Verdict guilty signed by the four lady.
Date 3/2 of ' 23.
A jury found former south Carolina lawyer alec Murdoch guilty of murdering his
wife, Maggie and his son paul at their family hunting estate in 2021.
The case attracted national attention and he may be taken away
Included hundreds of pieces of evidence.
A jury visit to the crime scene and testimony from more than 70 witnesses,
including Murdoch himself who pleaded not guilty to the murder charges.
I am going to.
So here's a look back at some of the key moments from the trial and what happens next.
Mr Griffin,
I didn't shoot my wife or my son any time Ever.
He's a trial lawyer,
right for more than 25 years and so he knows how to talk to a jury and he turned to them and told them
his story.
Murdoch spent hours answering questions from his own lawyers admitting to the jury that he lied to
investigators about his whereabouts on the night of the killings because he was addicted to opioids.
I wasn't thinking clearly,
I don't think I was capable of reason
And I lied about being down there.
He also admitted to misleading and stealing money from clients at his law firm.
He's been jailed for more than a year on 99 counts,
primarily related to those charges and he's pleaded not guilty to most of them.
During cross examination.
The state focused on Murdoch's admitted pattern of lying,
seeking to paint him as untrustworthy and what happened in this case?
I stole her money at times.
It was just relentless hours of asking him.
Well, did you sit across the table from this client and lie to their face,
just like you have lied to many people with the implication being,
are you lying to this jury right now?
The defense argued that the state failed to provide direct evidence like a confession,
eyewitness accounts or a weapon proving that Murdoch murdered his wife and son.
Instead,
the state relied on circumstantial evidence including data related evidence pulled from Murdoch's
car and cellphone.
They just really built a lot of the case on the steps on alec
Murdoch's phone.
What time he drove by the spot where Maggie murdock's phone
was found the next day.
They had a lot of data driven testimony that sought to
demonstrate that alec Murdoch was the person who did these things.
Meanwhile,
the defense called out the destruction of the shirt Murdoch war on the night of the murders and a poorly
investigated crime scene footprint as examples of mistakes made by investigators.
The prosecution has said yes,
we acknowledge the shirt was destroyed.
Yes.
The footprint was not analyzed as it might have been,
but there is absolutely no evidence,
no DNA,
no fingerprints,
no ballistics,
nothing that shows that anybody else other than alec
Murdoch could have been there and committed these horrible acts.
The state needed to prove to the jury that Murdoch was guilty.
Beyond a reasonable doubt the fact that it is a circumstantial case creates a lot
of runway for the defense to bring in um areas that might create reasonable
doubt in the mind of the jury,
such as the possibility of two shooters.
The fact that Maggie and paul were killed with two different weapons which were Never recovered and the
angle of the bullet wounds they brought in an expert who kind of demonstrated
through presentation,
where were these shots coming from and how tall would the person have to have been,
let's say if you put a 54 person even or
5556 in kind of that shooting position from the hip,
you've got to move them all the way up to the quail pin and it doesn't make any sense there because there's
no shell casings based on the angles of the bullet entry wounds on paul's body.
The defense team's analyst testified that the shooter couldn't have been taller than five ft
two Murdoch is more than six ft tall after the jury's
verdict,
Murdoch will still face prosecution for the financial crimes he allegedly committed.
It's tricky to know what happens to all those charges because in the course of his testimony,
alec essentially said yes,
I lied and I stole money from these people that wasn't mine repeatedly.
So it's not clear what happens with the prosecution of those charges when he's already essentially
confessed from the witness stand