Murdaugh Trial

pjhawks

Halifax2TheMax said:

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

I am shocked. Thought hung jury was gonna happen.  I think he hung himself by taking the stand.  Made him look so bad 

Gern Blansten

His reaction proves his guilt in my opinion. No fucking way after all that crying on the stand that he accepts that guilty verdict without a "I didn't fucking do it" reaction.

tempo_n_groove

Halifax2TheMax said:

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

I wasn't following this too much but then I heard a piece of evidence that lost all of his credibility.  The son filed his dad in the background of somewhere he claimed to never be at.  That is the smoking gun.

Something I didn't understand also was no gunpowder residue on his hands?  Was that ever discussed?

Gern Blansten

tempo_n_groove said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

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

I wasn't following this too much but then I heard a piece of evidence that lost all of his credibility.  The son filed his dad in the background of somewhere he claimed to never be at.  That is the smoking gun.

Something I didn't understand also was no gunpowder residue on his hands?  Was that ever discussed?

Yes....no blood splatter either. I think the theory is that he washed himself off after the shooting using the hose. The guy that helped take care of the place said that they hose had been moved from where he left it and I believe some of the crime scene photos show water all over the concrete which might not have seemed too unusual given the kennels.

He must have cleaned himself off, taken the golf cart back to the house, changed clothes, then took the guns and his dirty clothes and ditched them somewhere between his house and his parents house before coming back and calling 911.

The medical assistant at his parents house said he acted normal....fucking psycho

They made a big focus on where the clothes were that he was wearing in the snapchat video. They couldn't be located which served as evidence that he must have disposed of them.

mickeyrat

damn. sentenced to life without parole. already......

Gern Blansten

Interesting point that I just heard. The fucking dog is the one that convicted him. If the dog wouldn't have had a chicken in his mouth Alex might not have appeared on that incriminating video at all.

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/alex-murdaugh-murder-trial-jurors-b7f990117621fbbf670ddf9e57e117b2

 

Legal proceedings Homicide

Murdaugh testimony only confirmed his guilt, jurors say

By REBECCA REYNOLDS and JEFFREY COLLINS

Today

Alex Murdaugh didn't help his defense when he took the stand at his trial for the murder of his wife and son, three jurors said on Monday.

Murdaugh's testimony only managed to cement what they were already thinking — that he easily lied and could turn on and off his tears at will, the jurors said on the NBC Today show.

The key piece of evidence in finding the lawyer guilty, they said, was a video on his son’s cellphone that was shot minutes before the killings at the same kennels near where the bodies were found at their sprawling estate in rural South Carolina.

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Murdaugh's voice can be heard on the video even though he insisted for 20 months that he hadn’t been at the kennels that night. Investigators didn’t see the video for more than a year before advances in hacking enabled them to unlock Paul Murdaugh’s iPhone. They shared it with the defense ahead of the trial.

When he took the stand, the first thing Murdaugh did was admit he had lied to investigators about being at the kennels, saying he was paranoid of law enforcement because he was addicted to opioids and had pills in his pocket the night of the killings.

“The kennel video, that just kind of sealed the deal,” juror Gwen Generette said.

The jury deliberated for less than three hours Thursday before finding Murdaugh guilty of killing his 22-year-old son, Paul, with two shotgun blasts and his 52-year-old wife, Maggie, with four or five rifle shots.

The now-disbarred lawyer maintained his innocence when he was sentenced Friday to spend the rest of his life in prison for the murders.

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Murdaugh was convicted in the same court circuit where his father, grandfather and great-grandfather tried cases as the elected prosecutor for more than 80 years. Murdaugh’s family founded the area’s most powerful law firm a century ago. For decades, that meant that practically anyone who ended up in court on either side of the law in Colleton or Hampton counties would have a Murdaugh watching their back or staring them down.

His background was part of the reason jurors didn't find his testimony believable.

“We already know that he’s a lawyer. He's able to be emotional with cases. He’s able to be emotional with himself. He knows ... when to turn it on and off. So I think that we were able to read right through that,” juror James McDowell said.

Prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty, and the judge handed down the harshest possible sentence he could — consecutive life sentences without parole.

Murdaugh admitted stealing millions of dollars from the family firm and clients, saying he needed the money to fund his drug habit. Before he was charged with murder, Murdaugh was in jail awaiting trial on about 100 other charges, ranging from insurance fraud to tax evasion.

Defense attorneys said they will base an appeal largely on the judge's decision to allow jurors to hear evidence of crimes Murdaugh has not been convicted of, which they say smeared his reputation.

After six intense weeks at the courthouse in Walterboro, key players returned to their normal lives.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters, whose love of the guitar was a favorite bit of chatter among true crime fans, tweeted a video of himself jamming. Judge Clifton Newman was seen in a courtside seat rooting for South Carolina to win the Southeastern Conference title in women's basketball.

And defense lawyer Jim Griffin, admonished during the trial for tweeting an opinion piece criticizing the investigation, returned to Twitter with a post that said “Walterboro, you were a gracious host. Happy Trails.” He included a photo of his head stuck through the hole of a painting of a cowboy riding a chicken, with “I was at the Murdaugh trial” written at the top.