Alex Murdaugh Case Coverage: S Carolina Lawyer Stands Lawsuit For Double-Murder Of Married Woman, Son

The 2nd twenty-four hours of the testimony percentage of Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial wrapped up Th at virtually 5:thirty p.thousand. after 6 witnesses took the stand up.

Colleton County Maj. Jason Chapman said he identified pes prints that looked similar they were made byflip flops on Alex Murdaugh’s hunting estate the night of the double murder.

The footprints appeared to get from ane end of the hangar and so turn around together with become back, he said.

The impressions appeared to match the shoesMaggie, 52, was wearing when she was executed.

Her torso was establish close the hangar well-nigh 30 yards from Paul, 22, whose head had been blown off, according to testimony.

Chapman also elaborated on why he found Murdaugh’sbehavior odd that dark.

The major and other deputies were investigating a set up of unknown tire tracks at the criminal offense scene, which appeared to pique Murdaugh’s involvement.

“Everything changed, he began to lookout man us piece of work more than closely, sometimes out of the corner of his eyes,” Chapman said.

On cross-test, defense force lawyer Dick Harpootlian asked whether Murdaugh’s “change in demeanor” could live due to involvement inward evidence that “power point to the killer or killers of his married woman andchild?”

“Could it be? Absolutely, it could live. It was only a change in conduct,” Chapman replied.

Colleton County Maj. Jason Chapman told jurors Th that he found it foreign that Murdaugh kept asking when showtime responders would get in before abruptlyending the 911 call.

“The only thing I thought was odd was he wanted to classify the telephone call,” said Chapman. “It was ‘I need to telephone call my family’ in addition to and then the telephone disconnected.” First responders hadn’t yet arrived.

Murdaugh called 911 at 10:07 p.1000. Juneseven, 2021, to report that his son Paul, 22, in addition to wife, Maggie, had been fatally shot nigh the domestic dog kennels on their holding.

Chapman said that when he pulled upwards to the hunting estate, he wasn’t surely if in that location was an active shooter or a murder-suicide and was alarmed that Murdaugh had indicated on the 911 telephone call that he had gone back to the principal theatre to recollect a gun.

“It’s scary that he believes someone is in that location who he believes hurt them in addition to may come back in addition to injure him,” Chapman said ofhis mindset.

Chapman added that Murdaugh exhibited subtle behaviors that stuck out to him.

“He was emotional, there was distress on his face, I didn’t regard him cry. Not everyone cries, I don’t have an number with that,” Chapman told jurors. “There were times when we got to certain places, sure questions, y’all could consider a deportment alter or trunk shift.”

The major did not elaborate further. He also noted, as ii other witnesses did, that Murdaugh had no visible blood on him.

Murdaugh told the 911 dispatcher that he had touched their bodies to bank check them. Both victims had sustained devastating injuriesin addition to were inwards pools of their ain blood, tissue and encephalon thing.

Barry McRoy, of Colleton County fire together with rescue, testified that Paul in addition to Maggie Murdaugh haddevastating injuries.

“That is the trunk of Paul, and he is laying facedown at the entrance to the utility room at the kennels,” said McRoy, describing a criminal offence scene photograph.”You tin consider at that place is substantial impairment to his head. There’s a lot ofblood together with at that place appears to be his brain down in that location past his pes.”

In some other offense scene photo, McRoy described Maggie’s injuries after she’d been shot at to the lowest degree iv times. “She had a hole inwards her caput to where yous could actually reckon within of her head,” he said.

Duringthe graphic testimony, Murdaugh bowed his head too rocked back and forth inward distress.

McRoy said he didn’t bother checking the pulses of Paul in addition to Maggie because their wounds were clearly “incompatible with life.”

After prosecutors wrapped upwardly their straight exam of McRoy, Murdaugh removed his reading glasses as well as wiped his eyes with a tissue.

McRoy said he had met Murdaugh “on a professional person basis” before encountering him at the scene of the double murder when he had to practice”depositions as well as such with his law firm.”

Prosecutors played Alex Murdaugh’s disturbing 911 calls after he allegedly shot his married woman as well as son.

“I demand the law as well as an ambulanceinstantly,” Murdaugh hysterically tells the dispatcher on the 10:07 p.one thousand. phone call June 7, 2021. “My married woman and kid were shot badly.”

“Neither one of them’s moving,” he says of Paul, 22, together with Maggie 52. Prosecutors have argued that he was faking his grief in addition to daze inward a desperate bid to assay to pivot the murders on someone else.

The dispatcher asks Murdaugh if they shot themselves. “Oh no! Hell no!” he responds.

“I’1000 going dorsum to my theater to get a gun, simply inward case,” Murdaugh tellsthe dispatcher on the phone call. “My son has been threatened for months together with months and months. He’s been hitting several times.”

In response to a enquiry from the dispatcher, Murdaugh indicates that his son reported the alleged assaults.

Murdaugh also says on the call that helast spoke to his wife an hr as well as a half earlier. This item was redacted from the 911 calls that were previously released to the populace, according to the Post in addition to Courier.

Dale Johnson, 54, and Ron Godwin, 42, of South Carolina, drove 3 hours Th on the offset day of testimony inwardsAlex Murdaugh’s double murder trial and caught a glimpse of the jailed homo’s family leaving the courthouse.

Johnson together with Godwin have tracked the fallen patriarch’s instance since his boy, Paul, 22, in addition to his wife, Maggie, 52, were constitute shot to expiry on the family unit’s sprawling huntingestate June 7, 2021.

“We haven’t missed a infinitesimal of it,” said Johnson, who is from Kingstree.

The dyad stared intently at Buster, his girl Brooklynn White, together with Murdaugh’s blood brother, John Marvin, too other family unit members, equally they climbed into an SUV to take them away from theColleton County Courthouse during the lunch suspension.

Godwint was clutching a iv-inch thick binder with colored tabs, which included all the courtroom documents inward the instance together with other stuff.

“I think he’s innocent, they’ll never convicthim,” Johnson told Fox News Digital. “It takes somebody rattling sick inwards my view to kill his married woman in addition to his kid at the same time.”

Johnson, yet, thinks Murdaugh may hold hired someone else to practice it, patch Godwin is still on the fence every bit to the 54-year-former disbarred lawyer’s guilt.

Godwin, Johnson, his married woman too another family unit friend convene weekly around his kitchen isle to discuss the example.

Richard “Buster” Murdaugh Jr., 26, — the alone surviving son of disgraced South Carolina lawyer as well as accused killer Alex Murdaugh, appeared behind his male parent Th morn every bit the elder Murdaugh’s trial entered its 2nd mean solar day.

Buster grew upwardly with his younger blood brother Paul on a sprawling 1,700-acre hunting farm, known every bit Moselle, inwards Islandton, South Carolina.

As of November 2022, Buster lives with Brooklynn White, both 26, and their love golden retriever,Miller, in a small-scale one-bedchamber Hilton Head Island condominium. It’s unclear when Buster together with White began dating — but she accompanied him to the articulation funeral of Paul as well as Maggie, according to a source.

Buster attended University of South Carolina Law Schoolamongst White. He was allegedly kicked out inward his 2nd semester for plagiarism, the Wall Street Journal reported. Alex paid an attorney $threescore,000 to attempt to acquire Buster readmitted, according to FitsNews.

The word site also reported that Buster attended the annual South Carolina Association for Justice convention on Hilton Head in August with his attorney uncle, Randolph “Randy” Murdaugh IV.

Buster was named every bit a defendant inwards the Mallory Beach death adjust for allegedly letting his brother Paul, who was underage, utilisation his ID to buy alcohol for the doomed boating trip.

WALTERSBORO, S.C. – Disbarred South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh was hysterical but dry out-eyed after his married woman and son were shot to decease, according to testimony Thursday at his double murder trial.

Sgt. Daniel Greene, the beginning responder on the scene, said Murdaugh, 54, wasn’t really crying.

“Did you always find whatsoever physical tears?” asked Creighton Waters, Pb prosecutor for the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office.

“I did non,”replied Greene, who was the country’s starting time witness inward the Colleton County Courthouse inward Waltersboro.

Jurors were played Greene’s torso camera footage from June vii, 2021, when he responded to Moselle – the family unit’s sprawling hunting estate, where Paul in addition to Maggie were murdered.

As the graphic footage was played, Murdaugh, who was seated at the defense tabular array, appeared to weep.

Continue reading virtuallyAlex Murdaugh’s trial.

Sgt. Daniel Greene admitted on cross-examination that beginning responders to the double homicide did nonwearable protective gowns or booties to preserve evidence.

“Did they put anything to insulate themselves from contaminating the scene?” asked Alex Murdaugh’s Pb defence lawyer Dick Harpootlian.

“No,” he replied.

He added that it is non the normal process for theColleton County Sheriff’s Office.

Officers freely walked around the scene at Moselle, the sprawling hunting estate where prosecutors sayMurdaugh fatally shot his son, Paul, too his wife, Maggie, June 7, 2021.

Greene also said that he noticed tire tracks but did not brand whatsoever elbow grease to save them as well as they may have been destroyed.

The country next called Corporal Chad McDowell, also of theColleton County Sheriff’s Office, who responded to the grisly scene.

His torso photographic camera footage was played for jurors — but not for spectators.

McDowell tin can live heard on the video saying to other offset responders, “We’ve been asked not to disturb anything. We’ve got SLED on the way.”

The witness said he noticed Paul’s cell on his dorsum steal when he lifted the canvass that was covering his body.

Murdaugh’s commencement statement to an officeholder after his wife together with son were murdered was inwards reference to a 2019 deadly boat crash.

“This is a long storey. My boy was inward a boat wreck. He’s been getting threats,” Murdaugh tin live heard sayinginwards body camera footage played for jurors. “I know that’s what it is.”

Sgt. Daniel Greene, i of the first responder on the scene, said he didn’t enquire Murdaugh anything to elicit the comment.

Prosecutors have argued inwards courtroom papers that Murdaughwas trying to throw off investigators past mentioning the litigation.

Paul was facing criminal charges after he drunkenly slammed his male parent’s boat into a span, killing Mallory Beach too injuring four other friends.

Murdaugh was facing a wrongful expiry lawsuit over the tragic collision.

Prosecutors have got argued that Murdaugh feared that the litigation would forcefulness him to discover his finances together with expose his decades-long corruption schemes.

On Greene’s torso camera footage,Murdaugh sounds hysterical equally he talks to his blood brother, John Marvin Murdaugh, on the telephone.

“Did you e’er detect whatsoever physical tears?” prosecutor Creighton Waters asked Greene.

“I did non.”

On the footage, Murdaugh can live heard telling Greene that he only drove to the Canis familiaris kennels, where Maggie and Paul were shot, twice.

“I came inward here too left ane fourth dimension so I came dorsum,” he says.

But Green said on direct examination it “appeared at that place were more than tracks than butthat.”

Waters argued in opening statements that Murdaugh had lied virtually when he was at the Canis familiaris kennels.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters showed jurors the shotgun that Alex Murdaugh had on him when Sgt. Daniel Greene arrived at Moselle on the dark of the murders.

Murdaugh said he had retrieved the weapon for protection from the main theater after finding Paul together with Maggie dead.

It wasn’t i of the two weapons used inwards the double murder. Prosecutors then began to play Greene’s torso camera footage, which is near 45 minutes long.

The video was non visible to the gallery. Murdaugh looked distraught equally he stared at a covert playing the footage.

“To the left was Paul’s trunk, who was facing downwardly on the ground together with a large puddle of blood around him too a not bad bargain of water,” said Greene, describing the graphic video.

“On the correct would be Maggie’s torsoalso laying face up downward on the ground in a big pool of blood,” he continued.

Greene took Murdaugh’s shotgun and handed it over to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

State prosecutors called their showtime witness Th, Sgt. Daniel Green, with the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office.

He was the commencement officer on the scene after Alex Murdaugh called 911 to study that his married woman together withboy had been shot June vii, 2021, at the family unit’s sprawling hunting estate.

“A male person caller had called together with said he plant his wife and son shot,” Greene said. It took the officer virtually 20 minutes to get to the remote location.

Greene described approaching the victims. “There was a large bargain of blood that had pulled around [Paul’s torso] and the same thing for the female victim,” Greene said adding that there was a lot of brain thing.

The disclosure prompted Murdaugh, wearingreading spectacles, to bow his head too appear to weep at the defense force tabular array.

Greene said the family patriarch seemed upset but appeared to have got no “physical tears.”

Alex Murdaugh, 54, arrived at almost 9 a.thousand. Thursday to the Colleton County Courthouse inWalterboro, South Carolina, for the beginning day of testimony in his double murder trial.

The fallen scion of a local legal dynasty stepped out of a black van wearing a white push downwardly shirt together with carrying his adapt jacket. His boy, Buster, too hisboy’s girlfriend arrived a few minutes subsequently to lookout the proceedings from the gallery.

Murdaugh is accused of gunning downward his 22-yr-onetime boy Paul in addition to his 52-twelvemonth-quondam wife, Maggie, June, seven, 2021.

Testimony is expected to get down with prosecutors playing for jurors a 45-infinitesimal torso camera video from the dark of the killings.

On Wed, a jury of viii men in addition to 4 women was seated in addition to opening statements kicked off.

His defence force lawyer described the graphicinjuries sustained past his son, whose encephalon was severed from his caput.

Dick Harpootlian told jurors that Paul’s head exploded “like a watermelon hitting with a sledgehammer” but his client wasn’t responsible.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters argued that the evidenceagainst Murdaugh is circumstantial but overwhelming.

Murdaugh also faces charges on dozens of fiscal together with drug-related crimes.

TheSouth Carolina approximate presiding over the double murder trial of embattled legal scion Alex Murdaugh has ordered a portrait of the human being’s late grandfathered live removed from within the courtroom.

The portrait depicts Randolph “Buster” Murdaugh Jr.,who served every bit the 14th Circuit Solicitor, a use that serve 5 South Carolina counties including Colleton County, where the murder trial is existence held. Buster Murdaugh gained the championship inward 1940 too maintained the position until 1986, when his son, Alex Murdaugh’s father Randolph Murdaugh III, took over.

According to The New York Times, Judge Clifton Newman ordered that the portrait be removed on Wed as opening statements began. He had previously ruled that the portrait would livedismantled.

“Buster’s” grandson, 54-year-former Alex’s Murdaugh, is accused inwards the double slaying of Alex’s son, Paul, 22, and his wife, Maggie, 52, inward June 2021. Since their deaths, he has been disbarred together with disgraced as he has been linked to several otherdeaths in the community, and an alleged failed attempt to accept his ain life.

Witness testimony inwards the trial begins Th.

Prosecutors, Alex Murdaugh, and his defence force attorneys will enter the Colleton County Courthouseinwards Walterboro, S.C., on Th to resume the double-murder trial.

On Midweek, opening statements from both sides were heard as prosecutors painted a graphic film of how Murdaugh, 54,allegedly killed his wife together with son using a shotgun too a rifle.

Murdaugh’s defence force, even so, said the evidence was spotty and argued that it did not adequately necktie the South Carolina attorney to the murders.

“There’s no directly evidence. There’s no eyewitnesses.There’s zip on camera. There’s no fingerprints. There’s no forensics tying him to the crime. None,” defence lawyer Dick Harpootlian said.

Harpootlian, next prosecutor Creighton Waters, offered a graphic description of the scene where the bodies of Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and her son, Paul, 22, were plant.

He argued thegruesome nature of the criminal offence seems to fall at odds with the “loving” human relationship the family exhibited.

Alex Murdaugh was also seen crying when his lawyer discussed the details of the criminal offense scene.

“Alex was the loving begetter of Paul as well as the loving husband of Maggie,”Harpootlian said. “You’re non going to take heed a unmarried witness say that their human relationship was anything other than loving.”

Midweek was the start of what is expected to be a iii-calendar week trial. It officially started after both sides finished selecting a12-individual jury with 6 alternates Wednesday.

Murdaugh has been charged with 2 counts of murder. If convicted, he faces thirty years to life inwards prison.

The Associated Press contributed to this written report.

The 12-somebody jury inwards disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh’sdouble murder trial could visit the dog kennels on Murdaugh’s belongings where his deceased married woman, Maggie, and son Paul were fatally shot in June 2021.

Murdaugh is accused ofgunning downwardly Paul and Maggie using a rifle in addition to shotgun nigh the dog kennels on their sprawling 1,700-acre hunting estate known every bit Moselle inwards Islandton, South Carolina.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters said inwards his opening statements Wed that he hopes to accept the jury tothe kennels where the murders took place. Murdaugh claims he was napping together with thus non acquaint at the offense scene on the night of Maggie’s together with Paul’s murder, but Waters alleges he was together with has mobile phone data as well as video evidence to bear witness it.

“He was in that location merely minutes before, with Maggie and Paul, merely minutes before their cellphones went still forever as well as always,” Waters said inward his opening argument.

Earlier inwards his opening statements, Waters said that almost a week after themurders, Alex Murdaugh went to his female parent’s domicile unexpectedly as well as was seen going “upstairs” with a tarp-like heart and soul. The sum was after determined to be a blueish raincoat that was covered inward gunshotresidue, Waters said. He added that jurors would live hearing from Murdaugh’s female parent’s caretaker. Murdaugh’s female parent suffers from advanced Alzheimer’s, he said.