During the third day of Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial, prosecutors said he didn’t cry after his wife and son were found dead, yet he brought up his son’s boat crash as soon as police arrived in an attempt to mislead investigators.
Alex Murdaugh is a former prominent South Carolina attorney who is known for multimillion-dollar judgments and comes from a family that had dominated the legal scene in a small county for decades, the Associated Press reported.
Now, Murdaugh faces charges in the murder of his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, which carries a sentence of 30 years to life in prison without parole, as well as additional charges which include money laundering, stealing from his clients, and trying to get a man to kill him so that his surviving son could claim a life insurance policy.
Prosecutors say Murdaugh tried to mislead investigators
When the first sheriff’s deputy arrived at the rural hunting lodge where the wife and son of Alex Murdaugh had been found shot dead on June 7, 2021, prosecutors say he brought up something that happened more than two years earlier.
Alex’s son, Paul Murdaugh, was facing manslaughter charges at the time of his death related to a boat crash that had killed a teenage girl in February 2019, BuzzFeed News reported.
Paul Murdaugh was the alleged driver of a boat that wrecked in February 2019 and killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach. At the time of his death, Paul Murdaugh was facing charges of boating under the influence, causing great bodily harm, and causing death.
In 2021, as Alex’s son and wife lay dead at the hunting lodge, he told a sheriff’s deputy that his son Paul had been getting death threats over the boating accident, CNN reported.
“This is a long story,” Murdaugh told the deputy. “My son was in a boat wreck months back.”
“He’s been getting threats, most of them benign stuff we didn’t take serious,” Murdaugh continued. “I know that’s what it is.”
During the second full day of the murder trial, jurors listened to the 911 call Alex made to authorities, as well as watched the body camera footage from deputies who arrived at the crime scene.
“He’s been threatened for months and months and months,” Alex told the 911 operator about the threat to his son. “I can tell he’s shot in the head, and he’s shot really bad.”
Testifying in court this week, the first sheriff officer that arrived on the scene said that Murdaugh appeared to be upset about the death of his wife and son, but testified: “I didn’t see any visible tears.”
However, during the testimony in court, Murdaugh was visibly upset and at one point wiped tears from his eyes, according to CNN.
On third day of trial, witnesses describe Murdaugh’s appearance at the murder scene
A detective who arrived at the scene of the double murder of Murdaugh’s wife and son testified that Alex and his other son, Buster, had given officials full permission to search the hunting estate, along with their phones, and were cooperative, Fox reported.
According to testimony, Paul Murdaugh’s blood and brain tissue were splattered all over the shed where he was shot, but Alex’s clothes were clean.
“[Did Alex look like] somebody who just changed his clothes?”
“Yes,” the detective replied. “He’s sweating, and they’re dry, so I’d say yes.”
Murdoch facing roughly 100 other charges
Alex Murdaugh is reportedly facing roughly 100 additional charges, that include money laundering, tax evasion, and stealing millions of dollars from clients.
