Disgraced South Carolina legal professional Alex Murdaugh denied killing his spouse and son however admitted mendacity about when he final noticed them alive as he took the stand in his personal defence on Thursday at his double homicide trial.
Murdaugh, 54, is charged with fatally capturing his spouse, Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, who have been killed close to kennels on their property on June 7, 2021.
He faces 30 years to life in jail if convicted. In his testimony, Murdaugh continued to staunchly deny any function within the killings.
“I would never intentionally do anything to hurt either one of them,” Murdaugh mentioned, tears working down his cheeks.
Prosecutors spent 4 weeks of testimony portray Murdaugh as a liar who stole cash from shoppers and determined to kill his spouse and son as a result of he wished sympathy to purchase time to cowl up his monetary crimes that have been about to be found.
They have detailed what they referred to as lie after lie, saying Murdaugh reacts violently when the reality is about to emerge, like making an attempt to rearrange his personal demise proper after his regulation agency fired him three months after the killings.
Taking the stand on day 23 of the trial, Murdaugh admitted he lied to police about being on the kennels together with his spouse and son shortly earlier than the killings. But he blamed his dependancy to opioids for clouding his pondering and making a mistrust of state regulation enforcement brokers.
“As my addiction evolved over time, I would get in these situations, these circumstances where I would get paranoid thinking,” Murdaugh mentioned.
The once-prominent legal professional had informed police that he was visiting his ailing mom in one other city and never close to his Colleton County residence within the hours earlier than the killings. But a number of witnesses testified that they believed they heard Murdaugh’s voice alongside together with his son and spouse on cell phone video taken on the kennels about 5 minutes earlier than the shootings.
Once he began mendacity about being on the kennels, he mentioned he felt he needed to proceed: “Oh, what a tangled web we weave. Once I told a lie — I told my family — I had to keep lying.”
Murdaugh testified that his spouse requested him to go to the kennels the night of the killings, so he rode down in a golf cart and wrestled a rooster away from a canine earlier than returning to the home and deciding to go go to his ailing mom.
He mentioned that, after returning residence from visiting his mom, neither his spouse nor son have been in the home. After a number of minutes, Murdaugh mentioned, he drove his SUV to the kennels the place he mentioned he final noticed them.
Murdaugh described arriving to search out the grisly scene of the killings, pausing for a number of seconds as he cried. “It was so bad,” he mentioned.
Murdaugh mentioned he briefly tried to roll over his son, who was mendacity face down, to examine on him however determined he could not do something to assist.
“I could see his brain laying on the sidewalk. I didn’t know what to do,” Murdaugh mentioned.
He testified that he additionally checked on his spouse earlier than calling 911 after which went again to the home to get a gun for security.
Witnesses who noticed Murdaugh within the minutes and hours after the capturing mentioned they did not see any blood on him, regardless of the grotesque crime scene.
Several witnesses, together with Maggie Murdaugh’s sister, have testified that Alex Murdaugh did not seem scared for the security of himself or his surviving son within the weeks after the killings regardless of the brutality of the shootings and no obvious leads from police.
Throughout his testimony, Murdaugh referred to as his son “Paul Paul” and his spouse “Mags,” although he did not use these nicknames in three interviews with police the night time of the killings, three days later and months later.
Murdaugh can be charged with about 100 different crimes, starting from stealing from shoppers and the household regulation agency to insurance coverage fraud to tax evasion. He is being held with out bail on these fees, so even when he’s discovered not responsible, he is not going to stroll out of court docket a free man.
If convicted of most or all of these monetary crimes, Murdaugh would possible spend many years in jail.
Source: www.9news.com.au
