Latest / Beyond The Horizon / Mega Edition: Buster And John Marvin Murdaugh Take The Stand During The Trial (10/3/26)

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Mega Edition: Buster And John Marvin Murdaugh Take The Stand During The Trial (10/3/26) · Beyond The Horizon

0:00
Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. In
0:04
Speaker 1: this episode, we're going to dive right back into the
0:06
Speaker 1: Alec Murdaugh trial and see what happened on Tuesday when
0:10
Speaker 1: Buster Murdaugh took the stand. And to do that, we're
0:14
Speaker 1: going to use CountOn2. com, a local station down in the area.
0:21
Speaker 1: This article was authored by Chris Ludenslager. Headline, Buster Murdaugh
0:26
Speaker 1: testifies in father's double murder trial. Judge Newman kicked things
0:31
Speaker 1: off at about 9.35 a.m., and shortly after, at about 9.43 a.m.,
0:37
Speaker 1: Buster Murdaugh took the stand. Buster Murdaugh, the only surviving
0:42
Speaker 1: Murdaugh's son, is called to the stand. He describes his
0:45
Speaker 1: childhood as normal. He says he played sports and his
0:48
Speaker 1: parents came to almost every game. His dad often coached.
0:52
Speaker 1: His brother Paul favored outdoor activities, which their dad also enjoyed.
0:57
Speaker 1: Buster describes Moselle, He says it's thousands of acres, much
1:01
Speaker 1: of which isn't even accessible by road. There is a
1:05
Speaker 1: lot of swampland, a lot of rural land for hunting,
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Speaker 1: all kinds of animals, etc. He says they had a
1:12
Speaker 1: lot of guns and many types. They also had different
1:15
Speaker 1: kinds of ammo for hunting different animals and using different guns.
1:20
Speaker 1: The guns were mostly kept in the gun room, but
1:22
Speaker 1: Buster says they were often left all over the property,
1:26
Speaker 1: especially by Paul. Buster says that the 300 blackout that
1:31
Speaker 1: has been shown as evidence in the courtroom is his gun.
1:35
Speaker 1: Paul's was black and tan, but it was apparently stolen
1:38
Speaker 1: out of Paul's car at a party. Paul then started
1:42
Speaker 1: using Buster's 300 blackout, which caused some issues because Paul
1:46
Speaker 1: was not good at putting things back where he found them.
1:50
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know about the relationship between Paul
1:52
Speaker 1: and Buster, but I kind of get the feeling that
1:55
Speaker 1: they weren't really that close. Buster says he learned during
1:59
Speaker 1: the trial that Paul got a replacement, but he never
2:02
Speaker 1: saw Paul use it. The 12-gauge Benelli, with a Mojo
2:05
Speaker 1: sticker on it, also Buster's gun. He says that he
2:09
Speaker 1: frequently put it away loaded, but kept the safety on.
2:12
Speaker 1: Griffin asks about how Buster would load guns. Buster says
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Speaker 1: he never loaded a shotgun with a buckshot, then a birdshot,
2:19
Speaker 1: the ammunition combination used in Paul's murder. He has never
2:23
Speaker 1: known anyone to do that, he has never seen any
2:26
Speaker 1: guns on his property loaded that way, and he can't
2:29
Speaker 1: think of any reason anyone would ever do that. Buster
2:33
Speaker 1: says that the family would normally use the main gate
2:35
Speaker 1: to come and go, but there were sometimes reasons to
2:38
Speaker 1: use other entrances, like picking up mail and packages. Maggie
2:44
Speaker 1: preferred to stay at a disto during the summer months,
2:47
Speaker 1: according to Buster. In the spring of 2021, Buster says
2:51
Speaker 1: that he was living in Columbia and he split the
2:54
Speaker 1: time between Columbia and Moselle. In June of 2021, he
2:59
Speaker 1: was living between Columbia and Rock Hill with his girlfriend's family.
3:03
Speaker 1: Paul was living in Columbia in the spring of 2021
3:06
Speaker 1: because he was going to the University of South Carolina.
3:10
Speaker 1: He started working for their uncle, John Marvin Murdaugh, when
3:14
Speaker 1: school got out and lived with him during the summer.
3:18
Speaker 1: Griffin asks about time spent with Margaret's family. He says
3:21
Speaker 1: they would get together for holidays and do family trips frequently.
3:26
Speaker 1: Griffin pulls up the last family photo taken of Buster, Paul, Maggie,
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Speaker 1: and Alec Murdoch. It was taken by Maggie's sister, Marion Proctor,
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Speaker 1: in May. Buster says that Murdoch was close with Maggie's father,
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Speaker 1: Papa T. They would go camping, go to sporting events,
3:41
Speaker 1: play golf, etc. Griffin asks about Murdoch's father's health in
3:46
Speaker 1: the summer of 2021. He says it was bad. He
3:50
Speaker 1: says the family would go over and check on him often.
3:53
Speaker 1: Murdaugh and Paul went most often. Buster says that his
3:56
Speaker 1: dad would go any time of any day. He asked
3:59
Speaker 1: where they would park. Buster says it depends, but often
4:03
Speaker 1: around the back of the house because they would enter
4:05
Speaker 1: through the back door to the sunroom. Griffin shows data
4:09
Speaker 1: from the OnStar GPS system showing Murdaugh's car at Alameda.
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Speaker 1: Buster identifies the location as the spot they would normally park.
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Speaker 1: Griffin then asks how often Buster would talk to his parents.
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Speaker 1: Buster says frequently, pretty much every day, multiple times a day.
4:27
Speaker 1: He says that he knows they were all talking to
4:29
Speaker 1: each other that much as well. Griffin goes through the
4:33
Speaker 1: Rudofsky timeline from June 7th, 2021 and points out several
4:38
Speaker 1: calls texts between the family. Buster says that is pretty
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Speaker 1: much standard. He says there was nothing unusual about the
4:45
Speaker 1: communication between the family that day. He can't remember some
4:49
Speaker 1: of the things they talked about, but other conversations were
4:52
Speaker 1: about mundane topics, like picking up prescriptions. Griffin asks about
4:57
Speaker 1: the phone call Murda made to Buster at 9.10 p.m.,
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Speaker 1: the night of the murders. Buster says it was a
5:03
Speaker 1: normal call. His dad sounded normal, just like he did
5:06
Speaker 1: all the other times they talked that day. He says
5:09
Speaker 1: it was very common for his dad to call when
5:11
Speaker 1: he was driving over to Alameda. Buster says at Moselle,
5:16
Speaker 1: there was very spotty service. He says that it wasn't
5:19
Speaker 1: uncommon for his dad to leave his phone at the
5:22
Speaker 1: house if he was going around the property. Paul had
5:25
Speaker 1: his phone near him for the most part, but not
5:27
Speaker 1: always on him. Buster says they both would frequently misplace
5:31
Speaker 1: their dogs. How does someone misplace a dog? What does
5:34
Speaker 1: that even mean? Griffin asks about Bubba, one of the
5:37
Speaker 1: family dogs. Buster says he listened to Murdaugh better than
5:41
Speaker 1: anyone else. Griffin asks how frequently Murdaugh would shower. Buster
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Speaker 1: says it wasn't uncommon for Murdaugh to shower multiple times
5:48
Speaker 1: per day, especially if he was working and it was hot.
5:51
Speaker 1: He says his dad is a big guy and he
5:53
Speaker 1: sweats a lot. Well, it's humid as hell down south,
5:56
Speaker 1: so I know I'd be taking a ton of showers
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Speaker 1: as well. Even here in Las Vegas where we have
6:01
Speaker 1: quote-unquote dry air, your boy takes two, three showers a day.
6:07
Speaker 1: Griffin asked Buster if he knew about his dad's opioid addiction.
6:10
Speaker 1: Buster said that he had some knowledge of He said
6:13
Speaker 1: he knew his brother and mom found pills a few times.
6:16
Speaker 1: His dad went to a detox facility after Christmas in 2018,
6:20
Speaker 1: did a few at-home detoxes. He said he thought his
6:23
Speaker 1: dad was over the addiction. Buster wasn't there when Maggie
6:28
Speaker 1: and Paul confronted Murdaugh about the drugs, but from what
6:31
Speaker 1: he knew, his dad was always very apologetic. He says
6:35
Speaker 1: the family always handled disputes like adults. Nothing ever got
6:39
Speaker 1: out of hand, and there was never any violence. Griffin
6:44
Speaker 1: asked about the boat case. Buster says there was a
6:47
Speaker 1: negative reaction in the community, especially because of the media coverage. No,
6:51
Speaker 1: the reaction was because your brother, unfortunately, killed Mallory Beach.
6:56
Speaker 1: All right, don't blame it on the media. He says
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Speaker 1: Paul was being bullied on social media and would sometimes
7:02
Speaker 1: get confronted when he was out and about. Buster says
7:05
Speaker 1: that Maggie was kind of consumed by the boat case.
7:08
Speaker 1: He said that the negative response had a serious impact
7:10
Speaker 1: on Maggie and And it caused her to try and
7:12
Speaker 1: distance herself from the Hampton community. She started going to
7:16
Speaker 1: Waterboro to grocery shop. She was anxious about the lawsuit.
7:21
Speaker 1: And Buster says her biggest concern was the articles that
7:24
Speaker 1: began coming out when Mark Tinsley said he was going
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Speaker 1: to try and get millions of dollars from the family.
7:30
Speaker 1: He says his father was not as concerned. Buster says
7:33
Speaker 1: the bigger concern was the criminal case against Paul. He
7:37
Speaker 1: says the family stood behind him and believed that he
7:39
Speaker 1: was not the one driving the boat at the time
7:42
Speaker 1: of the accident. Oh, give me a break. Every single
7:45
Speaker 1: person on that boat said it was him driving. Griffin
7:50
Speaker 1: asks about the Memorial Day weekend, which was just before
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Speaker 1: the murders. Buster says the family was all together and
7:56
Speaker 1: it was a normal weekend. The video of everyone singing
7:59
Speaker 1: Murdaugh happy birthday is played in court. Buster doesn't know
8:03
Speaker 1: his dad's exact birthday, but says the weekend was normal.
8:06
Speaker 1: How don't you know your dad's birthday? What is going
8:09
Speaker 1: on with this family? The weekend immediately before the murders,
8:13
Speaker 1: everyone except Paul went to a baseball game in Columbia.
8:17
Speaker 1: Murdaugh and Maggie stayed in Columbia. Buster says it was
8:21
Speaker 1: a normal weekend. Griffin asked when Buster first found out
8:24
Speaker 1: about the murders. Buster says he can't remember the exact time,
8:28
Speaker 1: but his dad called late the night of June 7th
8:31
Speaker 1: and asked if he was sitting down. Buster said yes,
8:34
Speaker 1: and Murdaugh told him, He says he was in shock.
8:38
Speaker 1: His girlfriend heard the conversation and started packing. They drove
8:42
Speaker 1: to Moselle that night and he estimates they arrived sometime
8:45
Speaker 1: around 2 a.m. Buster says when he got there, his
8:49
Speaker 1: dad was destroyed. He says his dad was crying and
8:53
Speaker 1: didn't talk much. Buster helped his dad pack a bag
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Speaker 1: to go stay at Alameda later that night. Griffin asked
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Speaker 1: if there was a t-shirt or anything laying on the
9:02
Speaker 1: floor when Buster packed for his dad. Buster says, He
9:06
Speaker 1: can't remember. Buster says he grabbed t-shirts from a wooden
9:09
Speaker 1: shelf on the wall and grabbed a shirt from there.
9:13
Speaker 1: He doesn't know if one fell on the floor while
9:15
Speaker 1: he was packing. Buster, his girlfriend, and Murdaugh tried to
9:19
Speaker 1: get a few hours of sleep at Alameda, then headed
9:21
Speaker 1: back to Moselle the next morning. They all showered at
9:24
Speaker 1: Moselle that morning. For the few days after the murders,
9:28
Speaker 1: Buster says he was with Murdaugh pretty much all the time.
9:31
Speaker 1: They stayed at Alameda for a little while, then stayed
9:34
Speaker 1: at John Marvin's hunting property, Greenfield. On June 10th, Murdaugh's
9:38
Speaker 1: father died. The funeral for Maggie and Paul was Saturday,
9:42
Speaker 1: and the funeral for Randolph Murdaugh was Sunday. At some point,
9:46
Speaker 1: Buster went back to Rock Hill because he was working
9:49
Speaker 1: in Charlotte at the time. Before leaving, he says he
9:53
Speaker 1: and his father discussed threats to his safety. He didn't
9:55
Speaker 1: take any serious measures. He said he didn't want to
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Speaker 1: carry a gun himself and didn't want private security detail
10:02
Speaker 1: following him around griffin presents the announcement of a reward
10:06
Speaker 1: for information about maggie and paul's murders buster reads the
10:09
Speaker 1: announcement he and his dad put it out he says
10:13
Speaker 1: he is not sure why there is an expiration date
10:15
Speaker 1: on it griffin brings up murdaugh's roadside shooting in September
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Speaker 1: of 2021. Buster says that he never went home after that.
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Speaker 1: Griffin plays a Snapchat video Paul took of Murdaugh next
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Speaker 1: to a tree. Buster says he recognizes the shirt. Griffin
10:31
Speaker 1: brings up a video of an interview with Murdaugh from
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Speaker 1: June 10th, 2021. In the video, Murdaugh can be heard
10:37
Speaker 1: saying either I or they did him so bad. There
10:41
Speaker 1: has been much discussion about what he said. The video
10:44
Speaker 1: played in court. Buster says he recognizes his dad's voice.
10:48
Speaker 1: that his dad said they. He says that's not the
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Speaker 1: first time his dad said that. He heard his father
10:54
Speaker 1: say they did him so bad at Moselle the night
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Speaker 1: of the murders. Griffin asks about how long it takes
11:00
Speaker 1: to spray out one or two dog kennels. Buster says
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Speaker 1: about 10 minutes. So they were trying to establish that
11:08
Speaker 1: things were normal, right? Things were like they always were,
11:11
Speaker 1: and nothing was out of the ordinary, according to Buster,
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Speaker 1: with his father. So they're trying to establish the normalcy here.
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Speaker 1: And I doubt it's going to work, but that's their strategy.
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Speaker 1: They're going to stick with the whole Alec Murdoch wasn't
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Speaker 1: the man to do this. And there was some unknown
11:28
Speaker 1: killer lurking around the premises. Is it going to work?
11:31
Speaker 1: Come time for the jury to take a look? I
11:35
Speaker 1: have my doubts. So after he was done giving his
11:38
Speaker 1: testimony for the defense, it was time for the cross-examination.
11:42
Speaker 1: And John Meters, the prosecutor, was in charge of that.
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Speaker 1: He asks about the entrances to Moselle and why the
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Speaker 1: packages and mail were delivered to a different location. Buster
11:54
Speaker 1: says he doesn't know. Buster says he talked to Paul
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Speaker 1: for the last time on June 5th and Maggie for
12:00
Speaker 1: the last time on June 7th. Meters asks if Buster
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Speaker 1: had any knowledge of the family's financial difficulties. Buster says no.
12:08
Speaker 1: He says he learned in September after the roadside shooting.
12:11
Speaker 1: Meters brings up the Memorial Day video of Chris Wilson
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Speaker 1: hugging Murdoch. Buster says he didn't know that Murdaugh owed
12:18
Speaker 1: Wilson thousands of dollars at the time. Meters asks if
12:22
Speaker 1: the boating accident put pressure on the family. Buster says
12:25
Speaker 1: it was unsettling because Paul was criminally charged and his
12:29
Speaker 1: dad was civilly charged, but the family supported each other.
12:33
Speaker 1: Meters asks if Buster was upset when Paul used his ID.
12:36
Speaker 1: Buster says sometimes. So did Paul use the ID with
12:41
Speaker 1: Buster's knowledge or did he take the ID without Buster's knowledge?
12:46
Speaker 1: Meters asks if they ever stayed at Moselle again after
12:49
Speaker 1: the murders. Buster says no. Meters asks if Murdaugh ever
12:53
Speaker 1: asked if Buster wanted to go hunting out there. Buster
12:56
Speaker 1: says yes, but he didn't go. And with that, that
13:01
Speaker 1: was the end of Buster Murdaugh's testimony and one of
13:04
Speaker 1: the most highly anticipated testimonies in this case. After Buster
13:09
Speaker 1: Murdaugh was on the stand, the next person up was
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Speaker 1: forensic engineer Mike Sutton. Sutton helps recreate and investigate incidents
13:19
Speaker 1: like car accidents and shootings. He has a specific focus
13:22
Speaker 1: in acoustics and engineering. Sutton says that one of the
13:26
Speaker 1: main things forensic engineers do is collect data from a
13:29
Speaker 1: crime scene and interpret that data. He collects data from
13:33
Speaker 1: the site himself and uses data collected by first responders
13:37
Speaker 1: and crime scene investigators. Murdaugh's defense team hired Sutton to
13:42
Speaker 1: analyze Maggie and Paul's shootings. He prepared a PowerPoint presentation,
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Speaker 1: on his findings. And this is something that you should
13:49
Speaker 1: come to expect when we're talking about murder cases. And
13:52
Speaker 1: you're going to see the same thing in Idaho when
13:55
Speaker 1: we get to that point. Brian Kohlberger's team, they're going
13:58
Speaker 1: to hire their own specialists, their own experts, and those
14:01
Speaker 1: experts are going to recreate the scene in a different
14:04
Speaker 1: way than the experts from the state in order, from
14:08
Speaker 1: their point of view anyway, to sow some seeds of doubt.
14:12
Speaker 1: Sutton used several measurements of bullet holes taken by sled
14:15
Speaker 1: agent Worley connected to Paul's shooting. He found that one
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Speaker 1: of the bullets that hit Paul was likely traveling at
14:21
Speaker 1: an upward trajectory from the right and one at a
14:25
Speaker 1: downward trajectory. The bullet with a downward trajectory was recovered
14:29
Speaker 1: from the doghouse. Sutton said it traveled at a downward
14:32
Speaker 1: angle of 14 degrees. Sutton shows a diagram drawn by Worley,
14:37
Speaker 1: which was not to scale. He says that it not
14:39
Speaker 1: being to scale is not helpful. Worley went to all
14:42
Speaker 1: the trouble to measure the crime scene, so it could
14:45
Speaker 1: have been drawn to scale. Sutton says that he wants
14:48
Speaker 1: to know is where the trajectory lines cross. They can't
14:51
Speaker 1: determine that from the diagram because it's not scale, but
14:55
Speaker 1: it is knowable. Sutton created his own reconstruction of the
14:58
Speaker 1: crime scene. A video rendering created from Farrow laser scanning
15:03
Speaker 1: is shown in court. A second video, which shows the
15:06
Speaker 1: scene with the roof of the shed removed, is also shown.
15:10
Speaker 1: It gives a more clear perspective of where things are
15:13
Speaker 1: relative to each other. He also used a computer program
15:17
Speaker 1: to input photos Worley took of shell casings that night
15:21
Speaker 1: into the scaled rendering. The program identifies where the objects
15:25
Speaker 1: are using reverse camera projection method. He overlaid Worley's drawings
15:29
Speaker 1: over the image created by the scan. The images agreed,
15:33
Speaker 1: meaning he has a high degree of confidence that the
15:36
Speaker 1: markers are in the right place. Sutton shows an image
15:40
Speaker 1: with two lines depicting the flight pattern of the bullet
15:42
Speaker 1: that ended up in the quail pen. This was the
15:45
Speaker 1: bullet with an upward trajectory at either one and a
15:48
Speaker 1: half or three degrees. There are two lines depicting each degree.
15:53
Speaker 1: Sutton says other information can be used to determine where
15:56
Speaker 1: along those lines the shooter was likely standing. He looked
16:01
Speaker 1: at a collection of cartridge casings that were found right
16:04
Speaker 1: beside the trajectories, which could be where the shooter was standing.
16:09
Speaker 1: He placed a shooter holding the blackout in the rendering
16:12
Speaker 1: and found that based on the trajectory of the bullet,
16:15
Speaker 1: the shooter was likely not shooting from the shoulder. He
16:18
Speaker 1: says the person was likely holding the gun from the hip.
16:22
Speaker 1: Sutton also created an image with a shooter on the
16:26
Speaker 1: one and a half degree line and a shooter on
16:28
Speaker 1: the three degree line to show how the range of
16:31
Speaker 1: how the person was likely able to make the shot.
16:34
Speaker 1: Another image depicts where the shooter was likely standing following
16:38
Speaker 1: the trajectory of the downward shot that ended up in
16:41
Speaker 1: the doghouse. He found that the shooter was likely standing
16:45
Speaker 1: at or near the same spot as the first shot.
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Speaker 1: The shooter was likely shooting from the shoulder for that shot.
16:53
Speaker 1: Sutton calculated range of heights for the shooter along the trajectories.
16:57
Speaker 1: He found that for the shots to match, the shooter
16:59
Speaker 1: was likely around 5 feet 2 inches. If the shooter
17:02
Speaker 1: was even a few inches taller, the shooter would have
17:05
Speaker 1: to move up the line of trajectory and the cross-reference
17:08
Speaker 1: of both shots would not match and the pile of
17:11
Speaker 1: shell casings would not match. Harpootlian asked if Sutton can
17:16
Speaker 1: say to a degree of engineering certainty that Murdaugh did
17:19
Speaker 1: not fire those shots. Sutton says he does not believe
17:22
Speaker 1: Murdaugh fired the shot. Harpootlian asked if Sutton knows if
17:26
Speaker 1: SLED ever conducted any analysis using similar programs. Sutton says,
17:31
Speaker 1: not that he is aware of. So that's certainly some
17:35
Speaker 1: interesting information provided by Mr. Sutton, no doubt about that.
17:39
Speaker 1: And I wonder why the prosecution, the investigators, didn't use
17:43
Speaker 1: the same technology. After a lunch break, they came back
17:46
Speaker 1: to the court and Hart-Pootlian still had Sutton on the stand.
17:51
Speaker 1: Court resumes. Hart-Pootlian gets a. 300 blackout out of evidence
17:56
Speaker 1: and holds it. He asks Sutton to position him how
17:58
Speaker 1: the shooter would have been positioned. Hartputlian asked how the
18:02
Speaker 1: gun would have been positioned on someone who is 6'4.
18:05
Speaker 1: Sutton positions the gun below Hartputlian's knee. Sutton also looked
18:10
Speaker 1: at one of the buckshot pellets that hit a pine tree.
18:14
Speaker 1: He backtracked the trajectory of the pellet and found the
18:16
Speaker 1: path of the shot from the shotgun. The shot came
18:19
Speaker 1: from a height of 3 feet and 11 inches from
18:22
Speaker 1: the dorsal at an upward trajectory, according to Sutton. Sutton
18:26
Speaker 1: is about 5'10, and he said that if he held
18:28
Speaker 1: the shotgun at his shoulder, it would be too high.
18:31
Speaker 1: The person would need to be shorter or the gun
18:34
Speaker 1: held lower. Sutton also conducted acoustical testing to determine whether
18:39
Speaker 1: someone in the main house could hear the gun being
18:42
Speaker 1: fired from the kennels. He did military standard testing to
18:45
Speaker 1: determine how far the sound of the shot would have traveled.
18:48
Speaker 1: Sutton used a device specifically designed to measure the sound
18:52
Speaker 1: of gunshots. He tested a. 300 blackout and a shotgun
18:56
Speaker 1: with both buckshot and birdshot. Sutton took into account surrounding
19:00
Speaker 1: factors like trees, humidity, wind direction, background noise, etc. There
19:06
Speaker 1: are 1,142 feet, as the crow flies, between the center
19:10
Speaker 1: of the main house and the kennel area. Sutton shot
19:13
Speaker 1: a shotgun into the feed room, out of the feed room, etc.
19:18
Speaker 1: He found the feed room did muffle the sound of
19:20
Speaker 1: the shot. The blackout was shot in various directions near
19:24
Speaker 1: the kennels. The blackout was 165 decibels and the shotgun
19:30
Speaker 1: 155 decibels. Sutton provided a recording of him testing what
19:35
Speaker 1: the sound of the blackout gunshot at the kennels would
19:38
Speaker 1: have sounded like to someone in the living room of
19:40
Speaker 1: the house. The sound was hardly audible. Sutton says that
19:45
Speaker 1: if the TV was on in the house, there is
19:47
Speaker 1: no way someone could have heard the shot. The shotgun
19:50
Speaker 1: shot would have been even quieter. Hart-Pootlian asks about whether
19:54
Speaker 1: the headlights of Murdoch's Suburban would have illuminated Maggie and
19:57
Speaker 1: Paul's body as he pulled up to the kennels that night.
20:00
Speaker 1: He asks if Sutton was there when the Suburban was
20:03
Speaker 1: located that night. Sutton says yes, and he saw the
20:06
Speaker 1: path of the Suburban via the GPS. Sutton says that
20:11
Speaker 1: they definitely would have been illuminated. He can't say what
20:14
Speaker 1: Murdoch saw, but the area where the bodies were located
20:18
Speaker 1: would have been illuminated. So after that line of questioning,
20:23
Speaker 1: it was time for the prosecution to have their turn
20:26
Speaker 1: with the witness. Prosecution begins cross-examination of Sutton. They ask
20:32
Speaker 1: about the PowerPoint Sutton put together and when it was finalized.
20:36
Speaker 1: Sutton says it was finalized yesterday. They ask how much
20:40
Speaker 1: the defense is paying Sutton. He says the company charges
20:43
Speaker 1: $ 350 per hour plus travel expenses. He estimates he has
20:48
Speaker 1: put in around 40 to 50 hours. Sutton was also
20:52
Speaker 1: retained by Griffin to work on the boat case. Prosecution
20:56
Speaker 1: asks if guesswork has any place in engineering. Sutton says
20:59
Speaker 1: that typically guesses are called hypothesis and are tested for accuracy.
21:04
Speaker 1: Sutton is asked if he has any formal training in
21:07
Speaker 1: pathology or firearms. He says no. He is asked if
21:11
Speaker 1: any of his studies are peer reviewed. He says no.
21:15
Speaker 1: Prosecution asks what variables Sutton would need to know when
21:18
Speaker 1: trying to gather information about an item thrown from a car.
21:22
Speaker 1: Sutton says he would need variables like the condition of
21:24
Speaker 1: the shoulder, the speed at which the phone is thrown out,
21:27
Speaker 1: where the phone landed, any markings where the phone may
21:30
Speaker 1: have hit and tumbled, etc. Sutton is asked if his
21:33
Speaker 1: work on acoustics is typically OSHA related. like workers not
21:37
Speaker 1: being able to hear alarms or something like that. Sutton
21:41
Speaker 1: says he has worked on things like that, as well
21:43
Speaker 1: as investigated things like audibility of a woman's scream in
21:47
Speaker 1: a murder investigation. Prosecution reviews Sutton's analysis of whether gunshots
21:52
Speaker 1: at the kennels could have been heard in the main
21:54
Speaker 1: house at Moselle. Sutton used similar, but not the exact
21:58
Speaker 1: same ammunition when testing the shotgun, as was used in
22:02
Speaker 1: the murders. And that's going to be a point of contention, right? Well,
22:05
Speaker 1: it was similar, but not the exact ammunition. The shot
22:09
Speaker 1: from the kennels was only one to three decibels above
22:13
Speaker 1: the ambient background noise in the house, according to Sutton,
22:17
Speaker 1: which would have made it extremely difficult to hear. Prosecution
22:20
Speaker 1: points out that the trees were not as tall or
22:23
Speaker 1: dense at the time of the murders as they were
22:25
Speaker 1: when Sutton conducted his test. Sutton said that he accounted
22:29
Speaker 1: for that in his calculations. Prosecution asks if Sutton could
22:33
Speaker 1: determine how loud the gunshot would have been if someone
22:37
Speaker 1: was 1,124 feet away. Sutton agrees with prosecution that it
22:42
Speaker 1: would be around 105 decibels. Prosecution asks several times how
22:47
Speaker 1: Sutton can give an opinion on the ballistics if he
22:50
Speaker 1: is not a ballistics expert. Sutton says that he follows
22:53
Speaker 1: the laws of physics. Prosecution brings up the line Sutton
22:56
Speaker 1: used to determine the position of the shooter and the
22:59
Speaker 1: height of the shooter. They ask if he considered positioning
23:03
Speaker 1: a different height shooter anywhere else on the line. Sutton
23:06
Speaker 1: says yes. He considered different height people and considered positions
23:11
Speaker 1: at one foot increments from the quail pen out 60 feet.
23:15
Speaker 1: He also took a 12 foot radius from the center
23:18
Speaker 1: of the collection of shell casings found on the ground.
23:21
Speaker 1: Prosecution points out that the shells could have been ejected
23:25
Speaker 1: in an irregular pattern. Sutton says he specifically considered Murdoch kneeling.
23:31
Speaker 1: He said that even if Murdaugh was kneeling, the muzzle
23:34
Speaker 1: of the gun still would have been too high to
23:36
Speaker 1: make the trajectory of the shot into the quail pen.
23:40
Speaker 1: Prosecution keeps calling the shooter rendered in Sutton's simulation a
23:45
Speaker 1: 12-year-old and a little youth because of the height. Defense objects.
23:49
Speaker 1: Judge Newman overrules the objection, then later sustains it. Prosecution
23:54
Speaker 1: asks if Sutton was considering that the person being shot
23:58
Speaker 1: was moving when he plotted the trajectory of the shots.
24:01
Speaker 1: Sutton says that was not a variable because he had
24:04
Speaker 1: the final resting point of the shots plotted the trajectory
24:08
Speaker 1: from there. So the prosecution did a pretty good job
24:11
Speaker 1: there on Cross, and they were able to challenge Mr.
24:15
Speaker 1: Sutton's credibility a little bit by asking some questions about
24:18
Speaker 1: him being an expert in certain fields. So again, remember,
24:22
Speaker 1: it's all about what the jury perceives here. So if
24:25
Speaker 1: they perceive this Mr. Sutton guy as not the expert
24:28
Speaker 1: he is saying he is, well, they're not going to
24:31
Speaker 1: take his testimony into account. So the prosecutors are trying
24:34
Speaker 1: to bust holes in what he had to say. So
24:37
Speaker 1: before closing the day out, Hart Putlian had Mr. Sutton
24:41
Speaker 1: again during the redirect. Defense begins redirect of Sutton. Hart
24:46
Speaker 1: Putlian asked if Sutton relied on data collected by SLED
24:49
Speaker 1: to generate his findings. Sutton says yes. They go through
24:53
Speaker 1: the data that SLED collected. Sutton's data matches what Worley collected.
24:58
Speaker 1: Hart-Pootlian asks if anyone from SLED did any trajectory calculations.
25:03
Speaker 1: Sutton says he has not seen any. Hart-Pootlian asks if
25:06
Speaker 1: there was any obstacles to SLED or the FBI or
25:10
Speaker 1: anyone from the prosecution doing any of the same calculations
25:14
Speaker 1: Sutton did. Sutton says no. Hart-Pootlian points out a clerk
25:18
Speaker 1: in his office who is 5'3 and notes that she
25:21
Speaker 1: is not a child. Though the prosecution repeatedly stated That
25:25
Speaker 1: Sutton's rendering implied a child was the shooter. And with that,
25:30
Speaker 1: that ended the day's proceedings. And I have to tell you,
25:33
Speaker 1: from the defense perspective, I don't think they made up
25:35
Speaker 1: any ground whatsoever on the first day of them presenting
25:39
Speaker 1: their case, really. And I think that point is being
25:42
Speaker 1: slammed home by the fact that Alec Murdaugh is going
25:45
Speaker 1: to get on the stand and testify today. So we'll
25:49
Speaker 1: keep our eye on it. And after Alec Murdaugh testifies, obviously,
25:53
Speaker 1: we'll get that transcript added to the catalog as well.
25:57
Speaker 1: All of the information that goes with this episode can
26:00
Speaker 1: be found in the description box. What's up, everyone, and
26:04
Speaker 1: welcome back to the program. The defense in the Alec
26:10
Speaker 1: Murdaugh murder trial has rested its case. But before it
26:14
Speaker 1: did that, there was some emotional testimony that was given
26:18
Speaker 1: by John Marvin Murdaugh, who is the younger brother of
26:22
Speaker 1: Alec Murdoch. And it was John Marvin who was cleaning
26:27
Speaker 1: up what was left of his nephew, Paul. So no
26:30
Speaker 1: matter what you think about the Murdoch family in general,
26:32
Speaker 1: no uncle should have to clean up the remains of
26:35
Speaker 1: their nephew. Today's article is from The Independent, and the headline,
26:41
Speaker 1: Alec Murdoch's younger brother breaks down telling jurors how he
26:44
Speaker 1: cleaned up what was left of nephew, Paul. And for
26:48
Speaker 1: those of you who watched the testimony, It was grueling, man.
26:52
Speaker 1: I feel bad for this guy. There's no doubt in
26:54
Speaker 1: my mind that there has to be a lot of
26:56
Speaker 1: pain for the family, losing their nephew like this, their
26:59
Speaker 1: brother facing these serious consequences. Certainly not an envious position
27:05
Speaker 1: to be in. This article was authored by Rachel Sharp.
27:11
Speaker 1: Alec Murdaugh's younger brother broke down in tears on the
27:14
Speaker 1: witness stand as he revealed how he cleaned up what
27:17
Speaker 1: was left of his nephew, Paul, the morning after the
27:20
Speaker 1: gruesome murders. Now imagine when it is all said and done,
27:24
Speaker 1: if it comes back that his brother is guilty of this.
27:28
Speaker 1: Do you think that the family will continue to stand
27:31
Speaker 1: by Alec Murdaugh if it's a guilty verdict? Or do
27:34
Speaker 1: you think that they'll abandon him? I think they're all
27:36
Speaker 1: going to stand by him no matter what. John Marvin Murdaugh,
27:41
Speaker 1: the youngest of the Murdaugh siblings, took the witness stand
27:44
Speaker 1: in Colleton County Courthouse in Waterboro, South Carolina on Monday afternoon.
27:49
Speaker 1: where his older brother is standing trial for murdering his
27:52
Speaker 1: wife Maggie and his son Paul. John Marvin told jurors
27:57
Speaker 1: how he cleaned up his nephew's blood, brain matter, and
28:00
Speaker 1: skull fragments from the crime scene after law enforcement officials
28:05
Speaker 1: left behind parts of the 22-year-old on the Murdaugh's Moselle
28:09
Speaker 1: family estate. And I don't even know what the investigators
28:13
Speaker 1: are thinking, not cleaning up all of the remains from Paul.
28:19
Speaker 1: But that's a bad look for the investigation. And there's
28:22
Speaker 1: no two ways about it. If I was a juror,
28:25
Speaker 1: I'd be looking at that and I'd say to myself, well,
28:28
Speaker 1: if they were this sloppy collecting this evidence here of
28:31
Speaker 1: the remains, what else might have they missed? So while
28:35
Speaker 1: I think the prosecution has presented compelling evidence, I also
28:39
Speaker 1: believe that with the prosecution and some of their missteps,
28:44
Speaker 1: they've given the defense a few things to sink their
28:47
Speaker 1: teeth into. It's the hardest thing I've ever been through
28:50
Speaker 1: in my life, he said. John Marvin had gone down
28:54
Speaker 1: to the dog kennels on the family's sprawling Moselle estate
28:57
Speaker 1: on the 8th of June of 2021, the morning after
29:01
Speaker 1: the murders, and came across a horrific scene. Now, again,
29:05
Speaker 1: I don't care how you feel about the Murdoch family.
29:08
Speaker 1: Nobody should have to walk into a scene like that.
29:11
Speaker 1: Put yourself in his shoes. Imagine it was your nephew. Now,
29:14
Speaker 1: of course, I'd have some questions for my brother. No
29:18
Speaker 1: doubt about it. But I would be overwhelmed with grief
29:23
Speaker 1: and anguish if I came across this scene of my
29:26
Speaker 1: nephew and his horrible murder. I just felt like I
29:31
Speaker 1: needed to go down there. I needed to see for
29:33
Speaker 1: myself what had gone on and just kind of take
29:36
Speaker 1: it in. Maybe for some type of understanding, he said.
29:40
Speaker 1: The uncle, who told jurors he had always had a
29:43
Speaker 1: very special relationship with a 22-year-old victim, wept as he
29:47
Speaker 1: described seeing Paul's blood, brain matter, and skull fragments in
29:51
Speaker 1: the feed room of the kennels. It was not cleaned up,
29:54
Speaker 1: he testified. Now, I don't have any nephews, but I
29:58
Speaker 1: have a lot of little cousins who are like my nephews.
30:01
Speaker 1: So I can't imagine for one second if this happened
30:04
Speaker 1: to them and stumbling upon this scene the next morning
30:08
Speaker 1: and finding pieces of their skull, blood all over the place.
30:12
Speaker 1: That's the sort of shit that gives you PTSD and
30:15
Speaker 1: stays with you forever. John Marvin said that he could
30:19
Speaker 1: easily see where Maggie had been as well, but her
30:22
Speaker 1: body had been on the grass and and law enforcement
30:25
Speaker 1: officials had covered it with dirt. Now, why would they
30:28
Speaker 1: do that? And why wouldn't they make sure that they
30:31
Speaker 1: secure the crime scene? But in the feed room, he
30:34
Speaker 1: could see Paul's blood, brain matter, and pieces of his
30:37
Speaker 1: skull all over. By then, just hours from the murders,
30:42
Speaker 1: Sled had already released the scene back to the Murdoch family.
30:46
Speaker 1: It had not been cleaned up. I saw blood. I
30:48
Speaker 1: saw brains. I saw pieces of skull. I don't know
30:51
Speaker 1: what I was seeing, he said. For some reason, I thought,
30:55
Speaker 1: for Paul, I needed to clean it up. I felt
30:58
Speaker 1: like it was the right thing to do. I felt
31:00
Speaker 1: like I owed it to him. John Marvin testified that
31:03
Speaker 1: he called his friend Michael Paul, a law enforcement official,
31:07
Speaker 1: to ask if it would be okay for him to
31:09
Speaker 1: clean it up before he did. Sobbing, he said he
31:12
Speaker 1: set to work cleaning up what was left of Paul
31:15
Speaker 1: while he cried uncontrollably. That's just crazy for me to
31:19
Speaker 1: think about. You mean to tell me that the crime
31:21
Speaker 1: scene investigators... Don't clean all of that up to spare
31:25
Speaker 1: the victims' families the pain of the remains being left there?
31:29
Speaker 1: That's crazy. And if that's not policy, it should be.
31:33
Speaker 1: I promise you, no mother, father, aunt, or uncle should
31:37
Speaker 1: ever have to see and do what I did that day.
31:40
Speaker 1: I'm not blaming anybody, but I was just so overwhelmed,
31:43
Speaker 1: he said. And like we talk about in all these
31:47
Speaker 1: other murder cases we discuss... It's not just the people
31:50
Speaker 1: who were killed who were affected, right? Obviously, they're the
31:54
Speaker 1: ones most affected, but it's the collateral damage and all
31:57
Speaker 1: of the lives that are ruined in the aftermath of
32:01
Speaker 1: somebody being murdered. And that's what you saw on the
32:04
Speaker 1: witness stand yesterday in real time. I did everything I could.
32:09
Speaker 1: John Marvin testified that as he cleaned up what was
32:12
Speaker 1: left of Paul, he made him a promise to get
32:15
Speaker 1: him justice. It was difficult. It was nearly impossible, he said.
32:20
Speaker 1: In my mind and out loud, I told Paul I
32:22
Speaker 1: loved him and I promised him that I would find
32:25
Speaker 1: out who did this to him. When asked if he
32:27
Speaker 1: had found out for his nephew, he replied, I have not.
32:32
Speaker 1: Besides the lack of cleanup of the crime scene, John
32:34
Speaker 1: Marvin also gave other testimony critical of the investigation, including
32:39
Speaker 1: what he described as a baffling statement released by law enforcement,
32:43
Speaker 1: an apparent lack of urgency to locate Maggie's cell phone.
32:47
Speaker 1: and evidence law enforcement shared with him that turned out
32:51
Speaker 1: to be inaccurate. The day after the murders, he testified
32:54
Speaker 1: that he learned that Maggie's phone was missing. So of course,
32:59
Speaker 1: it's going to come down to credibility, right? Does the
33:02
Speaker 1: jury believe what John Marvin Murdaugh is saying here about
33:05
Speaker 1: the investigation? And it's quite possible. Look, I've said it
33:09
Speaker 1: from the beginning. I don't think the prosecution hit a
33:12
Speaker 1: home run here. And if it wasn't for putting Alec
33:15
Speaker 1: Murdaugh on the stand, I would think that they'd have
33:18
Speaker 1: a better shot as far as the defense goes of
33:20
Speaker 1: getting them off. I think they made a crucial error
33:23
Speaker 1: putting Alec Murdoch on the stand. But it's not like
33:26
Speaker 1: the prosecution has been over the top great here. They've
33:30
Speaker 1: stumbled along as well. And I'll tell you what, the
33:34
Speaker 1: testimony we heard from the ballistics expert yesterday, the forensic expert,
33:39
Speaker 1: that was pretty compelling stuff. The day after the murders,
33:43
Speaker 1: he testified that he learned that Maggie's phone was missing.
33:47
Speaker 1: He said he used Find My iPhone and located the
33:50
Speaker 1: phone along Moselle Road around a quarter of a mile
33:53
Speaker 1: from the Murdaugh property. But when he approached law enforcement
33:57
Speaker 1: and showed them, he testified that they brushed it off,
34:00
Speaker 1: saying they had technology coming later to help find it.
34:05
Speaker 1: Sounds pretty typical of law enforcement, right? Oh no, we
34:08
Speaker 1: don't need your help. We'll wait another 10 days for
34:10
Speaker 1: these other experts to come. Oh, and by the way,
34:13
Speaker 1: that's all going to come at great cost to the taxpayer. Meanwhile,
34:17
Speaker 1: old boy over here just pinged it with find my iPhone.
34:22
Speaker 1: He said he was shocked that investigators did not want
34:24
Speaker 1: to find the cell phone before it ran out of battery.
34:28
Speaker 1: It blew me away that I'm sitting here showing them
34:30
Speaker 1: where Maggie's phone is and they don't take the time
34:33
Speaker 1: to walk with me or take this phone and go
34:36
Speaker 1: find out, he said. He said he told the 14th
34:39
Speaker 1: Circuit solicitor Duffy Stone, who was also at Moselle at
34:43
Speaker 1: the time, And they went to find the phone, contacting
34:46
Speaker 1: SLED to collect it once they had located it by
34:49
Speaker 1: the side of the road. Mr. Murdaugh then gave him
34:52
Speaker 1: Maggie's password so that investigators could get into the phone,
34:56
Speaker 1: he said. I don't know about you folks, but where
34:59
Speaker 1: I'm from, that sounds like piss poor work by the investigators.
35:03
Speaker 1: You mean to tell me that the brother of the
35:06
Speaker 1: deceased kid and the brother-in-law of the deceased woman and
35:10
Speaker 1: brother of the alleged murderer is going to be finding
35:13
Speaker 1: the phone? Come on, man. How is it that the
35:15
Speaker 1: police didn't think to use Find My iPhone? Prosecutors say
35:22
Speaker 1: that Mr. Murdaugh tossed Maggie's phone out of the moving
35:25
Speaker 1: car as he left the murder scene and drove to
35:27
Speaker 1: his mother's home minutes after the killings. John Marvin also
35:32
Speaker 1: slammed the baffling statements released the day after the murders,
35:36
Speaker 1: which reassured the public that there was no danger to
35:39
Speaker 1: the community despite having no suspect in custody. Well, where
35:43
Speaker 1: have we heard that before? Pretty sure we heard that
35:46
Speaker 1: up in Idaho too, right? There's no danger to the community.
35:50
Speaker 1: So what we can take from that statement is they
35:52
Speaker 1: thought that Alec Murdoch was the man responsible right from
35:55
Speaker 1: Jump Street. It's quite baffling. It still is. Two people
36:00
Speaker 1: have been killed and you're telling me that everybody's safe?
36:04
Speaker 1: That tells me that whoever's done this is in jail
36:07
Speaker 1: and they are 100% positive, he said. John Marvin testified
36:12
Speaker 1: that he met with investigators a lot over the course
36:14
Speaker 1: of the investigation and had been shown evidence that officials
36:18
Speaker 1: had connecting his brother to the murders. Well, yeah, look,
36:22
Speaker 1: there's no other suspects, right? And as compelling as I
36:26
Speaker 1: found the testimony of the expert yesterday, I don't think
36:29
Speaker 1: it's enough to sway me to say, oh, yeah, well,
36:32
Speaker 1: Alec Murdaugh is not the guy. You're going to have
36:34
Speaker 1: to explain the whole entire kennel incident. You're going to
36:37
Speaker 1: have to explain what you were doing in that kennel
36:39
Speaker 1: especially after lying for so long and saying you weren't there.
36:44
Speaker 1: John Marvin testified that he met with investigators a lot
36:48
Speaker 1: over the course of the investigation and had been shown
36:51
Speaker 1: evidence that officials had connecting his brother to the murders.
36:55
Speaker 1: He told the court how he later learned that some
36:57
Speaker 1: of that evidence was not accurate. He recalled one day
37:01
Speaker 1: where he was asked about a blue raincoat, which had
37:04
Speaker 1: been found during a search of an upstairs bedroom at
37:07
Speaker 1: their parents' home in Almeida. John Marvin said he, his
37:11
Speaker 1: brother and sister were later shown the coat, which was
37:14
Speaker 1: covered in gunshot residue and which prosecutors believe Mr. Murdaugh
37:18
Speaker 1: used to move and hide the murder weapons. He had
37:22
Speaker 1: never seen the coat before, he said, and learned that
37:25
Speaker 1: it had been found in a closet in his parents'
37:27
Speaker 1: home that was typically used to store junk. So how
37:31
Speaker 1: did the residue get on that raincoat or on that
37:34
Speaker 1: tarp if it wasn't used to move these guns? See,
37:38
Speaker 1: you gotta have explanations for all of that. The whole, well,
37:40
Speaker 1: I didn't do it, that's fine and well, and that
37:43
Speaker 1: might work with your family members, but it's not going
37:46
Speaker 1: to work in court with the jurors. Somehow that raincoat
37:49
Speaker 1: or that tarp got to his parents' house and it
37:52
Speaker 1: had gunshot residue on it. That has to be explained.
37:57
Speaker 1: The same day he was asked about the coat, John
37:59
Speaker 1: Marvin said a sled agent told him that they knew
38:02
Speaker 1: his brother was responsible for the murders because of blood
38:06
Speaker 1: spatter evidence found on the white t-shirt he was wearing
38:09
Speaker 1: the night of the murders. They made reference to the
38:12
Speaker 1: shirt Alec was wearing, that it was covered in blood,
38:15
Speaker 1: he said. They went so far to tell me, on
38:18
Speaker 1: the police body cam, he takes his shirt and wipes
38:21
Speaker 1: his face. And that's how they knew that he was
38:25
Speaker 1: at the scene, that he was the one. Prior to
38:28
Speaker 1: his indictment, a Colleton County grand jury was told that Mr.
38:32
Speaker 1: Murdaugh's shirt was covered in blood spatter, evidence that he
38:36
Speaker 1: was next to one of the victims, when they were shot.
38:39
Speaker 1: This later turned out to be false, with forensic tests
38:42
Speaker 1: finding no human blood on the shirt. Now, that's certainly
38:46
Speaker 1: problematic for the prosecution. It makes them look like liars
38:51
Speaker 1: as well, right? And what it comes down to is
38:53
Speaker 1: credibility inside of this courtroom. I don't know how many
38:56
Speaker 1: times we have to say it. If you're not credible
38:59
Speaker 1: up on that witness stand, the jurors are going to
39:02
Speaker 1: know it. And lying about blood spatter on his t-shirt
39:06
Speaker 1: in front of a grand jury, where there is no defense,
39:08
Speaker 1: by the way, is really not a good look. And
39:12
Speaker 1: if I was sitting on the jury, I'd certainly be
39:14
Speaker 1: taking that into account. Remember, you just have to sow
39:17
Speaker 1: enough reasonable doubt in the mind of the jury. You
39:21
Speaker 1: don't have to get out here and have your client exonerated.
39:24
Speaker 1: If you can find a loophole, you can find the technicality,
39:27
Speaker 1: and you can manipulate that and leverage it, forget it.
39:30
Speaker 1: That's how a lot of these people end up getting off. However,
39:34
Speaker 1: prosecutors allege that Mr. Murdaugh actually changed his clothing and
39:39
Speaker 1: showered after the murders. A Snapchat video taken by Paul
39:43
Speaker 1: less than an hour before he and Maggie were killed
39:46
Speaker 1: shows Mr. Murdaugh in a completely different outfit The kennels
39:50
Speaker 1: were also covered in water after the killings as though
39:53
Speaker 1: someone had used the hoses. Yeah, I'm sure that a
39:57
Speaker 1: hit team came in, they shot Maggie and Paul, and
40:00
Speaker 1: then they decided to clean up the mess by turning
40:02
Speaker 1: on the hoses. I wonder how long it'll be before
40:06
Speaker 1: somebody's trying to pitch to us that this was a
40:08
Speaker 1: cartel hit as well. Under cross-examination, John Marvin agreed that
40:13
Speaker 1: his brother had not cooperated fully. as he previously believed,
40:17
Speaker 1: because he lied about his alibi on the night of
40:19
Speaker 1: the murders. For the past 20 months, the 54-year-old denied
40:24
Speaker 1: ever being at the dog kennels with his wife and
40:26
Speaker 1: son on the night of June 7, 2021, lying to
40:30
Speaker 1: law enforcement, his family, and friends about the last time
40:34
Speaker 1: he ever saw them alive. And for me, some of
40:37
Speaker 1: the most damning evidence is the way Alec Murdaugh has
40:40
Speaker 1: conducted himself. Lie after lie, not being truthful about anything,
40:46
Speaker 1: and not even getting his basic story straight. A damning
40:51
Speaker 1: cell phone video taken by Paul at the dog kennels
40:54
Speaker 1: just minutes before the murders captured Mr. Murdaugh's voice placing
40:58
Speaker 1: him at the murder scene. In a bombshell moment last
41:01
Speaker 1: week when Mr. Murdaugh took the stand, he admitted to
41:03
Speaker 1: lying all the time about being at the kennels. John
41:08
Speaker 1: Marvin said, said he had only learned about his brother's
41:10
Speaker 1: lie when SLED played him the video in August. His
41:14
Speaker 1: brother had not confessed to him before or after that,
41:17
Speaker 1: he said. So look, he was lying to everybody. And
41:21
Speaker 1: if he's willing to lie to his family like this,
41:23
Speaker 1: what makes you think he's not lying about the whole
41:26
Speaker 1: entire shebang? Coming from a long line of local prosecutors
41:32
Speaker 1: and attorneys, John Marvin told jurors how he broke from
41:35
Speaker 1: family tradition by setting up his own business, instead of
41:39
Speaker 1: pursuing a career in law. He described his family as normal,
41:43
Speaker 1: saying that all of the siblings, him, Alex, their brother Randy,
41:46
Speaker 1: and their sister Lynn, were close and spent a lot
41:49
Speaker 1: of time together. Just a normal family doing family things,
41:53
Speaker 1: he told the court of the dynasty which has ruled
41:56
Speaker 1: over the local judicial system for almost a century. John
42:01
Speaker 1: Marvin choked back tears as he spoke about his very
42:04
Speaker 1: special relationship with his nephew Paul. Paul worked with him
42:08
Speaker 1: at his business, and he recalled several nicknames, including Little
42:11
Speaker 1: Rooster and Pawpaw, which the family had for the 22-year-old.
42:16
Speaker 1: I'm going to have a hard time talking about Paul.
42:19
Speaker 1: We had a very special relationship, but I knew him
42:21
Speaker 1: very well, he said. John Marvin insisted that his brother
42:26
Speaker 1: also had a great relationship with his sons Paul and
42:28
Speaker 1: Buster and his wife Maggie. Anything that the boys were doing,
42:34
Speaker 1: Alex wanted to do. he said, saying that he would
42:37
Speaker 1: always hunt and go to baseball games together. The boys
42:40
Speaker 1: came first to him. Mr. Murdaugh also had a great
42:43
Speaker 1: relationship with Maggie, he said, saying they often went on
42:46
Speaker 1: family vacations and trips with their son's friends. John Marvin
42:51
Speaker 1: told the court that he last saw Paul on June
42:54
Speaker 1: 7th of 2021, the day of the murders, when his
42:58
Speaker 1: nephew stopped by his house in Beaufort, South Carolina, and
43:02
Speaker 1: borrowed his vehicle. He also spoke to his brother, Mr. Murdaugh,
43:05
Speaker 1: that evening, describing him as normal. Hours later, he found
43:09
Speaker 1: out Maggie and Paul had been murdered. He said that Mr.
43:13
Speaker 1: Murdaugh called him absolutely hysterical, telling him to come to
43:16
Speaker 1: the Moselle property. Alec called me absolutely hysterical, he said.
43:21
Speaker 1: As soon as I heard his voice, I knew something
43:23
Speaker 1: bad was going on. He said Mr. Murdaugh told him
43:27
Speaker 1: something to the effect of, Maggie and Paul have been
43:29
Speaker 1: hurt really bad. Please get here as fast as you can.
43:34
Speaker 1: He said he rushed to his brother's property to find
43:36
Speaker 1: tons of people, mostly first responders of some sort, already
43:40
Speaker 1: on the scene. Mr. Murdaugh was broken and distraught, he
43:44
Speaker 1: said later, saying he would have to make up a
43:46
Speaker 1: new word to describe how distraught he was in the aftermath.
43:51
Speaker 1: John Marvin has joined his family members, including brother Randy,
43:56
Speaker 1: sister Lynn, and Mr. Murdaugh's son Buster, in putting on
43:59
Speaker 1: a united front at Mr. Murdaugh's double murder trial. It's
44:04
Speaker 1: always fascinating to me when you have one of these
44:06
Speaker 1: situations where one family member is suspected of killing another
44:10
Speaker 1: family member and the family is rallying around the person
44:14
Speaker 1: who allegedly did the killing. Like, I don't know if
44:17
Speaker 1: I would be so quick to back one of my
44:20
Speaker 1: relatives with all of this evidence. I think I'd be
44:23
Speaker 1: taking a wait-and-see approach. Every single day of the week's
44:27
Speaker 1: long trial, the family has sat together in the courtroom
44:30
Speaker 1: in a show of support for the disgraced attorney. Arriving
44:33
Speaker 1: in court on Monday morning, just hours before his testimony,
44:37
Speaker 1: he was heard outside court vowing that justice is coming.
44:41
Speaker 1: Video captured by Live 5 News showed the younger Murdaugh
44:45
Speaker 1: brother walking past a man holding a sign outside the
44:48
Speaker 1: courthouse which read, justice is coming. As the man approached
44:52
Speaker 1: the family members, John Marvin told them, yes sir, justice
44:55
Speaker 1: is coming. Boy, that's going to come back to haunt
44:58
Speaker 1: John Marvin, huh? Say these jurors come back with a
45:00
Speaker 1: guilty verdict? That's going to be played all over the place.
45:05
Speaker 1: In the days after the June 7th murders, John Marvin
45:08
Speaker 1: and Randy gave an appearance on Good Morning America, insisting
45:11
Speaker 1: their brother's innocence. My brother loved Maggie and loved Paul
45:15
Speaker 1: like nothing else on this earth, just like he loves Buster,
45:19
Speaker 1: Randy said in the June 17th interview. So there's no
45:22
Speaker 1: possible way he could have anything to do with this.
45:25
Speaker 1: I can assure you, John added. I can tell you
45:28
Speaker 1: he was willing and is still willing to do anything
45:32
Speaker 1: that's asked of him. He wants this solved. But some
45:35
Speaker 1: cracks started to show as Mr. Murdaugh's strings of alleged
45:39
Speaker 1: crimes came to light. After Mr. Murdaugh was charged with
45:43
Speaker 1: stealing millions of dollars from his law firm, John Marvin
45:46
Speaker 1: gave an interview to the local Island Packet, a paper there,
45:50
Speaker 1: saying that he was embarrassed by what his brother had done. Well,
45:54
Speaker 1: what's he supposed to say? I mean, come on. Then
45:58
Speaker 1: in July of 2020, when Mr. Murdaugh was charged with
46:01
Speaker 1: Maggie and Paul's murders, he released a statement saying, The
46:04
Speaker 1: entire family has been consistent that regardless of what goes on,
46:08
Speaker 1: we want the truth. His testimony marked the end of
46:12
Speaker 1: the defense case, presenting Mr. Murdaugh as a loving father
46:16
Speaker 1: and son who could not have killed his loved ones
46:19
Speaker 1: and arguing that investigators botched the preservation and collection of
46:23
Speaker 1: crime scene evidence from the get-go. And that could be
46:27
Speaker 1: something that's very damning for the investigators and the prosecution.
46:31
Speaker 1: We have seen many a case go bust because the
46:34
Speaker 1: evidence wasn't collected properly. Chain of custody issues. There's a
46:39
Speaker 1: whole bunch of things that can go wrong for the prosecution.
46:42
Speaker 1: And if they didn't follow all of the steps that
46:45
Speaker 1: they're required to follow, you better believe the defense is
46:48
Speaker 1: going to look at that and sink their teeth in.
46:52
Speaker 1: This comes after jurors heard four weeks of dramatic testimony
46:55
Speaker 1: from 61 prosecution witnesses covering a trove of circumstantial evidence,
47:01
Speaker 1: including cell phone and car data, a damning video placing Mr.
47:04
Speaker 1: Murdaugh at the crime scene, and the parent holes in
47:07
Speaker 1: his alibi for the time for the murders. Prosecutors claim
47:11
Speaker 1: that Mr. Murdaugh shot dead Maggie and Paul in order
47:14
Speaker 1: to distract from his string of alleged scandals and financial crimes. Mr. Murdaugh, 54,
47:21
Speaker 1: is facing life in prison for the murders of his
47:24
Speaker 1: wife and son. He is pleaded not guilty. Now, the
47:28
Speaker 1: jury is going to take a trip out to the
47:31
Speaker 1: crime scene, and we're going to do an episode about
47:33
Speaker 1: that as well, because I think that is very, very
47:37
Speaker 1: good for the defense. Usually when you see one of
47:41
Speaker 1: these crime scene trips, it ends up in a mistrial
47:44
Speaker 1: or something like that. So Judge Newman gave his okay
47:48
Speaker 1: for this trip to go down because And the jurors
47:50
Speaker 1: are going to go to the crime scene itself and
47:53
Speaker 1: take a look at the kennels and see it in
47:56
Speaker 1: person so that they have a better idea about the
47:59
Speaker 1: crime scene and what might have went down. So it's
48:03
Speaker 1: going to be interesting as hell to see what comes
48:05
Speaker 1: of that. And it's given me a lot of OJ vibes.
48:08
Speaker 1: So while the defense has rested its case, there's going
48:11
Speaker 1: to be a few more prosecution witnesses. And then we're
48:14
Speaker 1: going to have this trip. And then we'll get down
48:16
Speaker 1: to the meat and the potatoes. And the jury will decide.
48:20
Speaker 1: Alec Murdaugh's fate. All right, folks, that's going to do
48:23
Speaker 1: it for this one. All of the information that goes
48:25
Speaker 1: with this episode can be found in the description box.