Murdaugh jury to visit site where his wife & son were brutally murdered
The jury in Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial will visit the family property where his wife and son were fatally shot, the judge ruled Monday.
Murdaugh’s defense team asked for the visit after their client testified in his own defense on Thursday and Friday.
Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22, were shot dead in gruesome killings on the Colleton County, S.C., property on June 7, 2021. They were killed near the estate’s dog kennels.
Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian said jurors need to visit the property to understand “how small the feed room is” and “where the feed room is compared to Maggie’s body.”
“You just can’t really appreciate the spatial issues without really seeing them,” said Harpootlian, who is also a Democratic state senator in the Palmetto State.
Prosecutors argued against the request, claiming the property looks different than it did in June 2021. However, Judge Clifton Newman said he usually grants visit requests if one side asks. A date was not immediately selected for the field trip.
Murdaugh, 54 (photo), was a prominent and powerful attorney in South Carolina for years. His family ran the local solicitor’s office from 1920 to 2005; a photo of his grandfather was removed from the courtroom before the murder trial began.
But an all-consuming drug addiction led to Murdaugh’s downfall. He admitted to stealing from clients and his family’s high-powered law firm to fund his opioid addiction.
“It wouldn’t be unusual for me to look [victims] in the eye” and lie, Murdaugh testified.
However, he has maintained that he would never have killed Maggie and Paul. Murdaugh lied to police about being near the kennels on the day of the murders, a lie prosecutors exposed and Murdaugh admitted to on the stand. He blamed it on his drug addiction.
“A defendant’s decision to testify is a deeply personal one and, almost always, a highly risky one,” prominent New York defense attorney Duncan Levin told the Daily News. “His testimony has been a disaster for him.”