Husband 'shot dead his wife and son to collect $10million life insurance'

24 January 2023 , 13:53

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Alex Murdaugh claims he found his wife Maggie and son Paul shot dead in the grounds outside the family’s hunting estate in Islandton, South Carolina

A man is on trial accused of murdering his wife and 22-year-old son outside their family home.

Alex Murdaugh, 54, claims he had gone out for an hour to visit his ailing parents at the time of the 2021 killings.

But prosecutors allege Murdaugh killed Maggie, 52, and their son, Paul, 22, to distract from a number of other charges from money laundering to trying to get a man to fatally shoot him so his surviving son could collect a $10million (£8.14m) life insurance policy.

Murdaugh's defence team is expected to ask the judge to throw out key evidence before the testimony even begins.

This includes one of Murdaugh's shirts spattered with his slain son's blood.

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His lawyer's said the shirt got bloody when Murdaugh found the bodies and the evidence was destroyed before they could test it.

Murdaugh prepares for jury selection to resume during his murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina (Joshua Boucher/AP/REX/Shutterstock)

They also say there is evidence the expert examining the shirt changed his conclusions under pressure from state agents.

Prosecutor's also want to include a large amount of evidence related to Murdaugh's other legal troubles but his defence say this is just an attempt to smear his name.

Jury selection continues today (Tuesday January 24) as the court tries to get 700 people down to a pool of several dozen potential jurors to select the final panel of 12, plus six alternates.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters prepares for jury selection to resume (Joshua Boucher/AP/REX/Shutterstock)

Murdaugh, 54, faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted of murder in the deaths of his family members. Murdaugh said he found their bodies outside their Colleton County home on June 7, 2021.

He said he'd been gone for about an hour to visit his ailing father and mother.

Murdaugh also faces about 100 charges related to other crimes, including money laundering, stealing millions from clients, tax evasion and trying to get a man to fatally shoot him so his surviving son could collect a $10million life insurance policy.

The state's case will focus on the disputed blood spatter evidence, subpoenas of Google and Snapchat and mentions of videos taken at the Murdaughs' home where the killings took place.

When asked during a preliminary hearing about what evidence they would produce, prosecutors presented a detailed timeline of how Murdaugh's wife and son were killed the same day a paralegal at a law firm reported he might be stealing money.

They argue Murdaugh shot the two to distract attention from his financial jam and that evidence of other crimes on which he is awaiting trial is relevant to show how a father and husband could commit such a horrible act.

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Circuit Judge Clifton Newman is overseeing the case (Joshua Boucher/AP/REX/Shutterstock)

Murdaugh's lawyers said it defies logic for an attorney to think scrutiny of his life would decrease when his wife and son were found shot several times with two different guns.

They maintain prosecutors are trying to smear him because they appear to have no other significant evidence.

State agents and prosecutors took 13 months to seek murder indictments against Murdaugh. There has been no evidence made public that the guns used to kill the victims, a possible confession, an eyewitness account or other information on the case has surfaced.

Alex and Maggie Murdaugh

In the blood spatter evidence, Murdaugh's lawyers said emails turned over to them by prosecutors showed an expert, who analysed the shirt Murdaugh was wearing when he found the bodies, initially determined there were no blood spatter stains, only spots that could have happened when Murdaugh checked to see if his son and wife were still alive.

The expert changed his mind several weeks later after state agents flew to his home in Oklahoma, according to the emails cited by Murdaugh's lawyers.

Paul, Alex, Maggie and Buster Murdaugh

Testing on the shirt used chemicals that made it impossible for any defence expert to do their own testing or even check the original results, the defence said.

Prosecutors said at a December hearing that there could be problems with the blood spatter work but asked to huddle with investigators. They haven't commented on the subject in court papers or the courtroom since.

Murdaugh's trial is expected to last up to three weeks, with prosecutors and defence attorneys providing a list of more than 200 potential witnesses to the judge.

Charlie Jones