Alex Murdaugh stands subsequent to the witness sales space for the duration of a wreck in his trial for murder at the Colleton County Courthouse on Thursday in Walterboro, South Carolina.
Alex Murdaugh stands subsequent to the witness sales space at some stage in a break in his trial for murder at the Colleton County Courthouse on Thursday in Walterboro, South Carolina.
Disgraced former attorney Alex Murdaugh testified Thursday that he by no means fatally shot his spouse and son but that he did mislead investigators approximately now not being at the dog kennels where the two were killed, a decision that he blamed on drug dependancy and paranoia.
“I might in no way deliberately do some thing to harm both certainly one of them, ever,” he stated of spouse Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, fifty two, and son Paul Murdaugh, 22, who have been located lifeless near the kennels on a South Carolina looking belongings on June 7, 2021.
Alex Murdaugh said he lied to government approximately last seeing his wife and youngest son at dinner and lied that he was no longer at the kennels at the night they were killed. He said he felt overwhelmed by using police questioning, his discovery of the our bodies and instructions from an legal professional now not to speak with every body.
“As my addiction evolved through the years, I could get in situations or circumstances where I could get paranoid,” he said. Once he lied approximately not being at the scene at the time of their deaths, he stated he couldn’t forestall and felt like he needed to keep this story.
Murdaugh gives testimony during his murder trial in Walterboro on Thursday.
Murdaugh gives testimony at some stage in his murder trial in Walterboro on Thursday.
Murdaugh checked himself into a substance abuse rehab facility quickly after his own family participants’ deaths.
Several witnesses had poked holes in his preliminary story that he changed into away travelling his mom across the time of the killings and that he was never on the dog kennels. They said they identified Murdaugh’s voice in a video that changed into taken from the kennels simplest minutes earlier than authorities trust the mom and son have been shot close by. A former pal of Paul Murdaugh testified Thursday that he additionally heard Alex Murdaugh’s voice within the video.
Murdaugh stated Thursday that he initially declined to exit to the kennels along with his spouse and son because he had simply showered and it become warm outdoor. He stated the opioids he took made the heat worse. He later drove over on a golfing cart and helped get rid of a live chicken from one of the canine’s mouths, with audio of the act reputedly captured through the kennel video, recorded via his son. Murdaugh said he then went again to the house. Once there, he lay down on a couch after which determined to go to his mom.
Murdaugh stated he referred to as his wife twice to share his plans but she didn’t answer her cellphone, and he additionally sent her a textual content message.
“At the time, it didn’t strike me as some thing uncommon,” he said of his spouse no longer answering.
According to Murdaugh’s account, after spending some time together with his mother, he returned to the residence and searched for his own family participants inside. After now not finding them, he went to the kennels in his car and saw their bodies mendacity on the floor. Authorities stated the pair were shot a couple of times at close range. The firearms believed to had been used in the shootings have no longer been recovered.
“I may want to see his [Paul Murdaugh’s] mind laying at the sidewalk. I didn’t know what to do,” he stated, sobbing. Alex Murdaugh said his son’s telephone fell out of his pocket as he changed into trying to transport his frame. He positioned it lower back in his pocket.
Murdaugh referred to as 911 and stated that he last spoke with his circle of relatives approximately “some hours ago.”
That 911 call came in at 10:06 p.m., kind of an hour after investigators consider the mother and son had been fatally shot. The kennel video changed into taken by way of Paul Murdaugh at eight:44 p.m.
Alex Murdaugh informed 911 dispatch that his son were threatened within the past and expressed regret that he didn’t take it severely.
“[Paul Murdaugh] got so many threats I didn’t take critical, assume two times approximately,” the daddy testified. He said maximum of the threats published on social media had been “over the top” and nothing that the circle of relatives felt they had to take critically.
At the time of his demise, Paul Murdaugh had been watching for trial on several felony prices associated with a 2019 deadly boating crash. He was accused of riding the boat even as under the influence of alcohol, killing a 19-yr-vintage female.
Alex Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, testified Tuesday that he observed his father completely distraught at the house after the father called him to inform him what had occurred.
Buster Murdaugh, the son of Alex Murdaugh, testifies throughout his father’s trial Tuesday.
Buster Murdaugh, the son of Alex Murdaugh, testifies for the duration of his father’s trial Tuesday.
“He became destroyed, his heart damaged,” he said. “I walked thru the door, I saw him and I gave him a hug.”
In addition to the homicide prices, Alex Murdaugh faces separate economic fees — along with insurance fraud, money laundering and tax evasion — that had been filed more than a yr after his circle of relatives individuals’ deaths.
A defense legal professional had asked the judge Wednesday to restriction prosecutors’ capability to impeach Murdaugh at the stand about the ones other expenses. The legal professional argued that these are unrelated to the shootings and that wondering him approximately them might be self-incriminating.
Prosecutors have argued that those fees are associated with the killings, but. They say Murdaugh killed his own family so that it will drum up sympathy and buy time for him to cover up these crimes that had yet to be located.
The judge stated that he might now not problem “a few blanket order proscribing the scope of pass-examination,” but that he could take into account Murdaugh’s privilege towards self-incrimination.
In his testimony Thursday, Murdaugh admitted to stealing budget from customers and his law corporation. He stated it helped fund his opioid dependancy, which accompanied leg surgical procedures related to his time gambling football in university.
Murdaugh, visible in advance this month, said he would in no way deliberately harm his own family and that he lied to investigators because of a drug addiction.
Murdaugh, visible in advance this month, said he could never deliberately harm his own family and that he lied to investigators due to a drug dependancy.
After having to resign from his regulation firm and the deaths of his wife and son, Murdaugh said that he resolved to kill himself and that he requested Curtis Edward Smith, who allegedly acted as his drug supplier, to shoot him.
“I knew all this was coming to a head. I knew how humiliating it was going to be for my son,” he said of Buster Murdaugh. “It seemed just like the higher element to do.”
Alex Murdaugh known as police in September 2021 to file that he became the sufferer of a capturing via an unknown assailant. He became grazed by a bullet that become fired as he stood in a street. State police later accused Murdaugh of hiring Smith to fatally shoot him in order that his son might get a $10 million existence coverage charge.
Smith became arrested following the botched shooting and charged with assisted suicide, assault and battery of a high annoyed nature, pointing and supplying a firearm, insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, distribution of methamphetamine and ownership of marijuana.
The decide in Murdaugh’s trial dominated in advance this month that the jury wouldn’t pay attention about the alleged suicide-for-rent plot, arguing that it “is going beyond purpose.”
Murdaugh faces 30 years to life in jail if convicted of murder.Related…
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- Here’s How The Alex Murdaugh Murder Trial Is Going, 2 Weeks In
- Alex Murdaugh’s Murder Trial Starts With Analysis Of Cellphones, Bullets
- Attorney Alex Murdaugh Pleads Not Guilty To Murdering Wife And Son
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