GUILTY SC - Paul Murdaugh & mom Margaret Found Shot To Death - Alex Murdaugh Accused - Islandton #39

[NeverPersonal]

Can someone give me a TLDR of specifically how the murders happened? I am confused.
The mom & son were lured by AM to check on dogs at kennel. Mom's sister said Mom was not even planning on seeing her husband that night, as she was at another one of their properties, but Alex called her to come and her sister encouraged her to go (imagine the guilt). Alex shoots Mom & Son at the kennel.

• can someone please explain the "15 seconds to 911" situation
• was Buster at the scene also?
• Did he leave before it happened, or am I mistaken that he was there?
• what is AM's motive?

something i found very interesting was the fact he told his wife's sister he wanted to clear Paul's name and was focused on that, and never talked about trying to find whoever KILLED Paul and his wife for God's sake!!!

 

[Katrinepa]

Very good point.

Like how people shoot animals, claiming they are putting them out of their misery.

JMO

AM Never used the word MURDER in any Statement, Interview, Court questioning. Semantics in his own SICK mind. He has a number of Mental Disorders, in addition to Malignant Narcissism.

 

[alexwood]

I'll take a "shot" at this ... MM was shot with .300 blackout but shotgun shells were found around her as well. Two jurors took this to mean 2 shooters. That's my understanding ... I may be way off base.

The shotgun shells and bird shot were the two kinds of ammo loaded in a gun -- don't know if both guns were loaded with two kinds of shot. That was my understanding at least. I know zero about guns, so I could be wrong.

 

[Kembo]

I believe we are going to be hearing a lot more about dirty deeds Alex & Company have been up to in the months ahead. But like you, I am glad to be rid of seeing his duplicitous, dark, eyes. Now he can go and just be a number SC Inmate #BR549123 (ex.)

MOO

BR549. That sounds familiar. Didn't Junior Samples say that in Hee Haw?

 

[Cindizzi]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1631786456661340161

 

[arielilane]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1631786016628514817

 

[Loveallmyhorsesdogsandcats]

It was during the State's CIC that the door opened for sure. I remember watching and thinking to myself "Jim, what are you doing?" I don't remember the exact timing though, as I was working at the time and had it on in the background.

Like I said in my initial post, I really do think the door was opened, one way or another. The point I was making was that it happened during questioning of State witnesses, who inadvertently began speaking to his good character. Saying things like "Oh he and Mags had a great relationship" or some such. Which placed the defense in an awkward position, as State witnesses had testified to his character when being questioned on something totally unrelated. I would have to go back and watch again for the exact timing. In the end calculus, it matters little, as the defense clearly began questioning witnesses about his character afterwards. Door clearly open.

I do have worry over the financial information being included. I agree it "is an essential part of the crimes on trial" as Judge Newman said. It goes to motive, it goes to intent, heck I think it may go to common plan or scheme. Nevertheless (and this is really important), this trial ended up being seven really long weeks of testimony, and a giant amount of the testimony was related to his past financial crimes. That is a very long trial. It was just body blow after body blow of really damning information of prior bad acts. He's clearly a massive criminal. It might have been better to cut down on the financial testimony to just the Mallory boat case financial, not have the Satterfield stuff and so on. Just so many people he wronged.

The sheer mass of his wrongdoing was the problem. He was so crooked that it is nearly impossible to separate from the murders. And as hard as that is, a judge, any judge, has a duty to find a way to shield the jury from that prejudice, IMO. Might have been an impossible task. But that is why Rule 403 is there; to give the court a tool in excluding relevant evidence if one feels it will prejudice the defendant.

Yes, those cases along with the kennel video, discovery of the 792K check that morning, enough to convict. I had the thought that not knowing he was a habitual liar would make the lying about the kennel video even more impactful, although I don’t know how anyone could reason away that lie. What ever happens on appeals, I don’t think he will never be free again because of the $$ crimes. Thank you for taking the time to respond.

 

[Diddian]

According to the Netflix documentary, Alec took out a $2M liability policy on the house where Mrs. S fell, just two months before.

She's the one who first found his pills and shared that information with Paul. She was afraid Maggie would fire her for snooping, according to the documentary.

Does anyone else remember that weird bit about putting himself on the claim when he filed against his insurance carrier? As well as Mrs. S. She of course dies, and he gets the settlement!!

IIRC. IMO.

Really would like to know the sources of some of the information rumored as presented in the Netflix documentary, about the Stephen Smith case as well as the accident involving Gloria Satterfield.

Several of these rumors appeared after the murders, but could never tell where they originated and they were never confirmed. Nor were they brought up at this trial.

IIRC from the testimony of Eric Satterfield, Alex represented to Eric that he would have a friend stand in as "attorney of record" on the suit against his own insurance company. Cory Fleming, IIRC, but for all we know that was only on paper.

Edited to correct Fleming's first name. Thank you, @Elley Mae!

 

[arielilane]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1631766732829335557

 

[Edvis]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1631786016628514817

Done shaved his head again but still the stone look of a killer.

 

[Luna20]

This is a great list! The things that gave me the chills were:

- "Whoever did this has been planning it for a long time" - to MM's sister
- "My first priority is clearing Paul's name" -- to MM's sister... who said that her first priority was finding Paul and Maggie's killer.
- "Paul was an intuitive little dude, like a little detective" in his first car interview on the night of the murder. I immediately wondered, "what did "intuitive little detective dude find out?"
- "Maggie didn't work" were the first words out of his mouth when asked to describe his relationship... a possible point of tension?
- "I wasn't washing off guns, or cleaning guns like you implied or said that I was" -- AM on the stand.. all I could think was "huh? WHO SAID ANYTHING ABOUT WASHING OFF GUNS? Guess you washed off the guns"
- The composite sketch of his "assailant" that just happens to look an awful lot like a cross between Mark Tinsley and Anthony Cook
- "I (or "they") did him so bad" about Paul -- he says it was "they" but I sure hear "I".
- "When I went back there" about the kennels when he was still denying that he actually went to the kennels

ETA: I forgot the one that chilled me the most. When he testified, he said, of going to the dog kennels... "I got up to do what I didn't want to do" which is how I've always imagined he felt about shooting the two... that he didn't really want to, but that he had to.

Chicken went back to doing what chickens do

Parked my car wherever I park my car

Mags was so sweet and feminine

Papa T, Mags, Pau Pau and Ro Ro

Bus’s beautiful little girlfriend

So you’re saying you took 60 pills a day? Sometimes I took more and sometimes I took less. So how many pills were you taking? I don’t know.

 

[Pitsleuth]

Things that made my eyebrows go up:

Immediately telling the first LE about Paul's boat case and he's getting threats
He lied about how long he was gone to that first LE that arrived
He asks Blanca to clean the house and he asks the groundskeeper to clean the lawn and driveway early on the 8th
Blanca was uncomfortable about the shirt conversation
Ms. Shelly was freaked out enough about their conversation that she called her brother to share what Alex said
He lied about being at the kennel
His reason for lying is drugs, but he can't even tell us how many pills he took, what a normal day of taking pills looked like, when, how many at a time, etc.
He took the stand answering questions like a lawyer, NOT like a grieving father wrongly accused of murdering his son and wife.
He was caught in several lies on the stand
All his calls/texts from June 7th were deleted, except 2 facetime calls
He wasn't worried about Buster
He wasn't afraid for himself, Buster, or anyone else in the aftermath, yet several people testified they were all afraid and he wasn't worried about whoever killed them coming after him or his family/friends
He still isn't looking for the "real" killer and neither is anyone else in his family

I would also add the Labor Day weekend debacle. That proved the lengths he was willing to go when his back was against the wall- lying to LE, etc.

 

[Elley Mae]

@Diddian
Cory Fleming

 

[10ofRods]

It was shells that were found around the victims. I don't think it's common to load them with two types of shells, at least my dad never did that, but the shells were found around the victims bodies.
I think it was all cleared up when they interviewed friends and found that they had been target hunting or something, but apparently it still stuck in some of the minds of the jury. MOO

My dad did that - and so do we. Our guns are for self-defense. All of us live in neighborhoods with approximate ⅕ acre lots - so the next house is about 30 feet away.

We load our shotgun so that the first shot is bird shot. That should stop anyone who has come into or is coming through a door or window of our house. It could kill them, but it would certainly stop them. If it doesn't, I think the next round is buck shot. My dad kept a regular slug as his second shot (but his was an old school, 2-barrel shotgun). The idea is that if that first shot doesn't deter, the second one will - both of them aimed at the center of the torso, so either one could kill - the slug would certainly do it. Our shotgun holds 5 shells and the last three are slugs.

All of my uncles and 1 gun-owning aunt did the same. It's very common. My dad started shooting pests with a .22 rifle out on the Great Plains when he was 10 - for money. Those were his theories. He was also a WW2 and knew a lot about guns.

Indeed, I believe that it's possible that Alec intended to kill both Paul and Maggie with the two shells he had in the shotgun. Paul with the birdshot (I think it was) and Maggie with the buckshot. At close range and if properly aimed, it would be fatal.


IMO.

 

[Warwick7]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1631786016628514817

That almost looks like a smile.
Grrrrr.....

 

[arielilane]

Six reasons Alex Murdaugh's legal woes are far from over

Alex Murdaugh's lawyers say they will appeal against the guilty verdict due to lack of evidence.

news.yahoo.com

Alex Murdaugh has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison for the murder of his wife and son, but his legal troubles look far from over.

The high-profile trial of the disgraced former lawyer from South Carolina has also brought renewed attention to Murdaugh's alleged financial crimes, as well as a series of deaths that are said to be connected to the family.

1. Murdaugh likely to appeal conviction​

Immediately after the sentencing, his defence team told reporters they planned to file an appeal against the jury's guilty verdict, arguing there was not enough evidence to convict.

 

[arielilane]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1631719823733399571

 

[Diddian]

@Diddian
Cory Fleming

Thank you! Edited my post to correct.

 

[Simply Southern]

Does anyone have a nagging thought???? What if he wasn't the murderer???

I do. Won't be well liked. To many mistakes by LE. Didn't secure crime scene, should have turned over to outside agency, so much circumstational evidence. Didn't look for other suspects, even with PM being threatened. Did thry investigate any rhreats?

I've believed from day one this was revenge. The way PM was killed. I think MM was in the wrong place. Not sure who, he wronged so many. Some hated this man.

I've known grown men to lay in freezing rain, on the ground, silent for hours. Waiting to shoot deer. Two friends laid in wait to record a mother's lover staying over. They recorded until he left the next am 12 hrs.

It would be very easy to park a several miles away. Hike in and lay in wait. I do believe there were two shooters. The persons knew the family well, knew what guns to use.

Now if LE had secured the crime scene, called in our agency to investigate, etc, then I would feel comfortable in the verdict.
Moo....

 

[alexwood]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1631781659476361221

Hey! That's an old photo, isn't it? -- he has hair -- didn't he, at his sentencing this morning? Maybe they shaved it off after he was sentenced to stave off the spread of head lice . . . (I didn't really notice; was focused instead on the ladies' slippers he was showcasing, with his new prison ensemble.)