The first seven day stretch of the Alex Murdaugh murder preliminary wrapped up Friday following a three-day jury selection, red hot opening statements and first responders detailing their response on the night his wife and son were killed.
Murdaugh, 54, is accused of two counts of homicide and two weapons charges in the lethal shootings of Maggie Murdaugh, 52; and Paul Murdaugh, 22. The killings happened at the family’s hunting property in the Islandton people group of Colleton Province on June 7, 2021.
From 700 to 18
Three days of jury selection saw a pool of around 700 jurors get reduced into four groups. The groups were then qualified and 122 jurors were gotten on Wednesday to bring the final total to 12 jurors and six alternates.
Jury qualification questions by Judge Clifton Newman also gave insight into who may be called to the witness stand in the preliminary.
Newman went through a list of likely witnesses and asked would-be jurors about any possible relationships they have with them.
Prominent names Newman asked jurors about included Alex Murdaugh, his surviving son, Buster; relatives Randy and John Marvin Murdaugh; previous Lowcountry financier Russell Laffitte, attorney Eric Bland, and Curtis “Eddie” Smith, the one who was charged for supposedly conspiring to shoot Murdaugh during Work Day weekend in an insurance misrepresentation plot.
In total, the witness list includes in excess of 200 names, however it’s not satisfactory assuming that all witnesses will be called.
Defense Moves To Obstruct Testimony
Before jury selection could begin, Murdaugh’s defense group sought to obstruct testimony of potential blood proof.
Murdaugh was wearing a white shirt when he showed up at the property and that shirt has turned into a point of contention between the state and Murdaugh’s defense group after the last option has said forensic tests neglected to show stains on the shirt were from human blood.
Attorneys Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian asked the court to impede the testimony of Orangeburg District Boss Delegate Kenneth Lee Kinsey, a perceived master in bloodstain proof.
The defense argues that Kinsey said subsequent to reviewing a report and analysis from Thomas Slant, a prosecution witness, he was unable to shape an opinion on whether the blood stains on Murdaugh’s shirt were consistent with back spatter from a gunshot.
Without such an opinion, Kinsey’s testimony would only unjustifiably confuse and mislead the jury. Kinsey rehashed Slope’s findings of in excess of 100 stains and that the smaller stains that are present after a substance treatment have all the earmarks of being high-speed influence stains that are caused from a gunshot or rapid machinery.
However, the Defense Says Kinsey Then Pivots From That, Saying That He Can’t Deliver an Opinion.
That motion and the defense’s motion to hinder testimony from another blood spatter master were heard on Tuesday after the final board of potential jurors were qualified.
The two sides consented to hold a counsel hearing once that proof is set to be presented and whether either master will be called as a witness.
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The contention then shifted toward a motion recorded by the state to concede financial proof as a basis for thought process in the killings.
Newman contended that a motion in limine, a legitimate term that means “a motion toward the start,” is normally used to bar proof from a preliminary rather than to add it.
“I’m not ready to concede a motion to concede proof in limine,” Newman said.
He State Consented To Introduce the Proof As Required.
Prosecutors have contended that the murders were a concealment for Alex Murdaugh’s financial misdeeds. Previously, the defense has said the state turned more than millions of pages of documents during discovery about these financial crimes.
The Defense Says This Intention Is Totally Created.
“His theory is, he realized the dance was up, so he returned home, and butchered, blew the brains out his son, and butchered his wife,” Murdaugh’s defense attorney Dick Harpootlian said. “There’s not one shred of proof there were any problems between any of them.
There’s texts, pictures, individuals that were with them the previous end of the week at a ball game, video from that day with Paul and he’s having a great time. There is no dispute anywhere that they were the ideal family in terms of their relationships.”
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Murdaugh also faces around 100 charges connected with other crimes, including money laundering, stealing millions from clients, tax avoidance and trying to get a man to lethally shoot him so his surviving son could gather a $10 million life coverage strategy. He was being held in prison without abandon those counts before he was accused of homicide.
Finally, Newman Controlled To Permit the State To Submit Ballistic Proof in Alex Murdaugh Case.
South Carolina Policing Specialist Paul Greer was called to the stand. He told the court he had been called to testify in 25 cases as a forensics gun master.
The motion spun around a series of slug casings that were tracked down around the group of Maggie Murdaugh. Those shells were then contrasted with shells tracked down in another space of the property.
Alex Murdaugh Openers Paint Unique, However Realistic Pictures of Evening of Killings
Attorneys on the two sides sent off into searing opening statements Wednesday afternoon.
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters spoke first, and when he described Maggie Murdaugh being shot, Alex Murdaugh peered down and shook his head.
Waters endeavored to punch holes in Murdaugh’s justification and says he has the proof to demonstrate Murdaugh is the executioner.
“You’re going to hear three recorded statements on video that he gave with policing you’re going to hear how things progress about what he says and what he says he did that evening,” Waters said. “Watch those closely. Watch his expressions. Listen to what he’s saying. Listen to what he’s not saying.”
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Waters told the jury they will hear that about seven days after the killings, Murdaugh showed up early in the morning at his parents’ home, something “uncharacteristic” of him.
“He comes in. He’s carrying something in a blue canvas and he takes it upstairs. And at last, policing out about that, and they go upstairs and they find upstairs a rolled up extremely, huge raincoat, in a blue tone, that could seem to be a canvas. And you’re going to hear proof it was covered with gunshot residue on the inside,” he said, adding there would be “a ton” of forensic proof in the case.
A critical piece of proof Waters said the jury would hear is PDA proof as the three Murdaughs were “productive cellphone users.”
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