We are back after a short break.
Griffin is up on redirect. He establishes that Murdaugh is facing pending charges for his alleged financial crimes.
We’ve heard the defense tell and remind the jury that Murdaugh is basically going to jail forever on the financial charges no matter what this jury does on the murder counts. Telegraphing that even if they vote to acquit, they aren’t letting a possible murderer onto the street.
Griffin: “Alex, did you have Maggie’s phone with you at any time between 9:02 and 9:06?” (When he was taking a bunch of steps) AM: “I didn’t have Maggie’s phone with me at any time that night.”
Griffin asks his client why he repeatedly pleaded with SLED to pull the data off Maggie’s phone. AM: “I knew that whoever had done this to them had Maggie’s phone.” I knew that my phone and Maggie’s car were never together.
Griffin notes AM gave SLED a lot of inaccurate times. Were you lying? AM: No. I was trying to estimate. But a lot of the times when I gave times, I gave them instructions on how they could verify those times.
Griffin: Were you lying to deputy Greene when you told him the last time you saw Maggie and Paul? AM: “No, sir. I wasn’t lying to him.” Wasn’t trying to mislead him in any way.
Griffin: Did you believe the information of whether you were there or not there (at the kennels) would advance their (SLED’s) investigation in any way? AM: No. “Because they were fine and doing good when I left there.”
AM on the roadside shooting in September 2021: “I intended to be gone. I intended for him to shoot me. And I intended to be gone.”
G: Why did you make up the lie about the fictional shooter? AM “My main concern at that point was that I did not want Buster knowing that I had tried to do that (assisted suicide). That was my motivation in telling that story.”
Griffin: “Alex, did you murder Maggie?” AM: “I would never hurt Maggie.” G: “Did you murder Paul?” AM: “I would never hurt Paul. If I was under the pressure that they’re talking about here, I can promise you I would hurt myself before I would hurt one of them, without a doubt.”
Griffin is done. Waters on recross. Waters: You told SLED about all the data they could pull to help their investigation. And that’s because “as a prosecutor and a lawyer, you had been manufacturing an alibi to cover your tracks.” AM: “No, sir, that’s absolutely wrong.”
Waters again alleges that Murdaugh has concocted this new story to fit the facts that have already been presented in this case, which shattered his original alibi.
Alex Murdaugh steps down from the witness stand after nearly two full days of testimony. We're taking a short break.
We're back after the shortest break of the trial.
Judge Newman excuses the jury until 9:30 a.m. tomorrow. "Have a great weekend," he tells them.
Harpootlian says the defense has 4 witnesses to call Monday. Says they will wrap their case early Monday afternoon. Waters says he will call one or two witnesses on the state’s reply case. “It will not be lengthy.” There is light at the end of the tunnel.
Harpootlian asks about imposing time limits on closing arguments, which could be held mid-next week. Newman doesn’t seem inclined to do that.
We are done for the week. So ends week 5 of Alex Murdaugh's three-week double-murder trial. And now we write.