Alex Murdaugh, the scion of a prominent legal dynasty, wept in court during the trial’s opening statements on Monday in front of his lone surviving son, who is on the witness list to potentially testify against his father. The disgraced lawyer burst into tears while his attorney described the horrific double murder scene.
Murdaugh, 54, is accused of shooting his wife, Maggie, 52, and youngest son, Paul, 22, – with a separate gun – at their vast hunting property in Islandton, South Carolina, on the night of June 7, 2021.
During the double murder trial’s opening statements, Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster, 26, sat stoically behind him while lawyers described the horrific murder scene – it was his first public appearance at his father’s legal proceedings.
Buster, along with Murdaugh’s brothers, John Marvin and Randy Murdaugh, are among those expected to testify against the disgraced lawyer.
Buster, in November, rejected suggestions that he is supporting his father in the trial. When asked by Daily Mail reporters “presumably you’re supporting your father?”, Buster responded: “You have no right to presume anything.”
He added: “I don’t want to see it written anywhere that I’m supporting my father.”
When his attorney Dick Harpootlian began describing the bloody scene, Murdaugh began crying.
As well as the murder charges against him – which he pleads not guilty to – Murdaugh is also facing 99 separate charges of financial fraud, which will be handled at a future trial.
Describing the night of the murders, Harpootlian claimed the father of two had returned from his mother’s house to “find his son laying in his own blood … shot to hell”.
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He went on: “He checks to see if there’s any life there … he tries to get a pulse out of Maggie before calling 911”.
His wife, Maggie, was shot multiple times including a single shot to the back of her head when she was faced-down on the ground.
“Whoever the perp was, walked up, took that AR and put one in the back of her head. Executed. Why? This is going to be interesting because we don’t know why”, Harpootlian added.
The defence attorney claimed that Murdaugh would have been covered “head to foot” in blood if he had murdered his wife and son, claiming that no bloody clothes were recovered from the scene.
He said “it is much more likely” that there were two shooters, which would explain the two separate guns used to kill each victim.
But South Carolina’s chief prosecutor Creighton Waters said “crucial evidence” put Murdaugh’s phone at the scene at the time of the murders.
Waters said: “He was at the murder scene with the two victims and more than that just over four minutes later … Paul’s phone locks forever. He never reads another text, never sends another text, doesn’t answer calls.”
If convicted of murder, Murdaugh will face a minimum sentence of 30 years. Prosecutors are not pursuing the death penalty.
