“It’s ironic, ultimately, that it was the sufferer, Paul Murdaugh, who solved his personal homicide,” Dave Aronberg, state lawyer for Florida’s Palm Seaside County, informed CNN Thursday evening.
Murdaugh, a now disgraced former South Carolina lawyer, was discovered responsible Thursday of fatally capturing his spouse and son and, a day later, was sentenced to life in jail with out the potential of parole. He has maintained his innocence.
The important thing proof got here from a video, which Paul recorded moments earlier than he was gunned down and killed.
It appeared to point out one of many household’s canine close to the kennels on their property. It additionally captured Alex Murdaugh’s voice within the background – and positioned him on the scene of the crime.
The video, which Murdaugh did not know existed earlier than the trial, marked the crumbling of his alibi and left him no selection however to take the stand and clarify why he lied a number of occasions to authorities about his whereabouts, authorized consultants informed CNN.
Murdaugh, whereas denying he killed his spouse and son, testified he lied about the place he was due to paranoid ideas stemming from his yearslong drug dependancy to opioid painkillers, in addition to his mistrust of investigators.
Whereas on the stand, he additionally confessed to extra lies, admitting in courtroom he had stolen hundreds of thousands from his regulation agency and shoppers over roughly twenty years.
He informed the jury that regardless of his repeated previous deceptions, he was sincere about one factor: he didn’t kill his household.
However jurors didn’t consider him.
And in a case with little to no direct proof linking Murdaugh to the scene, South Carolina’s prime prosecutor credited the video clip for the fast conviction by the jury.
“This was a circumstantial proof case however what folks have to know is that circumstantial proof is simply as highly effective as direct proof,” South Carolina Lawyer Basic Alan Wilson, who was a part of the prosecuting staff, stated Friday.
“I feel the kennel video hung him.”
“The jury noticed how he was attempting to govern them, noticed how he was mendacity they usually learn by it, they usually heard the kennel video they usually made the appropriate determination.”
Video satisfied this juror
Craig Moyer, one of many jurors who helped convict Murdaugh, informed ABC Information in his first public interview that it took lower than an hour for the group to succeed in a unanimous determination.
The video is what satisfied him.
“I may hear his voice clearly,” Moyer informed ABC. “And everyone else may too.”
Moyer stated he was shocked Murdaugh admitted he lied in regards to the video, however, he added, he nonetheless didn’t consider the defendant was being truthful about what occurred on the evening of June 7, 2021.
Murdaugh was “a great liar,” Moyer stated, “however not ok.”
“When he took the stand – that’s, Alex Murdaugh – that was his alternative to state his declare. It was a really arduous promote, nevertheless,” stated felony defence lawyer and CNN Authorized Analyst Joey Jackson.
“As a lot as you deny, deny, deny being on the kennels, you took the stand as a result of it got here out that you just have been there. Mobile phone information put you there, automobile information put you there, along with the truth that your individual voice put you there, by advantage of what your son recorded.”
“I feel by advantage of what that juror stated, clearly he was of the view that … (Alex Murdaugh) was persevering with to lie, the proof was clear and that he was responsible,” Jackson added.
Why Murdaugh says he lied about being on the homicide scene
The video was recorded by Paul at 8:44 p.m. on the evening of the killings, in keeping with testimony throughout the trial.
Colleton County Coroner Richard Harvey testified he estimated Maggie and Paul’s time of loss of life to be round 9 p.m. – although he stated it is potential the pair may have been shot any time between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.
After admitting he lied to authorities about the place he was that evening, Murdaugh stated he did briefly go to the kennels and left roughly round 8:47 p.m.
He later visited his mom and located Maggie and Paul’s our bodies when he returned residence, Murdaugh testified.
Murdaugh informed the courtroom that as his longtime dependancy developed, it typically prompted him to enter “paranoid pondering.”
These paranoid ideas have been triggered on the evening of the homicides, he stated, when investigators examined his arms for gunshot residue and requested him about his relationship together with his spouse and son. Murdaugh claimed that was why he lied.
“All these issues, coupled collectively after discovering them, coupled with my mistrust for (the South Carolina Regulation Enforcement Division) prompted me to have paranoid ideas,” he testified. “I wasn’t pondering clearly. I do not assume I used to be able to cause. And I lied about being there, and I am so sorry that I did.”
“As soon as I informed the lie, I informed my household, I needed to hold mendacity,” he informed the courtroom.
Former prosecutor Sarah Ford informed CNN that Murdaugh “actually had no selection aside from to take the stand and make clear” the video on the kennel.
“And the jury didn’t purchase that clarification. He was mendacity lengthy earlier than he walked into that courtroom, lengthy earlier than he took the stand and that jury believed that he was mendacity to them on that stand,” Ford stated.
After his sentence, Murdaugh was launched to the South Carolina Division of Corrections.
He was processed Friday night at a reception and analysis middle in Columbia, the division stated in a information launch. As a part of that course of, he had his head shaved, a regular process for inmates processed into the system, division spokesperson Chrysti Shain stated.
Murdaugh will subsequent endure medical checks and a psychological well being and training evaluation, the discharge added.
Over the following month and a half, division officers will have in mind the outcomes of his checks and assessments in addition to his crime and sentence in deciding which maximum-security jail he might be despatched to, the division stated.
