Why Murdaugh killed his spouse and son, in line with the prosecution

Alex Murdaugh has been convicted of killing his spouse and son. Regardless of the dearth of direct proof, the prosecution spent weeks outlining how Murdaugh had the motive, means and opportunity to commit the murders.

The case hinged on circumstantial proof: Proving Murdaugh was on the crime scene that night time and that he lied to investigators, and portray him as a fraudster who killed his household in a determined bid to distract the investigations into his actions.

Motive

A collection of witnesses have accused Murdaugh of intensive monetary wrongdoing at his namesake regulation agency and introduced proof that he lied to almost everybody round him in a yearslong fraud. A “day of reckoning” was coming from a number of totally different angles, so he killed his household to distract and delay these monetary investigations, the prosecution argued.

Two investigations specifically that would have uncovered Murdaugh’s wrongdoing have been coming to a head on the time of the killings.

For one, the chief financial officer of his law firm testified she had confronted Murdaugh about lacking funds on the morning of June 7, 2021, hours earlier than the killings. After the murders, the interior investigation into the funds took a backseat.

Second, Murdaugh was going through a lawsuit from the household of Mallory Seaside, a 19-year-old who was killed in February 2019 when a ship, owned by Murdaugh and allegedly pushed by Paul, crashed. A listening to in that civil case was scheduled for June 10, 2021, and had the potential to disclose his monetary issues, prosecutors argued.

Means

Maggie was killed by a Blackout rifle and Paul was killed by a shotgun, prosecutor Creighton Waters mentioned, including that each have been household weapons. Testimony from a weapons knowledgeable proved that Blackout rifle bullet casings found close to Maggie’s physique matched casings discovered on different components of the household’s property.

Waters famous this weapon went lacking and Murdaugh couldn’t account for it.

Paul Murdaugh was killed by pictures from a shotgun, one among Paul’s “favourite weapons,” Waters mentioned. Investigators decided that the 2 shells that killed Paul had “class traits” that have been much like a 12-gauge shotgun. Waters added that Alex Murdaugh had this shotgun with him on the night time of the killings and that “Maggie’s DNA and blood” have been discovered on the receiver of the gun.

Alternative

One of many prosecution’s most compelling pieces of evidence was recorded audio that it mentioned positioned Murdaugh on the crime scene on the night time of the murders. The video focuses on one among their canines and seems to have been recorded on the kennels at their household residence in Islandton, South Carolina. Three totally different voices could be heard within the background of the video, and household mates recognized these voices as that of Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh.

A video was filmed on Paul’s cellphone beginning at 8:44 p.m. on June 7, 2021, simply minutes earlier than Paul and Maggie have been shot useless, in line with Lt. David Britton Dove, a supervisor within the pc crimes heart on the South Carolina Regulation Enforcement Division.

Murdaugh’s presence there contradicted his authentic declare to investigators that he was not on the kennels that night time, prosecutors mentioned.

Murdaugh “instructed anybody who would pay attention he was by no means there,” the prosecution mentioned in opening statements. “The proof will present that he was there. He was on the homicide scene with the 2 victims.”

Murdaugh later admitted to mendacity, testifying through the trial that he misled regulation enforcement due to addiction-induced paranoia.