VERDICT WATCH SC - Paul Murdaugh & mom Margaret Found Shot To Death - Alex Murdaugh Accused - Islandton #35

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MrsWatson said:
AM seems very smug today. Could be I am misreading his expression. He could just be relieved this is coming to an end, no matter what the outcome.

I would be surpirsed if this goes all the way through to the verdict without some sort of drama.

all MOO
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I don’t think you’re misreading him at all. He’s sending a message that he’s disgusted by Waters’ allegations.

More drama would not surprise me, either.
 
aafromaa said:
I wonder if the jury is as tired of hearing about the financial crimes as I am? They have shown enough that he is a liar and a thief and it’s not really what I would need to hear right now if I was on the jury. I sure hope after the lunch break he focuses on the night of the murder and lays out that timeline and on the weapons being from the family gun collection.

I’m not sure that anyone can actually prove the motive here - still think there is more to it than I understand anyway. But opportunity and means is why I cannot find reasonable doubt.
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I'm sure he will
 

Judge Newman to the jury: “You have heard all of the testimony, received all of the evidence. You’ve visited the scene of the alleged crimes, and now it is time for closing arguments.” Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters is up first.

Waters: Maggie and Paul were “brutally and maliciously murdered at the kennels by the defendant, Alex Murdaugh.”

Waters: “After an exhaustive investigation, there is only one person who had the motive, who had the means, who had the opportunity to commit these crimes, and also whose guilty conduct after these crimes betrays him.”

Waters: AM was a person of prominence in his community. But he was also living a lie. He gave off an image of wealth. Even his law partners didn’t know how bad his money problems were. AM became addicted to money. Even his significant legitimate pay “was not enough.”

Waters: AM fast-talked his staff and his clients and stole their money through Palmetto State Bank. “The client was also getting a big check, and they were walking out of there thinking everything had been fine. It was not fine.”

Waters: Then the boat crash happened. That set everything in motion because of the criminal and civil cases. “The pace of his stealing increased. In fact, that’s when he stole the money from Tony Satterfield.” Instead of taking some of the money, he took all of it.

Waters is walking the jury through AM’s thefts and borrowing and the risks that they could be exposed. “On June 7, when all those pressures were mounting, the defendant killed Maggie and Paul.” “The timeline puts him there. The forensic timeline puts him there.”

Waters: In the wake of the slayings, everything changes for AM. “It’s a different world.” Nobody is asking about missing fees anymore. The 6/10/21 boat crash hearing is canceled. “And everyone immediately rallies around Alex Murdaugh.”

Waters: AM then borrowed $250K from John E. Parker. He went to Palmetto State Bank and got $350,000 from an off-the-books loan and sent that money to Chris Wilson. And he got Wilson to cover $192,000 of the missing fees so it seemed AM hadn’t stolen the money from PMPED.

Waters: “It seems like a story that is far removed from most people’s experience because it is. It is a different story. … He is a different man than the kind of stories you’ve seen before. This is a different set of circumstances than you’ve seen before.”

Waters: This is a story about a middle-aged man from a prominent family, carrying a massive reputation. “But he was living a lie.”

That last bit was seemingly meant to counter the defense’s argument that the state’s theory of this case is unbelievable and implausible. Waters is saying this whole story is unbelievable and different. Waters again calls AM a “family annihilator.”

Waters giving a presentation now to the jury. “Y’all are the judge of the facts.” It’s your job to determine each witness’ credibility. “Is what somebody is telling you believable?” Does the witness have a reason to be biased?

Waters is now defining reasonable doubt and the difference between direct and circumstantial evidence.

Waters is now walking the jury through the elements of murder.

Waters walks the jury through everything AM stood to lose if his thefts and lies were exposed. His family legacy, prominence in the community, reputation as a wealthy and successful lawyer and his role as a part-time prosecutor.

Waters: Murdaugh was about to “face consequences like he’s never seen.”

Waters describes Murdaugh’s “constant hamster wheel” of debts and thefts. “The stress and the pressure of that would have been extreme because it has been going on so long, always staying one step ahead.”

Waters accuses Murdaugh of rehearsing his answer on the witness stand that he lied, misled, and stole from people. He notes AM didn’t want to talk about any one victim in particularly.

Waters: “Alex’s situation, I think, is akin to a Ponzi. A Ponzi is like a pyramid scheme. It relies on new money coming in from investors.” You can keep it going as long as there are new investors, new money coming in. When that stops, it “crashes and burns.”

Waters on the pressure of the 6/10/21 hearing in which AM’s finances might have been exposed. “He would lose his career, he would lose his livelihood, he would face investigations and consequences like he’s been able to avoid his entire life.”

Waters: “The pressures on this man were unbearable, and they were all reaching a crescendo on the day his wife and son were murdered by him.”

Waters again repeats that AM's alleged scheme worked. He bought himself time to try to cover up the theft of $792,000 from PMPED. “He had time he didn’t have on June 7. … And that’s the first thing he did. That’s the main thing he did.”

Waters: “He has proven over and over again that he will do anything to keep that hamster wheel going and avoid accountability. He has been doing it for 10 years.”

Waters on Murdaugh’s dealings with Palmetto State Bank: “I think it was called the most generous overdraft policy ever conceived.” Buddy, you’re the one who said that.

Waters makes clear he doesn’t believe AM’s claims that he was taking dozens of 30mg Oxy pills a day. “Does that sound survivable?”

Waters says AM’s record of thefts and debts “reflect an insatiable desire for money.” His thefts escalated over the years, but his payments to a drug dealer only escalated in 2021, he says.

Waters says common sense tells you AM couldn't have taken 2 grams of Oxy a day and survived, much less been a functioning lawyer. Medical professionals I've heard from agree with the prosecutor here.

Waters makes clear he thinks AM was addicted to money, his reputation, his lifestyle.

Waters brings up the May 2021 confrontation about AM’s drug use. “They were watching him like a hawk.” Opiates have powerful withdrawals. AM previously testified he would do “almost anything” to stop the withdrawals.

We are taking a one hour, 15 minute break for lunch. Should be back at 2:20 p.m.
 
makayla said:
Couldn’t they have a half hour lunch instead?
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I'd rather give them a bit of break so they can be more focused. I don't envy these jurors at all, they've got a lot of evidence to consider (even thought I know he's guilty - hah).

I wonder what the personalities are like and how they will end up like in deliberations?

MOO
 
aafromaa said:
I wonder if the jury is as tired of hearing about the financial crimes as I am? They have shown enough that he is a liar and a thief and it’s not really what I would need to hear right now if I was on the jury. I sure hope after the lunch break he focuses on the night of the murder and lays out that timeline and on the weapons being from the family gun collection.

I’m not sure that anyone can actually prove the motive here - still think there is more to it than I understand anyway. But opportunity and means is why I cannot find reasonable doubt.
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The financial crimes in this case are so key to why AM would allegedly eliminate 2 family members that it bears a decent "recap" in closing arguments, IMO
 
Does anyone know who the gentleman sitting next to the Attorney General at the prosecution table is? I don't recall seeing him before. When the fellow sitting behind him showed him something at the beginning of the closing argument, he didn't react, although the guy behind him seemed to think it was funny.
 
Snoopster said:
I agree about his lack of thought about technology. As you said his 'tech strategy' was to leave his phone at the house, do the deed, and then hustle back to the house and start bulking up his phone activity to prove his fake alibi. That's why he constantly said to LE, right from the start, "hey, please look at the phones activity! Have you gotten the phone results back yet?"
I don't think OnStar entered his thinking. I believe he overlooked that. And, of course, it would have likely worked except for that darn video of Paul's.

He was so fast in order to support his first alibi, that it has now put in him a pinch time-wise for his new alibi to be believable.
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I think also that AM counted on the family name and reputation carrying him through an investigation that would never center on him. He didn't count on SCRUTINY. He didn't count on the boat crash bringing attention to other deaths around the family. He didn't count on the murders to bring national attention. We saw him at work on the night of the boat crash--get other people to cover up, to take the blame, to dummy up. He had no thought for what taking the blame would do to Connor Cook. On the one hand, many parents want to get their kids out of big trouble without their lives in ruins. On the other hand, most of them don't want to throw an innocent kid under the bus to save their own, without so much as a thought about the consequences for the kid taking the blame.

I've wandered a bit from my point, which is that his first instinct is to use his reputation to lie his way out of trouble. I think he counted on that.
 
I hope the defense brings in a drug counseling person to attest to the high amount of oxy he claims..I bet they will say they have have seen this before..a doctor may say that this dose is poison..but that would be if you hadn't built an extreme tolerance...mOO
 
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He stole money. We heard it.

1,000 mgs a day is so doable. If one is taking 80mg Oxys, it is only 12.5 pills per day. Personally have seen that kind of usage and the person functioned at a highly successful career for decades. Then, he died because his liver and kidneys were destroyed and stopped functioning.

How would killing Paul benefit AM? The boat case doesn't go away as AM was the owner of the boat.

How would killing Maggie benefit AM? It wouldn't get him out of debt.

So far, the closing is just - blah.
 
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