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

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Skigirl said:
Agree - Dick Harpootlian is one of the most powerful people in South Carolina. If you live in SC, you have to be very very careful about crossing him. That's where I think some of the positive commentary is coming from.

People thought that Russell Lafitte might be found not guilty, but jurors are usually smarter than people give them credit for.

MOO
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Every lawyer knows that you're only as good as your last performance.

If DH loses this trial and Alex is convicted, or even a hung jury, DH has a big fail. This might be his last trial on record, who knows. Big fail is not a nice note to end on, but he'll never have another case that is this big, so he cannot as a lawyer recover from this fail.
 
Some thoughts:

1. It seems like a bad idea for someone on trial for murder to introduce paranoia into the equation.
2. The only things I can recall AM admitting he lied about were things he was caught lying about. If it were me I might have offered up a little lie or two that they didn’t know about just to make it seem more convincing.
3. This opioid defense is a weird one. Like hey, I was a paranoid drug addict doesn’t seem like the best route to take.
4. I 100% believe he’s lying and I 100% believe he was there but I don’t feel like we have a great sense of how this all went down. Could he have hired someone to come do this like he hired cousin Eddie to shoot him? I keep going back to the testimony of the neighbor who cleaned the kennels and fed the dogs (my favorite witness by far) that Alex had to ask him to shoot an injured hunting dog that needed to be put down because Alex couldn’t bring himself to do it.
5. WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THE MONEY?
 
When this trial started, I felt sure that AM would be convicted. He's an addict with years of criming at a very high level; someone willing to steal millions from people who are sick, dying or in deep need for financial help is pretty much capable of anything--not to mention his legal partners I have no idea now, though. I've never seen anyone allowed to just ramble on and one and on in court. I'm baffled by what seems to go on there as a matter of course.

It comes down to two points, I think: First, the prosecution put on a strong case, showing that AM was at the murder scene almost to the moment when Paul and Maggie were killed. It's hard to imagine that the very short angry unarmed ninja people had time to find some Moselle guns to kill 2 people. Second, AM has lied from almost the first moments of the case. Never mind his REASONS for lying. He's admitted that he lies about nearly everything. Think about this: there is absolutely no reason to lie to law enforcement if you come home and find two members of your family slaughtered in brutal fashion. In fact, telling the truth is key to finding out what happened and who did it. The whole thrust of the parts of the cross-examination I saw was to show, over and over, again and again, that AM is a liar. That the new story was needed because the kennel video blew up the old one and that at every turn when he's in a corner or wants to seek advantage, AM lies. Just MOO but however "sympathetic" AM seems to be, the jury won't forget that he lies. All the time.
 
KellySleuth said:
Some thoughts:

1. It seems like a bad idea for someone on trial for murder to introduce paranoia into the equation.
2. The only things I can recall AM admitting he lied about were things he was caught lying about. If it were me I might have offered up a little lie or two that they didn’t know about just to make it seem more convincing.
3. This opioid defense is a weird one. Like hey, I was a paranoid drug addict doesn’t seem like the best route to take.
4. I 100% believe he’s lying and I 100% believe he was there but I don’t feel like we have a great sense of how this all went down. Could he have hired someone to come do this like he hired cousin Eddie to shoot him? I keep going back to the testimony of the neighbor who cleaned the kennels and fed the dogs (my favorite witness by far) that Alex had to ask him to shoot an injured hunting dog that needed to be put down because Alex couldn’t bring himself to do it.
5. WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THE MONEY?
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I thought he explained it fairly well, in his own way.

IMO.
 
If anyone is really nervous, like I was about the impact of his testimony, watch the 13th Juror on Court TV.

All women, six of them were asked the following questions:

1. Do you think Alex was paranoid because of opioids? All said NO. "Paranoia came and went, just not believable."

2. Do you think Alex was trying to influence witnesses to align with his story? All said YES. None of them bought his story about the car data showing the truth one said "he's a con man."

He does not have these ladies fooled, that's for sure!
 
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Gardenista said:
I wonder if Alex's attorneys knew he was going to bust out the Mags/PauPau/RoRo names.
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Oh I would love to know if they knew or if they were just as shocked as we were at first!! It did look like JG was caught off guard but it could have been that AM didn’t give him an audio sample version in advance. I would have said Nope, pick another one, anything but Pau Pau.

It was sooo dramatic that it was obvious why and where he was going with it. I’m aware of the psychology of pet names for the legal arena but if it’s a made up one I wonder if he was going for The Waltons perfect family vibe. ‘Pau Pau’ sounds like he would be friends with ‘John-boy’.

Once upon a time…
‘Elick, Mags, Bus and Pau Pau’
 
Isn’t it interesting that CW asked AM: “Did your father know?” (about misdeeds) and Alex (after a pause), said no.

I think it’s quite possible that what was about to come out due to the boat case (i.e., AM’s insolvency and theft), which would only go away if the boat case was dropped (per Tinsley’s testimony), was the trigger. Because if “daddy” knew what a loser AM was, that would be about the worst thing that could happen to him. And Randy was about to find out, as was his entire family, as well as potentially Maggie and Paul threatening to expose his drug use if he didn’t agree to rehab or something.

Daddy, the whole family, the town, county, state, etc. were on the cusp of finding out who he really was. AM, as shown by his attitude on the stand this week, could never tolerate such humiliation.

Tinsley said with vigilante murders of Alex’s family, the suit would be dropped. He’d possibly not be found out. Daddy would never know that Alex destroyed the family name.

I hope CW is able to succinctly get this across during his closing.
 
I was thinking.. I do wonder what happened when they were all at the house together what was discussed. There could have been an argument and we would never know. He would never tell that.
I'm sure the pills were a big issue and you can bet an addict's 1st love is there drug of choice. Alex's 2nd love was money. He was desperate and angry.
 
passionflower said:
Did AM lie this much as a kid? Before stealing? Before drugs? Like to know if he was always a liar, talker? Narcissist?
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I feel certain that he has been this way since he was a kid. The Eddie Haskell type, kwim? It's innate and he has honed his craft through the years. He probably did "naughty" things as a kid but always managed to talk his way out of it by getting everyone else to laugh or feel good. Imo.

Gardenista said:
#MedTwitter is weighing in on the number of pills he was taking. Follow this thread if you want to see what they have to say

https://twitter.com/x/status/1629272890594959365
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I hope someone on the jury is from the medical field so they can weigh in with the other jurors when they are finally allowed to start deliberating.
 
Iwondertoo said:
After today's testimony from Alex, I'm thinking his pills may have played a bigger part than I thought before. I think there was some truth in what he was saying about his timing for going down to the kennels.

Alex said that Paul left while he and Maggie were finishing dinner. Then after they ate, Maggie asked Alex to go to the kennels with her. He said no because he didn't want to get hot after he'd just showered so Maggie went without him. Then he admitted that within minutes of Maggie leaving, he changed his mind and left for the kennels.

What if Maggie and/or Paul found a stash of pills while Alex was showering and removed them without him knowing. Then when Maggie left for the kennels, he went for his pills. Minutes later, when he realized they were missing, he went in to a rage, hopped on the golf cart and went to the kennels to get them back. He may have confronted Paul and killed him because he was furious his pills were missing. He was furious with Maggy too. That may explain why he admitted he tried to turn Paul over (because he was looking for his pills).

JMO
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I think these murders were too well-planned out to be a spur-of-the-moment thing.
  • He asked Maggie to come to Moselle.
  • He didn't take his phone to the kennels so he couldn't be tracked.
  • He had the weapons set aside somewhere, available for use.
  • He had the blue tarp ready so he could dispose of the guns afterwards.
  • He hosed himself down right after, had extra clothes to change into, and managed to get rid of the bloody garments.
I'm sure there's a lot more as well. I think he'd been planning the killings for some time, a couple of months at least.
 
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