Murdaugh’s double murder trial: South Carolina attorney accused of killing his wife and son challenged by the prosecutor

Disgraced At his double murder trial on Friday, Alex Murdaugh, a lawyer from South Carolina, was asked a lot of questions about what he did the night his wife and son were killed. The prosecutor pointed out inconsistencies in his memory.

Murdaugh went back to the stand the next day to defend himself. The day before, he had told the court for the first time that he was at the kennels where his wife and son were shot just before they died. During cross-examination, prosecutor Creighton Waters questioned Murdaugh about what happened at the kennels on the evening of June 7, 2021, according to what he called the once-famous lawyer’s “new story.”

Waters asked Murdaugh if he meant what he said to the jury on Thursday, which was that he tried to help police find the killers.

“Other than telling them I was going to the kennels when I wasn’t, I was helpful in every way,” Murdaugh said.

“Very helpful, except for the fact that you were at the murder scene with the victims just minutes before they died, which may be the most important thing of all,” Waters said

Murdaugh said that he had never been at the kennels for 20 months. But after more than a year, state agents broke into his son’s iPhone and found a video with Alex Murdaugh’s voice less than five minutes before the victims stopped using their phones. Prosecutors think they were shot.

Murdaugh, who is 54 years old, is accused of killing his wife, Maggie, who was 52, and their son, Paul, who was 22. He has always denied any involvement. If he is found guilty, he could go to prison for 30 years to life

Waters ended his cross-examination by naming about 40 people, starting with Maggie and Paul Murdaugh and going through his family, friends, law partners, clients, and police. Alex Murdaugh agreed with most of what he said when he was asked if he had lied to them.

“And you want this jury to believe a story you made up to fit the evidence you presented yesterday, after they’ve heard testimony for a whole trial?” Waters said so.

The prosecutor then showed a video from the first officer’s body camera who came to the scene of the shooting. Murdaugh said that he hadn’t seen his wife and son for 45 minutes before he left his house. Their bodies were still there.

Waters also asked Murdaugh for more information about what happened during the kennel visit. She pointed out that investigators didn’t know any of this before Thursday, when he admitted it all in court.

Timing, including data from cellphones and cars, is a key part. The video ended just before 8:46 p.m., and about three minutes later, both Paul and Maggie Murdaugh stopped using their phones.

Murdaugh couldn’t remember how long he’d been at the kennels, if he’d gotten blood on his hands when he took a dead chicken out of a dog’s mouth, or what he’d say to his son and wife for the last time.

Murdaugh said, “There would have been some talking

Waters said that it seemed like Murdaugh remembered many details when they were important, but not when they could get him in trouble.

“You don’t agree with my assessment that you have a photographic memory for the details that have to fit now that you know these facts, but you don’t remember the other things that make that hard to do?” Waters said.

For the first time, Murdaugh said that the killings were caused by anger directed at his son on social media. Paul Murdaugh was charged with boating while drunk after he was in a boat accident that killed a teen. When the first police officers asked him if he had any ideas about who might have done it, he told them about the boat crash.

Murdaugh said that nasty “half-truths, half-reports, half-statements, and partial information” about his son were spread online.

Alex Murdaugh said, “I thought then and still think now that the wrong person saw and read that, because I know for sure that the person or people who did what I saw on June 7th hated Paul Murdaugh and were angry.”

Waters told Murdaugh that his explanation didn’t make sense and asked if he was telling the jury that his wife and son were killed by random vigilantes who knew “they would be at the kennels alone on June 7, knew that you wouldn’t be there, but only between the hours of 8:49 and 9:02”

“There are a lot of things in there, Mr. Waters, and I don’t agree with all of them, but I do agree with some of them,” Murdaugh said

Murdaugh said on Friday that after his short visit to the kennels, he took a golf cart back to his family’s house about 1,150 feet (350 meters) away, laid down for a few minutes, and then got up to get ready to go see his sick mother at 9:02 p.m. This time was confirmed by the step data on his cellphone, which he didn’t bring with him to the kennels.

Waters asked Murdaugh if a flurry of steps and a series of unanswered phone calls he started making to his wife and son at 9:02 p.m., after his phone hadn’t been used for almost an hour, was a way a lawyer and volunteer prosecutor could start making up a story to show he couldn’t be the killer.

“I never made up an alibi because I didn’t want to hurt my wife and child and I didn’t want to hurt them.

Prosecutors say Murdaugh killed his wife and son to get people to feel sorry for him and buy him time because he was about to be caught doing bad things with money. He has said during his testimony that he stole from clients.

Murdaugh is also accused of about 100 other crimes, like stealing from clients and not paying taxes. He is being held without bail, so even if he is found not guilty of the killings, he will not be free to go. Murdaugh would likely spend decades in prison if he was found guilty of most or all of these financial crimes.