SC - Paul Murdaugh & mom Margaret Found Shot To Death - Alex Murdaugh Accused - Islandton #21

[Cindizzi]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1624071780561215490

 

[Smelly Squirrel]

Alex Murdaugh's legal dream team strategizes at luxe South Carolina estate

Alex Murdaugh's legal team is staying at a luxurious estate with five homes, seven lakes and a sparkling swimming pool during the Walterboro, South Carolina, trial.

www.foxnews.com

WALTERBORO, S.C. — Alex Murdaugh’s high-powered legal team is renting an extravagant wedding venue on 500 acres in Walterboro, South Carolina, during their client’s sensational double murder trial, Fox News Digital has learned.

The property, called Eden at Gracefield, is the temporary home of Murdaugh’s lead defense attorneys, Dick Harpootlian, Jim Griffin and their entourag

The team rented all five homes "nestled between lakes and tranquil forests" about eight miles from the Colleton County Courthouse for a little less than the list price of $20,475 a week.
....
It's unclear how Murdaugh, who has claimed he's broke, is paying Harpootlian, a Democratic state senator, and Griffin, whose team's housing tab has already surpassed $60,000.

 

[Tanager]

I am still stuck on the ring, and I am trying to think about the conditions under which it would end up there. I would only put my ring under the seat if I was going somewhere and I was extremely worried about theft, and even then, it does not sound like something I would do. I'd leave it on my finger otherwise, even if I was mad enough at my husband to hurl it in the back of the car. I'd notice immediately if my ring slid off in the car, and I'd start ferreting around for it immediately. Maybe that depends on the person and the ring, but my finger feels noticeably weird when the ring is off. Did I mention that I am a mid-fifties UMC lady? You know who puts his keys, phone, and wallet under the seat, often? My husband.

Under the seat feels like a AM move. Maybe he took it at the scene and chucked it in there so it could not walk away from the crime scene? Maybe he snagged it at the scene to suggest robbery and realized how bad it would look for him to have it, so he put it in there at the scene or later to explain it's whereabouts. Maybe he put it in the car for safekeeping so he could sell it or use it to frame someone? I have a hard time believing that it was in the car at the time of the police search and they missed it.

 

[clearskies1]

OK, thank you. I was getting confused because it seemed like folks here were talking like they were Maggie's clothes/damp towel.

Still confused about the pajamas. If he laid out the clothes like she was going to spend the night, he had to get them from somewhere....like her dresser there? Why would he have needed to lay them out like that (why would she have brought the pajamas to begin with) if she kept clothes there....

I think the argument would be that the pajamas and underwear were in a dresser or folded clean in the laundry room (meaning she kept clothes at both Moselle and Edisto). When questioned the night of the murders, Alex told LE that Maggie was at Moselle when he left for work that morning. But Maggie's texts, which were admitted into evidence, show that she was not at Moselle that morning -- rather she was in Edisto and Alex asked her to come to Moselle that day. So the speculation is that Alex would have taken her pajamas out of the dresser or the laundry room to make it appear that Maggie was/had actively been staying at Moselle, when in fact she had been Edisto and had only come to Moselle because of Alex's request. This is all just speculation. Also, Blanca testified that it was very unusual for her pajamas to be be found where they were and for there to be underwear with them because MM did not wear underwear with her pjs. JMO.

 

[DizzyB]

I find all of his insurance claims so odd. I’m his age and have owned plenty of homes. Ive never filed a claim. Ever. Don’t insurance carriers see all of his claims and at some point say hmm… seems to be a pattern here?

A new Carrier will request 3 to 5 years of loss runs in order to quote coverage. The loss runs should have all of the claim info- dates of loss and details including what was paid out, what is being held in reserve if the claim is not closed. Some Carriers will quote and bind coverage subject to clean loss runs. Now if the loss runs are never sent, the Carrier could issue cancellation and then whoever the Murdaughs use as their Agent could find new coverage, playing the same game over and over. Sometimes files are not reviewed and the loss runs are not received and cheaters get lucky.

There’s usually a Carrier who will write properties like this for high premium. Then if another claim is filed, it might be non-renewed for the next term. Or there might be enough premium involved in the whole real estate portfolio that it’s worth writing. There might be high deductibles or lower limits. I don’t know if it’s the Murdaughs or the Agent but it’s possible that there was fraud involved. Next trial.

 

[Diddian]

The CFO of PMPED testified to theft that had gone on for more than ten years.

Alex Murdaugh’s best friend testifies against him in his double murder trial, details betrayal and stealing

Day 14 of the Alex Murdaugh murder trial.

www.wistv.com

"On September 3, 2021, fully realizing the extent of Murdaugh’s corruption that had spanned a decade and cost the firm millions of dollars, PMPED cut ties with him."

ETA: Sorry, that was supposed to be a reply to @Minordetails, but I see someone else has already directly addressed that poster.

 

[Gardenista]

Alex Murdaugh's legal dream team strategizes at luxe South Carolina estate

Alex Murdaugh's legal team is staying at a luxurious estate with five homes, seven lakes and a sparkling swimming pool during the Walterboro, South Carolina, trial.

www.foxnews.com

WALTERBORO, S.C. — Alex Murdaugh’s high-powered legal team is renting an extravagant wedding venue on 500 acres in Walterboro, South Carolina, during their client’s sensational double murder trial, Fox News Digital has learned.

The property, called Eden at Gracefield, is the temporary home of Murdaugh’s lead defense attorneys, Dick Harpootlian, Jim Griffin and their entourag

The team rented all five homes "nestled between lakes and tranquil forests" about eight miles from the Colleton County Courthouse for a little less than the list price of $20,475 a week.
....
It's unclear how Murdaugh, who has claimed he's broke, is paying Harpootlian, a Democratic state senator, and Griffin, whose team's housing tab has already surpassed $60,000.

I sure hope Alex reads this. Him in his tiny cell and his team in a $20k/week home lol.

 

[stmarysmead]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1624071780561215490

That seems to me like someone carrying clean laundry from the laundry room to the bedroom…was interrupted and hurriedly put the items down to do something more crucial.

 

[Minordetails]

There are records of him stealing and running his financial schemes prior to the boat crash.
How much AM was “liked” in the community has to be gauged on influence the Murdaugh family wielded in that area for generations. For decades they decided who faced criminal charges and who did not, who was guilty and who was innocent, who was given a chance at a better life and who was not. They bought juries, ran liquor, did as they pleased. People realized it was beneficial to “like” the Murdaughs.
When I think of AM I see a man that stole from orphans, and the most vulnerable. He had everything…and still chose to steal from people who had nothing. There is nothing likable about AM.

AM is a murderer in my opinion, but the only person who has testified, and would make the claim that there was nothing ‘likable about AM’ is MT. Blanca and Shelley didn’t appear to loathe him. Would the Satterfield boys say there is nothing likable about AM?

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

Since the killings happened less than 5 minutes later, they're going to have to claim that Alex left at that very moment to go back to the house, and that he somehow managed not to hear any of the shootings. And then that he left the house some 10 or 15 minutes later from that, which is also when he was then trying to call Maggie and text her without a response, but didn't think to simply go to the kennels to find her where he would have just left her. Not to mention also needing to explain why he told such humongous lies about his whereabouts to the police (and to his friends and family).

The last witness Nathan also brought up some bad points against Alex regarding the kennels. He said that they would have turned on the lights out there when it was dark. Apparently the lights were not on when Alex supposedly found them. Meaning an outside killer would have had to turn off the lights for some reason.

Defense have also been trying to say that the water on the ground was from them washing out the kennels at that time. But Nathan also testified that when they would wash out the kennels they would put the dog beds on top of the cages so they don't get wet. I'm sure the beds were not found on any cages that night. (Their defensiveness about this also convinces me that Alex did indeed wash something off out there.)

To be able to get in any explanation for all of that, I see no other way than for Alex to testify. But I don't see how that could be anything other than a disaster for the defense. Even if he managed to use his vaunted people skills on the stand, the jury has heard lots of testimony about how he has lied to his closest friends and family and fooled them for years and years, so whatever he says should get a lot of side eye.

To me, as soon as they got the cell phone timeline data in on when the phones go inactive combined with his voice being identified 100% on the kennel video, the case was over. Nothing other than his guilt explains that. Everything else is superfluous.

Such a good post!

 

[Knox]

That’s so romantic!!! I love that as a first date.

It is romantic, he's a good looking man so that doesn't hurt either. But I wonder if she got a word in edgewise, lol?
His first testimony was great, but in front of the jury - his answers were too long winded on irrevelant topics.

 

[Not a Belle]

I sure hope Alex reads this. Him in his tiny cell and his team in a $20k/week home lol.

I started to say “that he’s paying for,” but he hasn’t paid for anything with his own money in a decade. JMO.

 

[Megnut]

I find all of his insurance claims so odd. I’m his age and have owned plenty of homes. Ive never filed a claim. Ever. Don’t insurance carriers see all of his claims and at some point say hmm… seems to be a pattern here?

Say it isn't so. Are you suggesting that a big bucks slip-and-fall attorney would deliberately create slips and falls and other kinds of slippery falling in order to draw money out of insurance companies? Your question is a good one. How did no one question this? Forget the company, how did he not get audited by the IRS, early,
yearly, often and every time????? I feel like I'm watching FletNix and I'm on Season 18, Episode 37. And none of it's believable.

JMO

 

[stmarysmead]

Wasn’t the testimony that it was MM’s wedding BAND…not her diamond? That makes it even odder to me. I have to remove my engagement ring to remove my wedding band. Where is MM’s diamond?

I will take off my engagement ring when we go boating, swimming, but never my wedding ring. And as an earlier poster wrote, I definitely can feel the difference when it is off my finger. Yet, we have seen thevphoto of MM in the boat with AM and she has her rings on.

Did AM have access to that car prior to the housekeeper cleaning it? Could he have had both of MM’s rings in his pocket to sell and lost the inexpensive one and didn’t notice? Was she wearing her rungs when they found her body?

 

[clearskies1]

I am still stuck on the ring, and I am trying to think about the conditions under which it would end up there. I would only put my ring under the seat if I was going somewhere and I was extremely worried about theft, and even then, it does not sound like something I would do. I'd leave it on my finger otherwise, even if I was mad enough at my husband to hurl it in the back of the car. I'd notice immediately if my ring slid off in the car, and I'd start ferreting around for it immediately. Maybe that depends on the person and the ring, but my finger feels noticeably weird when the ring is off. Did I mention that I am a mid-fifties UMC lady? You know who puts his keys, phone, and wallet under the seat, often? My husband.

Under the seat feels like a AM move. Maybe he took it at the scene and chucked it in there so it could not walk away from the crime scene? Maybe he snagged it at the scene to suggest robbery and realized how bad it would look for him to have it, so he put it in there at the scene or later to explain it's whereabouts. Maybe he put it in the car for safekeeping so he could sell it or use it to frame someone? I have a hard time believing that it was in the car at the time of the police search and they missed it.

Blanca described it as a wedding band. In this photo below and in other photos it looks like MM is wearing an engagement ring (and also possibly a wedding band). I wonder if she had an engagement ring on when LE came to the scene that night. JMO.

Friends remember homicide victim Maggie Murdaugh on her birthday

Loved ones feel homicide victims Margaret and Paul Murdaugh are lost in the major, complex Murdaugh story.

www.blufftontoday.com

 

[Megnut]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1624071780561215490

We learned from testimony that AM stashes clothing, even in his car.

Did he shower at Moselle, just not in the house? Did he shower at the kennel? Hose down the tarpo, hose down himself, bundle all of that up, dress out of his trunk?

When would he have staged the clothes at the house? Did Maggie and Paul go to the kennels and AM laid out the clothes then? To make it look like he and Maggie has both been there. Grabbed things for Maggie, grabbed some for himself, knocking a T down? Run the shower, make it look lived in.... then follow after them?

Almost seems to have to have been beforw.

Jmoo

 

[Diddian]

If the financial crimes was disallowed (as it should’ve been imo) then the states case would last 2-3 days from what I’ve seen so far. They don’t have much substantial evidence. The Snapchat video is the most damning evidence so far. It puts him there minutes before the murder and he lied about being there. That’s why prosecutors are playing that every chance they get. Oh and also the interview in the car is pretty damning but some jurors could easily explain that away as shock.

There’s no physical evidence and there’s no evidence so far that he loathed his family. Quite the opposite in fact. The motive evidence is a streeeeetch. The presentation of evidence is disorganized and boring. You can’t afford to be boring when your case is highly circumstantial. The closing argument I predict will be equally bad and rely on character evidence - he’s a bad man so he’s capable of murder. The just verdict is not guilty.

JMO

There are TWO videos.

The "Snapchat" video is the one taken when Paul and Alex were checking the trees they'd earlier planted. Alex is holding a tree straight, let's go, and the tree flops to the ground (as Paul chuckles in the background).

The other video is one Paul took at the request of Cash's (the brown Labrador's) owner, to show him what Cash's tail looks like. Paul was supposed to send that video to Cash's owner directly. (ETA: But it was never sent - by text or email or through the Snapchat app or any other.)

Alex has reason to sweat both because:

• The housekeeper recognized the shirt Alex was wearing in the Snapchat video and has not seen it among his belongings since the night of the murders (a reasonable inference might be that Alex was wearing it when he subsequently murdered PM and MM, and then disposed of it).
• When speaking with LE, Alex denied being at the kennels with MM and PM that night, but Alex' voice is clearly heard in the video Paul took while at the kennels with the intention to forward it to his friend (Cash's owner) and that audio indicates Alex is interacting with PM and MM down by the kennels shortly before they were murdered.
  

(Edited about text never sent through Snapchat or any other means.)

 

[housewife]

Amen. I believe they were bigots and not very sophisticated. For Maggie to refer to her help as "Mexicans" was very telling. I think they employed people like slave owners once did. Sure they probably cared about them to a certain degree but I think that caring made their help almost idolize them. I don't sense any of the Murdaughs innately respected anyone or anything.

I also get the impression Maggie and Alex were more like friends to their boys rather than parental figures. After all, they constantly bought liquor for them whilst underage and hosted a lot of parties. My point, Alex comes off like a juvenile. I think there was arrested mental development in Alex's upbringing which probably carried over to the upbringing of Paul and Buster too.

I don't think the "help" idolized the Murdaughs. I think there is a huge power imbalance between the M family and everyone else, and desperate people are forced to work for whatever they can get. The M family takes advantage of the fact that they can pay "house help" under the table in cash, and not provide health insurance or benefits because the area is so economically depressed.

 

[Seattle1]

While this case is circumstantial, through some really strong testimonies, I agree with attorney Eric Bland, there are a lot of pieces coming together like a mosaic to complete the picture (Eric Bland's metaphor in a 10 Feb. Nancy Grace podcast) ... Blanca, Shelly, Tinsley, LE videos, etc. ... they seem to be adding up. Just hope that's how the jury is seeing it. Moo.

Changing topics: I'm surprised we aren't discussing the testimony of Paul's friend and now LE, Nathan Tuten. He was an interesting witness. IMO he seemed hostile to both the prosecution and defense but more toward the defense. OMO.

One thing that confused me was that I thought it was Paul's beige AR to which PM and Loving had added the Ace Hardware site that was missing, and the black AR in evidence, that NT identified as Paul's, was actually Buster's.

Any thoughts on his testimony?

Perhaps PM had been using what we know was Buster's gun and NT assumed it was PM's. I recall NT testified that he wasn't aware until the trial that the gun lost by PM had been replaced. MOO

 

[sunshineray]

From what I’ve seen of Tinsley I would be surprised if she was able to get a word in on this “romantic” stroll! Defense did well to get him off the stand as quickly as possible thereby signaling to the jury that his testimony was irrelevant and wholly biased. Even Waters tried to get him to be succinct and he wouldn’t! Geez!

I thought he was fine. He seemed very personable and informative.