South Carolina Attorney shot in head months after wife and son shot dead

[Augustus 3,061]

Pretty lengthy sidebar going on here.

Let's get this show on the road.

[chainsaw 9,870]

1 minute ago, Augustus said:

Pretty lengthy sidebar going on here.

Let's get this show on the road.

I think they are just establishing ground rules for what is over the line and allowable for closing argument.

[Augustus 3,061]

Prosecutor has Cicero head.

As in, huge.

[Augustus 3,061]

Anybody know specifically what Buster plagiarized that got him kicked out of law school? 

[ocugolf 1,214]

9 minutes ago, Augustus said:

Anybody know specifically what Buster plagiarized that got him kicked out of law school? 

I would assume that it was from his Legal Writing Requirement.  All my tests in law school were locked on some network that wouldn't allow you to get on the internet or your notes.  

[Frank Drebin 5,644]

I am the type that probably a DA would hate because I think many jurors will vote to convict if they think it is more likely than not the accused is guilty, and I would only convict if there was no reasonable doubt.

I could see this one going either way, but I think it's highly likely that Murdaugh is guilty. BRD is a tough standard for the state to meet.

[Augustus 3,061]

I don't think anybody has a doubt that they consider "unreasonable."

I'm definitely not sending somebody up for murder unless I'm convinced of his guilt.   I couldn't do it if I had any doubt at all.  To me, that's beyond reasonable doubt

[Augustus 3,061]

Somebody on the YouTube chat just referred to Waters as "Tim Conway".  lol

[Augustus 3,061]

1000mgs per day is really difficult to believe.

[Augustus 3,061]

I know Maggie's phone was found on the side of the road (or well off the side of the road) but where was Paul's phone found?  The scene?

Wonder why he took one and not the other.

[chainsaw 9,870]

This guy is wasting everyone's time talking about backstory and motive. Don't make this difficult. Nobody else could have been there but Alex. Easy.

 

Why is he harping over irrelevant details?

[Augustus 3,061]

Why begin closing arguments just to stop shortly afterward for lunch?

[conVINCEd 21,469]

2 minutes ago, Augustus said:

Why begin closing arguments just to stop shortly afterward for lunch?

Because they don’t want the shrimp and grits to get cold???

[Augustus 3,061]

2 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

Because they don’t want the shrimp and grits to get cold???

No doubt.

Why not just do lunch first, and then begin the closing?  

[Augustus 3,061]

The outcome here seems pretty clear, or at least what it should be.

Alex gets convicted of double murder, and Buster gets ordered to do something about that mess of a head of hair.

[Augustus 3,061]

@Nicole44. or anyone else who's followed this closely:

Did Alex have to address on direct or cross why the shirt he's wearing in the photo by the tree was never located?

[Cheeseweasel 26,438]

33 minutes ago, Augustus said:

1000mgs per day is really difficult to believe.

[Updawg 2,268]

[mention=1234]Nicole44[/mention]. or anyone else who's followed this closely:
Did Alex have to address on direct or cross why the shirt he's wearing in the photo by the tree was never located?

I did see it but I’m sure they questioned him or better have

I think it had to do about him taking a shower since he sweated so much due to the pills and being fat

[chainsaw 9,870]

not loving all the different styles and themes in the powerpoint slides either.

[T’Boo Ted Marshall 2,732]

1 hour ago, Augustus said:

I know Maggie's phone was found on the side of the road (or well off the side of the road) but where was Paul's phone found?  The scene?

Wonder why he took one and not the other.

Alex's brother found Paul's phone in the cleaning shed near the kennels.    He told one of the LEO about it and IIRC they did nothing initially.  

Edited March 1, 2023 by T’Boo Ted Marshall

[Cheeseweasel 26,438]

7 minutes ago, T’Boo Ted Marshall said:

Alex's brother found Paul's phone in the cleaning shed near the kennels.    He told one of the LEO about it and IIRC they did nothing initially.  

If he walks, it's because the State absolutely fucked this case up.

[smuggs 9,353]

I thought Paul's phone was found on his body? Alex told the police at the scene that he pulled it out of Paul's back pocket but then laid it on his body after he thought better of disturbing the evidence.

In reality he probably realized Paul had recorded video or taken pics, was attempting to delete said video/pics but gave up when he couldn't access the phone.

[Updawg 2,268]

I thought Paul's phone was found on his body? Alex told the police at the scene that he pulled it out of Paul's back pocket but then laid it on his body after he thought better of disturbing the evidence.
In reality he probably realized Paul had recorded video or taken pics, was attempting to delete said video/pics but gave up when he couldn't access the phone.

That’s what I thought

[T’Boo Ted Marshall 2,732]

39 minutes ago, smuggs said:

I thought Paul's phone was found on his body? Alex told the police at the scene that he pulled it out of Paul's back pocket but then laid it on his body after he thought better of disturbing the evidence.

In reality he probably realized Paul had recorded video or taken pics, was attempting to delete said video/pics but gave up when he couldn't access the phone.

Going off memory here but I thought Alex's brother found it, or was that Maggie's?  

[smuggs 9,353]

4 minutes ago, T’Boo Ted Marshall said:

Going off memory here but I thought Alex's brother found it, or was that Maggie's?  

The police found her phone using the Find My Phone app from the other son's (Buster's) phone.

 

https://abcnews4.com/news/local/investigator-describes-finding-maggie-murdaughs-phone-day-after-murder-alex-murdaugh-paul-son-wife-father-colleton-county-murders-double-homicide-wciv-shooting-call-logs-evidence-trial-day-9

Edited March 1, 2023 by smuggs
link

[smuggs 9,353]

32 minutes ago, T’Boo Ted Marshall said:

Going off memory here but I thought Alex's brother found it, or was that Maggie's?  

Actually you're partially right - Alex's brother checked Buster's Find My Phone App to locate it, showed that to the cops at the scene and the PD went out to get it.

 

 

Edited March 1, 2023 by smuggs

[Updawg 2,268]

Actually you're partially right - Alex's brother checked Buster's Find My Phone App to locate it, showed that to the cops at the scene and the PD went out to get it.
 
 

This is what happened. But the first cops they showed it to weren’t interested and said they had their own technology coming that would find.

They then found some other cops that were interested so they went and found it using busters find my phone

I do find it interesting how they all shared their location data like that. Screw that, I keep track of my daughter but that’s it

[Nicole44 22,061]

2 hours ago, Augustus said:

@Nicole44. or anyone else who's followed this closely:

Did Alex have to address on direct or cross why the shirt he's wearing in the photo by the tree was never located?

Yes he was asked on the stand. His answer was sort of I don’t know where that outfit is but SLED never asked me for it. SLED didn’t know to ask for it because it took a while to see the Instagram that Paul had taken of Alex wearing the pants and green shirt he wore to work that day but was not wearing when police arrived on the scene. They tested the hell out of what he was wearing. When they figured out he was wearing something else earlier it was too late. They didn’t ask him for it and he never offered it. Sort of a loaded deal. Plus he was sticking to his whole lie that he was not at the kennels which they couldn’t entirely disprove until they cracked Paul’s phone and got the video he uploaded moments before his death that his dad didn’t know he made that had his dad’s voice on it

[Augustus 3,061]

What was Waters referring to when he asked "Did you see him do this?" in answer to 'are you a family annihilator?' 

I'm listening, not watching.

[Nicole44 22,061]

1 minute ago, Augustus said:

What was Waters referring to when he asked "Did you see him do this?" in answer to 'are you a family annihilator?' 

I'm listening, not watching.

Not sure but I think that because the defense was so insistent on pushing the opioid defense as reasons for why Alex lied about his alibi and why he stole from his firm and clients the State is using that against them.
 

Prosecutor is saying: “Look if it’s too hard for you to accept that Alex is a cold blooded sociopath that killed his wife and son for a financial motive and so his own stealing wouldn’t be found out after some planning this crime…hey, we also have that he is a family annhilator type that thought he was helping Paul and Maggie and ultimately tried to kill himself later OR if you don’t buy that check this out he popped pills like a mofo and his whole career and financial and possible world were crashing down around him and his problem solving skills sucked and he was high as a kite and he fucking snapped.

These are basically all the same fucking motive but the last two assume he’s not a cold blooded sociopath who had been planning this for at least a few months. The first one doesn’t. I think a jury can see amply motives. Same end result. Jmo.

[Augustus 3,061]

Listening to him tell the cops "I was at my parents house for an hour and a half" immediately after he "found" the bodies is really all I need to hear.

You don't start concocting an alibi on the spot like that.  You had to have rehearsed it.

Really don't need to know anything else.

Guilty.

[Nicole44 22,061]

9 minutes ago, Augustus said:

Listening to him tell the cops "I was at my parents house for an hour and a half" immediately after he "found" the bodies is really all I need to hear.

You don't start concocting an alibi on the spot like that.  You had to have rehearsed it.

Really don't need to know anything else.

Guilty.

That and Alex calling Paul’s friend Rohan (the one who wanted the dog) after Rohan was blowing up Maggie’s and Paul’s phones and not getting a response and immediately calling 911 (17 seconds after he returns from mama’s house) saying he’d ran to the both and checked Paul’s pulse and touched them in that time. He’s fucked. I think it’s just hard for anyone to see a father/husband killing their wife and son but he had the best motive means and opportunity. Agree he’s guilty as fuck and I think the jury will see it that way and probably didn’t think three weeks of trial were needed. 

[Augustus 3,061]

9 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

That and Alex calling Paul’s friend Rohan (the one who wanted the dog) after Rohan was blowing up Maggie’s and Paul’s phones and not getting a response and immediately calling 911 (17 seconds after he returns from mama’s house) saying he’d ran to the both and checked Paul’s pulse and touched them in that time. He’s fucked. I think it’s just hard for anyone to see a father/husband killing their wife and son but he had the best motive means and opportunity. Agree he’s guilty as fuck and I think the jury will see it that way and probably didn’t think three weeks of trial were needed. 

 

Additionally, even leaving aside the stuff that implicates him, the idea that someone else could've pulled it off in such a narrow time frame, apparently using the Murdaughs' guns (I'm still not sure whether that's been demonstrated conclusively or it's just a preponderance of the evidence type deal), seems really unlikely.

How long was Alex actually gone from the property when he went to his mom's house?  I think I heard he was at his mother's for about 20 min.  Don't know how long a drive it was there and back.  It just seems a stretch to me that someone showed up at the property, procured the weapons and caught Paul and Maggie at the kennels, killed them, stole just Maggie's phone, not Paul's, and then tossed it out the window as they traveled the same route as Alex to his mom's house.

If it really was the Murdaughs' guns, then of all the stupid shit he did, that would be near the top.  Not getting rid of both phones was another one.  Having not a drop of blood on him when the first responders arrived was another miscalculation, especially if you're claiming you touched the bodies.  For a smart guy, he clearly panicked.

Edited March 1, 2023 by Augustus

[Mrs Whiggins 13,050]

21 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

... a cold blooded sociopath...

I wish that Stephen Smith's death in 2015 had been investigated thoroughly and dispassionately because it sure seemed like something weird went on there. I mean, calling the family the next day to offer your services for free? Other inconsistencies....

[Augustus 3,061]

Can you imagine how easy it was to get away with shit like this in the days before OnStar and cell phones?  Holy shit.

[Nicole44 22,061]

Just now, Mrs Whiggins said:

I wish that Stephen Smith's death in 2015 had been investigated thoroughly and dispassionately because it sure seemed like something weird went on there. I mean, calling the family the next day to offer your services for free? Other inconsistencies....

Yes. So much horrible stuff associated with that family. So many deaths. Read up on Hakeem Pickney, the quadriplegic client who Alex stole from…this poor guy died from negligence (waiting for his money…) the Mallory Beach boat crash changed everything. Then people started digging and the Smith case and the house keeper/nanny Gloria Satterfield’s cases were looked into. So much destruction. Death. It’s very much like a Greek Tragedy or Shakespeare type deal with Alex and his family. 

[Nicole44 22,061]

2 minutes ago, Augustus said:

Can you imagine how easy it was to get away with shit like this in the days before OnStar and cell phones?  Holy shit.

Yep. Unless you live out in the country with an old ass car and old ass untraceable weapons and ammunition and don’t use a cell phone and there aren’t ring cameras on ever fucking house and cameras everywhere you go it’s basically impossible. Hence why that fucktard in Idaho got caught. Too much data. Phones, cameras, receipts…(in the Idaho case)…

 

Actually if Alex had said from the jump he’d only been gone an hour and just saw them and never touched Maggie’s phone he might have pulled this shit off. But the alibi was unbeknownst to him total absolute crap because Paul was filming the dog inside the kennels with his phone and daddy didn’t have a fucking clue. Paul solved the case. 

[Mrs Whiggins 13,050]

If he is as addicted to opioids as they've said, I believe it can cause a certain myopia/tunnel vision and he had way too many loose ends with which to deal once he started down that path. I also believe that the family had so much sway for so long that they got the benefit of the doubt--the 'he's from a good family' trope that many lower socioeconomic defendants do not receive--the 'he's trailer trash/no good family' trope.

I don't buy the phantom shooter line of thought at all. Vanishes w/o a trace? No. This is a chicken coming home to roost.

[Nicole44 22,061]

23 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

If he is as addicted to opioids as they've said, I believe it can cause a certain myopia/tunnel vision and he had way too many loose ends with which to deal once he started down that path. I also believe that the family had so much sway for so long that they got the benefit of the doubt--the 'he's from a good family' trope that many lower socioeconomic defendants do not receive--the 'he's trailer trash/no good family' trope.

I don't buy the phantom shooter line of thought at all. Vanishes w/o a trace? No. This is a chicken coming home to roost.

Yep! Murdaughs owned the criminal and civil Justice system in that county and had away with LE and the State government for 100 plus years. Once the boat crash happened and Mallory Beach died as a result, the house of cards came crashing down. Reporters looked into the special treatment Paul got, saw that Alex and his daddy were on the scene basically directing the crash situation and recovery efforts and trying to place the blame on the Cook brothers. Reporters then started looking into Gloria Satterfield’s suspicious death and went to the courthouse and started digging for documents related to her death and such and as a result stumbled onto the scheme whereby Alex was stealing. And it blew the fuck up. 

[C-Man 27,230]

Pretty wild to think that if not for Paul's video showing Alex on property just minutes before they were shot and blowing to smithereens his claims to have not been at the property that night, he's probably walking this charge.

[Nicole44 22,061]

1 minute ago, C-Man said:

Pretty wild to think that if not for Paul's video showing Alex on property just minutes before they were shot and blowing to smithereens his claims to have not been at the property that night, he's probably walking this charge.

Absolutely. He’d never have to budge from it. They never searched his mom’s that night. Never knew he had been wearing much different clothes an hour earlier. Outside of Onstar evidence and some phone data. If there is no Paul video (which clearly Alex and the cops didn’t know about until they cracked his phone about 6 months ago) Alex doesn’t have to say he lied on the stand. Scary shit that Paul is in the kennels filming (no idea his own dad is about to blow his brains out) and Alex had no idea. Lots of planning went into his lies/alibi. Crazy. 

[LTtxfan 49,253]

52 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

Absolutely. He’d never have to budge from it. They never searched his mom’s that night. Never knew he had been wearing much different clothes an hour earlier. Outside of Onstar evidence and some phone data. If there is no Paul video (which clearly Alex and the cops didn’t know about until they cracked his phone about 6 months ago) Alex doesn’t have to say he lied on the stand. Scary shit that Paul is in the kennels filming (no idea his own dad is about to blow his brains out) and Alex had no idea. Lots of planning went into his lies/alibi. Crazy. 

Never would have been able to get a search warrant issued for Mom's house that night... no judge in that area would have signed it.   (Murdaugh family too powerful)

[conVINCEd 21,469]

So does the jury have the case yet?  I’ve been busy today and haven’t kept up.

[Nicole44 22,061]

15 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

So does the jury have the case yet?  I’ve been busy today and haven’t kept up.

The jury will have the case sometime tomorrow. 

[LTtxfan 49,253]

16 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

So does the jury have the case yet?  I’ve been busy today and haven’t kept up.

Still have closing arguments from defense on Thursday morning...

[Deej 76,831]

It's a shame he didn't kill off everyone in his family before they arrested him. 

[cabowabo 4,487]

On the issue of the Maggie’s phone, could they not track it going down road with Alex”s phone before he tossed it out?   Also, was Maggie’s phone unlocked with a password after she was shot?  They said the screen orientation was rotated (or whatever) but was it ever unlocked?  I doubt the 5 foot 2 12 year old murderer would know the password.  

[ClubWhatever 12,146]

I haven’t followed this much.  What is the supposed motive for killing your own son?

[cabowabo 4,487]

3 hours ago, Augustus said:

Can you imagine how easy it was to get away with shit like this in the days before OnStar and cell phones?  Holy shit.

I find it hard to believe they didn’t have any sort of camera system out there for security purposes. 

[cabowabo 4,487]

4 minutes ago, ClubWhatever said:

I haven’t followed this much.  What is the supposed motive for killing your own son?

Son had caused a lot of shit with the boat crash that was tightening the noose around Alex.  Plus, son was probably going to go to prison which would tarnish the family legacy.  Him getting murdered by vigilantes puts him in a sympathetic light, he’s never convicted, and Alex and that gay red headed freak Buster can live happily ever after.