Murdaugh Trial

Gern Blansten

This is a good summary (gift article) https://www.nytimes.com/article/murdaugh-murders-alex-paul.html?unlocked_article_code=DZ7Fvd731ABKN_bZTirMsazjGDt19Czv3lIVr58vFo6nu8rHuyJaVZu6Z7U-gy5fGP5mjm_WEpbVjn-ItCQeIsawJl2TuNZK4lCguHv6QvPVol6xfZaHVX4IrZapC-LQNHpkYGAoNqYEVmWcsiQI6OJqtm_AZWrfHXJzF1uTMPo8gDS8pgUK7VQUKArP8dMEcJodO4SHK4oywSWfgNmLeD3OxK8Ax7WwyP74zyFYC7AZFOib0JBdaFxp1aafUYI3HFr0Og57qQXYaECNS0G09Z8XOvzGoKeLsfZ13F0NOWLdsHAVrlfbwCjj2zlT32fnB_jT8VU1bASJ&smid=share-url

This guy is a complete piece of shit. This will be a great documentary some day.

Gern Blansten

How did a housekeeper die at the Murdaugh home in 2018?
In February 2018, Gloria Satterfield, who had worked as a nanny and housekeeper for Mr. Murdaugh and his family for more than 20 years, fell at their home and died from her injuries several weeks later.
After her funeral, Mr. Murdaugh introduced her two adult sons to a lawyer who he said would help them resolve the issues around their mother’s death, but the sons said in a recent lawsuit that they did not know that the lawyer, Cory Fleming, was a close friend of Mr. Murdaugh’s. Mr. Fleming reached a $4.3 million settlement with Mr. Murdaugh and his insurers that was supposed to send about $2.8 million to Ms. Satterfield’s sons after lawyer’s fees, but the sons said in September 2021 that they had learned about the deal only recently and never got any money.
In October, the police arrested Mr. Murdaugh on charges stemming from the missing settlement funds — this time apprehending him at a detox center in Orlando, Fla. He was charged with two counts of obtaining property by false pretenses, a felony with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Mr. Murdaugh admitted in June 2022 that he owed her sons the full settlement plus lawyers’ fees, $4.3 million in all.
The police are also looking into the cause of Ms. Satterfield’s death. Her family had long presumed, based on the Murdaugh family’s accounts, that she had tripped over their dogs and fallen down the front steps of their home. But the coroner was not notified about her death and no autopsy was done. Her death is also listed as “natural” on her death certificate, which is at odds with an accidental fall.
The police said in June 2022 that they planned to exhume Ms. Satterfield’s body after receiving permission from her family.

I completely forgot about the housekeeper....unreal

The Juggler

MURDAUGH WAS THE CASE THAT THEY GAVE ME

Halifax2TheMax

I look forward to the Coen Brothers movie.

Halifax2TheMax

Oh boy. And don’t forget the former married repub governor who had wanderlust while banging the woman from Argentina and is now a sitting member of the House, I believe. What a country.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/01/23/the-corrupt-world-behind-the-murdaugh-murders

Gern Blansten

Halifax2TheMax said:

I look forward to the Coen Brothers movie.

yeah that would be right up their alley

Gern Blansten

Murdaugh might take the stand tomorrow....interesting

pjhawks

Gern Blansten said:

Murdaugh might take the stand tomorrow....interesting

That would be a bad move in my opinion. can only hurt him I think.  From all I've heard gonna be hard to convict him with the evidence presented so far.  I think he is guilty but I think it ends up with a hung jury at the very least.  

Gern Blansten

There is a Netflix doc available today regarding Murdaugh....definitely checking that out.

Gern Blansten

I watched the first two episodes of the doc last night....very informative. It's amazing how much security cam and/or body cam footage they have of the boating accident. Very sad too. The guys with Paul should have beat the shit out of him and drove the boat himself. He was three times the legal limit.

Gern Blansten

https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/mallory-beach-boat-crash-death-alex-murdaugh-family/16/

Pretty good info here. 

At the hospital Alex Murdaugh was trying to create confusion in order to save his son from a manslaughter charge. He kept trying to push the idea that Paul wasn't driving the boat. What an absolute piece of shit.

Gern Blansten

I'll say this....dude sounds believable on the stand. Prosecution is going to light him on fire though.

Dan Abrams made a good point and said that a defendant that provides a lot of detail on the stand is a sign of lying. Murdaugh is offering up all kinds of useless information.

Enkidu

I thought many of his comments today seemed totally scripted.  "My wife.  You've seen photos of her.  She was as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside."  

My first day watching the trial.  

Gern Blansten

Enkidu said:

I thought many of his comments today seemed totally scripted.  "My wife.  You've seen photos of her.  She was as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside."  

My first day watching the trial.  

Could be....I can honestly say that he might be innocent but we'll see what the prosecution gets out of him.

Interesting that there were no life insurance policies on his wife and son. The obvious motive for him would have been life insurance proceeds. 

This could be a case where Paul just pissed off the wrong person and his mom just so happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Gern Blansten

So the motive (it seems) was avoiding a costly divorce by offing Maggie and avoiding massive attorney fees for Paul in his upcoming trial.

Insane case. He admitted to being at the kennels at 845pm. Est time of death was 9pm I believe.

The netflix doc is really good. It lays out the connections with the Smith murder and the death of the housekeeper.

Enkidu

It's so crazy - the idea that 5 (5!) people around AM have died under strange circumstances.  


I heard the Netflix doc was good, I should watch it.  I think I saw the HBO one.

Halifax2TheMax

Enkidu said:

It's so crazy - the idea that 5 (5!) people around AM have died under strange circumstances.  


I heard the Netflix doc was good, I should watch it.  I think I saw the HBO one.

Read the New Yorker article about the town where he lives and the environs. I will not be surprised one bit if he gets off. Not in the least. 

cblock4life

The entire time he was denying that he shot his wife and child he was nodding his head yes.  

Gern Blansten

Enkidu said:

It's so crazy - the idea that 5 (5!) people around AM have died under strange circumstances.  


I heard the Netflix doc was good, I should watch it.  I think I saw the HBO one.

I didn't realize there was an HBO doc....the Netflix one is only two episodes. It basically leads up to the present

Funny phone conversation with Buster...Alex says "is there a Netflix show about this?"

Gern Blansten

The testimony yesterday where they asked Alex about wearing that badge to the hospital (after the boat crash) was interesting. The netflix doc puts that in perspective.

The Juggler

I know next to nothing about this but planning on watching the doc tonight.

Should I read up on it first or go in fresh like Frank Costanza?

Gern Blansten

The Juggler said:

I know next to nothing about this but planning on watching the doc tonight.

Should I read up on it first or go in fresh like Frank Costanza?

I would start with the Netflix doc. I haven't seen the HBO but I plan to watch it asap.

Netflix will tell you everything though. Very well done

Gern Blansten

One thing that was interesting was Paul using Buster's ID to buy booze....they looked enough alike that it worked. Paul had a major drinking problem and had been rescued at least once by his parent's for drunk driving. I can't believe they didn't supervise him better.

Halifax2TheMax

The Juggler said:

I know next to nothing about this but planning on watching the doc tonight.

Should I read up on it first or go in fresh like Frank Costanza?

Read this first so you can have a feel for the environs. Short read.

The Corrupt World Behind the Murdaugh Murders | The New Yorker

Gern Blansten

wow...prosecution rests

I figured they would grill him a few more days.

Lerxst1992

Gern Blansten said:

wow...prosecution rests

I figured they would grill him a few more days.

It seems like this may be  guy that did the crime but when prosecutors are guessing about motives and changing their theories during the cross, very unsettling about the US justice system.

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/alex-murdaugh-trial-updates-feb-24-381d8e4ffe0b6848308f4c7335da218e

 

Crime

Prosecutor: Alex Murdaugh 'fuzzy' about new details of case

By JEFFREY COLLINS

1 hour ago

Disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh faced intense questioning about his movements the night his wife and son were killed as the prosecutor challenged inconsistencies in his memory Friday at his double murder trial.

A day after revealing for the first time that he was at the kennels where his wife and son were shot shortly before they died, Murdaugh returned to the stand in his own defense. During cross-examination, prosecutor Creighton Waters grilled Murdaugh about what he repeatedly called the once-prominent lawyer's “new story” about what happened at the kennels on the evening June 7, 2021.

Waters asked Murdaugh if he meant what he told the jury Thursday — that he tried to help police find the killers.

“Other than lying to them about going to the kennels, I was cooperative in every aspect of this investigation," Murdaugh said.

“Very cooperative except maybe the most important fact of all, that you were at the murder scene with the victims just minutes before they died," Waters replied.

For 20 months, Murdaugh insisted that he was never at the kennels. But after more than a year, state agents hacked his son’s iPhone and found a video with Alex Murdaugh’s voice less than five minutes before the victims stopped using their cellphones and prosecutors think they were shot.

---

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Murdaugh, 54, is charged with murder in the deaths of his wife, Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, but has steadfastly denied any involvement. He faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted.

Waters ended his cross-examination by rattling off the names of about four dozen people — starting with Maggie and Paul Murdaugh and running through his family, friends, law partners, clients and police. He asked Alex Murdaugh if he lied to them and Murdaugh agreed on most.

“And you want this jury to believe a story manufactured to fit the evidence that you brought forth just yesterday after hearing a trial’s worth of testimony?” Waters asked.

The prosecutor then showed body camera video of the first officer to respond to the shooting. With the bodies of his wife and son visible, Murdaugh said he hadn’t seen them for 45 minutes before he left his home.

Disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh testified at his double murder trial Friday that he knew he was doing wrong by stealing settlement money from his clients. (Feb. 24)

Waters also pushed Murdaugh for more details about what happened during the kennel visit, noting that this was all new to investigators since he only admitted it in court Thursday.

The timing, including cellphone and car-tracking data, is a key component. The video ended just before 8:46 p.m. and both Paul and Maggie Murdaugh stopped using their cellphones about three minutes later.

Murdaugh couldn't remember how long he was at the kennels, whether he got blood on his hands pulling a dead chicken from a dog's mouth or the last words he would ever say to his son and his wife.

“There would have been some exchange,” Murdaugh said.

Waters said it appeared Murdaugh remembered a lot of specifics when the details were critical, but not when they might get him in trouble.

“You disagree with my characterization that you have a photographic memory about the details that have to fit now that you know these facts but you're fuzzy about the other stuff that complicates that?" Waters said.

For the first time, Murdaugh blamed anger on social media aimed at his son for the killings. Paul Murdaugh had been involved in a boat wreck that killed a teenager and was charged with boating under the influence. He mentioned the boat crash when the first investigators asked if he could think of any suspects.

Murdaugh said his son was the subject of vile “half-truths, half-reports, half-statements, partial information” online.

“I believe then and I believe today that the wrong person saw and read that because I can tell you for a fact the person or people who did what I saw on June the 7th — they hated Paul Murdaugh and they had anger in their heart,” Alex Murdaugh said.

Waters told Murdaugh that explanation defied logic, asking if Murdaugh was telling the jury that his wife and son were killed by random vigilantes who knew “they would be at the kennels alone on June 7, knew that you would not be there, but only between the times of 8:49 and 9:02.”

“You've got a lot of factors in there, Mr. Waters, all of which I do not agree with, but some of which I do,” Murdaugh said.

Murdaugh said Friday that after the brief kennel visit, he returned to the family's house about 1,150 feet (350 meters) away on a golf cart, lay down for a few minutes and then got up to get ready to visit his ailing mother about 9:02 p.m., a time verified by step data on his cellphone, which he didn't take to the kennels.

Waters asked Murdaugh if a flurry of steps and a series of unanswered phone calls he started making to his wife and son at 9:02 p.m., after no activity was detected on his phone for nearly an hour, was a way a lawyer and volunteer prosecutor could begin crafting a story to show he couldn’t be the killer.

“I never manufactured any alibi in any way shape or form because I did not and would not hurt my wife and my child.”

Prosecutors have said Murdaugh killed his wife and son to gain sympathy to buy time because his financial misdeeds were about to be discovered. During his testimony, he has admitted to stealing from clients.

Murdaugh is charged with about 100 other crimes, ranging from stealing from clients to tax evasion. He is being held without bail on those charges, so even if he is found not guilty of the killings, he will not walk out of court a free man. If convicted of most or all of those financial crimes, Murdaugh would likely spend decades in prison.

Gern Blansten

I thought it was good of the prosecution to play the video of his initial interview at the police station...he started giving his story (which omitted that he was at the kennel at 849) and the prosecutor pointed out how he lied to the police immediately.

Halifax2TheMax

Gift article on the “estate” the jurors get to visit.

https://wapo.st/3kDyUC4

Halifax2TheMax

Guilty. I'm shocked, shocked I tell you.

Enkidu

When I heard the jury came back in under 3 hours I thought - yep, they're bought and paid for.  Not guilty.

Husband thought the opposite.  "They're gonna fry him."  And he was right.  (He's always right, you know.)