Jurors will return to the Colleton County Courthouse on Thursday morning as the double murder trial of attorney Alex Murdaugh enters its likely final day with the defense’s closing statement.
The 54-year-old South Carolina legal scion – disgraced and disbarred soon after the murder allegations and various alleged financial improprieties came to light – is accused of brutally shooting and killing his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52, and their youngest son, Paul Murdaugh, 22, in early June 2021 with a rifle and a shotgun.
On Monday, the final handful of witnesses presented by attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin came on the heels of the defendant’s decision to take the stand in his defense. This performance elicited mixed reviews from legal experts.
The defense closed with John Marvin Murdaugh, the defendant’s younger brother, as their final witness. His performance on the stand drew plaudits from some court observers for looking “very real.”
On Tuesday, the state called six rebuttal witnesses, closing the testimonial portion of the case with Dr. Kenneth Kinsey, who first testified during the prosecution’s case-in-chief.
During his testimony, Kinsey dismissed several ideas raised by defense expert witnesses – saying there was “absolutely” no reason to exclude a shooter who is the defendant’s height – 6-foot-4 – and refusing to definitively say that either one or two shooters “could be ruled out or in” as responsible for the carnage.
On Wednesday, jurors took a field trip to Moselle, the expansive hunting property previously owned by the Murdaugh family – and the site of where the grisly slayings occurred on June 7, 2021.
SEE ALSO: Jurors take their time at Moselle, see crime scene for themselves as Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial nears end
The jury view lasted roughly one-and-a-half hours plus an hour or so of travel time, and jurors were seated just after noon. The entirety of courtroom proceedings that followed were taken up by the state’s closing argument: a miniature, though still quite long, rehashing of most of the state’s case against Alex Murdaugh.
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters spent that time tying the defendant’s admitted financial crimes to a crumbling legal empire that, the state believes, ultimately led to the murders.
SEE ALSO: ‘He became a family annihilator’: Prosecution delivers long-drawn-out closing statement against accused killer Alex Murdaugh
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