SC - Paul Murdaugh & mom Margaret Found Shot To Death - Alex Murdaugh Accused - Islandton #27

[Katrinepa]

In addition to DH brandishing a gun, pointing it at the Prosecution and making a joke, here’s something else that should not have been allowed in Court today:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1628232986385694721

No contact allowed! Why was he allowed to be near BM?!

 

[Loveallmyhorsesdogsandcats]

Good points. But I'd like to know WHY a man making a million plus a year salary, with a trust fund, and stealing from friends and family…had money problems. To me, therein lies the real motive and a lot LOT more.

I think he stole from people he cared about because he HAD to, out of desperation. But therein lies the mystery. Where was all that money going?
I would think he did it out of greed or some mental disorder, if he actually possessed what he stole. But millions went somewhere and left him stealing, borrowing, and mortgaging.

I discuss this case with my husband and that’s what we both say where in the heck is all the money, what did he do? Millions of what he stole is still unaccounted for, is it stashed somewhere, used for bribes? I think the defense is over playing the drug addiction, saying he spent 50K a week on his personal drug use is ridiculous, nobody would still be alive taking that many drugs much less be able to function. He was concocting some elaborate schemes that went on for years. Was he supplying his clients/friends with drugs? I do not know if he stole from desperation or just because he could. It may have started out of desperation but then became a way of life for him. It seems he did not try to rectify the situation, change his ways, stop the spending. I do believe the boat case lawsuit is what changed everything, created the path that led to Alex looking for a way out. Without that lawsuit, life would have continued as normal, Alex charming everybody out of their money, nobody suspecting that this "great guy” was actually a very adept con artist.

 

[Elley Mae]

We hear gun fire from a great distance at night, typically on the weekend and it is not hunting. We use Nextdoor and with the help of others & can pinpoint where it’s really coming from. Usually 3 miles at most. Very residential with some
major roadways.

I as well live in neighborhood close to highways, I don’t smoke in house and wake up 2-3 in morning and will sit on porch to smoke, bout 2 weeks ago while out I heard 3 gun shots not far off, then nothing no sirens no cars leaving at high rate of speed, who knows. Not normal in this area.

I also lived in Georgia and North Carolina for a few years each out in the rural/farming communities and hearing guns out in those areas was very normal.
Between hogs, coyotes, dove and even crows are a nuisance.

I guess for me it depends on location of the shot as to whether it gets my attention.

Years ago we had a cuckoo clock and you get so used to hearing it that I would catch myself looking at it to see what time it was and it would be 10:15 and I wondered why I didn’t remember hearing the 10 cuckoo’s 15 minutes prior.

Jmo

 

[Katrinepa]

No one's ever really seen them mind you. But legend has it around these parts there's a sinister organization that's rarely talked about. The Government won't discuss them and vehemently denies that they even exist. However there is a long storied history of a secret lost colony of people here in the swamps of the Low Country who escaped a factory in England in the 60's after decades of servitude to a huge candy magnate.

This person kept them hidden away from the prying eyes of competitors for years as he dominated the industry. Escaping during a failed experiment for a secret formula for an everlasting product that would forever change the course of the industry, some of them made their way out right before the devastating explosion that killed hundreds of their kind. Those that survived finally got away from HIS grasp. They made the long arduous journey to the South Carolina Coast, smuggled in on an old molasses trade route used during the prohibition era where they seemingly disappeared into thin air.

What no one could have known was that they were honing their skills in another occupation. One far more deadlier. They mastered the art of camouflage and invisibility. They mastered and qualified in over 10,000 different kinds of weapons. They became trained in the deadliest marshal arts known to mankind. They operated under complete secrecy. Only a select few knew of their existence.

In the mean time, they took jobs that no one else wanted or were even capable of doing. Jobs that required a certain skill set. Jobs that would help finance their colony and their elite training and weaponry so that one day they might return to England to extract their vengeance on their Oppressor.....

I'm talking about The Low Country Oompa Loompa Hit Squad of course. Those Cowboi Outlaws of Candy Land! It was THEY who were responsible for the Murdaugh hit. It's the only reasonable explanation for these horrible crimes! All the state has to do is link the missing Murdaugh funds to them to complete the circle and get these....these things off the streets!


My own opinion of course. Yes, this is sarcasm but that might as well be what Sutton testified to today. I just can't for the life of me understand why he was brought to court today?? He's really not an expert on anything in particular. Besides being a conflict of interest since he is worked on the boat case and was already employed by the defense team, his science made no sense. There were no controls in his experiments. He neglected variables that may have had an influence on his findings. His recreations didn't even use the same firearms or ammunition. He didn't account for weather, tree growth or elapsed time since he went to the crime scene years after the crime. He conducted his 'recreations' without taking into considerations a host of things. His work was sloppy at best. He relied on the state's findings to base some of his results. The same results that defense sought to impeach!! His graph wasn't even labeled. A mistake a grade school student would make. His testimony was mess. It was pretty obvious he just regurgitated what ever Harpootlian and Co wanted him to repeat. A complete joke.

I can't remember a person being so completely annihilated on the stand this way in a loong time. I'll give Sutton credit, he didn't lose his demeanor or get frustrated. I'll give him that but man, it was bad this afternoon. For that I give him a Wonka Everlasting Gobstopper!

Oompa Loompa-LOL I love cultural fables

 

[Regal Beagle]

MOO: But the projectile/acoustic engineer was tilted by the circumstances of the undertaking: he relied on measurements taken by a third party with some fairly crude equipment, as well as the position of the ejected casings as found and recorded by SLED to draw a conclusion about the position of the shooter....That reduced the casings that corresponded with that bullet path to (1) of (2) and that much was a pretty safe conclusion. He was applying highly accurate measuring and plotting techniques to extend in a very accurate manner from some pretty rough cut initial dimensions. The consequence of doing that is inherently suspect.
Where he pressed the boundaries was to extend that to make a determination about the physical characteristics of the shooter. In fact he demonstrated the criticality of the angular measurement of trajectory by extending (2) lines from the penetration point on the quail cage, one at 1.5 degress off horizontal and one at 3-degrees off horizontal....and quite clearly the 3-degree line at the nominal distance to the shell casings could only correspond to a shooter lying on the ground. So the 3-degree measurement was probably bogus; there was little reason to put great faith in the lower number; and that should have been the end of the discussion of that bullet path. Note he said he read the angular measurements from the SLED photographs so obviously there were at least (2) different readings. Instead he employed the 1.5 degree path to draw a conclusion about the height of the shooter....and its my opinion that that was playing outside the lines.
Also note: he could not take reliable measurements himself some 15 months after the incident: the nature of the material of the cage was such that even changes in humidity would shift the primary hole with respect to that through the hangar wall so all angular measurements would be suspect.
The shot into the dog house was actually closer to accurate because the travel distance was shorter; any variation in the measured angle of incline would result in a smaller zone of possible locations than it did in the shot that hit the quail cage.
Why the impression was ever created that there were (2) shooters is beyond me. The ballistics on shell casings defined that the casings found in that area were fired from the same weapon. So the weapon was passed hand to hand? I think the entire confusion got started when he placed (2) of his silver images on the same slide, which got hammered on cross examination like he was purporting a pair of assassins, both the same height.
He did not make shaky inferencs from the shotgun path: his conclusions were basically sound and did not raise much challenge. The whole incident is in fact more well defined: only (2) shots, the second did deplorable damage...

There were other errors in the presentation: He plotted the speed-time graph from 0 to 16 minutes, which by the On Star data should have been 9:06:50 to 9:22:37 PM. That little discrepancy caused all the fencing around with the laptop, some snippety exchanges and the associated discrediting of the rest of his analysis. This not a technical error but one of presentation clarity.

The acoustic analysis was actually pretty well done, although using the exact weapons with the exact same ammunition would have be somewhat more precise. The was probably neglible: for practical purposes the reports would not have represented a disturbance of any identifiable kind to anyone inside the house. Filtering could have been applied to the recorded sounds to isolate the frequency band associated with the reports but the point was established. Its relevance in this trial is a little tenuous in my mind.

MOO but I believe the basic issue here is that this witness tried to cover too much ground: Between projectile paths and acoustics and the flight path of the cell phone the defense would probably have been better served if they had spread the assignments to some additional parties or pursued corroboration for some of the key points here.

IMHO of course....

Very well stated

 

[Aquarian]

I as well live in neighborhood close to highways, I don’t smoke in house and wake up 2-3 in morning and will sit on porch to smoke, bout 2 weeks ago while out I heard 3 gun shots not far off, then nothing no sirens no cars leaving at high rate of speed, who knows. Not normal in this area.

I also lived in Georgia and North Carolina for a few years each out in the rural/farming communities and hearing guns out in those areas was very normal.
Between hogs, coyotes, dove and even crows are a nuisance.

I guess for me it depends on location of the shot as to whether it gets my attention.

Years ago we had a cuckoo clock and you get so used to hearing it that I would catch myself looking at it to see what time it was and it would be 10:15 and I wondered why I didn’t remember hearing the 10 cuckoo’s 15 minutes prior.

Jmo

Very true. This is new in our world over last 2-3 yrs, so we are alert. Just glad it’s still over yonder so to speak.

 

[Katrinepa]

MOO: But the projectile/acoustic engineer was tilted by the circumstances of the undertaking: he relied on measurements taken by a third party with some fairly crude equipment, as well as the position of the ejected casings as found and recorded by SLED to draw a conclusion about the position of the shooter....That reduced the casings that corresponded with that bullet path to (1) of (2) and that much was a pretty safe conclusion. He was applying highly accurate measuring and plotting techniques to extend in a very accurate manner from some pretty rough cut initial dimensions. The consequence of doing that is inherently suspect.
Where he pressed the boundaries was to extend that to make a determination about the physical characteristics of the shooter. In fact he demonstrated the criticality of the angular measurement of trajectory by extending (2) lines from the penetration point on the quail cage, one at 1.5 degress off horizontal and one at 3-degrees off horizontal....and quite clearly the 3-degree line at the nominal distance to the shell casings could only correspond to a shooter lying on the ground. So the 3-degree measurement was probably bogus; there was little reason to put great faith in the lower number; and that should have been the end of the discussion of that bullet path. Note he said he read the angular measurements from the SLED photographs so obviously there were at least (2) different readings. Instead he employed the 1.5 degree path to draw a conclusion about the height of the shooter....and its my opinion that that was playing outside the lines.
Also note: he could not take reliable measurements himself some 15 months after the incident: the nature of the material of the cage was such that even changes in humidity would shift the primary hole with respect to that through the hangar wall so all angular measurements would be suspect.
The shot into the dog house was actually closer to accurate because the travel distance was shorter; any variation in the measured angle of incline would result in a smaller zone of possible locations than it did in the shot that hit the quail cage.
Why the impression was ever created that there were (2) shooters is beyond me. The ballistics on shell casings defined that the casings found in that area were fired from the same weapon. So the weapon was passed hand to hand? I think the entire confusion got started when he placed (2) of his silver images on the same slide, which got hammered on cross examination like he was purporting a pair of assassins, both the same height.
He did not make shaky inferencs from the shotgun path: his conclusions were basically sound and did not raise much challenge. The whole incident is in fact more well defined: only (2) shots, the second did deplorable damage...

There were other errors in the presentation: He plotted the speed-time graph from 0 to 16 minutes, which by the On Star data should have been 9:06:50 to 9:22:37 PM. That little discrepancy caused all the fencing around with the laptop, some snippety exchanges and the associated discrediting of the rest of his analysis. This not a technical error but one of presentation clarity.

The acoustic analysis was actually pretty well done, although using the exact weapons with the exact same ammunition would have be somewhat more precise. The was probably neglible: for practical purposes the reports would not have represented a disturbance of any identifiable kind to anyone inside the house. Filtering could have been applied to the recorded sounds to isolate the frequency band associated with the reports but the point was established. Its relevance in this trial is a little tenuous in my mind.

MOO but I believe the basic issue here is that this witness tried to cover too much ground: Between projectile paths and acoustics and the flight path of the cell phone the defense would probably have been better served if they had spread the assignments to some additional parties or pursued corroboration for some of the key points here.

IMHO of course....

I agree. At least the Prosecutors brought specific professionally trained experts to testify on issues related to their own specialty, which made it more clear to me. The Defense guy was asked about too many separate issues/evidence, and though his demeanor was good, his opinions were confusing and out of bounds in some. MOO

 

[Elley Mae]

From BM's testimony today, he did clarify that "Greenfield" or John Marvin's hunting lodge where the lawyers from the firm all gathered to support AM before SLED arrived, is located only a couple of minutes down the road from Alameda (AM's parents' home).

This better explains why RM3 was able to ride over to the hunting lodge where the other lawyers were meeting (Ronnie Crosby testified RM3 was present outside). MOO

2.9 miles, 9 minute drive.

 

[Katrinepa]

I discuss this case with my husband and that’s what we both say where in the heck is all the money, what did he do? Millions of what he stole is still unaccounted for, is it stashed somewhere, used for bribes? I think the defense is over playing the drug addiction, saying he spent 50K a week on his personal drug use is ridiculous, nobody would still be alive taking that many drugs much less be able to function. He was concocting some elaborate schemes that went on for years. Was he supplying his clients/friends with drugs? I do not know if he stole from desperation or just because he could. It may have started out of desperation but then became a way of life for him. It seems he did not try to rectify the situation, change his ways, stop the spending. I do believe the boat case lawsuit is what changed everything, created the path that led to Alex looking for a way out. Without that lawsuit, life would have continued as normal, Alex charming everybody out of their money, nobody suspecting that this "great guy” was actually a very adept con artist.

Just my own guessing, but Gambling, Paying off witnesses to his money crimes/Blackmail? If he was selling Drugs, that's Income, not pay out. We may never know all the details or Motive, as they do not need to prove Motive to convict. Today is another chance at drama... MOO

 

[Regal Beagle]

No one's ever really seen them mind you. But legend has it around these parts there's a sinister organization that's rarely talked about. The Government won't discuss them and vehemently denies that they even exist. However there is a long storied history of a secret lost colony of people here in the swamps of the Low Country who escaped a factory in England in the 60's after decades of servitude to a huge candy magnate.

This person kept them hidden away from the prying eyes of competitors for years as he dominated the industry. Escaping during a failed experiment for a secret formula for an everlasting product that would forever change the course of the industry, some of them made their way out right before the devastating explosion that killed hundreds of their kind. Those that survived finally got away from HIS grasp. They made the long arduous journey to the South Carolina Coast, smuggled in on an old molasses trade route used during the prohibition era where they seemingly disappeared into thin air.

What no one could have known was that they were honing their skills in another occupation. One far more deadlier. They mastered the art of camouflage and invisibility. They mastered and qualified in over 10,000 different kinds of weapons. They became trained in the deadliest marshal arts known to mankind. They operated under complete secrecy. Only a select few knew of their existence.

In the mean time, they took jobs that no one else wanted or were even capable of doing. Jobs that required a certain skill set. Jobs that would help finance their colony and their elite training and weaponry so that one day they might return to England to extract their vengeance on their Oppressor.....

I'm talking about The Low Country Oompa Loompa Hit Squad of course. Those Cowboi Outlaws of Candy Land! It was THEY who were responsible for the Murdaugh hit. It's the only reasonable explanation for these horrible crimes! All the state has to do is link the missing Murdaugh funds to them to complete the circle and get these....these things off the streets!


My own opinion of course. Yes, this is sarcasm but that might as well be what Sutton testified to today. I just can't for the life of me understand why he was brought to court today?? He's really not an expert on anything in particular. Besides being a conflict of interest since he is worked on the boat case and was already employed by the defense team, his science made no sense. There were no controls in his experiments. He neglected variables that may have had an influence on his findings. His recreations didn't even use the same firearms or ammunition. He didn't account for weather, tree growth or elapsed time since he went to the crime scene years after the crime. He conducted his 'recreations' without taking into considerations a host of things. His work was sloppy at best. He relied on the state's findings to base some of his results. The same results that defense sought to impeach!! His graph wasn't even labeled. A mistake a grade school student would make. His testimony was mess. It was pretty obvious he just regurgitated what ever Harpootlian and Co wanted him to repeat. A complete joke.

I can't remember a person being so completely annihilated on the stand this way in a loong time. I'll give Sutton credit, he didn't lose his demeanor or get frustrated. I'll give him that but man, it was bad this afternoon. For that I give him a Wonka Everlasting Gobstopper!

You have truly outdone yourself! Kudos!!

 

[General wooster]

Oompa Loompa-LOL I love cultural fables

Likely, he was the best that they could find willing to testify. Not a case the good ones would want their name attached to.

 

[Elley Mae]

Just seems that after he left the firm on the 7th knowing Jeanne Seckinger was on to him I wonder if selling moselle was discussed with Maggie at dinner and when it didn’t go over well he made decision to do it his way.

Jmo

 

[kaen]

Going over all of yesterday's trial events and some of the posts here, I wish I could say I am in disbelief that two justice systems are present in our country. It is so clear that the many lawyers in this area are so friendly (from boat deposition video from above) and willing to see how far they can push the rulings of the court when they have a friend in the mix but justice for others like the people ripped off by AM and harmed by PM is slow and stacked against them. It is kind of stomach turning to watch as they use (or abuse) the system to protect their own. From the Netflix series, the video of AM and family meeting with those kids on the worst night of their lives to get them cloud whether or not PM was driving the boat to BM testifying that no one in the family believed that PM was driving is just nauseating. I am ready for this trial to be over. It is a little like the Teresa Sievers murder for me in that there is so much subterfuge that you can't know anything really.

At this point, I am surprised that AM hasn't claimed the PM shot MM because of some inane reason. Then, AM found a carelessly stashed gun left by PM and killed PM in self defense. But...there is still time left in this trial for a Perry Mason 2.0 moment, I guess. Just sickening.

 

[Regal Beagle]

If anyone has ever listened to the jail house calls on Mandy Matney's Murdaugh Murders podcast, you can tell right away the man..AM, has a hearing problem. He is constantly saying.." huh?" And the person, usually BM has to repeat the whole sentence again. It drives me crazy!

 

[Elley Mae]

Going over all of yesterday's trial events and some of the posts here, I wish I could say I am in disbelief that two justice systems are present in our country. It is so clear that the many lawyers in this area are so friendly (from boat deposition video from above) and willing to see how far they can push the rulings of the court when they have a friend in the mix but justice for others like the people ripped off by AM and harmed by PM is slow and stacked against them. It is kind of stomach turning to watch as they use (or abuse) the system to protect their own. From the Netflix series, the video of AM and family meeting with those kids on the worst night of their lives to get them cloud whether or not PM was driving the boat to BM testifying that no one in the family believed that PM was driving is just nauseating. I am ready for this trial to be over. It is a little like the Teresa Sievers murder for me in that there is so much subterfuge that you can't know anything really.

At this point, I am surprised that AM hasn't claimed the PM shot MM because of some inane reason. Then, AM found a carelessly stashed gun left by PM and killed PM in self defense. But...there is still time left in this trial for a Perry Mason 2.0 moment, I guess. Just sickening.

And there are probably many more “Hampton SC’s” in this country that haven’t made the headlines with a double murder of a famous lawyer’s wife and son.

 

[arielilane]

Good morning!

It’s a beautiful day. Train is a-rollin, all aboard! Ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaa!
Our cocktail lounge car (thanks to @Edvis) was restocked and is ready to serve. Heard some of you like the tea from Long Island so you're covered. Need that little extra as the Defense continue today. Lol

Watch trial live:

 

[arielilane]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1628363377696288768

 

[arielilane]

AM has arrived to the courthouse. Someone (reporter?) asked him if he was going to testify. No response from AM.

 

[arielilane]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1628394418054242305

 

[Elley Mae]

Good morning!

It’s a beautiful day. Train is a-rollin, all aboard! Ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaa!
Our cocktail lounge car (thanks to @Edvis) was restocked and is ready to serve. Heard some of you like the tea from Long Island so you're covered. Need that little extra as the Defense continue today. Lol

Watch trial live:

I would like one shot of Louis XIII but save it for verdict day. See it at my liquor store over $4000 so just one shot.