“It is ironic, in the end, that it was the victim, Paul Murdaugh, who solved his own murder,” Dave Aronberg, state legal professional for Florida’s Palm Beach County, advised CNN Thursday night time.
Murdaugh, a now disgraced former South Carolina legal professional, was discovered responsible Thursday of fatally taking pictures his spouse and son and, a day later, was sentenced to life in jail with out the potential for parole. He has maintained his innocence.
The key proof got here from a video, which Paul recorded moments earlier than he was gunned down and killed.
It appeared to point out one of many household’s canines close to the kennels on their property. It additionally captured Alex Murdaugh’s voice within the background – and positioned him on the scene of the crime.
The video, which Murdaugh did not know existed earlier than the trial, marked the crumbling of his alibi and left him no selection however to take the stand and clarify why he lied a number of occasions to authorities about his whereabouts, authorized consultants advised CNN.
Murdaugh, whereas denying he killed his spouse and son, testified he lied about the place he was due to paranoid ideas stemming from his yearslong drug dependancy to opioid painkillers, in addition to his mistrust of investigators.
While on the stand, he additionally confessed to extra lies, admitting in courtroom he had stolen tens of millions from his regulation agency and purchasers over roughly twenty years.
He advised the jury that regardless of his repeated previous deceptions, he was trustworthy about one factor: he didn’t kill his household.
But jurors didn’t consider him.
And in a case with little to no direct proof linking Murdaugh to the scene, South Carolina’s high prosecutor credited the video clip for the fast conviction by the jury.
“This was a circumstantial evidence case but what people have to understand is that circumstantial evidence is just as powerful as direct evidence,” South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who was a part of the prosecuting crew, stated Friday.
“I think the kennel video hung him.”
“The jury saw how he was trying to manipulate them, saw how he was lying and they read through it, and they heard the kennel video and they made the right decision.”
Video satisfied this juror
Craig Moyer, one of many jurors who helped convict Murdaugh, advised ABC News in his first public interview that it took lower than an hour for the group to succeed in a unanimous determination.
The video is what satisfied him.
“I could hear his voice clearly,” Moyer advised ABC. “And everybody else could too.”
Moyer stated he was shocked Murdaugh admitted he lied in regards to the video, however, he added, he nonetheless didn’t consider the defendant was being truthful about what occurred on the night time of June 7, 2021.
Murdaugh was “a good liar,” Moyer stated, “but not good enough.”
“When he took the stand – that is, Alex Murdaugh – that was his opportunity to state his claim. It was a very hard sell, however,” stated legal defence legal professional and CNN Legal Analyst Joey Jackson.
“As much as you deny, deny, deny being at the kennels, you took the stand because it came out that you were there. Cell phone data put you there, car data put you there, in addition to the fact that your own voice put you there, by virtue of what your son recorded.”
“I think by virtue of what that juror said, clearly he was of the view that … (Alex Murdaugh) was continuing to lie, the evidence was clear and that he was guilty,” Jackson added.
Why Murdaugh says he lied about being on the homicide scene
The video was recorded by Paul at 8:44 p.m. on the night time of the killings, in response to testimony in the course of the trial.
Colleton County Coroner Richard Harvey testified he estimated Maggie and Paul’s time of dying to be round 9 p.m. – although he stated it is attainable the pair might have been shot any time between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.
After admitting he lied to authorities about the place he was that night time, Murdaugh stated he did briefly go to the kennels and left roughly round 8:47 p.m.
He later visited his mom and located Maggie and Paul’s our bodies when he returned house, Murdaugh testified.
Murdaugh advised the courtroom that as his longtime dependancy developed, it typically precipitated him to enter “paranoid thinking.”
Those paranoid ideas have been triggered on the night time of the homicides, he stated, when investigators examined his palms for gunshot residue and requested him about his relationship along with his spouse and son. Murdaugh claimed that was why he lied.
“All those things, coupled together after finding them, coupled with my distrust for (the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) caused me to have paranoid thoughts,” he testified. “I wasn’t thinking clearly. I don’t think I was capable of reason. And I lied about being there, and I’m so sorry that I did.”
“Once I told the lie, I told my family, I had to keep lying,” he advised the courtroom.
Former prosecutor Sarah Ford advised CNN that Murdaugh “really had no choice other than to take the stand and clarify” the video on the kennel.
“And the jury did not buy that clarification. He was lying long before he walked into that courtroom, long before he took the stand and that jury believed that he was lying to them on that stand,” Ford stated.
After his sentence, Murdaugh was launched to the South Carolina Department of Corrections.
He was processed Friday night at a reception and analysis middle in Columbia, the division stated in a news launch. As a part of that course of, he had his head shaved, a regular process for inmates processed into the system, division spokesperson Chrysti Shain stated.
Murdaugh will subsequent bear medical assessments and a psychological well being and schooling evaluation, the discharge added.
Over the subsequent month and a half, division officers will consider the outcomes of his assessments and assessments in addition to his crime and sentence in deciding which maximum-security jail he will likely be despatched to, the division stated.
Source: www.9news.com.au
