Alex Murdaugh reacts to news that tourists are treating Moselle like a true crime destination for selfies in Colleton County, S.C. on Feb. 27, 2023.
Disgraced lawyer Alex Murdaugh’s jury will get to see palatial hunting property where his wife and youngest son were shot to death, the judge overseeing his double murder trial ruled on Monday morning.
“We believe it would be useful for the jury to see, visit, Moselle,” defense attorney Dick Harpootlian said during a brief scheduling conference before jurors were called into the courtroom.
“If the defense wants a jury view, then the court will arrange a jury view,” Judge Clifton Newman ruled.
The defense attorney requested the field trip to encompass both the area near the dog kennels, where the murders occurred, as well as the house itself. The storied, 1,770-acre hunting lodge is known colloquially by locals–and by the Murdaugh family–as “Moselle” due to its location at 4147 Moselle Road in Colleton County, South Carolina.
“To get some understanding of spatial relationships,” Harpootlian said.
The defense went on to say the excursion would likely take roughly three hours in total–including travel there and back.
The request for a jury view is perhaps rare but not unheard of.
Similar jury view requests have been granted in other high-profile cases, such as: The burning death of Jessica Chambers–for which Quinton Tellis was acquitted; the Pike County massacre–for which George Wagner IV was convicted on eight counts of murder; and the cascade of police gunfire during the no-knock raid that left Breonna Taylor dead in her Louisville apartment–for which Brett Hankison was acquitted.
“What we would ask is that you ask the jury if they want to do that,” Alex Murdaugh’s defense attorney continued. “If they don’t want to do it, I don’t want them to do it. If they want to do it, that would be fine with me and it needs to be done in an expeditious way.”
Harpootlian went on to say the defense would not accompany jurors to the property, that no one would be there to answer questions, and that the defense just wanted the jury to see things. He said the logistics were up to the court–maybe allowing jurors to vote on it.
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters was skeptical of the request and said he thought it would require additional testimony, because, he said, “the scene is different than it existed on the night of June 7th, 2021.” The major change, the prosecutor said, was that trees in between the kennels and the house are now “markedly taller and thicker” than they were when Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were killed.
Waters ultimately objected to the request.
“You just can’t really appreciate the spatial issues without actually seeing them,” Harpootlian countered.
The defense attorney conceded the trees had changed and offered to limit the visit to just the kennel area. He said that numerous points of evidence and testimony that have come up in the trial, including the location of the quail pens, the relative location of the dog house, “how small the feed room is,” and the distance between where Maggie and Paul Murdaugh’s bodies were found would be illuminated by the visit.
“I think you can put restrictions on it that would assist the jury,” Harpootlian insisted–recalling a trial in the 1980s where the jury was asked to vote on taking such a trip. “If they want it.”
Waters went on to clarify that he was mainly objecting to the notion of offering jurors a say on the jury view question, saying that such trips are usually based on the request of a party. Harpootlian then raised his hand to clarify that the defense was, in fact, requesting a jury view.
Judge Newman okayed the request.
“Upon request of either side, the court will allow a jury view,” the judge said. “I will not ask the jury to decide whether or not they want a view. I think that could invite premature deliberations in the case.”
Newman said the court would accompany jurors, that the lawyers for both sides would be allowed to go, and that he would advise jurors “that certain things may not be the same as they were two years ago.”
Harpootlian asked that security protocols be established because the property has become a site popular with true crime tourists who have recently flocked to the crime scene and that a “carnival attitude” has sprung up there–which he did not want jurors influenced by.
Alex Murdaugh’s reaction to hearing people were trespassing on the Moselle property to get selfies in front of the kennel:
(Note, if that’s true, that’s horrible. I understand drive by the property, etc…but breaking the law and getting a selfie where two people died..smh) pic.twitter.com/eo6hivrlDB
— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) February 27, 2023
“There were literally dozens of people at Moselle last weekend trespassing to get selfies in front of the feed room,” the defense attorney said. “The most distasteful kinds of things I’ve ever seen.”
Newman said law enforcement would provide security for the trip.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
