Jurors returned to court on Monday as prosecutors continued to present their case against Alex Murdaugh in the murders of his wife and son 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.
The third day of testimony on Friday focused on the moments after police arrived on the scene of the defendant’s home. Prosecutors called a number of forensic witnesses and played audio and video of Murdaugh’s interaction with officers after the shooting.
Three witnesses provided testimony about the crime scene – at times laboriously documenting how the evidence was handled once South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agents arrived. Those tedious efforts were an apparent effort to fight back against prior defense claims that the crime scene was poorly handled by law enforcement to the point that some evidence had likely been spoiled.
On the morning of Jan. 29, 2023, Alex Murdaugh’s defense attorney Dick Harpootlian exacted two notable concessions from a prosecution witness who originally testified last Friday.
During his cross-examination of South Carolina Law Enforcement Agent Melinda Worley, the defense attorney raised the two-shooter theory. The agent did not foreclose against the possibility.
Harpootlian floating the theory there was more than one shooter.
Harpootlian: One reasonable explanation is there are two people there, one with a shotgun one with an AR.
Could someone have been a lookout, they went there to kill Paul and Maggie surprised them?#AlexMurdaugh pic.twitter.com/2Jr05Ydwrq— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) January 30, 2023
Moments later, Harpootlian returned to the defense’s recurring theme of evidence spoliation at the scene of the crime by first responders.
“Should the police be walking through the scene?”
SLED agent: “No”
“Do we know what other evidence they may have destroyed?”
Agent: “I have no idea.”
“That’s right, you don’t.”
Defense points out there was a bloody footprint in the feed room that turned out to be law enforcement pic.twitter.com/1Yo2jc02Et— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) January 30, 2023
Also on Monday, Judge Clifton Newman allowed a pool photographer to document several hundred evidentiary exhibits.
NEW: Prosecutors have just allowed hundreds of photos from the Murdaugh Murders case to be released as the trial against Alex Murdaugh continues. Pictured below, in a photo by Grace Beahm Alford, are the hulls from the two shotgun blasts believed to have killed Paul Murdaugh: pic.twitter.com/32VYydZ7x7
— Colin Kalmbacher (@colinkalmbacher) January 30, 2023
Diagram of Paul Murdaugh’s body lying outside the feed house and Maggie Murdaugh’s body above. This is the diagram Harpootlian was using this morning talking about possibility of two shooters.#AlexMurdaugh
(Grace Beahm Alford/The Post and Courier) pic.twitter.com/1H9of7VsBx— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) January 30, 2023
A notable moment occurred when South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Agent Jeff Croft testified about what happened the in the days immediately after the brutal double murders.
A great deal of that testimony concerned body-worn camera footage he recorded from inside the 1,770-acre hunting lodge known to Colleton County locals as Moselle – as well as from the outside porch on June 8, 2021.
At another point, Croft recalled a tearful interview Alex Murdaugh gave three days after the gruesome slayings.
My two cents, it’s hard to tell if he says “I” did him so bad or “they” did him so bad #AlexMurdaugh
— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) January 30, 2023
The defense will likely seek to clear those statements up as testimony continues Tuesday morning at 9:30 a.m. EST.
