SC - Paul Murdaugh & mom Margaret Found Shot To Death - Alex Murdaugh Accused - Islandton #31

[arielilane]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1629210687493836808

 

[justtrish]

I love how Waters went over every excuse Alex gave for lying about where he was and when he last saw them and then he played the video where he lied the very first time and NONE of those reasons could be used for that initial lie.

 

[Elley Mae]

Wow what a nightmare of a witness who used to be a lawyer.

 

[Herat]

AW = Dumpster Fire

 

[Loveallmyhorsesdogsandcats]

I'm not particularly enamored with AM's politeness, i.e. "Yes, sir", "No, sir", "Mr. Waters", etc. That said, I think some jurors might be smitten by this. How could this polite, well-spoken man have committed such a heinous crime?

Southern girl here, agree he is playing it but yes sir, no sir, yes ma‘am etc. is very common in the south at any age, this probably does not have much of an effect on them.

 

[Kembo]

Do Alex's statements about SLED paranoia contradict his statements yesterday about being friendly/social, etc. with LE? I am not sure if SLED and local LE are one in the same....

Obviously AM doesn't think so. This is why he was careful to say that that paranoia comes at times suddenly in short bursts (when he sees a police car, etc.), and that he can control it by quickly taking deep breaths to calm himself. I wonder if he ever scared himself with his blue lights and two fake LE badges?

 

[pizzaman12]

I'm not particularly enamored with AM's politeness, i.e. "Yes, sir", "No, sir", "Mr. Waters", etc. That said, I think some jurors might be smitten by this. How could this polite, well-spoken man have committed such a heinous crime?

This is pretty standard etiquette in the South whether you're on the witness stand or at the grocery store.

 

[I am not Sherlock H.]

Clean up on..the witness stand....Employees please send someone over to the witness stand to help the person there to get back to his seat...Clean up on..th.....

View attachment 405276

Clean up on aisle three please. Blue light special ongoing too!

 

[Cindizzi]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1629224245019508736

https://twitter.com/x/status/1629224308684861441

 

[clearskies1]

I understood AM got the $600K line of credit from Palmetto in advance of the appraisal for Edisto and it was immediately maxed out. I believe the appraisal for this loan was supposed to be June 8 and why MM had workmen at the house.

MM was allegedly upset about this date because she wanted to delay the appraisal appointment until July (when the house was party ready for July 4). Also, as the beneficiary of MM's estate, AM had to know he would have complete access to the Moselle title after MM's death.

Murdaugh acknowledges he had a $1 million line of credit & $600K line of credit at Palmetto State Bank that were maxed out in June 2021, and he was using stolen funds to pay them back. Murdaugh also acknowledges he was taking out hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans from law partner John Parker and his father Randolph. He was using stolen money to pay both back.

Alex Murdaugh back on stand in double murder trial

Disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh is back on the witness stand Friday in his double murder trial, facing cross-examination from a prosecutor.

wpde.com

Thank you. I thought he went back to Palmetto to ask for an additional $600K line of credit because he was maxed out, but I could be wrong about that. JMO.

ETA: I found this, which indicates a June 3, 2021 request by Alex to Laffitte at Palmetto to extend his farm line of credit by another $600,000.

Murdaugh trial to begin 5th week Tuesday; Here’s what jurors have heard so far

As prosecutors rested their case in the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial they hoped to convince 12 jurors that Murdaugh is guilty of murdering his wife and their youngest son without the jury seeing a smoking gun, both figuratively and literally.

www.wrdw.com

 

[girlhasnoname]

"Mr Murdaugh, are you a family annihilator?"

Priceless!

I saw rage and black shark eyes in Alex when CW asked that. Scary dude imo.

 

[makayla]

He has rebuttal

I know, I was just shocked at the sudden ending of direct testimony, I was enjoying it

 

[sunshineray]

If you watch when he gets that way, to me, I feel like he sees the crime I'm his head. His entire face muscles contract as he stares into the window of his soul. Moo

and he sees his soul is trashed

 

[Gardenista]

If you watch when he gets that way, to me, I feel like he sees the crime I'm his head. His entire face muscles contract as he stares into the window of his soul. Moo

I can't tell you how many times I've thought the same thing. He's seeing what he did in his mind.

 

[Algo214]

That was the best ending of a cross (and honestly cross as a whole) I've seen

 

[Regal Beagle]

Excellent close by CW

 

[girlhasnoname]

Apologies if the group has discussed this, but I am just catching up watching AM's testimony. For experts:

Is it a Southern custom for courts to allow a defendant's testimony to become a soliloquy?

As noted, there is a Clintonesque quality to AM - just keep putting space between his response and the question, or even more boldly, to answer a question with a question. It is mind boggling to me that the judge allows this to happen.

And - frick all this "sir..", talking of "honor", from AM on the stand. It's just all bs.

AM's way of talking reminds me of Confederate cultural stereotypes you see in Civil War movies. Sheesh.
Is this the actual way that deep Southerners actually interact with one another?

No it isn't, this man is a psychopath IMO.

 

[pizzaman12]

So, would we assume the 2 new witnesses today and then redirect by JG on Monday?

 

[Cindizzi]

 

[arielilane]

https://twitter.com/AveryGWilks

We are back after lunch.

Griffin says Waters violated AM’s due process rights by highlighting the defendant’s failure to come forward with exculpatory information after his arrest. Waters says this is a non-issue. He says AM waived that right when he spoke about the case. Newman agrees. Jury returning.

One must wonder if we will finish AM's cross-examination today.

Waters is trying to pinpoint exactly when in the 12:57 a.m. 6/8/21 first interview with SLED AM decided to lie about his alibi. AM isn’t really helping. He says he can’t tell Waters exactly. Waters is playing the video and stopping at points to ask AM if he had decided to lie yet

Whoa. AM provides his theory of the motive for the slayings. AM: “I never, ever, ever under any point in time believed that those kids that were riding in the boat or their parents or their families … had anything to do with hurting Maggie and Paul.”

AM: But even sitting here today, “I believe that boat wreck is the reason why PawPaw and Maggie were killed.” Waters: “Random vigilantes? The 5’ 2” vigilantes.”

AM: “The social media response that came from that (the boat wreck) was vile. The things that were said about what they would do to PawPaw, they were so over the top. “I believed then and I believe today that the wrong person saw and read that because I can tell you for a fact..

AM: "...that the person or people who did what I saw on June the 7th, they hated Paul Murdaugh, and they had anger in their heart. And that is the only, only reason that somebody could be mad at PawPaw like that and hate him like that.”

Going back to relisten to that part.

Waters: “So what you’re telling this jury is that it’s a random vigilante, the 12-year-old, 5’ 2” people that just happen to know that Paul and Maggie were both at Moselle on June 7th, that knew that they would be at the kennels alone on June 7th, that knew that you would not…"

"...be there, but only between the times of 8:49 and 9:02, that they show up without a weapon assuming that they’re going to find weapons and ammunitions there, that they commit this crime during that short time window, and then they travel the same exact route that …"

"... you do around the same time to Almeda. That’s what you’re trying to tell this jury?" Alex Murdaugh: “You’ve got a lot of factors in there Mr. Waters, all of which I do not agree with, but some of which I do.”

Waters shows AM a photo of the golf cart parked outside the Moselle house. The photo is taken in daytime. Waters won't tell AM exactly when it was taken. AM says the golf cart is parked wrong, facing left. The family always parked facing right because that was how it was charged.

We have now moved on to the 6/10/21 interview. Waters continues to bonk AM over the head with his own lies.

Waters plays the spot in the recording when agent Jeff Croft asks Murdaugh if the last time he saw Maggie and Paul was while eating supper. “Yes, sir,” Murdaugh says in the video.

AM testifies he could not get a big enough loan from Palmetto State Bank to repay Chris Wilson all of the $792,000 he had stolen from the Mack Trucks case legal fees. That's because Maggie had died and AM couldn’t get a loan against Moselle, which was in her name. Only Edisto.

Murdaugh testifies he was suspicious of SLED agent David Owen on the night of the slayings because he thought Owen was a different SLED agent he believed had manufactured evidence in a criminal case against Yemassee police chief Greg Alexander, a Murdaugh family friend.

Waters: Let’s move on to September 2021, when your law firm confronted you with unassailable evidence of your thefts. W: “No wiggling out of this one, correct?” AM: “I didn’t try to wiggle out of this one.”

AM *does* dispute that he meant to steal a check from the PMPED law firm that was owed to his brother. AM says he got the check and asked about it and was told it was meant for him. It was meant for his brother.

AM attributes the issue in part to staff at PMPED and in part to his own lack of organization. “You can look at my finances and you can see how I was doing - I didn’t balance a checkbook.”

Waters reminds AM of how he sat down with a SLED sketch artist after the September 2021 roadside shooting and answered SLED’s questions about a fictional assailant.

Waters: “You sat there and answered their questions just as effortlessly and convincingly as you’ve been trying to do for the past two days, isn’t that correct?” AM: “No, sir. That’s not true.” AM says he was in the throes of withdrawal from opioids, having a difficult time.

Waters: “When accountability is at your door, Mr. Murdaugh, bad things happen, isn’t that true?” AM: “What do you mean by bad things?” Waters: “June 7 happened. Sept. 4 happened.” AM: I don’t believe June 7 happened because of accountability being at my doorstep.

Waters: “For the first time in your life of privilege and prominence and wealth, when you were facing accountability, each time suddenly, you became a victim, and everyone ran to your aid. Isn’t that true?” AM: “I mean, I disagree with that.”

“Shame to you is an extraordinary provocation, isn’t that true, Mr. Murdaugh?” Waters asked.

AM on his lie after the roadside shooting: He didn’t successfully die, and “I had to have a story about how I got shot, so I lied.”

AM on the roadside shooting: My family and friends knew very quickly “this was something that I had done.”

Waters: “Mr. Murdaugh, are you a family annihilator?” AM: “Like, did I shoot my wife and son? No.”

Waters has AM admit yet again that he lied to his family, his friends, his relatives, his law partners, his clients.

Waters: You lied “easily and convincingly” to “save your skin" for a decade. “And you want this jury to believe a story manufactured to fit the evidence that you brought forth just yesterday after hearing this trial’s worth of testimony.” AM: “No sir, that’s not correct.”

Waters plays a body cam video from CCSO deputy Greene, the first person to arrive on scene. In it, Murdaugh doesn’t tell the truth about going down to the kennels that evening.

Waters notes Murdaugh told the jury that he lied about his alibi because he was suspicious of SLED, his law partners had arrived and told him to have a lawyer before he spoke to the police, because SLED asked him about his relationships with his wife and son, …

... and because CCSO had swabbed his hands for gunshot residue. Waters notes none of that had happened when Greene arrived and Murdaugh told this lie. Waters: “But you still told the same lie. And all those reasons you just gave this jury about the most important part ..

" ... of your testimony was a lie, too. Isn’t that true, Mr. Murdaugh?" AM: “I disagree with that.” Waters: “Nothing further.”

Murdaugh didn't say in that portion of the video that he hadn't gone down to the kennels, I should note. But he did say he saw Maggie and Paul about 45 minutes before leaving to see his mom. We now know it was more like 15 minutes or so.