Alex Murdaugh has been convicted of killing his spouse and son. Regardless of the dearth of direct proof, the prosecution spent weeks outlining how Murdaugh had the motive, means and opportunity to commit the murders.
Their case hinged on circumstantial proof: proving Murdaugh was on the crime scene that night time and that he lied to investigators, and portray him as a fraudster who killed his household in a determined bid to distract the investigations into his actions.
Motive
A collection of witnesses have accused Murdaugh of in depth monetary wrongdoing at his namesake regulation agency and offered proof that he lied to just about everybody round him in a yearslong fraud. A “day of reckoning” was coming from a number of totally different angles, so he killed his household to distract and delay these monetary investigations, the prosecution argued.
Two investigations particularly that might have uncovered Murdaugh’s wrongdoing had been coming to a head on the time of the killings.
For one, the chief financial officer of his law firm testified she had confronted Murdaugh about lacking funds on the morning of June 7, 2021, hours earlier than the killings. After the murders, the interior investigation into the funds took a backseat.
Second, Murdaugh was dealing with a lawsuit from the household of Mallory Seashore, a 19-year-old who was killed in February 2019 when a ship, owned by Murdaugh and allegedly pushed by Paul, crashed. A listening to in that civil case was scheduled for June 10, 2021, and had the potential to disclose his monetary issues, prosecutors argued.
Means
Maggie was killed by a Blackout rifle and Paul was killed by a shotgun, prosecutor Creighton Waters stated, including that each had been household weapons. Testimony from a weapons professional proved that Blackout rifle bullet casings found close to Maggie’s physique matched casings discovered on different components of the household’s property.
Waters famous this weapon went lacking and Murdaugh couldn’t account for it.
Paul Murdaugh was killed by pictures from a shotgun, one in all Paul’s “favourite weapons,” Waters stated. Investigators decided that the 2 shells that killed Paul had “class traits” that had been just like a 12-gauge shotgun. Waters added that Alex Murdaugh had this shotgun with him on the night time of the killings and that “Maggie’s DNA and blood” had been discovered on the receiver of the gun.
Alternative
One of many prosecution’s most compelling pieces of evidence is recorded audio that they are saying locations Murdaugh on the crime scene on the night time of the murders. The video focuses on one in all their canine and seems to have been recorded on the kennels at their household residence in Islandton, South Carolina. Three totally different voices could be heard within the background of the video, and household associates recognized these voices as that of Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh.
A video was filmed on Paul’s cellphone beginning at 8:44 p.m. on June 7, 2021, simply minutes earlier than Paul and Maggie had been shot useless, in accordance with Lt. David Britton Dove, a supervisor within the pc crimes middle on the South Carolina Legislation Enforcement Division.
Murdaugh’s presence there contradicted his authentic declare to investigators that he was not on the kennels that night time, prosecutors stated.
Murdaugh “advised anybody who would hear he was by no means there,” the prosecution stated in opening statements. “The proof will present that he was there. He was on the homicide scene with the 2 victims.”
Murdaugh later admitted to mendacity, testifying throughout the trial that he misled regulation enforcement due to addiction-induced paranoia.
