Editor’s Note: The HBO docuseries “Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty” chronicles the household’s affect in South Carolina. It airs on Act Daily News Sunday, February 19, at 8 p.m. ET.
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The jury in Alex Murdaugh’s double homicide trial noticed footage Wednesday from an important interview he had with state investigators the place he was requested for the primary time if he killed his spouse and son.
The interview on August 11, 2021, was the third Murdaugh had with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, which was investigating the murders of his spouse, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, and grown son, Paul Murdaugh, three months earlier, in line with testimony Wednesday by SLED agent Lt. David Owen.
The interview was about to finish when Owen informed Murdaugh he had “a few more questions.”
“Did you kill Maggie?” Owen requested, in line with the footage performed in courtroom.
“No,” Murdaugh mentioned. “Did I kill my wife? No, David.”
“Do you know who did?”
“No, I do not know who did,” Murdaugh mentioned.
“Did you kill Paul?”
“No, I did not kill Paul,” Murdaugh mentioned.
“Do you know who did?”
“No, sir, I do not know who did,” Murdaugh mentioned. “Do you think I killed Maggie?”
“I have to go where the evidence and the facts take me,” Owen mentioned.
“I understand that. And you think I killed Paul?”
“I have to go where the evidence and the facts take me,” Owen mentioned once more. “And I don’t have anything that points to anybody else at this time.”
“So does that mean that I am a suspect?”
Owen informed Murdaugh he was “still in this,” including, “I have to put my beliefs aside, and go with the facts.”
Owen’s testimony Wednesday comes because the state nears the top of its case, during which prosecutors contend Murdaugh killed his spouse and son to distract from a mountain of alleged monetary crimes he had dedicated and to stave off a “day of reckoning” when these crimes may come to gentle.
The protection maintains Murdaugh – who has pleaded not responsible to 2 counts of homicide and two weapons fees within the killings – was a loving father and husband who referred to as 911 the night time of the killings after he discovered his spouse and son shot on the household’s property in Islandton, South Carolina, a property generally known as Moselle.
At the time of the August 11, 2021, interview, Murdaugh was “the only known suspect” within the murders, Owen testified Wednesday.
The case was transferred that very same day from the native solicitor to the Attorney General’s Office, which has been prosecuting the case because of the Murdaugh household’s lengthy ties with the native solicitor: Three generations of Murdaughs served because the 14th Circuit Solicitor over about 87 years.
Murdaugh’s statements in the course of the August 2021 interview have been voluntary, Owen testified Wednesday. Murdaugh needed to ask SLED brokers questions concerning the investigation, Owen mentioned, and the agent informed him he needed to ask Murdaugh some questions, too. Murdaugh indicated he was comfy answering the brokers’ questions.
Murdaugh claimed to regulation enforcement he final noticed Maggie and Paul earlier within the night of the murders. They ate dinner collectively earlier than Murdaugh took a nap after which drove to Almeda to go to his mom. He found the our bodies of his spouse and son, he mentioned, when he returned residence and referred to as 911 at 10:07 p.m.
The footage performed in courtroom Wednesday confirmed SLED brokers confronting Murdaugh about proof that appeared to contradict his earlier statements to regulation enforcement.
It was the primary time, Owen testified, that Murdaugh was confronted with the truth that Paul’s buddy, Rogan Gibson, mentioned he heard Murdaugh’s voice within the background of a cellphone name he had with Paul that night time, shortly earlier than the murders befell.
“You were heard in the background, and that was prior to 9 p.m. … Was it you?” Owen requested Murdaugh, per the footage proven in courtroom Tuesday.
“At nine o’clock? No, sir,” Murdaugh mentioned, “not if my times are right.”
“Who do you think it could have been?”
“I have no idea.”
“And Rogan’s been around your family for pretty much all his life,” Owen mentioned, one thing Murdaugh agreed with. “And he recognizes your voice, and you have a distinct voice. Can you think of anybody else that has a voice similar to yours that he may have misinterpreted?”
“No, sir.”
Months later, investigators found a video on Paul’s cellphone that he filmed instantly after that decision, at 8:44 p.m. within the space of the household’s canine kennels, close to the place the our bodies have been discovered. Multiple witnesses at trial have recognized Murdaugh’s voice, together with Maggie’s and Paul’s, in that video, contradicting Murdaugh’s statements to investigators he had not gone to the kennels earlier than discovering the our bodies.
The footage performed Wednesday additionally confirmed the brokers confront Murdaugh about one other piece of footage filmed by Paul the night time of the killings: A Snapchat video exhibiting Murdaugh a sapling on the household’s property. In it, Murdaugh is seen sporting pants and a blue shirt. But later, he was sporting shorts and a white T-shirt.
“There’s a video on Paul’s phone of you and him on the farm that night. You’re wearing khaki pants and a dress shirt … When I met you that night, you were in shorts and a T-shirt,” Owen mentioned. “At what point in the evening did you change clothes?”
“I’m not sure,” Murdaugh mentioned. “What time of day was that? I would have thought I would have already changed.”
Testimony in latest days equally undermined statements Murdaugh made to SLED in the course of the August 2021 interview – specifically, that Maggie determined to go to Moselle the night time of the killings as a result of she was apprehensive about him and his father, whose well being was deteriorating.
Two witnesses disagree: On Tuesday, Maggie’s sister testified it was Murdaugh who needed Maggie to come back to Moselle. Maggie was staying within the household’s Edisto Beach property and didn’t need to go to Islandton, Marian Proctor mentioned, recalling a dialog that they had the day of the murders.
Proctor inspired Maggie to go, she mentioned, breaking down in courtroom.
Blanca Simpson, a household housekeeper, equally testified final week that Maggie informed her the day of the murders that Alex had requested each Maggie and Paul to come back to Moselle that night time.
Earlier Wednesday, Judge Clifton Newman dominated in opposition to permitting testimony concerning the roadside capturing in September 2021 during which Murdaugh claimed he requested one other man to shoot him so his surviving son may receive thousands and thousands in life insurance coverage.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters argued the roadside capturing confirmed a “consciousness of guilt,” pointing to the defendant’s preliminary statements to regulation enforcement he had been focused by an unknown assailant after Murdaugh pulled over to deal with a flat tire. This led individuals to consider, Waters mentioned, that Maggie and Paul’s killers had come again to focus on Alex and so he couldn’t be answerable for their deaths.
Waters additionally argued the roadside capturing illustrated a “symmetry” with the murders of Maggie and Paul: Both shootings occurred quickly after members of Murdaugh’s former regulation agency confronted him about stealing from the agency and its shoppers.
Defense legal professional Dick Harpootlian opposed the inclusion of the testimony, saying it confirmed responsible data not of the killings however of the monetary crimes, for which Murdaugh, now disbarred, faces 99 fees separate from the homicide case.
Newman dominated that, whereas he allowed proof of Murdaugh’s alleged monetary crimes to point out motive, the roadside capturing could be a “bridge too far” and “does not meet the logical relevancy test.”
Murdaugh later informed authorities he conspired with a former shopper to kill him as a part of an insurance coverage fraud scheme, courtroom paperwork present, purportedly so his son Buster may acquire the payout. Murdaugh believed, Harpootlian would inform NBC’s “Today Show,” that his life insurance coverage coverage had a suicide exclusion.
Murdaugh was charged with insurance coverage fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance coverage fraud and submitting a false police report in connection to the capturing. The shooter, Curtis Edward Smith, was charged with assisted suicide; conspiracy to commit insurance coverage fraud; pointing and presenting a firearm; and assault and battery of a excessive and aggravated nature, in line with authorities.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division later described the harm as a “superficial gunshot wound to the head.”
Source: www.cnn.com