Alex Murdaugh COULD take the stand in his own defense in double murder trial

Alex Murdaugh could take the stand in his own defense in the double murder trial of his wife and son, a source close to his lawyers has claimed.

In a move described by experts as ‘virtually unheard of,’ the disgraced legal scion, 54, would expose himself to cross-examination that could explode his alibi.

Murdaugh is accused of shooting Maggie and Paul at the family’s sprawling hunting lodge on June 7, 2021, to distract from his financial crimes. He claims he was visiting his mother and arrived back home to find them dead.

The state is expected to rest its case on Wednesday, meaning that the defense could call Murdaugh as early as this week. The source told News 2 that the plan remains subject to change.

Murdaugh’s defense team refused to comment. 

Alex Murdaugh and defense attorney Jim Griffin stand as prosecutor John Meadors enters during day 16 of Murdaugh’s double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse on Monday

Buster, Maggie, Paul and Alex Murdaugh. Buster was staying with his girlfriend near Charlotte at the time of the murders

Buster, Maggie, Paul and Alex Murdaugh. Buster was staying with his girlfriend near Charlotte at the time of the murders

Lori Murray, a former prosecutor from South Carolina, told DailyMail.com: ‘It’s virtually unheard of to call a defendant to the stand to testify in his own defense because when you do, you open your client up to cross examination which is basically a publicized interrogation with leading questions.

‘Instead, most defense attorneys focus on a lack of evidence against their client or, as in this case, shoddy police work. Remember the burden is on the state to prove the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

‘The defendant has no burden to prove his own innocence. However, in some cases, like this one, there are some facts that can only be explained by the defendant taking the stand. Alex almost has to take the stand to explain why he lied about his alibi and where his clothes are.’

Jurors have heard evidence of a video taken by Paul shortly before he was killed in which Murdaugh’s voice can be heard along with Maggie’s down at the kennels on the estate.

But the disbarred attorney claims he was only ever at the murder scene after they were shot dead.

His housekeeper testified last week that clothes, a shirt, pants and shoes, that Murdaugh was wearing earlier that evening went missing and were never found.

Murray said: ‘The defense also knows the jury will want to hear from him and its his change to talk about his love of his family and to show the emotion that could sway the jury. Hopefully, as an attorney and due to detailed preparation by his attorneys, he will be capable of handling himself on the stand.’

Murdaugh wept on Monday as the court heard graphic testimony from coroner Ellen Riemer. She told how Paul’s brain was blown out the back of his head by a shotgun, while Maggie was shot five times with a high-powered assault rifle.

New footage of Murdaugh sobbing yards away from their blood-soaked bodies was also revealed for the first time after it was shown earlier in the trial.

The disgraced legal scion, 54, is seen sobbing and asking the first officer on the scene, ‘They are dead aren’t they?’  

The bodies are blurred out in the footage released to the public.

‘It’s bad, I checked their pulses,’ Murdaugh tells the cop as he paces up and down, wearing a white t-shirt, shorts and sneakers by the kennels on the property.

Alex Murdaugh is seen on June 7, 2021, at the murder scene at the family's hunting lodge in Islandton, South Carolina. Murdaugh is speaking on the phone in the video and tells the officer it's his brother on the line.

Alex Murdaugh is seen on June 7, 2021, at the murder scene at the family’s hunting lodge in Islandton, South Carolina. Murdaugh is speaking on the phone in the video and tells the officer it’s his brother on the line.

Murdaugh tells Sergeant Daniel Greene that he had been gone for about an hour and a half to visit his mother. ‘I saw them about 45 minutes before that,’ he says.

‘I rode around with Paul for two hours this afternoon in the pick-up truck,’ he tells the cop.

He then asks: ‘Has somebody gone to check ’em? They did check ’em? They’re sure that they’re dead?’

The officer confirms that they are dead. 

Murdaugh’s Chevrolet Suburban is seen parked up close by with a shotgun leaning against it. He tells the officer he retrieved the shotgun but is otherwise unarmed.

The disgraced attorney is speaking on the phone in the video and tells the officer it’s his brother on the line. 

Jurors were today shown images of the grisly scene as coroner Riemer talked them through the injuries Maggie and Paul suffered.

She explained that Paul could have remained standing after the first shotgun blast to his chest, but that a second shot blew his brain out the back of his head.

The 22-year-old’s brain arrived at the autopsy in a separate bucket, the court heard.

The fact that Paul’s face remained intact tells you he was facing his shooter, Riemer testified. 

She said Maggie’s first two wounds featured gunpowder stippling, indicating her shooter was no more than three feet away. The first three rounds were not immediately fatal, striking her thigh and torso. 

The direction of travel indicates Maggie was kneeling on all fours when she was struck by the fourth shot, which passed through the left side of her breast and penetrated her brain.

‘When it entered the left side of the face, it basically destroyed the brain,’ Riemer told jurors. 

A final shot was delivered to the back of the head from close range as she was lying on the ground, the coroner said. 

No murder weapon has ever been found.  

Buster Murdaugh arrives at court Monday with his girlfriend Brooklynn White, Alex's sister Lynn is behind them as they are escorted by security

Buster Murdaugh arrives at court Monday with his girlfriend Brooklynn White, Alex’s sister Lynn is behind them as they are escorted by security

Alex's brother John Marvin Murdaugh, his sister Lynn and son Buster with his girlfriend Brooklynn White, arrive at court Monday

Alex’s brother John Marvin Murdaugh, his sister Lynn and son Buster with his girlfriend Brooklynn White, arrive at court Monday

The State says Murdaugh killed the pair to distract from his financial crimes. He embezzled millions from his law firm and was facing a lawsuit over his son’s drunken boat crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach in February, 2019.

On the day Maggie and Paul were murdered, Murdaugh had been confronted over $792,000 that he stole from the firm.

Later that week a hearing to determine the state of his finances was due in the boat wreck lawsuit.

Murdaugh told lawyers for Beach’s family that he was broke and the court has heard how he was siphoning funds from the firm into his personal accounts in an attempt to shield the money from the lawsuit.

Maggie had recently confided in their housekeeper that they were being sued for $30million.

The defense theory is that somebody else killed Maggie and Paul in revenge for the boat accident.

They argue that their client was a ‘loving’ husband and father who could have never killed his wife and son. They have branded the State’s alleged financial motivation as ‘ludicrous’. 

Murdaugh claims that he went to visit his mother at around 9pm on the night of the murders. The State says Maggie and Paul were killed shortly after 8.49pm and that a video taken by Paul at 8.45pm proves he was at the scene.

Several witnesses, including close family friends, have testified they can hear the voices of Alex, Maggie and Paul in the footage.

But the alleged killer told investigators he was never at the kennels.

Murdaugh says that the family ate dinner together around 8.15pm and that Maggie and Paul went down to the kennels while he fell asleep in front of the TV.

Mallory Beach

Mallory Beach

At the time of Maggie and Paul’s deaths , Murdaugh and his son were facing a civil suit over the boat wreck that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach in February, 2019. Murdaugh told cops Paul and Maggie had been killed in revenge for the accident

At 9.06pm, his Chevrolet Suburban was fired up and he went to visit his mother in Almeda, around 15 minutes away.

He claims he was there for around 40 minutes, although this is disputed by his mother’s caregiver who said he was only at the house for 20 minutes.

Murdaugh says he arrived back at the hunting estate to find Maggie and Paul dead at the kennels. He called 911 at 10.07pm. 

First responders have testified that they did not check either Maggie or Paul because their injuries were so horrific as to be ‘incompatible with life.’ Two shots entered Maggie’s head, while Paul’s brain was completely detached from his skull.

The court has previously heard evidence that Murdaugh’s clothing when cops arrived appeared clean to the extent that police believed he had recently changed.

Blood tests carried out on his white t-shirt later came back positive. However, Murdaugh does say that he touched their bodies to check for signs of life.

An earlier video taken that night by Paul at 7.56pm shows Murdaugh wearing a blue shirt, long pants and brown loafers.

The family’s housekeeper Blanca Simpson testified last week that she never saw the items of clothing ever again. 

Alex Murdaugh listens to his friend Chris Wilson testify during his double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse on Thursday

Alex Murdaugh listens to his friend Chris Wilson testify during his double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse on Thursday

The family's housekeeper Blanca Simpson testified Alex told her to go to the house and clean up the day after Maggie and Paul were killed at the kennels on the estate in Moselle, South Carolina, on June 7, 2021

The family’s housekeeper Blanca Simpson testified Alex told her to go to the house and clean up the day after Maggie and Paul were killed at the kennels on the estate in Moselle, South Carolina, on June 7, 2021

The State intends to rest its case by Wednesday and then the defense will start calling their own witnesses.

The trial is taking place at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, a sleepy, rural town 50 miles west of Charleston in a low-lying region of South Carolina over which the Murdaugh family has wielded immense judicial and political power.

Indeed, in the courtroom where Murdaugh faces judgment, a portrait of his late grandfather – legendary longtime 14th Circuit Solicitor Buster Murdaugh Jr. – had hung on the wall before it was removed ahead of the trial.

Following the murder trial, Murdaugh will have to face more than 100 additional criminal charges, ranging from drug trafficking to allegations that he stole nearly $9million from clients and other attorneys. 

Prosecutors say Murdaugh lured his wife and son to their 1,700-acre hunting lodge and shot them dead.

The state also claims that his life was spiraling out of control amid years of opioid addiction and ballooning debts.

Murdaugh pleaded not guilty in June, and the blockbuster trial is expected to include wild allegations of dark family secrets, financial ruin and hedonistic excess.  

In total, over 220 people could testify against Murdaugh in the trial. 

TIMELINE: NIGHT OF THE KILLINGS 

Alex Murdaugh, 54, is accused of shooting his wife, Maggie, 52, and younger son Paul, 22, at the family’s hunting estate in Islandton, South Carolina, on the night of June 7, 2021. 

Here are the key events in the timeline laid out by prosecutors:

At 7.56pm, Paul sent a Snapchat video to friends showing the 22-year-old riding around the estate with his father.

At 8.15pm, Murdaugh’s wife Maggie arrived home and the trio ate dinner together. Autopsies showed similar stomach contents in Maggie and Paul.

About 8.30pm, Paul’s phone starts moving towards the kennels. 

Then at 8.44pm, a second video taken by Paul at the kennels – soon to become a murder scene – allegedly proves that Maggie, Paul and Alex were together.

At 8.49pm the prosecution say Paul’s phone locked and went silent forever, never to send another text or make another call.

Between 9pm and 9.30pm, Paul and Maggie were killed – according to the coroner.

At 9.06pm, Murdaugh’s car is fired up.

The alleged killer said he went to go visit his mother, who is in the late stages of Alzheimer’s disease, in Almeda – around a 15-minute drive. 

At 10.07pm, Murdaugh called 911 claiming he had arrived home a to find his wife and son shot dead.

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