Grace: Alex Murdaugh has been caught in really big lie
FOX Nation host Nancy Grace provides analysis of Alex Murdaugh's testimony and discusses the jury's reaction and next steps in the trial.
Alex Murdaugh's brother wept Monday as he told jurors that he had to clean what remained of his slain nephew, Paul Murdaugh, at the crime scene and described it as "the hardest thing" he'd ever been through.
John Marvin Murdaugh took the stand as the defense's final witness in the Walterboro, South Carolina, courtroom.
He was especially close to Paul, who had worked for him at his equipment store.
After investigators released the crime scene hours after the double murder, John Marvin went to the dog kennels and was stunned to find Paul's remains scattered around the feed room.
"I saw blood, I saw brains, I saw pieces of skull," he said, choking back tears. "It was terrible."
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Alex Murdaugh becomes emotional, Feb. 24, 2023, as he testifies at his double-murder trial. (Grace Beahm Alford / The Post and Courier / Pool)
To honor his Paul's memory, he said he felt he had to collect his remains.
"It felt like it was the right thing to do. I felt like I owed him, and I started cleaning, and I promise you no mother or father or aunt or uncle should ever have to see or do what I did that day," he said. "It's the hardest thing I've ever been through in my life."
Murdaugh is accused of fatally shooting his son, Paul, 22, with a shotgun and his wife, Maggie, 52, with a rifle near the dog kennels at the family's hunting estate known as Moselle.
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Monday marked the sixth week of the livestreamed trial that has mapped the spectacular downfall of the powerful scion of a legal dynasty that was once seen as untouchable in South Carolina's Lowcountry.
The morning that John Marvin cleaned up, he made a promise to Paul. "I told Paul I loved him, and I promised him I'd find out who did this," he said. Defense lawyer Jim Griffin asked if he'd found his nephew's killer.
"I have not," he replied.
John Marvin Murdaugh testifies during Alex Murdaugh's double-murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, on Feb. 27, 2023. (Pool)
Investigators allegedly lied to John Marvin about blood spatter
At one point, investigators told John Marvin and his siblings during a meeting in their office that they knew Murdaugh was behind the killings because of the T-shirt he was wearing.
"They told us that it was covered in blood. They went so far as to tell me on the police bodycam that he takes his shirt and wipes his face and that's how they knew that Alex was at the scene, and that he was the one," John Marvin testified.
The shirt did not test positive for blood, according to the defense.
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Prosecutors ultimately didn't introduce questionable evidence from an expert who concluded that Murdaugh's T-shirt was "stained with high-velocity blood spatter resulting from shooting Maggie and Paul."
The defense has repeatedly referenced the shoddy blood-spatter analysis to undermine the prosecution's case.
After a brief cross-examination, the defense rested.
Alex Murdaugh looks over to his defense attorney during his murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, on Feb. 10, 2023. (Andrew J. Whitaker / The Post and Courier / Pool)
Shooter would have been covered in blood, defense experts say
In earlier testimony Monday, a pair of defense experts said Paul was shot at close range in the back of the head and that the shooter would have been drenched in blood and splattered with brain matter.
Dr. Jonathan Eisenstat, a forensic pathologist, and Tim Palmbach, a blood-spatter expert, disagreed with the state's pathologist, Dr. Ellen Riemer, who said Paul was shot at a dramatic upward trajectory.
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She said pellets from the second shotgun blast that killed him grazed his left shoulder before entering his neck and blowing his brain from his skull. Paul's brain was found largely intact near his feet.
Eisenstat, however, called Paul's injury a "textbook" case of a contact shotgun wound to the skull that would have produced a tremendous amount of back spatter.
Dr. Jonathan Eisenstat testifies during Alex Murdaugh's double-murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, on Feb. 27, 2023.
Paul was shot in the back of the head
"The person holding that gun, would they be subject to being covered in [biological] material?" asked defense lawyer Dick Harpootlian.
"Yes, in a very forceful way, yes," replied Eisenstat, who was the defense's 12th witness. Investigators did not present evidence that Murdaugh had back spatter on him after the shootings.
During the graphic testimony that included gruesome autopsy photos, Murdaugh sobbed and dabbed his eyes with a tissue.
Palmbach echoed Eisenstat's testimony, saying the fatal injury to Paul's head was inflicted to the back of his skull.
"The shotgun would have been in contact with Paul's head," he testified.
This would put the shooter in much closer proximity to Paul than if the killer fired in an upward trajectory through his neck, as Riemer contended.
Palmbach said the killer would have been sprayed in the face, head and upper body with biological material and would have likely been injured.
Crime scene analyst Tim Palmbach testifies during Alex Murdaugh's double-murder trial in Walterboro, South Carolina, on Feb. 27, 2023. (Pool)
Expert testifies there were likely two shooters
Griffin asked Palmbach if the bloodbath was committed by two shooters.
"My opinion is the totality of the evidence is more suggestive of a two-shooter scenario," he replied.
The shooter, he said, likely had blood in his eyes, was injured and needed time to recover. This doesn't comport with a single killer quickly executing Paul then Maggie, who would have heard the shotgun blasts.
He added that it didn't make sense for the killer to use two long guns.
This wasn't Palmbach's first high-profile case. He appeared as an expert in the hit Netflix documentary "The Staircase" about the mysterious death of author Michael Peterson's wife.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters, left, questions Alex Murdaugh at the Colleton County Courthouse, Feb. 24, 2023. (Grace Beahm Alford / Staff)
Jurors to embark on a field trip to Moselle
Before testimony started Monday, Judge Clifton Newman ruled that jurors will go on a field trip to Moselle.
The visit to the 1,700-acre property in Islandton, South Carolina, came at the request of the defense team.
"We believe it would be useful for the jury to visit Moselle, both the area of the kennels and the house, just to get some understanding of the spatial relationships," Harpootlian told Newman.
The judge granted the request but did not specify when the approximately 20-minute drive there would take place.
Harpootlian also complained that dozens of trespassers went to the property over the weekend "to take selfies in front of the feed room" and the sheriff had to be called to chase the gawkers away. He asked that the scene be secured for the visit.
From left, Buster, Paul, Alex and Maggie Murdaugh pose together on a fishing boat. (Facebook)
Murdaugh's team called their final witness Monday, Murdaugh's brother, John Marvin Murdaugh.
Assistant Attorney General Creighton Waters said he expected to have at least four rebuttal witnesses and wrap up his case by Tuesday afternoon. Closing arguments could be as early as Wednesday.
Murdaugh testified in his own defense last week
Murdaugh repeatedly told Colleton County jurors that he had nothing to do with the slayings of his wife and son when he took the stand in his own defense on Thursday.
"Mr. Murdaugh, are you a family annihilator?" Waters asked Friday during a nine-hour cross-examination that spanned two days.
"No, I would never hurt Maggie. I would never hurt Paul," he responded.
Alex Murdaugh listens to testimony during his double-murder trial in Walterboro, South Carolina. (Andrew J. Whitaker / The Post and Courier / Pool / File)
Waters portrayed Murdaugh as a pill-addled, serial liar who was on the verge of a devastating financial reckoning.
He hammered the disbarred attorney about his ever-changing account of the night of the murders – including initially claiming he was not with his wife and son in the minutes before they were fatally shot until investigators found a video that contradicted his alibi.
A video found on Paul's phone placed Murdaugh at the scene at 8:45 p.m. Prosecutors say both victims were shot to death with family weapons at about 8:50 p.m.
"The second that you're confronted with facts that you can't deny, you immediately come up with a new lie?" Waters challenged Murdaugh. "Isn't that correct?"
"Mr. Waters, as we have established, I have lied many times," Murdaugh replied.
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