By JEFFREY COLLINS, Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Months after accusing disbarred attorney Alex Murdaugh of killing his wife and son, South Carolina investigators and prosecutors have released few details concerning the evidence that they imagine connect him to the shootings
That is led Murdaugh’s lawyers to file a flurry of court documents requesting information from the prosecution, looking for to publicly weaken the case before the January trial has begun.
The defense attorneys argue that there was unknown DNA found under Murdaugh’s wife’s fingernails. In addition they have a unique suspect, Murdaugh’s friend Curtis Eddie Smith, arguing that he failed a lie detector test regarding the killings. Murdaugh has already admitted to asking Smith to rearrange Murdaugh’s own death to defraud his life insurance company.
Those defense documents even boosted a story from Smith that prosecutors later said had no evidence to back it up — that Paul Murdaugh killed his mother, Maggie, when he caught her with a groundskeeper on the family’s Colleton County hunting lodge and the groundskeeper then shot the son.
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Alex Murdaugh, 54, has proclaimed his innocence ever since June 2021, when he found the bodies, each shot several times. He has said through his lawyer he “loved them greater than anything on the earth.”
It took greater than 13 months for authorities to indict Murdaugh on two counts of murder and his trial is about to start Jan. 23 after defense attorneys asked to carry it as quickly as possible.
Even after the fees, prosecutors and investigators have released little on how they linked Murdaugh to the deaths or why a person who had no criminal history and was a part of a wealthy, well-connected family that dominated the legal community in tiny Hampton County may need desired to kill his own members of the family.
Within the months for the reason that deaths, Murdaugh’s life has crumbled. He was fired from the law firm founded by his family for stealing money after which lost his law license. Prosecutors said he was a drug addict who helped run a money laundering and pain killer ring and stole about $8 million from settlements for wrongful death or injury he secured for mostly poor clients.
As a part of the forwards and backwards about evidence within the upcoming murder trial, prosecutors have divulged barely more of their case. Notably, there may be a cellphone video of Murdaugh, his wife and son near dog kennels around 8:44 p.m. the night they’re killed. Cellphone data indicates Murdaugh left at 9:06 p.m. and his frantic 911 call to report he found the bodies near the kennels got here at 10:06 p.m.
Murdaugh’s attorneys have requested a FBI report analyzing all of the cellphone data, saying such records are crucial to their defense.
“There may be nothing to point … in the subsequent 20 minutes, he butchers his son and wife, executes each of them in a brutal way,” defense attorney Dick Harpootlian said. “He’s then on the phone talking to a different lawyer from his automobile in a really convivial way.”
The defense also said they needed more complete gunshot residue reports after a couple of particles were found on Murdaugh. His attorney claim the particles likely landed on his clothing when he picked up a gun to guard himself after finding the bodies.
Authorities haven’t tested Smith’s DNA and the defense said it has no findings from the source of genetic material found on the clothing of the victims.
Murdaugh’s defense also wants complete notes from a blood spatter report after a small amount of his wife’s blood was found on his shirt. The lawyers said the blood got here when Murdaugh “frantically attended his wife’s bloody corpse.”
Prosecutors insisted they turned over every little bit of evidence they’ve and what’s missing is generally incomplete reports. They said the defense was aware of that after they had a friendly conversation just before the motions were filed.
“This fashion of conducting litigation says rather a lot concerning the defense’s true motives,” South Carolina Deputy Attorney General Creighton Waters wrote in his response.
It’s clear from the pretrial back-and-forth that the prosecution doesn’t have any eyewitnesses or video of how Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, were killed on June 7, 2021. But prosecutors said persons are steadily convicted through scientific evidence and circumstances that put them near the scene or give them a motivation for wrongdoing.
“If every murder case needed a confession and an eyewitness, it might be open season on the market,” Waters said in court Thursday.
Within the months before his murder trial, Murdaugh’s lawyers are specializing in Smith, who authorities said was presupposed to shoot Murdaugh on the side of a lonely highway in September 2021.
Murdaugh allegedly planned his own killing so his surviving son could collect on a $10 million life insurance policy. Ultimately, Smith said the gun fired as he and Murdaugh fought over the weapon, the bullet only grazing Murdaugh’s head.
Smith’s attorneys say he didn’t kill Maggie or Paul Murdaugh. They argue Alex Murdaugh’s lawyers are searching for anyone else in charge for the killings, in order that they have seized on a lie detector test where Smith allegedly showed a response when asked if he shot the victims or was present after they were killed.
Murdaugh’s lawyers said Smith knew the realm across the dog kennels where the bodies were found because they were a drug drop. In addition they indicate Smith’s DNA had not been tested as of mid-October.
“I’m not saying he did it. I’m just saying it actually appears like he could have done it,” Harpootlian said.
Prosecutors have identified that spike throughout the test might have been an emotional response in consequence of Smith feeling guilty concerning the circumstances leading as much as the crime, even when he had no involvement. They said Smith’s DNA is being tested now and results of lie detector tests aren’t admissible in court by themselves.
Murdaugh’s attorneys also used court papers to make public a story Smith said he heard about Maggie Murdaugh’s affair directly resulting in the killings. It didn’t explain how the groundskeeper avoided arrest or detection within the 16 months since.
Prosecutors in court papers called it “salacious scuttlebutt that’s offensive to the memory of his victims.”
“It’s very telling they have the desire to make this case about Eddie Smith,” Waters said.
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