‘Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal’ is a docuseries, the basis for which was Alex Murdaugh’s trial

The Audiotapes of Alex Murdaugh During the Night of the Killings, Revealed by a Witness Wednesday

Prosecutors believe one of those voices belongs to Murdaugh, and that voice is the only other on the video besides the victims and places him at the scene at the time of the murders. The witness Wednesday backed up that claim.

The video, just short of a minute long, was filmed on Paul’s phone starting at 8:44 p.m. the night of the killings, according to Lt. The supervisor in the computer crimes center at the Law Enforcement Division was responsible for obtaining the data from the phones of Murdaugh and his family. In his review of the trio’s phones, the footage was the only video or photo Dove deemed relevant to the investigation, he said, telling the court it appeared to be recorded in the area of the Murdaugh family’s kennels.

Dove said different voices could be heard in the footage. And while Dove did not personally know the voices, he said, “You can tell that they’re different voices.”

Rogan Gibson, who described himself as a close friend of Paul’s and the Murdaughs as being like a second family, told investigators shortly after the killings that along with the voices of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, he was “99% sure” the third person heard was Alex Murdaugh. Last November, he told investigators that he was 100% sure, and repeated that in court Wednesday.

There was audio in the background of a video taken at 8:44 p.m. by Paul that shows Murdaugh going to the kennels that night.

After Murdaugh admitted that he lied to investigators, his attorneys have to convince the jury that he is telling the truth when he says he left the property that night and returned later to find his wife and son dead.

Dick Harpootlian stated in his opening statements that the audio showed that Murdaugh and his wife had a normal discussion. Harpoonlian claimed that Paul is happy. “Nobody’s down there threatening him. Daddy is not using a shotgun to kill him.

Prosecutors want the court to believe Murdaugh killed his wife and son to distract from his financial crimes, so they won’t come to light.

Murdaugh testified that on the night his son and wife were killed, he stepped out of his house after dinner to attend to the dogs in the kennels, after which he went back inside his house and laid down on a couch.

In his testimony Tuesday, Dove, the 15th witness called by the prosecution, detailed the communications of Maggie’s phone the night of the killings, including a text from Alex at 9:47 p.m. that read, “Call me babe.” It was never read.

In his opening statement last week, Waters told the jury Murdaugh repeatedly called his wife that evening before texting her that he was going to visit his mother and driving to Almeda, South Carolina.

Correspondence to Murdaugh, Wilson, and Satterfield during a Meet and greet with the jury in Los Alamos, Saudi Arabia,

The display of his phone was turned off a short time later. At 8:54 p.m., the orientation changed to landscape and the camera activated – an indication, Dove said, the phone was moved and the camera tried to locate Maggie’s face in an unsuccessful attempt to unlock.

Dove said it would appear that way, noting there wasn’t any way to know when the calls were deleted or who was responsible.

Dove stated that the only way to remove the callsfrom the log would be to do it manually.

This behavior appeared to be outside Murdaugh’s typical texting habits, Dove testified, saying Murdaugh typically had a habit of checking texts within 5 minutes, or sometimes 30 to 40 minutes.

The evidence presented Friday showed Paul confronted his father about his addiction to prescription drugs a month before he and his mother were killed.

The conversation occurred in September 2021, three months after the deaths of Murdaugh’s wife and son and after Murdaugh’s law firm said it had discovered extensive financial wrongdoing.

Wilson also testified he spoke with Murdaugh on the phone at 9:11 p.m., 9:20 p.m. and 9:53 p.m. on June 7, 2021, around the time of the murders. In the short conversations, nothing sounded out of the ordinary, Wilson said.

For the defense, the financial evidence amounts to little more than “speculation” and “conjecture,” defense attorney Dick Harpootlian has argued. They have highlighted Murdaugh’s loving relationships with his family and ridiculed the prosecution’s focus on what they are framing as irrelevant financial misconduct charges.

He and Murdaugh had worked on a personal injury case together and won a verdict of $5.5 million, with each attorney earning about $792,000. Wilson did as Murdaugh asked, and wrote the check to him rather than his law firm.

A judge allowed prosecutors to bring up allegations that Murdaugh took huge amounts of money from his clients and friends. Newman said the defense “opened the door” by asking witnesses about Murdaugh’s character and possible motive.

Michael “Tony” Satterfield testified in court that he was lied to by Murdaugh.

Satterfield said that his family heard about the settlement through media reports. He said that Murdaugh told him that it was ready to settle by the end of the year after he asked about it.

Murdaugh’s case against a murder-for-hire defendant in Palmetto, California, on the day of reckoning

According to the CEO of a local bank, Murdaugh’s account was in the process of being overdrafted. In August 2021, Murdaugh had a debt of $4.2 million, according to the CEO of Palmetto State Bank.

The testimony continued after Tinsley ended on the stand. He represents the family of the 19-year-old Beach, who was killed when a boat owned by Alex Murdaugh and allegedly driven by Paul Murdaugh crashed.

June 25: Alex Murdaugh and his other son, Buster, announce a $100,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the person or persons responsible for the killings of Maggie and Paul.

Tinsley was asked about the lawsuit by the prosecution on Thursday. He was told that Murdaugh might only be able to come up with $1 million, so he was trying to get $10 million from him. Tinsley was not cross-examined Thursday and is expected to resume his testimony Friday morning.

The CFO testified that they weren’t going to go in there and harass him about money when they were worried about his mental state.

Indeed, that “day of reckoning” didn’t come for another three months, when his law firm again confronted him about misappropriated funds, leading to his resignation, a bizarre murder-for-hire and insurance scam plot, a stint in rehab, dozens of financial crimes, his disbarment and, ultimately, the murder charges.

When Alex Murdaugh and his family went to the Islandton Estate, Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson left a South Carolina courthouse

Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson was asked by Murdaugh to clean the house the way he would have liked. She testified the house had no crime-scene tape, and she washed a towel and khaki pants she found on the floor. She said that investigators came inside but did not question her.

Turrubiate- Simpson said that she told him that she was worried about the amount of money that they were requesting in the lawsuit. “She said she knew the amount of money they were asking.

Turrubiate-Simpson said that the man said there would be people coming and bringing food. He said that he wanted the house to look like it would look in Maggie’s mind. So I went to the house after I said okay.

Prosecutors rested their case Friday after calling more than 60 witnesses to bolster their argument that Alex Murdaugh shot and killed his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, and son Paul Murdaugh at the family’s Islandton estate in June 2021 in an attempt to distract from financial misconduct allegations against him.

The Murdaugh relatives had to sit farther back in the South Carolina courtroom due to inappropriate conduct, the clerk of court said.

In court Wednesday, Alex Murdaugh’s sister Lynn Murdaugh Goettee passed him a book through a member of his defense team. It was not shared with the victim’s advocate, and Goettee had been admonished just five minutes before that, a source with knowledge of the incident told CNN.

The book was considered contraband because it was not clear what was in it, the source said, adding Murdaugh was already back in his jail cell with it before anybody could check it. The book – John Grisham’s “The Judge’s List” – was later confiscated.

Hill said the younger Murdaugh was reprimanded for the incident. Lynn Murdaugh Goettee and Buster Murdaugh have been warned that any more violations will result in them being barred from the courtroom.

On Wednesday, testimony was halted when a bomb threat was phoned into the clerk’s office and the Courthouse in Walterboro was evacuated, Hill said. The court resumed after hours.

Legal teams on Thursday offered a glimpse into the remaining trial schedule: Closing arguments could start around February 23, based on attorneys’ estimates – weeks after Friday’s originally scheduled end date.

The state hoped to rest its case by the middle of next week, prosecutor Creighton Waters said, while the defense will need at least a week, defense attorney Dick Harpootlian said, noting it could be on the shorter side because of how long testimony already has lasted.

Harpkotlian pointed out that the length of the case is making it difficult and expensive to schedule out of state experts who would need travel and lodging. The state so far has called 44 witnesses and introduced more than 400 exhibits of evidence.

He said that he wanted the judge to allow the jurors to visit the hunting property where the Murdaughs were killed.

The public was allowed to watch the video for the first time after the jury was shown it in January.

Murdaugh’s motive was to distract and delay investigations into his financial problems. The means were two family-owned weapons, Waters argued. As shown in the pivotal videominutes before the murders, Murdaugh was at the crime scene.

The deputy asks where the gun is, and Murdaugh tells him it is leaning against Murdaugh’s vehicle. The deputy checks Murdaugh’s shirt before talking further.

“This is a long story. My son was in a boat wreck … months back. He has been receiving threats, says Murdaugh. Most of it has been fairly benign. He has gotten punched and we did not take it seriously. I know what that is.

The data showed that Murdaugh stayed at his parents home for about 20 minutes before heading back to the Moselle property.

An autopsy report on Maggie Murdaugh and her son Paul, who was shot four times with a different weapon, according to the testimony of Ellen Riemer

Also Monday, under questioning from the prosecution, Ellen Riemer, a pathologist at the Medical University of South Carolina, gave graphic testimony Monday about the injuries suffered by Maggie and Paul and their autopsy results.

Alex Murdaugh clenched his jaw when Riemer detailed the extent of the injuries to his son and wife. He shook his head as he listened.

Riemer testified that Maggie Murdaugh was shot four times with a different weapon. One of the shots that came from the front hit her in the abdomen and the other went through her left thigh, according to Riemer.

Riemer did not see anything on his hands that would indicate he had his hand up to his face in preparation for the injury. I don’t see any evidence of injury to his hands from the first shot and the second.

The next shot went upward, starting at Maggie’s chest and going through the left side of her face. Riemer said she attributed that to the first two shots causing Maggie to double over, with her head bent over. This wound would have been immediately fatal, she said. Riemer said that the last gunshot went to the back of the head.

The Murdaugh Dynasty Revisited: A Late-Time Nightmare in South Carolina During the April 14th Atmospheric Event

The remaining jurors were tested Monday and will be tested again Wednesday. The judge agreed with the prosecutors and defense attorneys that jurors would wear masks to protect their eyes, but said they had a positive attitude.

Editor’s Note: The HBO docuseries “Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty” chronicles the family’s influence in South Carolina. It airs on CNN Sunday, February 19, at 8 p.m. ET.

Before prosecutors rested their case on Friday, they presented evidence in court showing Paul Murdaugh – son of disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh – confronted his father about pills about one month before both he and his mother were found fatally shot.

Later that month, on May 26, Maggie searched on Google “green gel pill p30,” which matches the description of a nonprescription nighttime cold and flu medication.

On May 7th, Alex Murdaugh sent a text to his wife apologizing and telling her he was very sorry. I love you.”

The defense has portrayed the man as a loving husband and father who called for help when he found his wife and son, and who was being prosecuted because of a poor investigation while the real killers remain at large.

More than a week ago, Colleton County Coroner Richard Harvey testified that he estimated the time of death to be around 9 p.m. – just minutes after Murdaugh’s voice was captured on the video – based in part on armpit checks he conducted to feel how warm the bodies were.

The court heard an investigator who said that Alex Murdaugh called the police seconds after he found his wife’s phone, and that it was combined with information from his cell phones and vehicle systems.

During his testimony on Friday, Peter Rudofski, an investigator with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, claimed he was able to plot Murdaugh’s movements on the night of the killings.

Rudofski stated that Murdaugh drove by a spot on the side of the road where his daughter’s cell phone was recovered.

Murdaugh turned into the front entrance at the Moselle property at roughly 10 p.m. that night, and shortly after, headed over to the family’s dog kennels located on the property, arriving there at 10:05 p.m., the investigator testified.

Rogan and Rogan Murdaugh Revealed in a 21-Year-Old SLED Appellate Trial

According to previous testimony, he told investigators on the night of the killings that when he arrived at the crime scene and discovered the bodies, he tried to turn Paul over, then attempted to check Paul’s cell phone, and then attempted to tried both of their pulses, before calling 911.

The case was transferred that same day from the local solicitor to the Attorney General’s Office, which has been prosecuting the case due to the Murdaugh family’s long ties with the local solicitor: Three generations of Murdaughs served as the 14th Circuit Solicitor over about 87 years.

Murdaugh’s statements during the August 2021 interview were voluntary, Owen testified Wednesday. Owen said that the agent asked Murdaugh if he wanted to ask any questions of the SLED agents. Murdaugh indicated he was comfortable answering the agents’ questions.

Owen agreed with Murdaugh that Rogan had been with his family for a long time. “And he recognizes your voice, and you have a distinct voice. Can you think of anyone else with the exact same voice as yours that he could have misinterpreted?

Jurors watched a short Snapchat video from Paul, showing his father wearing a blue shirt and long khaki pants about an hour before the murders. The clothes have never been found.

“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 said. “At what point in the evening did you change clothes?”

The case against Alex Murdaugh, the man responsible for his son’s or his wife’s murder, was not questioned by the grand jury

Two witnesses disagree: On Tuesday, Maggie’s sister testified it was Murdaugh who wanted Maggie to come to Moselle. Marian Proctor said that on the day of the murders, she had a conversation withMaggie, who told her he didn’t want to go to Islandton.

You weren’t worried about those clothes, the reason that you didn’t. Your investigation had been focused since early June on the T-shirt he was wearing, the shorts he was wearing and shoes he was wearing at the time he called 911,” Griffin said.

Owen testified that he told a grand jury that an expert found multiple particles of blood spatter on the T-shirt, and that it was sent to a lab for testing. The test, however, found no blood on the shirt.

You overlooked the fact that the HemaTrace test came back negative because you were told that there was blood. That was overlooked, was it not? asked Griffin.

Owen asked if the two victims of the blasts would have biological material on them.

The jury has heard testimony about the shooting that Murdaugh was injured in. Authorities have alleged that Murdaugh arranged for another man to shoot him so that Buster could obtain millions of dollars in life insurance.

Griffin said Smith owed a lot of money to a drug gang, and Owen testified that he was told the gang was not worried about the money because it knew it was going to get paid.

Is it possible that Alex Murdaugh was involved in his son’s or his wife’s murder prior to that day?

Owen said that drug gang members use burner phones, not cell phones, as he was asked if a cell phone analysis had been performed to see if any of them were in the area. Owen said state investigators performed an analysis around Moselle and only first responders were identified at the scene.

Owen was asked if a small amount of unknown male DNA found under the fingernail of Maggie Murdaugh could be linked to him. Owen said no.

“A lot of times people hear, ‘Oh, it’s just a circumstantial case,’ but the law says otherwise,” prosecutor Creighton Waters told the jury. “The law says circumstantial evidence is just as good as direct evidence.”

For the defense, that evidence amounts to little more than “speculation” and “conjecture,” attorney Dick Harpootlian argued. They poked fun of the prosecutions focus on irrelevant financial misconduct and highlighted Murdaugh’s loving relationships with his family.

“There are no eyewitnesses. There is nothing on camera,” defense attorney Dick Harpootlian said early in the trial. “There’s no forensics tying him to the crime. None.

The case is more difficult because of it, said trialattorney Misty Marris. It can certainly rise to the level needed to get a conviction if the prosecutors have sufficient evidence to put together that story and prove their case.

“Jurors want science, jurors want DNA, jurors want something that’s persuasive,” Azari said. “But because (prosecutors) lack it … their focus is now on the tenuous motive and the lies after the fact, but neither of those things … substitute the evidence that they need.”

The Murdaugh Family: A Surprising Case of a Family Man Who Wasn’t Awake in a Boat Accident

The video focuses on one of their dogs and appears to have been recorded at the kennels at their family home in Islandton. In the background, three different voices can be heard in the footage, and family friends identified those voices as that of Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh.

The prosecution is attempting to prove that he wasn’t asleep by using the video and other evidence, while also cutting his claims about when he was with his mother.

Finally, state prosecutors have tried to put forth an adequate explanation of why Murdaugh – described as a loving and devoted family man – would slaughter his wife and son.

The surviving son of Alexander Murdaugh, who is an attorney in South Carolina, was called to testify by his attorneys as the defense tries to show that Alex Murdaugh did not kill his wife and son.

The prosecution called the first witness of the day. A source familiar with the case has told CNN that an accident reconstructionist is expected to follow him, and will likely focus on the findings of the investigators at the scene.

The stranger-than-fiction case has brought national attention – including Netflix and HBO Max documentaries – on Alex Murdaugh, the former personal injury attorney and member of a dynastic family in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, where his father, grandfather and great-grandfather served as the local prosecutor consecutively from 1920 to 2006.

Indeed, if ever a true-crime docuseries would have benefited from using a narrator, it’s this one; instead, the producers let the group of friends who were swept up in the tragic boat accident that claimed the life of 19-year-old Mallory Beach drone on, augmenting their accounts with blurry reenactments that look like something out of a cheap horror movie.

The Murdaugh family and their attorney, Alex, are being accused of using their wealth and influence over the authorities to protect Paul, who was drinking excessively and driving the boat.

There are other inconsistencies in the allegations about instances when the Murdaughs didn’t get scrutiny because of suspicious events, such as the death of a nanny and the dog attack on her.

A grand jury indicts Murdaugh on nine charges of false pretenses involving a gunman and his son, Paul, and his self-injury

Officers with the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office wrote in reports that they had discovered several shell casings and had called a tow truck company to the scene. They also said they had looked for surveillance cameras from neighboring homes and businesses, though the heavily redacted police reports did not indicate whether they found any.

Mr. Murdaugh soon admitted that he had asked Mr. Smith to shoot him in the head. Mr. Murdaugh’s lawyers said he had come up with a plan to make his suicide look like a murder because he believed it would help his older son, Buster Murdaugh, collect on his life insurance policy.

August 19: A grand jury indicted Murdaugh on nine charges, one of which is obtaining signature or property by false pretenses.

“I admit, candidly, in all of these cases, Mr. Waters, that I took money that was not mine, and I shouldn’t have done it,” Murdaugh said in response to prosecutor Creighton Waters during the prosecution’s cross-examination.

He went back to the house in Islandton, he thought that Margaret and Paul were still there, but they were not.

Murdaugh recalled calling 911 and “trying to tend” to Paul and Maggie, going back and forth between them while on the phone. Murdaugh said his son Paul had injuries that were particularly bad, and he tried to help him by giving him a pulse and turning him over.

“I don’t know why I tried to turn him over,” an emotional Murdaugh said. My boy is laying face down. He’s done the way he’s done. His head was the way his head was. I could see his brain laying on the sidewalk. I wasn’t sure what to do.

The testimony about the data that was collected from his cell phone was rebutted by Murdaugh.

The Murdaugh Family: A Case Study for a South Carolina State Attorney General to Investigate the Satterfield’s September 24, 2018 Shooting

Murdaugh says he would take up to 1,200 milligrams per day on days where he didn’t take as much.

When asked if he knew if it really happened, Murdaugh said he did not know because he changed his plan after withdrawal symptoms started.

The family name of Murdaugh came to be associated with a legal dynasty in coastal South Carolina, where three generations controlled the local prosecutor’s office.

But now, the family has been closely connected to a bloody tragedy, allegations of embezzlement and a bizarre murder-for-hire plot to score millions in life insurance.

In 2006, then-Gov. Mark Sanford appoints attorney Duffie Stone to serve as the 14th Circuit Solicitor, making him the first non-Murdaugh in the position. He has been elected to the position four times, the most recently in 2020, according to the website.

South Carolina law enforcement officials received permission from the Satterfield family to exhume her remains.

The South Carolina Attorney General says that a 19-year-old girl died in a boat wreck near a bridge on February 24.

SLED has released redacted audio of Alex Murdaugh’s call to the emergency room. The audio shows a distraught Murdaugh telling dispatch his wife and son had been shot, and weren’t breathing, and were on the ground.

September 10: A family spokesperson issues a statement about Alex Murdaugh’s shooting that indicates the injury was more serious than a superficial wound. The spokesperson also says an unknown person was to blame.

SLED opens criminal investigation into Gloria Satterfield’s death and the handling of her estate.

The solicitor of South Carolina wrote a letter to the Attorney General saying he wouldn’t do anything related to the Murdaugh death investigations.

State Sensitive Lawsuit Against Alex Murdaugh for Using a Boat to Kill a Gloria Satterfield. A Grand Jury Indictment

On September 4, 2021, three months after the killings, Murdaugh was shot by a car and was treated at a hospital for a superficial gunshot wound to the head.

September 6: Murdaugh releases a statement through his attorney, Dick Harpootlian, to WCSC saying he is resigning from the law firm and entering rehab. Jim Griffin, Murdaugh’s other attorney, claims his client has an opiate addiction.

A low tire indicator light was seen as Alex pulled over. A male driver in a blue pickup asked him if he had car troubles, as soon as Alex replied, he was shot,” the statement said.

The lawsuit was filed by Connor Cook, a survivor of the boat crash, who claimed that the former attorney tried to have him be blamed for the crash. Cook also alleges that Murdaugh should have been aware that his underage son, Paul, had alcohol issues and should not have been allowed to use his boat.

October 14: After being released from a drug rehabilitation center, Alex Murdaugh is arrested in Orlando, Florida, on suspicion of misappropriating settlement funds in connection with Gloria Satterfield’s 2018 death, authorities said.

Alex Murdaugh refused to respond to allegations from his former law firm that he converted firm and client money to his own personal use.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announces that a grand jury has indicted Alex Murdaugh on 27 charges for defrauding and laundered almost $5 million.

Four of the indictments are related to betrayal of trust with fraudulent intent and seven of them are related to obtaining property by false pretenses.

Paul Murdaugh and Gloria Satterfield: A Family Lawsuit over a Wreck-Dump-Injured Housekeeper

December 14th Murdaugh agrees to a $4.3 million settlement with the family of Gloria Satterfield, his former housekeeper, according to family attorney Eric Bland.

The exhumation stems from a Hampton County coroner’s request that led to the state law enforcement division opening a criminal investigation into Satterfield’s death.

The Coroner didn’t hear of the death, nor did he perform an autopsy. The manner of death was ruled natural on the death certificate, which is inconsistent with the injuries suffered in a trip and fall accident.

The court adjourned for the weekend on Friday after about six hours of testimony that included a prosecutor grilling the disgraced South Carolina attorney over lies and drug use.

“And you disagree to my characterization that you’ve got a photographic memory about the details that have to fit now that you know … these facts but you’re fuzzy on the other stuff that complicates that? You disagree with that?”

At one point on Friday, Waters asked Murdaugh whether the dogs at the kennels on his property – where the killings took place – were barking when he was there with his wife and son.

I know what you mean by what I wasn’t doing, Mr. Waters, I was washing off guns, putting them in a raincoat or something similar. I can promise you that I was not doing that.

“I never manufactured any alibi in any way shape or form because I did not, and would not, hurt my wife and my child,” he said. “So I know for a fact that I never, ever, ever created an alibi.”

He said that the person or people who did what he saw hated Paul Murdaugh. “And they had anger in their heart.”

Murdaugh didn’t believe anyone involved in the wreck had anything to do with the murders. But he said he suspected the killer was someone who had heard about what happened.

The former lawyer for Murdaugh was asked if the clients he stole from are real people by Waters earlier in the day.

Murdaugh’s defense attorney began questioning him again after a brief break after Waters finished his cross examination. Griffin ended questioning shortly after and the court adjourned for the day.

Murdaugh: The Killings of the Dog Kennels of their Family Estate in Islandton, South Carolina, on June 7, 2021

They are real people. They are good people. They’re all people that I care about … And a lot of them people that I love and I did wrong by them,” Murdaugh said.

I can not answer if that came from my eyes or not. You will agree with me that I looked at my clients closely and the people that I stole money from trusted me.

He claimed that he lied to investigators because he thought he had not heard about the deaths of the two people at the estate’s dog kennel until after he found them dead. He said he lied because of “paranoid thinking” stemming from his addiction to opiate painkillers.

He said various factors contributed to his “paranoid thinking” which led to his decision to lie to police, including his “distrust of SLED,” (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division), questions about his relationship with his wife and son, and “the fact that I have a pocket full of pills in my pocket,” he said. The prosecution played clips of the police interview.

Monday’s testimony was headlined by an expert in crime scene reconstruction and blood spatter analysis who testified that the evidence suggests two shooters carried out the killings of Margaret and Paul Murdaugh in June 2021.

The case was reviewed by a professor of forensic science, who was hired by the defense to analyze the scene.

He testified that it was difficult for the shooter to have two long weapons. I think it’s a good idea to add that and what I think happened to the shooter who fired first with the shotgun, because I think it’s a good idea to have more than one shooter.

He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and two weapons charges in the fatal shootings at the dog kennels of their family estate in Islandton, South Carolina, on June 7, 2021. He separately faces 99 charges for alleged financial crimes that will be adjudicated at a future date.

John Murdaugh’s final defense witness testified that the murder of a 16-year-old man killed in his own home was not cleaned up

The prosecution, which featured 61 witnesses over three weeks of testimony, said they plan to seek testimony from four or five rebuttal witnesses on Tuesday. Judge Clifton Newman also ruled jurors will be allowed to visit the family’s sprawling estate after the rebuttal witnesses but prior to closing arguments.

The 14th and final defense witness was the defendant’s brother John Marvin Murdaugh, who testified in emotional terms that law enforcement released the crime scene back to the family without cleaning up Paul Murdaugh’s remains.

It had not been cleaned up. He cried after he said he saw blood, brains, and pieces of skull. “For some reason I thought it was something that I needed to do for Paul to clean it up. It felt right to do it. I felt like I owed him, and I started cleaning. I promise that no mother, father, uncle or aunt should ever have to see or do what I did that day.

The defense has also tried to portray the investigation into the case as shoddy, arguing that the crime scene was not secure or handled carefully. One witness, Mark Ball, one of Murdaugh’s former law firm colleagues, testified no barricades or police tape were set up to block several visitors from entering the property the night of the killings.

They have tried to show he lied to investigators and painted a picture of a man who killed his wife and son in a bid to distract the investigations into his actions.

That shooting was followed by a stint in rehab for drug addiction, dozens of allegations of financial crimes, his disbarment and, ultimately, the murder charges.

Murdaugh and Eisenstat testified in the June 7, 2021, killings at the Kennesaw Animal Center for Investigating a Dog-Kengel Shooting

The state plan to call four or five witnesses to testify, and hopes to finish with all of them by the end of Tuesday, according to the prosecutor.

The defense rested its case Monday after calling 14 witnesses, including Murdaugh, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and two weapons charges in the June 7, 2021, killings.

On the stand Friday, Murdaugh said he would hurt himself if he was under pressure.

The video at the dog kennels was filmed shortly before the killings took place and prosecutors used it to argue that Murdaugh was at the scene.

Harvey also testified that rigor mortis, the stiffening of a body’s joints and muscles following death, had not set in, and typically begins one to three hours after death.

Jonathan Eisenstat, a forensic pathologist, testified Monday that armpit temperature checks are not a valid method to try to make a determination of time of death.

Someone who arrives on scene should first check for the ambient temperature of the area where the body is located and then use a rectal temperature to get as close to a core body temperature as possible.

Harvey testified earlier that he did not take rectal temperatures that night. During cross examination prosecutors wondered if the coroner had an idea of when the killings happened since they did not take exact temperatures.

The evidence shows that the defendant began to steal because he was getting so much money and the millions of dollars in legal fees wasn’t enough.

Why had I seen my wife and baby? Calling the police, but I didn’t see it? When was I supposed to see it, or when did I remember seeing it?

Primarily using phone forensics, Waters reconstructed a timeline of the prosecution’s version of events before, during and after the murders by the kennels at Moselle.

Everything was changed by that. Why did everything change? Opportunity. Being at the scene of the crime when the murders occurred,” Waters said. The most important thing he could have said to law enforcement was lies. ‘When was the last time I saw my wife and child alive?’ Why in the world would a reasonable husband and father lie about something so early? He didn’t know that (video) was there.”

A testimony from a weapons expert said that the casings for bullets from a Blackout rifle were found near a dead body, suggesting that they had been used in the crime.

“A family Blackout killed Maggie. It was present a few months prior to the murders. A family weapon the defendant cannot account for killed Maggie.”

Murdaugh cited paranoia from his opioid addiction, his distrust of state investigators, and his growing suspicions as police swabbed his hands for gunpowder residue and asked about his relationships with his family.

Murdaugh’s “Faint” Lawsuit in the Moselle Fields: Evidence against a “Sloppy Law Enforcement Officer”

“You still told the same lie, and all those reasons that you just gave this jury about the most important part of your testimony was a lie too,” Waters said.

The contention that sloppy police and forensics work undermines the evidence against him was brought up in court by the defense team.

Many vehicles and people were allowed to enter the Moselle grounds after the killings. The bodies of Paul and Maggie were covered with sheets rather than tarps on a dark night.

“People just kept piling in, just more and more people kept showing up,” said Mark Ball, Murdaugh’s former law partner. He testified that first responders were walking around inside a taped-off area, which he said had water dripping from the kennel roof onto Paul’s body.

Ball said he was told by the police that the group should go to the main house, even though he worried that it would be part of the crime scene. He said some of them cleaned up the house.

“He said his No. 1 goal was clearing Paul’s name,” Proctor said of Murdaugh, her voice cracking. “And, I thought that was so strange because my No. 1 goal was to find out who killed my sister and Paul.”

The custom rifles that the Murdaughs gave to Paul and his brother were originally given as Christmas gifts. A new gun was bought after Paul’s was stolen, but the newer gun has not been found.

Prosecutors said that there were many variables, such as the likely chaos at the scene and the potential of firing from a kneeling position, that would make it unlikely that Murdaugh was too tall to have shot Paul.

The state’s forensic expert Kenneth Kinsey told the Attorney General that the defense’s theory was “preposterous” as his final rebuttal witness.

The outfit matches testimony from Turrubiate-Simpson, the housekeeper, who even recalled fixing Murdaugh’s collar that morning. She told jurors that her employer spoke to her about two months after the murders.

Early in the evening of June 7, his phone seemed to be sitting immobile at the main house. But cellphone data then shows Murdaugh in a burst of activity starting at 9:02 p.m., when he took 283 steps in four minutes. The murders took place immediately after experts say they took place.

“What are you doing at the moment?” Murdaugh was asked by Waters whether he was the prosecutor. The accused man stated that he was going to visit his mother, who has Alzheimer’s, while he wasn’t giving any details.

Smith also said she’d never seen Murdaugh visit his parents’ home at 6:30 in the morning. But, she said, that’s what he did one day shortly after the shootings, carrying what looked like a blue vinyl tarp that was bundled up as if something was inside.

Murdaugh denied doing that. Investigators testified they later found a blue raincoat with gunshot residue at the house, leading to speculation that it had been wrapped around a recently fired weapon.

Annette said that Murdaugh was a devil who showed up late for work and was all over the place. Griswold was the one who discovered the missing settlement fees. According to her, she initially thought Murdaugh had lost them. The firm’s chief financial officer was told by her that she was suspicious.

Seckinger, who has known Murdaugh since high school, said that when she went to confront him about the missing money on June 7, he shot her a dirty look that she’d never seen before, asking, “What do you need now?”

Months after the murders, Griswold testified, she was getting a file in her boss’s office when a check “floated like a feather to the ground,” revealing he was siphoning money. It hit her hard, she said: “I was beside myself. … He’d been lying the whole time.”