokesperson issues a statement about Alex Murdaugh’s shooting that indicates the injury was more serious than a superficial wound. The spokesperson also says an unknown person was to blame.

The SLED is looking into the death of Gloria Satterfield, the family’s maid, who died in February of last year.

Stone, the solicitor, writes a letter to South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson saying he intends to recuse himself from the Murdaugh death investigations, CNN affiliate WCSC-TV reports.

Alex Murdaugh, Gloria Satterfield, and a Survivor of the 2018 Boat Accidents: A U.S. Attorney’s Dilemma

On September 4, 2021, nearly three months after the killings, Murdaugh reported he was shot alongside a road and was treated for a “superficial gunshot wound to the head,” authorities said.

Murdaugh’s attorney, Dick Harpootlian, tells WCSC that he is leaving the law firm and going to rehab. Murdaugh’s other attorney, Jim Griffin, says his client has an opioid addiction.

“Alex pulled over after seeing a low tire indicator light. A male driver in a blue pickup asked him if he had car troubles, as soon as Alex replied, he was shot,” the statement said.

September 22: Connor Cook, a survivor of the 2019 boat crash, files a lawsuit against Murdaugh claiming the former attorney attempted to orchestrate a campaign to falsely blame him for the crash. Cook also alleges that Murdaugh should have been aware that his underage son, Paul, had alcohol issues and should not have been allowed to use his boat.

October 14: After being released from a drug rehabilitation center, Alex Murdaugh is arrested in Orlando, Florida, on suspicion of misappropriating settlement funds in connection with Gloria Satterfield’s 2018 death, authorities said.

The former law firm of Alex Murdaugh has accused him of converting firm and client money to his own use.

June 28: Murdaugh and former acquaintance Curtis Smith are indicted on two counts of criminal conspiracy by a state grand jury, according to the attorney general. The indictment says Murdaugh gave Smith about two million dollars over a number of years.

Four counts of trust with fraudulent intent, seven counts of obtaining signature or property by false pretenses, and seven counts of money laundering are among the counts in the indictment.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/15/us/murdaugh-family-deaths-timeline/index.html

The Murdaugh-Waters Coroner Investigated Satterfield’s Decay to a Man in a Bootstrap

December 14th Murdaugh agrees to a $4.3 million settlement with the family of Gloria Satterfield, his former housekeeper, according to family attorney Eric Bland.

The criminal investigation into Satterfield’s death was started by the state law enforcement division after a coroner requested an exhumation.

An autopsy was not done for the decedent and he didn’t mention it to the Coroner. On the death certificate the manner of death was ruled ‘Natural,’ which is inconsistent with injuries sustained in a trip and fall accident,” the coroner’s request to the law enforcement division said.

After about six hours of testimony Friday – which included a prosecutor grilling the former disgraced South Carolina attorney over lies, drug use and details in the grisly case – the court adjourned for the weekend and is set to resume Monday morning.

“And you disagree to my characterization that you’ve got a photographic memory about the details that have to fit now that you know … these facts but you’re fuzzy on the other stuff that complicates that? You do not agree with that?

At one point on Friday, Waters asked Murdaugh whether the dogs at the kennels on his property – where the killings took place – were barking when he was there with his wife and son.

“I know what I wasn’t doing, Mr. Waters, and what I wasn’t doing is doing anything, as I believe you’ve implied, that I was cleaning off or … washing off guns or putting guns in a raincoat. And I can promise you that I wasn’t doing any of that,” Murdaugh said.

He said that he did not invent any alibis because he didn’t hurt his wife or child. I know for a fact that I never had an alibi.

He testified that people hated Paul Murdaugh after seeing him on June 7. They had anger in their hearts.

Murdaugh testified he did not believe anyone involved in the 2019 wreck had anything to do with the murders. But he said he suspected the killer was someone who had heard about what happened.

The defendant admitted that he lied to his law partners, family, and friends, either directly or unintentionally.

Murdaugh’s defense attorney started questioning him after a brief break after Waters finished his cross examination. Griffin ended questioning shortly after and the court adjourned for the day.

Murdaugh’s actions during a trial that caused him to lie to the police, and why he should not have to testify

“They are real people. They are good people. Murdaugh said that many of the people he cared for were people he did wrong by.

“Whether that came from me looking them in the eye or not, I can’t answer that. The people I stole money from, the ones that trusted me the most, looked to every single client I looked at in the eye.

The individual has fooled everyone and they thought he was close to them. “He fooled Maggie and Paul, too, and they paid for it with their lives. Don’t let him fool you as well.

He said various factors contributed to his paranoid thinking which led to his decision to lie to the police, including his suspicions of SLED and questions about his relationship with his wife and son. The prosecution played clips from the police interview.

Legal experts told CNN that having Murdaugh testify was likely a calculated risk by the defense. While many attorneys don’t like to put their clients on the stand because it’s hard to predict what questions prosecutors will ask and how the jury will perceive the accused, Murdaugh was the prime defendant for the job, experts said.

Mark Eiglarsh, a former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney, said that if you wanted someone to testify you should have a lawyer with 20 years of courtroom experience. It takes just one juror to connect with him.

The attorneys told CNN that it was practically impossible for Murdaugh to refuse to testify.

“It’s the million dollar question that everybody wanted to know: why did you lie that you were not at the kennels? His criminal defense attorney said he had to give an explanation. “That’s what I think is the main reason why the criminal defense attorney in this case made a calculated decision to put him on the stand.”

Putting it all out on the line and coming clean, as Murdaugh appeared to do during the trial by sharing details about his drug addiction and admitting to a slew of financial crimes, may have been an attempt by his defense to garner sympathy from jurors, legal experts said.

He was trying to wrestle with his addiction, which may have made him paranoid and caused him to lie to them, to show that he had a problem.

The jury might believe that he went off into a paranoid frenzy and did kill his own family because he was addled by the addiction. It is a double-edged sword.

The prosecutors are saying that he can not be trusted and he is a liar, which is something that a criminal defense attorney and CNN Legal analyst said is not a good sign.

“I think it actually went very well for the defendant and rather poorly for the prosecutor,” Wu said. “Murdaugh (was) a tough witness, I mean he’s a skilled lawyer himself. He really changed the whole tempo of this from a cross (examination), where the person doing the cross should be controlling him, into one where he was able to control the pace.”

Jessica Kaufman, a law professor at the Cardozo School of Law, said that one of the biggest sticking points in the trial is whether or not the accused would actually commit the crime. Would he actually murder his wife and son despite his other crimes?

A forensic expert and his former legal partner were among the witnesses called by Murdaugh’s attorneys.

Timothy Palmbach, a former professor of forensic science at the University of New Haven, was hired by Alex Murdaugh’s defense to review the case and analyze the crime scene.

“It’s structurally difficult for the shooter to have two long (weapons) and no practical reason for that to happen,” he testified. “Add that to what I believe happened to the shooter who fired first with the shotgun, and I think it tips in favor of the probability of two shooters.”

He pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and two weapons charges in the shooting deaths of two dogs at their family estate in Islandton, South Carolina. There are 99 alleged financial crimes he faces that will be decided at a future date.

Defendant John Murdaugh in the June 7, 2021, Explosive Massacre of a Young Man with Drug Dependent Excess and a Minor Involved Crime Scene

The prosecution featured 61 witnesses over three weeks of testimony, and intends to get testimony from 4 or 5 rebuttal witnesses on Tuesday. Jurors will be allowed to visit the family’s estate after rebuttal witnesses, but prior to closing arguments.

The 14th and final defense witness was the defendant’s brother John Marvin Murdaugh, who testified in emotional terms that law enforcement released the crime scene back to the family without cleaning up Paul Murdaugh’s remains.

He said that the piece of Paul’s skull was the size of a baseball. “It just infuriated me that this young man had been murdered and there was still his remains there.”

The defense has argued that the crime scene was not protected or handled right, as well as that the investigation was shoddy. One witness, Mark Ball, one of Murdaugh’s former law firm colleagues, testified no barricades or police tape were set up to block several visitors from entering the property the night of the killings.

In particular, they have tried to prove he was at the crime scene that night, worked to show he lied to investigators and painted a picture of a fraudster who killed his wife and son in a desperate bid to distract the investigations into his actions.

That shooting was followed by a stint in rehab for drug addiction, dozens of allegations of financial crimes, his disbarment and, ultimately, the murder charges.

The state plans to call four or five witnesses to testify on issues raised by the defense, and hopes to finish with all of them by the end of the Tuesday, prosecutor Creighton Waters said.

The defense rested its case Monday after calling 14 witnesses, including Murdaugh, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and two weapons charges in the June 7, 2021, killings.

Murdaugh lied about his death when he shot himself and killed his wife, Maggie, and two of his children, Alex, and Maggie, told police

Murdaugh promised to hurt himself if he were under the pressure that was being talked about, without a doubt.

Prosecutors have used a video filmed at the dog kennels shortly before authorities say the killings took place to argue Murdaugh was at the scene just minutes before the fatal shootings.

Harvey testified that rigor mortis had not yet set in, and that it usually starts developing one to three hours after death.

Jonathan Eisenstat, a forensic pathologist, testified on Monday that he does not believe in armpit temperature checks being valid ways to determine time of death.

When arriving on scene, someone should first check the ambient temperature of the area where the body was found, and then take a rectal temperature to get as close to a core body temperature as possible.

Harvey was the one who testified that he didn’t take rectal temperatures. During cross examination, prosecutors asked if the coroner had an idea of when the killings occurred since he did not take exact temperatures.

“The evidence that you’ve heard shows that the defendant became so addicted and so dependent on the velocity of money that the millions of dollars in legal fees that he was receiving was not enough and so he started to steal,” Waters said.

Primarily using phone forensics, Waters reconstructed a timeline of the prosecution’s version of events before, during and after the murders by the kennels at Moselle.

Everything changed when that happened. Why did it change everything? There is an opportunity. Being at the scene of the crime when the murders occurred,” Waters said. The most important thing the defendants could have told law enforcement was lies. ‘When was the last time I saw my wife and child alive?’ Why in the world would an innocent, reasonable father and husband lie about that, and lie about it so early? He didn’t know that (video) was there.”

He added that Alex Murdaugh had this shotgun with him on the night of the killings and that “Maggie’s DNA and blood” were found on the receiver of the gun.

“A family Blackout killed Maggie. It was present just a couple months prior to the murders and it’s gone now. The defendants could not account for the death of a family member.

Murdaugh said that he had paranoia and distrust of the investigators due to his addiction, while police asked about his relationship with his family.

Murdaugh’s murder spree in June 2017: Evidence from the scene and the main house of a murder scene is “preposterous”

“You still told the same lie, and all those reasons that you just gave this jury about the most important part of your testimony was a lie too,” Waters said.

His defense team has sought to sow doubt about the police and forensic teams work because they did not preserve evidence from the crime scene and the main house.

Vehicles and people were allowed on the Moselle grounds in the hours after the killings. And on a night with misting rain and drizzle, Paul and Maggie’s bodies were covered by sheets rather than tarps.

“People just kept piling in, just more and more people kept showing up,” said Mark Ball, Murdaugh’s former law partner. He said that he saw water dripping on Paul’s body and first responders were walking around inside a taped off area.

He said his group was told to go into the main house despite Ball’s apprehension that there could be part of the crime scene. He said that some of them have taken care of the house.

“He said his No. 1 goal was clearing Paul’s name,” Proctor said of Murdaugh, her voice cracking. I thought it was strange because my top priority was to find out who killed my sister and Paul.

The Murdaughs originally had two custom Blackout rifles, given to Paul and his brother, Buster, as Christmas presents. Paul’s was apparently stolen in 2017, and a replacement was bought; that newer gun has not been found.

Prosecutors also rejected the idea that Murdaugh was too tall to have fired the shots that killed Paul, citing numerous variables such as the likely chaos at the scene and the potential of firing from a kneeling position.

The defense’s theory that the shooting had to be shorter than Murdaugh’s was “preposterous” according to forensic expert Kenneth Kinsey.

The outfit matches testimony from Turrubiate-Simpson, the housekeeper, who even recalled fixing Murdaugh’s collar that morning. She talked to her employer two months after the murders.

Early in the evening of June 7, his phone seemed to be sitting immobile at the main house. But cellphone data then shows Murdaugh in a burst of activity starting at 9:02 p.m., when he took 283 steps in four minutes. The experts say the murders took place in less than two minutes.

What were you not doing? Murdaugh was asked by Waters if he was the prosecutor. The accused man didn’t give details, saying only that he was getting ready to visit his mother, who has Alzheimer’s.

Smith had never seen Murdaugh visit his parents at 6:30 in the morning. She said that he was carrying a blue tarp that looked like something was inside when he did it one day after the shootings.

Murdaugh denied doing that. It was speculated that a blue raincoat found at the house had been wrapped around a gun that was recently fired.

Paralegal Annette Griswold described Murdaugh as a “Tasmanian devil” who showed up late for work and was all over the place. Griswold discovered missing settlement fees in the early 21st century. She assumed that Murdaugh had left them behind. She told the CFO, Jeanne Seckinger, that she was suspicious.

When Seckinger confronted Murdaugh about the missing money, she said he shot her a dirty look that she had never seen before.

In the months that followed the murders, Griswold said she received a check from her boss that said he was swindling money. She said that it felt like she was beside herself. He’d been lying the whole time.

Every single prosecutor needs to deal with the two things. CNN senior legal analyst Laura Coates said she was talking about motive and opportunity. Here is what the legal experts said about the case.

“I think the fact that he waited until there was testimony in this courtroom from multiple people, and then said, ‘Oh, yes, I was there and I was paranoid,’ really, I think, creates a credibility gap,” said Hatchett, who has represented the family of Philando Castile, a Black man fatally shot by police in 2016.

Hatchett said that it could taint his other testimony, even if he’s credible or not.

Mark O’Mara is a criminal defense lawyer who defended the man who shot and killed Martin.

“I think this kennel video is the most important piece of evidence in this case for the prosecution because it explodes the big lie,” said Loni Coombs, a former Los Angeles County prosecutor. “I’m talking about the big lie of his alibi, where he (initially) said, ‘I was not there at the crime scene.’”

“As my addiction evolved over time, I would get in these situations or circumstances where I would get paranoid thinking,” Murdaugh said on the stand. “On June the 7th, I wasn’t thinking clearly. I don’t think I was capable of reason. And I lied about being down there.”

The Affair Trial in the Case of Anomalous Subdisposition of an Addiction Attorney to Opioid Cosmic Rays

CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, said on wednesday night that patients begin at 10 to 20 milligrams a few times a day. He said it’s possible to take 2,000 ounces of water a day.

Increasing tolerance to drugs can be built up gradually. This is not unheard of,” Gupta said. People can increase the dose over time. It is “tough to know” what the impact of opioid addiction would have on a specific person’s behavior, Gupta added.

“People can start to develop significant tolerance to the point where they’re no longer taking the medication to get high, to develop euphoria, but rather just to feel normal and not have withdrawal,” Gupta said.

The prosecution will respond after the defense presents its closing argument. Judge Clifton Newman is then expected to give final instructions to the jury, and charge them with coming to a verdict.

As Thursday’s court session began, Judge Clifton Newman announced that a juror is being replaced on the panel. The court received a complaint that the juror had improper conversations with people who weren’t involved in the case.

The woman was thanked for her attentive and positive attitude throughout the case by Newman. She will be replaced so the integrity of the trial can be maintained.

A light moment then erupted shortly before the juror left, as she said she needed her purse from the other room — along with a dozen eggs that another juror had brought in for everyone on the panel.

The Defense of Murdaugh in the Trial of a Disbarred South Carolina Attorney for the Murders of his Wives and Sons

The defense in the trial of the disbarred South Carolina attorney charged in the murders of his wife and son made a final bid to prevent him from spending the rest of his life in prison.

Murdaugh kept a stony face while the verdicts were read. His only remaining son, Buster Murdaugh, could be seen wiping tears from his eyes. Murdaugh appeared to mouth “I love you” to Buster as he was being placed in handcuffs.

There were 70 witnesses at the trial, and the verdict came so quickly that I was surprised, according to trial attorneys and legal analysts.

I find it offensive that the defense is saying law enforcement didn’t do their job while he isn’t saying he was at the kennels.

Murdaugh is currently facing nearly a hundred charges stemming from his alleged financial crimes, including defrauding his clients, former law firm and the government of about $9 million.

He said the agency failed to investigate hair found in Murdaugh’s wife’s hand, take fingerprint evidence, examine footwear and tire impressions, or test DNA on the victims’ clothes.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/02/us/alex-murdaugh-trial-defense-closings-thursday/index.html

Murdaugh’s Ex-Muse Trial Verdict: The Case for a Killing Psyche, the Addicts Lying, and the Clifton Newman

That is what addicts do. The Addicts lie, said Griffin. “He lied because he had a closet full of skeletons, and he didn’t want any more scrutiny on him.”

Jurors deliberated for about three hours before convicting him on two counts of murder and two counts of using a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. As the verdicts were read, Murdaugh did not show any emotion.

A prosecutor said after the verdict that justice was done. It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or people think you have. It doesn’t matter how prominent you are. If you break the law, if you murder, then justice will be done in South Carolina.

Judge Clifton Newman described the evidence of guilt in the case against Murdaugh as “overwhelming” and denied a request from the defense to declare a mistrial.

The judge’s comments concluded the six-week trial, which captivated South Carolina — and the nation. Live broadcasts of the trial, true crime podcast and a docuseries were available in media coverage.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/02/1160581579/alex-murdaugh-murder-trial-verdict

The Murdaugh Trial: When Do SLEDs Come to Their Rescue? “Everything goes horrendous” after the grisly murders, and when does he tells them he is innocent

The once influential lawyer lied to those close to him when he stole millions of dollars from his colleagues and clients, and fooled his wife and son as his financial pressures were mounting, according to prosecutors.

Griffin began his statement with an overview of the criminal legal system, comparing the trial to an instant-replay review in college football. He told the jury that despite the charges against the man, the call on the field is that he is innocent. It’s the prosecution’s job, he added, to prove Murdaugh’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

Had the SLED done a good job of gathering evidence, Murdaugh would not have been on the list of potential suspects.

“Unless we find somebody else, it’s gonna be Alex,” Griffin said, giving his version of investigators’ thinking. Saying his client’s opioid habit made him “an easy target for SLED,” Griffin added. They began making up evidence against Alex.

The SLED took saliva from Alex’s clothes but didn’t take saliva from Paul’s or Maggie’s clothes. Once investigators seized on the idea that tests showed high-velocity blood spatter on Alex Murdaugh’s T-shirt, he added, they refused to dismiss that idea and pursued it “with vengeance.”

But when the state was faced with mixed results and questions over tests of Murdaugh’s shirt, Griffin said, they embraced a “Mr. Clean theory,” which purported that Murdaugh committed the grisly murders, quickly washed himself off with a hose and got into a golf cart “butt-naked, I guess,” to drive back to the house, before leaving to visit his mother.

The state never explained if the hair tests were done on Maggie, as he claimed, or if they were done on hair in her own hands. He also faulted the way Maggie’s phone was secured after it was found on June 8, accusing investigators of not preventing the device from continuously pinging GPS locations — which, he said, eventually overwrote data from the night of the murders.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/02/1160581579/alex-murdaugh-murder-trial-verdict

A South Carolina jury found a prominent attorney in the case of Murdaugh’s killing of his wife and son, Maggie, Paul, in June 2021

“That’s what’s real, not the defense’s efforts to undermine them”, he told the jury as he urged them to focus on the facts. He repeatedly invoked “credibility and common sense.”

Meadors mocked the defense’s theory about what happened that night. If Murdaugh did not kill his wife and son, someone would need to know exactly when he was leaving the dog lodge and guns would be there to kill him in a execution-style killing.

South Carolina law doesn’t require the state to prove premeditation in a murder case. He believes nobody else could’ve done it and that the reason for Murdaugh’s murder is proven.

“This is an episode of Columbo, except this is real,” Meadors said, adding that just like the killers in that TV detective show, Murdaugh made crucial mistakes.

The video that shows Alex and Maggie talking about how their dog stole a chicken in his mouth was shot by Paul, who had the insurance on him.

When Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes put real pressure on him, he showed he loved himself more. And Murdaugh did whatever he needed to protect himself, he added.

There have been overblown pressures on his client. When Murdaugh did finally feel pressure, the attorney added, he took steps to end his own life in September, asking his cousin to shoot him.

Who is he? A South Carolina jury on Thursday evening found the prominent attorney guilty in the deaths of his wife and son, Maggie and Paul, who were killed in June 2021.

What Happened to the Murders, and Why Does It Matter? Neal Baer: The Case of Special Victims Unit

What is the big deal? There are real and painful implications to the murders. It also became a story that gripped people everywhere, in part because of the wide platform it received.

Why is this story so important to America? To explore this question, we asked Neal Baer, a former long-running executive producer on the enormously successful crime show, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. In that role he consulted with experts and researchers to understand the issues that were worrying people, and what they wanted to understand from this genre. This is what he’s saying.

In this case, the victims are dead, but we still want to seek some kind of justice. These cases of human behavior are not the same behavior we experience in our own lives. We’re drawn to these kinds of people and what makes them tick. What did they do to do it?

It’s a topic of interest in all of us. And I think that’s because, as people, we’re interested in other people’s behavior, and the more far fetched it seems, or the more grandiose or scary, the more we’re drawn to it, because I think there’s parts of us that may identify with those characters, when we get enraged, or we feel betrayed, yet, hopefully, we won’t go as far as these characters.

There’s a fascination with these characters because maybe we see ourselves in them. we may see ourselves being so frightened, so forced to make some decisions, so trapped, that we don’t know what we would do. In my opinion, most of us wouldn’t go so far as to kill our families. We’ve been pushed into the corner so we can identify with it.

I think people like to have endings and they like to have justice. I think that’s been a big, big selling point for Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, that we get the bad guys. And there aren’t too many podcasts where the bad guy gets away, and we never find them. Those are very rare.

I do think that there is probably a desensitization that happens when we see so much crime, maybe it makes us feel in some way safer, that we can be listening to it within the safety of our own homes. We don’t know who’s carrying a gun in many places now in the United States. So it’s a very scary place to be.

It is kind of a catch-22, we are getting more and more of it, because I think there is more fear and we look to programs to give us some hope, and yet, they probably promote more fear.