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[Breaking news update at 10:45 a.m. ET]
Alex Murdaugh took the stand to testify in his double murder trial Thursday morning, as he and his protection attorneys work to persuade a jury he’s harmless in the June 2021 killings of his spouse Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh and 22-year-old son Paul Murdaugh.
[Previous story, published at 10:19 a.m. ET]
Alex Murdaugh will testify in his double murder trial, he advised the choose Thursday, as he and his attorneys work to persuade a jury he’s harmless in the June 2021 killings of his spouse Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh and 22-year-old son Paul Murdaugh.
“I am going to testify,” Murdaugh advised Judge Clifton Newman when requested if he had decided on taking the stand. “I want to testify.”
Murdaugh introduced his choice quickly after his protection attorneys once more requested the choose to restrict the scope of questioning Murdaugh would face below cross-examination, particularly in regard to his alleged monetary crimes, which the state has pointed to as a potential motive for the killings.
Newman denied the request, echoing his choice a day prior when he dominated not to subject a blanket order limiting the state’s questions, saying it was “unheard of to me.”
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Murdaugh has pleaded not responsible to two counts of murder and two weapons expenses in the killings of his wife son at the household’s property in Islandton, South Carolina.
Prosecutors accuse Murdaugh of killing his spouse and son to distract from an array of monetary misconduct allegations towards him, whereas his protection attorneys argue he’s a caring father who has been wrongly accused after a mishandled investigation.
The now-disbarred lawyer is individually going through 99 expenses stemming from these alleged monetary schemes, together with cash laundering, insurance coverage fraud and forgery.
The choose previously ruled to permit prosecutors to current proof associated to Murdaugh’s alleged monetary crimes, which the protection has argued are irrelevant to the murder case.
The state, nonetheless, contends the purported misconduct was about to be revealed at the time of the killings and supplied Murdaugh with a motive to fatally shoot his spouse and son by the household’s canine kennels that evening.
Prosecutors rested their case final week after calling greater than 60 witnesses to the stand. In the absence of direct DNA or eyewitness proof connecting Murdaugh to the killings, they have attempted to show Murdaugh lied to investigators and was at the scene simply minutes earlier than the deadly shootings.
Murdaugh has repeatedly denied being at the scene for the deadly shootings. He advised investigators he had gone to go to his mom that night and located the our bodies by the kennels when he returned residence later that evening.
So far, the protection has known as witnesses together with the county coroner, one among Murdaugh’s former regulation companions, forensics consultants and his surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, in their effort to reveal flaws in the investigation and paint Murdaugh as shocked and devastated on the evening of the deadly shootings.
Buster Murdaugh testified that his father was “destroyed” by the killings of Paul and Maggie.
“He was heartbroken. I walked in the door and saw him, gave him a hug,” he stated of seeing his father in the hours after studying of the deaths of his brother and mom. Alex Murdaugh was “just broken down,” Buster stated, including his father was crying and couldn’t actually converse.
Buster’s testimony was supposed to undermine statements made by a state witness who beforehand testified he believed Alex Murdaugh had made an inadvertent confession to investigators.
The witness, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Special Agent Jeff Croft, stated he believed Murdaugh stated “I did him so bad” in reference to Paul’s physique throughout an emotional interview with investigators on June 10, 2021.
The protection has argued Murdaugh truly stated, “They did him so bad” – a declare Buster supported. The son stated he heard his father use the phrase greater than as soon as on the evening of the killings.
Murdaugh’s former regulation accomplice, Mark Ball, additionally supported that interpretation in his testimony. He stated Alex Murdaugh was “devastated” the evening of the killings and advised Ball, “Look at what they did. Look at what they did to them.”
Ball additionally testified that Murdaugh repeatedly stated he had not been at the kennels earlier than discovering the our bodies that evening. But he stated he now thinks that isn’t true after listening to Murdaugh’s voice in the background of a video that was filmed on Paul’s telephone minutes earlier than the state says the killings occurred.
In the video, which seems to have been taken at the kennels, three voices could be heard in the background, which household pals have testified belong to Alex, Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.
Ball stated he has “no doubt” it’s Alex Murdaugh’s voice that’s heard in the footage. At least 9 witnesses have recognized Murdaugh’s voice on the video, recorded at the scene at 8:44 p.m., round the time of the shootings.
The protection additionally used Ball’s testimony to help their argument the investigation and crime scene had been mishandled. When Ball arrived at the Murdaugh’s residence the evening of the killings, he testified, there have been no barricades or police tape to forestall folks from coming into the property and strolling round the scene.
He stated the coroner, citing directions from South Carolina Law Enforcement Division investigators, requested folks to collect inside the household’s home, the place folks started cleansing up. This involved Ball, who frightened whether or not it was protected and whether or not the home was a part of the crime scene, questioning if their presence there may impede the investigation.
Ball additionally recalled watching the rain that was falling that night drip onto Paul’s physique, which was lined by a sheet, and pool round it. Maggie’s physique was lined and below a tent, he stated.
When he returned to the property the subsequent day – after he’d been advised investigators had launched the scene, he stated – he seemed into the feed room the place Paul was shot and noticed “a piece of Paul’s skull about the size of a baseball laying there,” he stated. “It just infuriated me that this young man had been murdered and there was still his remains there.”
Correction: An earlier model of this story misspelled Alex Murdaugh’s final identify.