Trial of Alex Murdaugh

Alex called Maggie on June 7, 2021, and asked her to meet him at the Murdaugh family lodge. He wanted the two of them to travel together from there to see his father, Randolph Murdaugh III, who was terminally ill. Maggie texted a friend, saying Alex sounded "fishy" and was "up to something". After parking her car at the house, she walked to the dog kennels, where she found her son, Paul.[6] Alex called police from his cell phone at 10:06 p.m., saying he had discovered the bodies of his wife, Maggie (52), and their younger son, Paul (22), near the dog kennels at the family's hunting lodge, in Islandton, South Carolina.[7] Each had been shot multiple times (in the head, wrists, and chest), with different guns.[8] Murdaugh claimed that at the time of the killings he had been with his mother, who has dementia;[9] however, cellphone data, including video containing Alex's voice, placed him at the scene before their deaths.[10]

Murdaugh was arrested in July 2022 after the Colleton County Grand Jury issued an indictment charging him with two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in the deaths of his wife, Maggie, and of his son Paul. The indictment stated that Alex shot his wife with a rifle and his son with a shotgun.[12] Murdaugh pleaded not guilty; prosecutors said they would seek life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, not the death penalty.[13]

The first prosecution witnesses included first responders on the scene after Murdaugh's 911 call.[35] The prosecution asked the judge to compel a representative of Snapchat to testify about a video posted by Paul Murdaugh minutes before his death.[36] The prosecution brought SLED witnesses to testify about firearms and ballistics, and an interview conducted with Murdaugh in a car on June 21, 2021, during which Murdaugh said of his son, "It's just so bad. I did him so bad," which Waters emphasized for the jury.[37] The defense team disputed whether the recording said "I" or "they".[38] The prosecution brought an expert witness to testify about data collected by Maggie's phone.[38] The prosecution brought two close friends of Paul Murdaugh to testify about their interactions with the Murdaugh family and their communications with Paul moments before his death.[20] A witness said he heard Alex's voice in a video taken by Paul minutes before the time the prosecution believes the murders took place.[33][20]

Prosecutors called former colleagues and clients of Murdaugh to testify about the defendant's financial situation just before the murders occurred, and argued that the motive was stress caused by the impending discovery of Murdaugh's financial crimes. They also called a chief executive officer of a local bank to testify about the bank's discovery of theft by Murdaugh.[39]

Prosecutors called expert witnesses, including a criminologist and pathologist. They called a SLED agent to testify about a timeline for the events of June 7, aggregating all of the data collected from various sources, including the cell-phones of the victims and the defendant, car telemetry data, and cell-phone tower pings.[40] Prosecutors rested their case on February 17.[40]

Defense counsel called their first witness immediately after the prosecution rested their case. They called the Colleton County coroner, who testified that he had only estimated the victims' body temperatures and that the reported time of death was an estimate.[40]

On February 21, the defense called the defendant's other son, Buster, to the stand. The defense called several expert witnesses, including a crime-scene engineer, who re-created the crime scene and argued that the presumed height of the shooter was not consistent with the defendant's height.[41] Another expert witness testified that he believed the crime scene was not handled properly by first responders.[42]

On February 23, Murdaugh took the stand to testify.[43] He denied shooting his wife and son.[44] Murdaugh confirmed that he could be heard in a video taken by his son at 8:44 p.m. at the kennels.[43] Murdaugh admitted repeatedly lying to law officers about whether he had been at the kennels at the night of the killings (before he reported finding the bodies there later that night), and attributed the lies to "paranoid thinking" from his addiction to opioids.[43][44][45] He also admitted stealing from legal clients and his firm, and also admitted asking a relative to shoot him.[44] The prosecution's cross-examination began the same day.[44] Murdaugh finished his testimony the next day, and Judge Newman dismissed the jury immediately after it concluded.[28]

The defense called a pathologist, who testified that the state's pathologist had not correctly determined the entrance and exit wounds on Paul's body.[29] The defense also called Tim Palmbach, an expert in bloodstain spatter analysis.[29] Palmbach has also testified in such high-profile cases as the trial of Michael Peterson.[46] Palmbach testified that he believed that a shooter would have been covered in blood and gunshot residue; he also stated that he believed that the evidence was consistent with two shooters being present.[29] The last witness the defense called was the defendant's brother, John Marvin Murdaugh. On February 27, the defense rested their case and moved for a directed verdict, which was subsequently denied by Judge Newman.[29]

After the defense rested their case, the prosecution indicated they would reply to the defense's case.[29] On February 28, the prosecution began their reply case by calling witnesses. Four of the witnesses they called had testified earlier. A police chief who had associated with Murdaugh was also called to the stand. The final witness was a crime-scene expert called previously; South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson conducted the direct examination. The prosecution rested their reply case on February 28.

On March 2, 2023, after only three hours of deliberation, the jury found Murdaugh guilty of two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during a violent crime.[1] Because of the intense public interest in the case, the verdict was transmitted live across the United States on major broadcast and cable news networks.[47] After the verdict was read, Judge Newman denied a motion from the defense for a mistrial by saying, "The evidence of guilt is overwhelming."[48][49] He told the jurors, "The circumstantial evidence, direct evidence—all of the evidence pointed to one conclusion, and that's the conclusion that you all reached." Newman later added that the jury had come to a "proper conclusion as they saw the law and facts".[49] Murdaugh was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole on March 3, 2023, at 10:08 a.m. EST.[2] After his sentencing, Murdaugh was taken to the Kirkland Correctional Institution, in northwestern Columbia, South Carolina, where he was to be evaluated for about 45 days to determine which maximum-security prison he would be sent to.[50]