They informed the jury that Alex Murdaugh, 54, was responsible for the murders of Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, on the family’s property based on his “lies and his bad conduct.”
The prosecution has concluded its closing arguments in the high-profile South Carolina trial of a former attorney accused of murdering his wife and kid.
Earlier in the day, jurors toured the 1 700-acre hunting lodge to investigate the crime scene.
The disbarred attorney denies involvement in the fatalities that occurred on 7 June 2021. On Thursday, the defense will give their closing argument.
Alex Murdaugh reported discovering the bodies of his wife and son next to the dog kennels on his farm in Colleton County, South Carolina.
On Wednesday afternoon, the chief prosecutor, Creighton Waters, took the jury through the state’s hypothesis over the course of many hours.
At the time of the murders, according to Mr. Waters, a “brewing storm” was threatening to expose Mr. Murdaugh’s decade of admitted financial misdeeds.
Mr. Waters stated that the killings of Maggie and Paul were Mr. Murdaugh’s desperate attempt to generate sympathy and postpone investigations into his theft of millions of dollars.
The state’s case has been hampered by the absence of physical evidence; the murder weapons were not discovered, there were no eyewitnesses, and there was no blood on Mr. Murdaugh’s clothing.
Nonetheless, Mr. Waters emphasized on Wednesday that Mr. Murdaugh was with his wife and son just minutes before the murders, something the defendant denied for twenty months before admitting in court last week.
Mr. Waters stated,
“After a comprehensive investigation, there is only one person who had the motive, the means, and the opportunity to commit these crimes, and whose guilty behavior after these crimes betrays him.”
This week, Mr. Murdaugh’s attorney, Dick Harpootlian, asked Judge Clifton Newman to allow jurors to visit the 1,700-acre estate known as Moselle to gain a better understanding of where the bodies were found in relation to the kennels and the Murdaugh residence, where Mr. Murdaugh initially claimed he was napping at the time of the killings.
Mr. Harpootlian told the court on Monday,
“You can’t truly grasp spatial challenges unless you actually see them.”
However, prosecutors opposed juror access to the estate, arguing that the property has changed in the twenty months since the murders.
According to them, certain trees between the kennels and the Murdaugh residence have grown higher and denser.
Wednesday morning, members of the trial’s media pool paid a brief visit to the property, together with the judge, jury members, police officers, and security workers.
Valerie Bauerlein of the Wall Street Journal noted in a pool report, “It is a difficult location to visit.” The land has been vacant for twenty months, and the grass has grown tall.
After observing the kennels, a nearby shed, and the feed room, she remarked,
“There was no evidence that two persons had died violently in such close proximity; there was no bloodstain or anything comparable.”
The family lived in Moselle for several years. It consists of their residence, as well as dog kennels, a cottage, and vast pastures, meadows, and woodlands where Mr. Murdaugh and his two boys used to hunt.
CNN reported that the estate is now advertised for sale at $3.9 million (£3.9 million).
Buster, Mr. Murdaugh’s surviving son, testified that a large portion of the estate is inaccessible due to the presence of marshes and the absence of roads in several areas.
Alex Murdaugh faces 30 years in prison if convicted, although prosecutors have urged a life sentence.
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