Prosecutors in a high-profile homicide trial in america have introduced their closing arguments, providing an account of why they imagine Alex Murdaugh, a distinguished determine in his South Carolina group, killed his spouse and son.
Prosecutors described the deaths of Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22, because the calculated act of a determined man seeking to shift consideration from his monetary crimes and opioid habit.
“As all of those pressures have been mounting, the defendant killed Maggie and Paul,” lead prosecutor Creighton Waters stated of Alex Murdaugh, 54.
Chatting with a jury within the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina on Wednesday, Waters alleged that Murdaugh — a now-disbarred lawyer from a robust authorized dynasty — drew on his data of legal instances to execute the crime.
Maggie and Paul Murdaugh have been discovered shot to demise close to the canine kennels on the household’s rural searching lodge on June 7, 2021. Alex Murdaugh has denied any involvement of their deaths.
Elevating a cell phone into the air throughout his closing arguments, Waters referenced a key piece of proof pulled from Paul’s iPhone to color the elder Murdaugh as a serial liar.
Federal investigators labored for greater than a yr to hack into the iPhone, ultimately discovering it contained a video recording that captures Murdaugh’s voice close to the canine kennels minutes earlier than the cellphone grew to become inactive.
Prosecutors allege that’s when the double homicide occurred, although Murdaugh maintains he left earlier than the capturing occurred to go to his mom, who suffers from dementia. In early interviews, Murdaugh initially denied being close to the kennels on the evening of the assault.
“The forensic timeline places him there,” Waters advised the jury on Wednesday. “After an exhaustive investigation, there is just one one that had the motive, who had the means, who had the chance to commit these crimes, and in addition whose responsible conduct after these crimes betrays him.”
The defence will current its closing argument on Thursday. All through the trial, it has sought to spotlight what it thought-about gaps within the prosecution’s arguments and flaws within the general investigation.
The firearms used within the shootings have by no means been recovered, and there’s no DNA linking Murdaugh to the killings, the defence workforce has stated. They argued investigators jumped to conclusions about their consumer with out contemplating different suspects.
All through the trial, defence attorneys have additionally pointed to attainable mismanagement of the crime scene, alleging a failure to correctly mud for fingerprints and insufficient images.
The victims’ our bodies, for example, have been lined in a material sheet fairly than a tarp, which might have picked up fluids or hair, the defence workforce defined. That the sheet was later discarded might imply proof was misplaced with it, they stated.
Earlier than the prosecution’s closing arguments on Wednesday, the jury additionally visited the Murdaugh property to look at the crime scene, on the request of the defence.
Whereas prosecutors objected to the go to on the grounds that the crime scene had modified since 2021, Murdaugh’s attorneys hoped the walk-through – which indicated the gap between the 2 victims’ our bodies – would lead the jury to think about various theories about who perpetrated the shootings.
This week’s closing arguments culminate an almost six-week-long homicide trial in opposition to Murdaugh, which included 800 proof reveals and 75 witnesses, together with the defendant himself.
If convicted, Murdaugh might face a sentence of between 30 years to life. Prosecutors are usually not in search of the demise penalty within the case.
The homicide trial is barely a part of Murdaugh’s ongoing authorized woes. He has additionally been charged with greater than 100 counts of economic crimes and different misdeeds.
Prosecutors in these instances have accused Murdaugh of stealing $7m from his household’s legislation agency and $8.8m in authorized settlements from his purchasers, a lot of whom suffered accidents or had relations killed in accidents.
Murdaugh was initially arrested in October 2021, on felony fees after tens of millions in settlement funds went lacking from his late housekeeper’s household.
The instances in opposition to Murdaugh have introduced nationwide scrutiny to rural South Carolina, the place Murdaugh’s household has held sway for practically a century.
Three generations of Murdaughs — the defendant’s father, grandfather and great-grandfather — have all held the elected place of solicitor for South Carolina’s 14th Circuit, which empowered them to prosecute legal instances throughout 5 counties.
Murdaugh known as emergency companies at about 10:07pm on June 7, 2021, to report the demise of his spouse and youthful son. He claimed to have discovered them after getting back from his mom’s residence.
Investigators stated Maggie Murdaugh died from 4 to 5 rifle pictures, whereas Paul Murdaugh was killed by two shotgun blasts, every with a different-sized spherical.
Alex Murdaugh was charged for his or her deaths practically a yr later, on July 14, 2022.
