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

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arielilane said:

Griffin ends his questioning. Prosecutor Creighton Waters rises for cross-examination. First question: Waters: “He was pretty good at hiding who he really was, wasn’t he?” Ball: “Obviously.”

Waters: “You just testified you didn’t really know this man, did you?” Ball: “Obviously I did not.”

Ball said he didn’t see the 8:45 p.m. kennel video until a month or two ago. But he has no doubt that Maggie, Alex and Paul’s voices are on that video. He doesn’t need to hear it again.

Ball testifies he spoke with AM several times before a big crowd got to Moselle, “trying to figure out, do you know anything, do you have any idea who did this.” He wanted to know for the safety of the Murdaughs and for the PMPED firm.

Ball on AM on the night of 6/7/21. “He was very upset, obviously.” But he was answering the questions. He was able to make sentences. He denied going down to the kennels. AM said that he ate dinner, lay down on the couch, took a nap and then went to check on his mother.

Ball testifies AM told him that story “at least three times.” Waters: “He was always clear that he never went down to those kennels?” Ball: “It was the same version of it.”

Ball testifies AM’s story changed over time as to whether he checked Paul or Maggie’s body first. One time, he said he checked Maggie first. Then he would say he checked Paul first. Ball notes AM seemed traumatized. He didn’t think much of it.

Ball says he and his colleagues were very focused on finding out who killed Maggie and Paul. Waters points at AM. “He was not, was he?” Ball: “I have said that. But I don’t know, Mr. Waters, how I would respond” in that same situation.

Ball: AM never talked with me about wanting protection for Buster. But on the Fourth of July, AM came to Ronnie Crosby’s house and brought a pistol in a bag, which was unusual.

Waters walks Ball through testimony about the power and influence the Murdaugh family held over the past century as they ran the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office and a powerful law firm.

Randolph Murdaugh III, AM's father, was still an assistant solicitor when he passed away on 6/10/21, Ball says. AM was one too. He had a badge, keeping it on the corner of his dashboard, Ball says.

That family legacy was “very important” to AM, Ball testifies. AM talked with Ball at times about wanting to run for solicitor.

Ball testifies SLED agents were polite and respectful as they searched Moselle in the 24 hours after the slayings. Waters: They were delicate and respectful of the grieving family, weren’t they? “In looking back, they probably were too much,” Ball testifies.

“He was an obnoxious user of the cellphone,” Ball testifies of AM’s habits. “I would think it would be unusual to Alex to go anywhere without his phone.” Prosecutors are trying to show AM planned to kill Maggie and Paul if/when he left his phone at the Moselle house that night.

Ball: “Alex was a very good lawyer. He got good results for his clients. He could look at a set of facts” and figure out how to tackle a case, where to push and where to not push. “He was very good tactically.”

Waters: “(AM) effortlessly and easily lied to you for years, and you didn’t know it.” Ball: “Didn’t know it, and didn’t catch him. The way he was doing it was very, very cunning.”

Pretty much all of AM's former colleagues/friends/relatives/associates are going to be double-edged swords in this case. They can all provide as much damaging material as helpful stuff, under the right questioning.

Even before the September 2021 discovery of AM’s thefts, the law firm confronted AM a number of times about misspending and other issues, Ball testifies. In 2018, AM cashed a big check that was meant for his brother.

Ball: AM also had to be confronted repeatedly about spending his firm credit card on personal expenses, including tuition for his sons. “He just wasn’t a very good rule-follower at all,” Ball testifies. Waters: “He would pay it back, and people would move on.”

Ball: We consciously decided to put the inquiry into the missing $792K in legal fees on hold after the 6/7/21 slayings. “The man just lost his wife and child. There’s no way we’re going to be cruel. We’ll get back to it later. And we did.”
Click to expand...
Cross-examination continues:


We're back from a short break. Prosecutor Waters estimates he has about 20 more minutes of cross-examination to get through with Ball.

Ball is testifying about having to call AM’s clients and tell them that AM stole from them. Ball is going down the list of names, says they were very nice people. Waters: “You had to tell them that Alex lied to them?” Ball: “I did.”

Waters establishes that AM stole from Barrett Boulware, one of his closest friends and the previous owner of Moselle. A fire burned down a house Boulware owned. AM stole more than $354K from the proceeds of that case, PMPED later learned.

Ball testifies he knew AM had lost a bunch of money when the Recession hit and his land investments soured. But AM then handled a bunch of big-dollar cases. Plyler. Badger. Pinckney. Everyone thought he made enough money to pay off his debt, Ball says.

Ball says they didn't know that AM had stolen from those clients in addition to the money he made legitimately from representing them.

Ball on his initial reaction to the September 2021 roadside shooting “That jackass killed himself.” Somebody said he had been shot. “I didn’t believe it.”

Waters on the September 2021 roadside shooting: “And just when accountability is going to happen again, the defendant manufactures himself being a victim, correct?” Ball “That’s what it turned out to be.” Waters is done crossing Ball. Woof.
 
Seattle1 said:
In the hearing, DH asserts that in AM's criminal case, they can't do depositions and can only rely on the indictment when arguing the boat case should have a stay until after the criminal murder trial. Tinsley also makes some notable points about why MM and PM were added to the boat case. It appears that MM talked to PM at midnight on the night of the crash and she knew then how intoxicated PM was during the phone call.
_____________


FULL HEARING: Boat Crash Civil Court Case 8/10/22​


ETA: more on depositions
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They had all been drinking at an oyster roast at another adults house (I won't name). It was terribly foggy that night, and some of the adults claimed they begged them not to drive the boat back.

Of course, Paul said he was driving it back anyway. I don't know if any of you have ever visited the low country. I wouldn't be caught out at that time of night in a boat.....it's pitch black, there was no running lights on the boat, those canals are narrow, the fog was dense and then throw in underage drinking on top of that.

It was bound to happen. Those adults at the party should have never let those kids leave in that boat. Period

JMO
 
I remember during Casey Anthony's trial, how many posters here routinely criticized Jose Baez for his incompetence - Jose had the last laugh.

Any time competent defense lawyers look like clowns, beware, something unexpected is coming. Thursday and Friday will be interesting. It is hard to figure out how AM can actually get off, but it wouldn't surprise me if AM gets on the stand and tells us who the "they" that did this crime are. Even if he is convicted, he would have gotten his "truth" out there.
 
Luna20 said:
Crazy entitled antics! How can this be pointed out or changed?
Click to expand...

They played the video at about the 1:19:17 into the day's proceedings. The YouTube channel I was watching caught it and pointed it out. BUT the stream she was using wasn't completely synced up with the live broadcast so the time may be off by 10-30 seconds.

The title is on top of the video and it's not easy to see as it's a picture of a computer screen that is playing the video.
 
10ofRods said:
When a projectile passes through a human body, it is not passing through air. Its direction will be changed by what it hits inside that body. All soft tissue? One thing. Bone? Something else.

If the person is moving at the time they are shot, the bullet will very briefly move with them. That's why one needs to factor in the body, its movement and the trajectories of the projectiles that went through the body.

No use of applying geometry when the calculus of a human body is also involved (and the shooter could be moving too). The laws of physics and math still apply, but when there are moving, varied-quality obstacles in between a projectile and its eventual resting place, one needs to know what those variables did to the calculation.

IMO.
Click to expand...
Since I am someone who always says I went to law school because the LSAT didn't have math, I thank you for explaining scientifically & succinctly why the "expert" testimony was fairly bogus. I sensed that it didn't make sense but my lack of 3 dimensional mathematical thinking rendered me unable to explain why.
 
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