Jury finalized, Murdaugh breaks down during opening statements on Day 3 of murder trial
COLLETON COUNTY, S.C. (WCIV) — Jury selection was finalized and opening statements were given Wednesday, the third day of the double murder trial for Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced former South Carolina attorney accused of killing his wife and son in what prosecutors say was an attempt to avoid discovery of multi-million dollar financial crimes.
Alex Murdaugh stands trial accused of killing his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and son, Paul Murdaugh, 22, at the family's Colleton County property in June of 2021.
He's charged with two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The jury was let go around 5 p.m. and will resume trial proceeding Thursday at 9:30 a.m. Thursday is expected to begin with a 45 minute recording of full body camera video from law enforcement responding to the murder scene.
OPENING STATEMENTS
Opening statements were given Wednesday afternoon.
Before a lunch break and after the jury left the room, Judge Clifton Newman ordered crime scene and autopsy photos gruesome or graphic in nature to remain under seal and not be disseminated to the public.
During this discussion, Murdaugh was seen crying while still sitting with his legal team. It was the first time he's been seen visibly upset during the trial.
Just before court resumed, Murdaugh's surviving son Buster and his brother John Marvin Murdaugh were seen walking into the courthouse. Alex Murdaugh's sister Lynn Murdaugh was also present.
Alex Murdaugh could be seen turning to his family multiple times, nodding to them and mouthing variations of "thank you for being here."
Prosecutor Creighton Waters began the opening statements.
He began with an explosive opening about the night of the murders- describing how the prosecution believes that night went down.
He claimed Alex shot Paul with a shotgun in their dog kennel/feed room around 8:50 p.m., first with buckshot in the chest and shoulder, then a second bird shot to head. He said evidence will show the second shot did catastrophic damage, but he could have survived the first.
Then, Waters claims Alex picked up an AR-15 style rifle chambered in .300 Blackout and shot his wife Maggie twice in lower body, then twice in the head, killing her. He said evidence will show the family had multiple weapons throughout the property.
He said evidence will also show neither Maggie nor Paul had defensive wounds and were shot at close range. He believes this means they didn't see the attack coming.
LISTEN: The Murdaugh Murders, Money & Mystery | Unsolved South Carolina | Murdaugh Trial Day 3 Recap
He went on to say the weapon that killed them was a family weapon. (Note- the actual murder weapon has not been located).
Waters said Alex claims he wasn't at the family's dog kennels at the time of the murders, but Waters claims cell phone data will show he was. He said this will be a key piece of forensic evidence in the case- not just Alex's cell phone, but Paul and Maggie's too.
He said all three were "prolific" cell phone users and witnesses will enlighten the jury on the nature of the calls and patterns of calls and texts the day of the murders.
Waters said evidence will also show there was definitely a forethought on Alex's part and that malice existed for a while. This "malice aforethought" is a large part of the burden of proof in murder cases.
Waters told the jury they will see videos of Murdaugh on the night of the murders. He told them to watch Murdaugh closely in those videos, paying attention to his facial expressions and words. He also said to pay attention to the 911 calls he made that night too.
One of those videos comes before the mother and son were killed. Waters said in a video taken on Paul's phone, you can hear Alex and Maggie's voices in the background- despite Alex saying he was never at the kennel that night and was instead napping at the main house at the time. The video, according to Waters, was something Paul recorded for a friend whose dog who staying in the kennel.
It was roughly three minutes after the video was sent that Paul's phone goes "silent forever," Waters claimed.
According to Waters, the timeline of that time includes:
- 8:15 p.m. Maggie arrives at the Moselle house. Alex has previously said they ate dinner together, which is also evident from similar foods found in Maggie and Paul's stomach content during the autopsies.
- 8:30 p.m. cell phone data shows Paul move to the kennels
- 8:44 p.m. video taken on Paul's phone, with Alex's voice reportedly heard in the background
- 8:49 p.m. Paul's phone locks for the final time. He never answered his friend's last text (that friend is expected to testify during the trial)
- 8:30-9 p.m. Alex's phone is inactive, then a "flurry of activity" begins. Waters noted how Alex texted and called Maggie's phone, despite the kennels being 1.3 miles away and visible from the house. He said the main driveway to the house went by the kennels, but Alex drove out a different driveway when saying he went to his mother's house.
In conclusion, Waters said the trial will be a long and complicated case, but once puzzle pieces start fitting together, the "evident and inescapable conclusion" will be reached that Alex Murdaugh committed these crimes.
"(Alex) was the storm, the storm was coming for them, just like the storms are coming here (Walterboro) right now, and the storm arrived on June 7, 2021. They died as a result," Water said.
Lead defender Dick Harpootlian gave the defense's opening statement.
Harpootlian started by saying it's an honor to represent Alex Murdaugh. He asked Alex to stand up, introducing him as a loving father and husband.
"You're not going to hear a single witness say that their relationship- Maggie and Alex's relationship- was anything other than loving," he said.
The lawyer told the jury what they heard from Waters wasn't "facts" but instead just theories and conjecture.
Harpootlian referred to Paul's cell phone video too. He said in a video about an hour before the shooting, you can hear Paul and Alex laughing together as they ride around the property looking at trees together.
Meanwhile, he vividly described how Paul was murdered, saying his head literally exploded and all that was left was his face.
Like a watermelon hit by a sledgehammer," Harpootlian said.
"(Alex) comes home and finds his son laying in his own blood, with his brain laying in his feet, shot to hell," Harpootlian described. He said Alex checks to see if Paul is alive but knows it's obvious.
As Harpootlian describes the scene, Murdaugh can be seen hunched over, sobbing.
As for Maggie, Harpootlian claims she didn't have any defensive wounds because she was running away when struck. Harpootlian said it's implausible that Alex used two weapons to shoot and kill them, and it's more likely the crime was done by two people.
More so, Harpootlian argued a shooter standing in close range while committing the murders would have been "covered head to toe in blood," but that is not how Alex was found by authorities.
Harpootlian said Alex would have had to go back to the house to change clothes. He said police did not search the house that night, despite Alex apparently giving them permission and a search warrant being obtained.
The clothes Alex was found in that night were tested and Harpootlian said no blood spatter was found.
He said the gunshot residue was negligible and could be explained away by transfer from simply touching a weapon- which he said Alex did the night of the murders since he went to grab a shotgun thinking the killer could be on property still.
In conclusion Harpootlian said simply: "He didn't do it."
JURY SWORN IN
The day start with selecting and swearing in a jury.
About 122 finalists were asked to return to court at 11 a.m. and a final jury consisting of 12 jurors and six alternates was chosen by 1:15 p.m.
The jury's demographic makeup includes four white males, six white females, and two Black females. The alternates include two Black females, one Black male, and three white males.
The final selection process included selective strikes by both the defense and prosecution, where they chose to exclude certain jurors for no legal reason. The defense was able to choose to strike up to 10 potential jurors, the prosecution was able to strike up to five.
This portion took roughly 30 minutes to complete.
A blog with a play-by-play of the trial can be found here.
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