The jury in the Alex Murdaugh murder trial learned that the embattled attorney accused of killing his wife and son wore different clothing on the night of their shooting deaths — before and after their slayings.
On Wednesday, prosecutors in the highly charged case showed jurors a Snapchat video of the now-disbarred attorney wearing a blue button-down shirt and khaki pants about an hour before the murders, WJCL and Fox News report.
He is seen later that night talking to police in a clean white t-shirt and shorts.
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Alex is charged with two counts of murder and two weapons charges in the deaths of his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, who were gunned down on the property of their hunting lodge on June 7, 2021.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Seen Wearing Different Clothes
Alex told police that earlier on the night of the murders he and Paul had fun riding around the sprawling property looking at some of the trees they planted.
Jurors were shown a Snapchat video Paul filmed at 7:56 p.m. of Alex looking at one of the new trees they planted that kept flopping over, with Paul laughing and Alex looking perplexed and scratching his head, WJCL reports.
“Better than it was, ain’t it?” Alex jokes, WJCL reports.
In the video, he can be seen wearing a short-sleeved light blue button-down shirt and khaki pants. Paul’s friend Will Loving testified on Wednesday that Paul sent him that Snapchat video at 7:56 p.m., Fox News reports.
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Jurors saw footage of Alex after he called 911 at 10:07 p.m. saying he came home and found his wife and son shot to death near the dog kennels on their property. In the footage, he can be seen wearing a white-shirt and shorts.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys have not explained why Alex is seen in different outfits that night.Loving testified that he thought Alex and Paul had a good relationship and a strong bond.
“It kind of seemed like [Paul] was the apple of [Alex’s] eye,” Loving said, Fox News reports.
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According to court testimony, prosecutors suspect Alex shot and killed his wife and son later that night. They say he changed clothes and visited his ailing mother to establish an alibi.
Times of Death
In court on Tuesday, jurors heard testimony from Britt Dove, who works in the computer crimes unit for the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, who said that Maggie and Paul’s phones went silent forever that night just before 9 p.m..
He testified that the last time Paul read a text on his phone was at 8:48:59 p.m., the Associated Press reports.
He said 36 seconds later Paul received another text that he never read. Maggie’s phone showed she last read a text 28 seconds later, he said, the AP reports.
Paul was shot in the chest and head with a shotgun at close range. Maggie was shot multiple times, including one shot in the back and additional shots while she was lying on the ground. She had been shot with 300 Blackout ammo from an AR-style rifle. Both of them were pronounced dead at the scene.
Prosecutors say that Alex was the gunman, but the defense maintains that he was a loving father who discovered the bodies of his wife and son when he returned to the property that night.
Prosecutors say Alex had told police at one point that he was never at the dog kennels on the night of the murders. While sitting with investigators in a car on the night of the murders, he said he took a nap after dinner with Paul and Maggie, then went to check on his mother, who has Alzheimer’s.
He said he tried to call Maggie to tell her he was driving over to his mother’s house but never reached her. But Alex can allegedly be heard in the background of a video Paul took of a dog he was taking care of for a friend, which places him at the scene, say prosecutors.
Alex has to contend with more legal problems when this trial ends.
He faces dozens of charges for alleged financial crimes, including misappropriating money from his law firm, defrauding clients of funds and computer crimes.
Authorities allege that he also defrauded the family of his former housekeeper out of a $4.5 million insurance settlement after she died in a mysterious slip-and-fall accident at his home. A trial for those charges will be held at a later date.
Alex’s murder trial is expected to last at least two more weeks.