Jurors and alternates returned to the Colleton County Courthouse on Tuesday 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.
During a Monday pre-trial hearing, Judge Clifton Newman dealt the defense a substantial setback, ruling that various financial crimes by the defendant are “so intimately connected” to the state’s theory of the case that proof of them “is essential to complete the story.”
The 54-year-old disgraced legal scion – disbarred as the murder allegations and those 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.
The pre-trial decision on those financial crimes – some admitted; some alleged – capped nearly a week-long series of hearings away from jurors’ ears. In the end, the court said those crimes could be mentioned by prosecutors in order to show motive.
“While motive is not a necessary element, the state must prove malice, and evidence of motive may be used to prove it,” Newman said. “And, in this case, since the identity of the perpetrator is a critical element that must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, evidence of motive may be used in an attempt to meet that burden.”
As jurors returned, they heard from the state’s 28th witness, home health care aide Shelley Smith, the caretaker of the defendant’s ailing mother, Libby Murdaugh, who suffers from Alzheimer’s.
A key aspect of Alex Murdaugh’s defense is the timeline – based on the state’s own cellular phone evidence.
Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian has previously suggested his client was not near the dog kennels on the family’s massive hunting lodge at the time of the murders – or at least that he was not there long enough to kill his son with a shotgun, switch to an AR-style rifle to kill his wife, hide and clean up all of the evidence, then visit his mother, and then return to Moselle in the time frame suggested by that data.
Smith, through halting and tearful testimony that was at times unclear, appeared to testify that Alex Murdaugh later pressured her to say – or suggested that she should say – he was at his mother’s house for longer than he actually was on the night in question.
UPDATE: It appears the testimony was not IF he was at his mom’s side the night of the murder but HOW LONG he was there. #AlexMurdaugh told Smith he was there 30-40 mins. He was there 15-20 mins, but Smith told SLED 30-40 mins, assuming because of the convo Alex had with her. https://t.co/bnpAl9a4AS
— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) February 6, 2023
[image via The State/Pool]
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
