Alex Murdaugh cries as court shown video from dog kennels before murders
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Alex Murdaugh’s chilling final text to his wife moments after he allegedly killed her and their son was revealed in court during his murder trial on Tuesday.
Mr Murdaugh, the powerful heir to a prominent South Carolina legal dynasty, is accused of shooting dead Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, at the family’s estate in Islandton on 7 June 2021. He has pleaded not guilty.
Jurors were shown data from the cellphones of Maggie, Paul and Mr Murdaugh on the night of the murders.
Prosecutors say that Mr Murdaugh shot Paul first at 8.50pm and Maggie after.
Almost immediately after, cellphone data shows Mr Murdaugh made several calls to Maggie and other family members. His last text message to his wife came at 9.47pm, writing: “Call me babe.”
Minutes later, he called 911 claiming to have found their bodies.
Mr Murdaugh’s cousin also took the stand, testifying that the 54-year-old had purchased a number of guns from him in the years before the murders – guns that matched the one used to kill Maggie.
The trial is only one of Mr Murdaugh’s troubles in a saga spanning a botched hitman plot, multi-million-dollar fraud schemes, and unexplained deaths.
Live: Fifth day of testimony in Alex Murdaugh murder trial
Tomorrow morning Judge Newman will address the issue of the potential financial motives for the murders. He says he trusts that the state will be ready with evidence to show the connection.
Court is in recess until 9.30am on Thursday.
Redirect questioning begins.
Attorney Creighton Waters brings up the birthday video and points out Chris Wilson is present at the end — he is identified as Alex’s best friend.
Referring to the night of the murders, Mr Water brings up Mr Loving’s reaction of getting out of his house and driving to Charleston in the middle of the night when he became fearful for his own life having spoken with friends.
Next Mr Waters plays the Snapchat video Mr Loving was sent by Paul on the afternoon of 7 June 2021. He asked Mr Loving to identify Paul’s clothing and asks if he watched the video in real time that evening.
Mr Waters (jumping around again) asks about the family’s relationships and then quickly switches to asking multiple questions of Mr Loving about what he knows about the family’s finances, Alex’s debts, financial misdeeds including stolen client fees, and related topics.
Mr Loving says he does not know anything about those topics. Importantly the prosecution now has that on the record in front of the jury.
No further questions and the witness is excused.
Mr Loving recalls a visit to Moselle Road after the murders in which Alex Murdaugh was so emotional he couldn’t speak.
There were lots of friends of Paul’s present and a lot of crying — particularly from Alex who pulled him into a group hug.
Defence has no further questions.
Defence submits a video into evidence from Memorial Day Weekend that shows a birthday celebration for Alex.
We cannot see the footage but the audio is of people singing “Happy Birthday” to Alex and him saying thank you generally and specifically: “Thank you, baby.”
Mr Loving says he last saw Paul on Memorial Day Weekend 2021, about two weeks before the murders.
They were at the Edisto beach house with Alex and Maggie and some other friends.
He says that Alex and Paul had a great relationship, as did Alex and Maggie.
Cross-examination begins with defence attorney Jim Griffin questioning.
Mr Loving is asked about Snapchat and what Paul sent him and who could see it.
He says he could tell Paul was at Moselle in the Snapchat Paul posted as he knew the property.
Turning to firearms, Mr Loving confirms that Paul left a Blackout rifle at his home in Columbia and left a deer hunting gun at another friend’s place.
Mr Loving is asked about Paul leaving guns around the Moselle property and then the purchase of the scope for the 300BLK that did not have the optic attached.
He is unclear of exactly when the red-dot scope was bought or when they next used it after setting it up.
The defence produces a receipt from Ace Hardware for the scope, purchased on Saturday 6 March 2021. He had earlier said he believed the purchase was in later in March or early in April.
Mr Loving says if that was a Saturday, then they would have sighted it in that day and then used it on the first day of turkey season, some three weeks later.
Mr Loving is played the video of Cash the dog.
He says he can identify the voices of Paul, Maggie, and Alex Murdaugh on the video and, as with Mr Gibson, he is 100 per cent certain.
Mr Loving identifies Alex Murdaugh in the courtroom.
Direct examination concludes.
The prosecution skips around across various topics in this examination including how much Paul used his phone (a lot, and was a fast responder to texts); how he found out about the murders (from a cousin of Paul); and who did most of the shooting when they went out.
Mr Loving says he didn’t bring up the boat crash case and lawsuit with Paul.
He knew the house in Hampton had been sold and speculates it was to deal with legal bills from the cases.
Mr Loving is asked to identify various guns from the Moselle Road property, he is specifically asked about which ones are Paul’s and how he recognises them.
He is also asked if guns were kept around the kennels and he said that sometimes there were guns there but not often.
Mr Loving is asked if he spoke with Paul that day. He says Paul called him around dinner time and talked about wanting a hot tub for the place they were going to move into. Paul also sent him a Snapchat of him and Alex riding around the property at 7.56pm. The video of Cash sent to Mr Gibson was texted at 8.44pm.
He testifies that he got to know the family well and talks about Maggie’s love of her dogs, how she would walk, bike, or take a buggy down to the kennels and would walk them around the property.
