Theft and devotion: Paralegal offers clashing portrayal of Alex Murdaugh
Alex Murdaugh’s paralegal testified Wednesday at his double murder trial about the betrayal she felt when she discovered he lied and manipulated to steal millions of dollars from clients.
But Annette Griswold also told jurors Murdaugh was a dedicated family man so distraught after his wife and son were killed he could no longer stay at the home where the killings took place and texted a lengthy apology for his misdeeds to his paralegals while in rehab.
The disgraced lawyer, 54, is standing trial in the shootings of his 52-year-old wife, Maggie, and 22-year-old son, Paul, on June 7, 2021, near kennels at their South Carolina home. He faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted of murder. Murdaugh’s family dominated the legal system in tiny Hampton County for generations, both as prosecutors and private attorneys.
Morning testimony was cut short when state agents said a bomb threat was called into the courthouse. The trial restarted around 3 p.m. after police searched the courthouse. Judge Clifton Newman didn’t mention the threat again when court resumed.
Earlier Wednesday, the defense got a chance to cross examine a state agent who examined a blue rain jacket and other items for gunshot residue.
State Law Enforcement Division forensic scientist Megan Fletcher said Tuesday she found 38 microscopic particles left behind when a gun is fired on the inside of the jacket which was taken from his mother’s home through a search warrant three months after the killings.
The caretaker for Murdaugh’s ailing mother said he brought a “blue something, looked like a tarp” into his mother’s home nine days after the killings.
The defense tried to keep Fletcher from testifying, saying prosecutors didn’t connect the jacket to Murdaugh through the caretaker’s confusing testimony.