Witness testimony ends in Murdaugh case as jurors prepare to visit crime scene

Testimony ended Tuesday within the South Carolina double homicide trial of Alex Murdaugh, because the courtroom ready to convey jurors on Wednesday to the scene the place Murdaugh’s spouse and son had been fatally shot in 2021.

The choose agreed with a protection request to let jurors experience 40 minutes to see the sprawling Colleton County property the place the Murdaughs lived.

Murdaugh is charged with killing 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh and 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh close to kennels on the property on June 7, 2021. He has pleaded not responsible.

On Tuesday, Murdaugh’s former regulation companion Ronnie Crosby had a testy change with protection legal professional Dick Harpootlian as prosecutors obtained an opportunity to answer to the protection’s case, together with by rebutting their consultants who steered two completely different shooters killed Murdaugh’s spouse and son with two completely different weapons.

Prosecutors introduced Crosby again to the stand to speak extra about Murdaugh stealing thousands and thousands of {dollars} from his shoppers and the agency the Murdaugh household based greater than a century in the past. Prosecutors contend Murdaugh thought he was about to get caught stealing and killed Maggie and Paul to purchase time to cowl up the cash path.

Throughout cross-examination, Harpootlian requested Crosby, who usually represents accident victims, if going via trauma could cause folks to neglect particulars or get occasions fallacious. Prosecutors have pounded Murdaugh for varied inconsistencies and lies, together with not saying he was on the kennels the night time of the killing when he could possibly be heard heard on video recorded by his son.

“You are attempting to take me someplace you in all probability do not need to,” Crosby stated, beginning a tense change between the attorneys.

“You are offended at him for stealing your cash,” Harpootlian stated.

“I’ve had anger with him, excessive anger, Mr. Harpootlian, as a result of what he did with my regulation agency, my companions, his shoppers, our shoppers — what he did to his household. What he did to so many individuals,” Crosby stated, bristling. “However you’ll be able to’t stroll round with anger.”

Harpootlian then requested Crosby if he thought Murdaugh killed his spouse and son.

“I haven’t got an opinion. I do not benefit from the supplies you may have,” Crosby stated.

Murdaugh is awaiting trial on about 100 different prices together with monetary crimes. Murdaugh, who has been disbarred, admitted to the thefts, which might carry many years in jail, on the stand final week.

Prosecutors additionally referred to as again to the stand the pathologist who did the autopsies on the victims and their professional who studied the crime scene.

Kenneth Kinsey stated a protection professional who measured the angles of the pictures and concluded they had been fired nearer to the bottom or by somebody properly shorter than the 6-foot-4 (1.93-meter) Murdaugh did not keep in mind the shooter and Maggie Murdaugh had been each transferring and the gun might have been fired from completely different positions.

“I believe his intentions had been properly, however his strategies had been flawed,” Kinsey stated.

The protection additionally used their consultants to counsel there have been two shooters, primarily based partially on widespread sense that the victims stopped utilizing their cellphones inside seconds of one another. Each victims seemed to be stunned with their palms down.

Kinsey testified his opinion was additionally primarily based on being sure the deadly shotgun wound to Paul Murdaugh was fired from down low and headed up via the pinnacle as a substitute of downward with the gun pressed towards his head. The protection professional steered a blast with the weapon’s barrel would have surprised the shooter with bone fragments, blood and different gore, delaying the time the shooter might have gone after Maggie Murdaugh.

Dr. Ellen Riemer testified Tuesday that she stood by the findings of her post-mortem that the deadly shot was fired upward. A protection professional stated Riemer did not shave hair from Paul Murdaugh’s wound or X-ray his mind after it was blown from his physique to substantiate her findings.

“The explanation you didn’t take X-rays of the mind was you already reached you conclusion,” Harpootlian stated.

“I didn’t as a result of I felt comfy with my dedication,” Riemer stated. “I do not at all times take X-rays of each organ.”

The prosecution additionally referred to as again cellphone professional Paul McManigal, a sergeant with the Charleston County Sheriff’s Workplace.

The aim was to refute a protection professional who stated transferring an iPhone causes its backlight to come back on. Maggie Murdaugh’s iPhone was discovered on the facet of the highway exterior of the property, and the backlight got here on almost two minutes earlier than GPS information confirmed Alex Murdaugh’s SUV go by.

McManigal stated he examined the same iPhone in his workplace final week and decided the backlight comes on with a delicate motion, however not as usually with a violet motion.

Protection legal professional Phillip Barber requested if McManigal took any notes or videotaped his experiments.

“So, you are alone in your workplace, throwing the telephone round, taking no measurements, recording nothing over the weekend, and also you are available in right here and testify as an professional as to what the telephone would do?” Barber stated.

Protection attorneys requested that the jury have the ability to go to the scene of the killings to assist them perceive how small the storage room is the place Paul Murdaugh was killed and the space between the 2 our bodies. Prosecutors had been towards the go to, saying the scene appears completely different than it did in June 2021 as bushes and vegetation has grown and nobody has lived on the property for the reason that killings.

Decide Clifton Newman is permitting solely the jury, attorneys from either side, safety and police, and a courtroom reporter to come back. He banned drones from flying over. As soon as the jury leaves, one reporter, photographer and videographer will have the ability to see the property.