The Alex Murdaugh case
According to the accusation, Alex Murdaguh54 years old, son of a wealthy family in the south of the country, he stole vast amounts of money from his cabinet, his friends, and even his housekeeper’s son, and executed their relatives to avoid discovery.
“He fooled the whole world” But “don’t be fooled” by this “master con man,” prosecutor Creighton Waters told jurors Wednesday, asking them to convict him.
“Why would he have killed the two people he loves most in the world?” his lawyer Jim Griffin responded Thursday, denouncing an “absurd theory”, before asking for his acquittal, highlighting the absence of material evidence.
Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22, were shot to death on June 7, 2021 near the kennel on their sprawling South Carolina estate, named Moselle.
The jurors visited the farm on Thursday to better understand the layout of the place. It was the first time in a month and a half that television cameras were unable to film a proceeding of this trial.
The case fascinates the United States, where the media, even the most serious, investigate the life of this opulent family, proud of its three generations of local prosecutors and judges.
The documentary on Netflix
documentary about the case “The Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal”, It is among the most viewed on Netflix, with 40 million views in the country last week.
Throughout the trial, news networks broadcast live the parade of defrauded colleagues and friends, who recounted how Alex Murdaugh stole millions of dollars from them without their knowledge.
Murdaugh recognized these frauds, which he associates with bad investments and an addiction to opiates, and for which he will later be tried for the double homicide.
The shadows over Alex began after a young woman died in a boat accident piloted by her son under the influence of alcohol in 2019. With the lawsuit underway, the court sought to know the state of the father’s finances to find out if he could pay possible damages.
“The whole illusion of his life was going to fall apart, he couldn’t take it,” said prosecutor Waters.
For the official, Murdaugh murdered his relatives to buy time before attempting suicide. In early September, he asked an accomplice to kill him so his son would receive $10 million in life insurance. But the bullet barely grazed him.
According to the prosecutor, Alex Murdaugh used his professional experience to tamper with the crime scene, by changing his clothes or erasing his conversation history, the prosecutor responded. He also “manufactured an alibi” by visiting his senile mother and making calls right after the crime, Creighton Waters said.
“But there’s one thing he couldn’t control,” the prosecutor said. A video recorded by his son minutes before he died, in which his father’s voice is heard, despite the fact that he always denied having been near the kennel that day.
Last week, in the midst of grueling testimony, the defendant admitted to having lied, which he attributed to his drug dependence, but continued to deny having committed the double homicide.
Source: Ambito
