Prosecutors end their rebuttal after calling six witnesses in Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial | Act Daily News

Act Daily News
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State prosecutors rested their rebuttal case Tuesday after calling six witnesses to contradict components of Alex Murdaugh’s protection because the disgraced legal professional’s double homicide trial neared its finish.

Kenneth Kinsey, a criminal offense scene forensics professional, was the ultimate rebuttal witness and criticized the methodology of a protection professional who mentioned the shooter needed to have been between 5-foot-2 and 5-foot-4 in peak. (Alex Murdaugh is 6-foot-4.) Kinsey mentioned there have been too many variables to find out the shooter’s peak with any certainty, calling the evaluation “unscientific.”

Kinsey additionally criticized one other protection professional’s principle that there have been two shooters, saying the evaluation that led to that willpower was “preposterous.” He was questioned by South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, his first time questioning a witness within the case.

Other rebuttal witnesses included two attorneys who labored with Murdaugh, an area sheriff and the pathologist who performed the autopsies.

On Wednesday morning, the jury will go to Murdaugh’s sprawling property in Islandton generally known as Moselle, the place the our bodies of Murdaugh’s spouse, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, and son Paul Murdaugh had been discovered on June 7, 2021.

Closing arguments will observe afterward.

The rebuttal comes greater than a month into the homicide trial of Murdaugh, the 54-year-old disbarred private harm legal professional and member of a dynastic household in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, the place his father, grandfather and great-grandfather served because the native prosecutor consecutively from 1920 to 2006.

The prosecution rested its case two weeks in the past after calling 61 witnesses, and the protection rested its case Monday following testimony from 14 witnesses.

The most necessary witness was Murdaugh himself. Under oath, he admitted he had lied to police about his whereabouts on the evening of the murders and that he had in actual fact been on the canine kennels, close to the place his spouse and son had been discovered lifeless, shortly earlier than the killings. He blamed his lies on “paranoid thinking” stemming from his habit to painkillers.

“I don’t think I was capable of reason, and I lied about being down there, and I’m so sorry that I did,” Murdaugh mentioned.

Prosecutors have argued he killed his spouse and son to realize sympathy and distract from monetary misconduct allegations that the state says had been about to come back to mild earlier than the deadly shootings. Murdaugh certainly confessed to a decade of defrauding his authorized companions and shoppers – but denied killing his household.

“If I was under the pressure that they’re talking about here, I can promise you I would hurt myself before I would hurt one of them, without a doubt,” Murdaugh mentioned on the stand Friday.

He has pleaded not responsible to 2 counts of homicide and two weapons fees within the killings. He is individually going through 99 fees associated to alleged monetary crimes that shall be adjudicated later.

Six folks testified as rebuttal witnesses on Tuesday to push again on some protection witnesses.

Ronnie Crosby, an legal professional who labored with Murdaugh and testified for the prosecution three weeks in the past, spoke about what Murdaugh was like in courtroom.

“He was a theatrical-type presence in the courtroom and he could get very emotional during closing arguments in front of a jury,” Crosby testified Tuesday.

Dr. Ellen Riemer, a pathologist who performed the autopsies of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, returned to the stand to reject a protection professional’s assertion that Paul died from a shotgun contact wound to his head.

She reiterated her conclusion that Paul died from a blast to his left shoulder that entered his neck and exited his cranium.

The methodology of dying is related to the protection’s two-shooter principle. A protection crime scene professional argued Monday a shotgun contact wound to the pinnacle causes the cranium to violently explode, which might have briefly shocked and even injured the shooter. The professional mentioned it was unlikely that the identical shooter would have been in a position to get better and kill Maggie in such a brief period of time.

Thomas C. Smalls, who till not too long ago was sheriff of Hampton County, testified Tuesday that he had by no means had a dialogue with Murdaugh about putting in blue police lights in Murdaugh’s private automobile.

The testimony contradicted Murdaugh’s assertion final week that he acquired permission from Smalls to put in blue lights in his automobile. The prosecution used the blue lights to attempt to present Murdaugh had used his connections with police for his personal profit.

On cross-examination, Smalls mentioned he didn’t know if another person in his division might have accredited the lights and mentioned he had no data in any respect that Murdaugh had blue lights in his automobile.

Smalls additionally mentioned Murdaugh had not reported any threats associated to the boat case, wherein a 19-year-old lady was killed when a ship pushed by Paul Murdaugh crashed. Murdaugh has testified he believes the killings of his spouse and son had been in a roundabout way associated to threats the household had acquired in that case.

In their case, prosecutors sought to poke holes in Murdaugh’s account of the evening of the killings, utilizing mobile phone knowledge, video and different proof to recommend he tried to fabricate an alibi.

In the absence of direct proof connecting Murdaugh to the killings – no homicide weapon, bloody clothes or eyewitnesses – key arguments in his trial have revolved across the timeline of occasions and Murdaugh’s whereabouts the evening of June 7, 2021.

In specific, prosecutors used video filmed on the canine kennels shortly earlier than authorities say the killings befell to indicate Murdaugh was on the scene simply minutes earlier than the deadly shootings. Multiple witnesses testified that Murdaugh’s voice may be heard within the background of the video, which was filmed on Paul’s cellphone beginning at 8:44 p.m. In his testimony, Murdaugh admitted he was certainly there and had lied about it.

Murdaugh testified final week that he went all the way down to the kennels at Maggie’s request, however then returned to the home and laid down on a sofa. When he acquired up, he mentioned, he drove to go to his ailing mom at her residence in close by Almeda, earlier than returning to his property later that evening. Police say he referred to as 911 at 10:07 p.m. to report discovering the our bodies.

The protection has painted Murdaugh as a loving father and husband being wrongfully accused of the killings after what it says has been a mishandled investigation and crime scene.

Among the witnesses referred to as by Murdaugh’s attorneys had been his former authorized companion who testified the scene was not correctly secured, and a forensics professional who mentioned his evaluation suggests two shooters carried out the killings.

The protection has additional tried to ascertain that Maggie and Paul’s time of dying may have fallen in a for much longer time window than prosecutors have introduced.

Last week, Colleton County Coroner Richard Harvey testified that he estimated the time of dying to be round 9 p.m. – simply minutes after Murdaugh’s voice was captured on the video – primarily based partly on armpit checks he performed to really feel how heat the our bodies had been.

However, when requested by the protection if the pair may have been shot anytime between 8 or 10 p.m., Harvey mentioned sure.

A forensic pathologist, Jonathan Eisenstat, testified Monday that armpit temperature checks are “just not a valid method to try to make a determination of time of death,” calling the method “just a guess.”