Opening statements have begun in the trial ofAlex Murdaugh, the once-prominent South Carolina attorney accused offatally shootinghis wife,Maggie, and son,Paul.
In court on Wednesday afternoon, Prosecutor Creighton Waters told jurors that cell phone evidence will play a vital role in the trial — and will prove that Murdaugh, 54, was present at the scene of the murders.
Specifically, Waters claimed that Paul Murdaugh took a cell phone video at 8:44:55 on the evening of June 7, 2021. That video, taken near the dog kennels on the family’s 1,100-acre hunting ranch, picked up the voices of Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh. Three minutes later, Paul Murdaugh’s cell phone was locked and wasn’t used again that night.
Alex Murdaugh.Hampton County Detention Center/AP/Shutterstock
Prosecutors say that Alex Murdaugh shot and killed his wife and son at approximately 8:49 p.m., just minutes after the video was taken. Then, they say, he called his wife’s phone after her death in an effort to create an alibi.
But the defense says that he prosecution’s timeline is incorrect, and that Paul and Maggie were killed sometime after Alex Murdaugh had left the scene.
Murdaugh claims he left his house at approximately 9 p.m. to visit his ailing mother. When he arrived back at the home around 10 p.m., he called 911 and told the dispatcher that he had found his wife and son’s bodies.
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Alex Murdaugh.Tracy Glantz/The State via ZUMA
Paul was shot in the chest and head with a shotgun at close range. Maggie was shot multiple times, including one shot in the back and additional shots while she was lying on the ground. She had been shot with 300 Blackout ammo from an AR-style rifle. Both of them were pronounced dead at the scene.
The murders of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh have shaken the community of Islandton, South Carolina where the Murdaughs were a prominent legal dynasty.
Alex Murdaugh is currently facing two counts of murder and two weapons charges in this trial. He has pleaded not guilty.
During the defense opening statements, attorney Dick Harpootlian said that the prosecution was incorrect, and that Murdaugh was a “loving husband and doting father” who would never kill his family.
The trial is expected to last for at least three weeks.
source: people.com
