“After an exhaustive investigation, there is only one person who had the motive, who had the means, who had the opportunity to commit these crimes, and also whose guilty conduct after these crimes betrays him,” prosecutor Creighton Waters mentioned.
“This defendant is the one person who was living a lie, the defendant is the person on which a storm was descending, and the defendant was a person where his own storm would actually mean consequences for Maggie and Paul and consequences for those who trusted him.”
The defence’s closing arguments will observe afterward.
Jurors heard from greater than 70 witnesses over six weeks of testimony earlier than visiting Murdaugh’s sprawling property, often called Moselle, in Islandton, South Carolina, on Wednesday morning.
Murdaugh, 54, is accused of fatally capturing his spouse, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, and son Paul Murdaugh by the household’s canine kennels at Moselle on the night time of June 7, 2021.
He has pleaded not responsible to 2 counts of homicide and two weapons fees.
Prosecutors have confronted a substantial hurdle — the shortage of any direct proof, comparable to a homicide weapon, bloody clothes or eyewitnesses, that connects Murdaugh to the killings.
Instead, they’ve hinged their case on circumstantial proof, together with video putting Murdaugh on the crime scene shortly earlier than the murders regardless of his claims he wasn’t there.
The prosecution additionally has targeted on Murdaugh’s motives for the killings and historical past of lies.
He was motivated, prosecutors argue, by a want to realize sympathy and distract from a slew of monetary misconduct allegations towards him that have been on the verge of turning into public.
The now-disbarred legal professional is individually going through 99 fees associated to alleged monetary crimes that shall be adjudicated at a later trial.
The defence case was highlighted by Murdaugh himself, who supplied dramatic testimony over two days final week by which he flatly denied killing his spouse and son.
At the identical time, he admitted that he had lied to investigators about his whereabouts the night time of the killings, and he admitted to stealing thousands and thousands of {dollars} from his former purchasers and regulation agency and mendacity to cowl his tracks.
Murdaugh mentioned he’d lied to police about his whereabouts due to “paranoid thinking” stemming from his habit to opiate painkillers.
“I wasn’t thinking clearly,” he added.
“I don’t think I was capable of reason, and I lied about being down there, and I’m so sorry that I did.”
The closing arguments come greater than a month into the stranger-than-fiction trial of Alex Murdaugh, the previous private harm legal professional and member of a dynastic household in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, the place his father, grandfather and great-grandfather served because the native prosecutor consecutively from 1920 to 2006.
The household has in recent times been trailed by a collection of deaths, together with these of Murdaugh’s spouse and son; the 2018 dying of their housekeeper Gloria Satterfield; the 2019 dying of 19-year-old Mallory Beach after a ship allegedly pushed by Paul Murdaugh crashed; and the unsolved 2015 dying of 19-year-old Stephen Smith, whose case was reopened primarily based on data gathered whereas investigating the deaths of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.
Timeline of occasions turns into key focus
Details of how the night time of the killings unfolded have been a pivotal focus of the trial, as prosecutors have recommended that Murdaugh fatally shot his spouse and son after which tried to manufacture an alibi by calling and texting his spouse’s telephone and driving to his mother or father’s residence in Almeda.
“I never manufactured any alibi in any way, shape or form, because I did not, and would not, hurt my wife and my child,” Murdaugh mentioned final week when pressed by the prosecution in regards to the calls, which he mentioned have been “very normal.”
A cornerstone of the state’s case is the video at or close to the kennels — filmed on Paul’s telephone beginning at 8:44 p.m – by which Murdaugh’s voice might be heard within the background.
After a couple of dozen family and friends members recognized his voice on the video, Murdaugh took the stand and admitted he was there.
He testified that he went to the kennels at Maggie’s request, however insisted he returned to the home earlier than the killings after which left the property to go to his ailing mom in close by Almeda.
When he returned residence later that night time, Murdaugh testified, he discovered Maggie and Paul lifeless and referred to as 911.
The defence has depicted Murdaugh as a troubled however loving household man who has been wrongly accused as the results of a shoddy investigation.
Among the defence witnesses was Murdaugh’s solely surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, who testified his father was “devastated” by the killings.
The defence has additionally sought to point out that Paul and Maggie may have been shot in a a lot wider window of time, together with after Murdaugh mentioned he had left the kennels.
Colleton County Coroner Richard Harvey testified final week that he estimated Maggie’s and Paul’s time of dying to be round 9 p.m. primarily based partly on his checks of their armpits to really feel how heat the our bodies have been.
However, when requested by the defence if the pair may have died anytime between 8 or 10 p.m., Harvey mentioned sure.
Police say Murdaugh referred to as 911 at 10:07 p.m. to report discovering the our bodies.
A forensic pathologist referred to as by the defence, Jonathan Eisenstat, testified Monday that armpit temperature checks are “not a valid method” to find out time of dying and referred to as the method “just a guess.”
Instead, he mentioned, inner physique temperatures needs to be taken.
Harvey additionally testified that rigor mortis – the stiffening of joints and muscular tissues following dying – had not but set in when he arrived on the scene round 11 p.m., and that it usually begins growing one to a few hours following dying.
Source: www.9news.com.au
