After 19 months of hypothesis, prosecutors lastly laid out their proof Wednesday that Alex Murdaugh killed his spouse and son as they opened the double homicide trial for the disgraced South Carolina lawyer.
There was gunshot residue on a seat belt, bullets pulled from our bodies that matched ammunition bins from across the dwelling, and cellphones by no means used once more, just some minutes after Murdaugh, his spouse and son had been all heard in a cellphone video, prosecutor Creighton Waters stated in his opening assertion.
"It is sophisticated. It is a journey. There's loads of features to this case," Waters stated. "However like loads of issues which are sophisticated, we begin to put all of them collectively, piecing collectively like a puzzle — all of the sudden, an image emerges."
A protection lawyer stated prosecutors incorrectly locked in on Murdaugh's guilt from the beginning and have spent all that point attempting to jam bits of proof that may be defined away or go away an incomplete image right into a story that frames the mistaken man.
"There is not any direct proof. There is not any eyewitnesses. There's nothing on digicam. There is not any fingerprints. There is not any forensics tying him to the crime. None," protection lawyer Dick Harpootlian stated.
Waters opened the trial with three minutes of graphic description of the scene the place the our bodies of Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and her son, Paul, 22, had been discovered shot with at the least one bullet to the top by two completely different weapons, pointing to Paul Murdaugh's head and calling it "catastrophic harm."
Harpootlian added much more grotesque particulars — how the shotgun blast that killed Paul Murdaugh was so near his head that his mind exploded from his cranium and was discovered at his ft. Alex Murdaugh began crying when his lawyer mentioned the element.
"Alex was the loving father of Paul and the loving husband of Maggie," Harpootlian stated. "You are not going to listen to a single witness say that their relationship was something apart from loving."
It was the beginning of what's anticipated to be a three-week trial on the Colleton County Courthouse. Either side completed selecting a 12-person jury with six alternates Wednesday.
Murdaugh, 54, is standing trial on two counts of homicide. If convicted, he faces 30 years to life in jail.
This trial is the underside of a stunningly far and quick downfall for the person whose household dominated the authorized system in tiny neighboring Hampton County for generations, each as prosecutors and personal attorneys recognized for getting life-changing settlements for accidents and negligence circumstances.
Murdaugh additionally faces about 100 fees associated to different crimes, together with cash laundering, stealing thousands and thousands from purchasers and the household regulation agency, tax evasion and attempting to get a person to fatally shoot him so his surviving son might gather a $10 million life insurance coverage coverage. He was being held in jail with out bail on these counts earlier than he was charged with homicide.
Prosecutors launched little details about their case earlier than Wednesday. In a gap assertion, they sketched out a timeline of what they suppose occurred on the Murdaughs' home and close to the canine kennels on their 1,300-acre searching property June 7, 2021.
Waters stated Murdaugh advised investigators he was by no means on the kennels earlier than discovering his spouse and son's our bodies close to them after spending an hour away from the house checking on his mom, who has dementia.
Waters stated a video on Paul Murdaugh's cellphone has the voices of him, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh in it. Lower than 5 minutes later, Paul Murdaugh's cellphone was by no means used once more. Maggie Murdaugh's cellphone "locks ceaselessly" about 30 seconds later, Waters stated.
The prosecution stated ammunition cartridges discovered round Maggie Murdaugh's physique had markings that matched different cartridges fired at a variety on the property and different areas. The cartridges had been utilized in a kind of automated rifle that Alex Murdaugh purchased however cannot be accounted for, Waters stated.
Powder and residue left behind from a gun was present in a number of locations Alex Murdaugh was additionally at, the prosecutor stated.
Harpootlian stated all this was greedy at no matter proof may make Murdaugh look responsible and ignoring what did not match the speculation that he did it.
The residue got here when Murdaugh picked up a shotgun after checking his spouse and son for indicators of life and calling 911 in case their killers had been nonetheless on his property, Harpootlian stated.
Maggie Murdaugh's cellphone, for which her husband supplied the code investigators used to search out it the following day, confirmed it was being dumped on the facet of the street off the property on the identical time Alex Murdaugh's cellphone confirmed he began his truck simply exterior his dwelling, the protection lawyer stated.
Harpootlian advised the jury he would love to have the ability to inform them why somebody so brutally killed Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, however investigators ignored all different suspects and eventualities.
"We do not know why. He does not know why," Harpootlian stated, gesturing towards the prosecutor. "He is acquired theories of this and theories of that."
On the finish of the day, Alex Murdaugh shook his lawyer's arms after which regarded again the place his surviving son and brother had been seated behind him, He smiled and pointed at them.
He then walked to the facet door of the courtroom the place he might be taken to the Colleton County jail the place he's staying throughout his trial.