Jurors and alternates returned to the Colleton County Courthouse late Monday morning as prosecutors continued to present the state’s case against Alex Murdaugh over the brutal double murder of his wife and son at the family’s hunting lodge in early June 2021.
The 54-year-old disgraced legal scion – disbarred as the murder allegations and myriad alleged financial improprieties came to light – is accused of shooting and killing his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52, and their youngest son Paul Murdaugh, 22.
As testimony concluded last week, jurors heard from South Carolina Law Enforcement Division witnesses who offered insight into fingerprints and the disputed “science” of ballistics analysis.
What allowed jurors to sleep in on Monday is also what took up the majority of the court’s time last Friday: a behind-the-scenes trial-in-miniature about the admissibility of evidence that Alex Murdaugh is accused of some 81 different financial and fraud-related crimes.
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters insists those allegations are key to showing the defendant’s motive for slaughtering his son with a shotgun and his wife with an AR-style rifle in quick succession on the night of June 7, 2021 – the same day he was accused by a fellow employee of stealing some $792,000 from the now-defunct law firm his great-grandfather founded over 100 years ago.
The defense, on the other hand, says those alleged financial crimes are highly prejudicial and don’t really make much sense in terms of a motive to kill. Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian has called the state’s theory “absurd” and “ludicrous.” Defense attorney Jim Griffin made waves last week when he tried, and failed, to put an objection on the record as the state slowly crept into those murky financial waters by asking a witness if he knew about the missing law firm funds.
Judge Clifton Newman has given both sides several days to argue about whether that evidence can be used for the purpose of establishing the defendant’s motive. As of Monday morning, the issued had yet to be fully decided and was still being hashed out – away from jurors’ ears.
[image via Sam Wolfe/The State/Pool]
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