Caretaker for Alex Murdaugh’s mother testifies about the night Maggie, Paul were killed

COLLETON COUNTY, S.C. - For three years Mushelle Shelley Smith was the caretaker for Alex’s mom, known as Ms. Libby.

Smith testified about her interactions with Alex not only the night of the murders but a few days after as well.

The jury has seen emotion from the defense table, but Monday.

”I was nervous.”

It was matched on the witness stand, by a former employee of the family.

Through the family’s mourning process for Paul and Maggie her duties of taking care Alex’s mom continued.

“What were you doing during the visitation?

“I was in the room with Ms. Libby.”

She recounted an interaction with Alex from the day of the funerals, but to understand its relevance and Smith’s emotion we have to start the night of the murders.

The caretaker backs up Alex’s alibi that he went to visit his mother that night.

“That he was sitting at the house. He was at the house.

Say it again?

“He was at the house.”

While Smith says Alex was only there for 15 to 20 minutes that night, she says he told her to tell people something different.

“Did Alex Murdaugh ask you to tell somebody how long he’d been there?

“He said, if someone asks you I was here 30 to 40 minutes, that’s what he said.”

She said Alex also offered to help with her career at the school system and upcoming wedding, a point the defense focused on in their cross examination.

“And he was just being nice wasn’t he?” Defense Attorney Jim Griffin said.

“Yes.”

I think you used the word good person?

“Good person, yes.”

Who were you referring to when you testified in response to the question by Mr. Meadors that someone’s a good person?

“Mr. Alex Murdaugh.”

You heard her say she was nervous a little bit ago, but in between sessions as she walked off the stand and into the arms of a family member, Smith broke down.

Sobbing from the feelings brought up from those moments, even recounting that after Alex confronted her about the amount of time he was at the house, she called her policeman brother because of her nerves.

Court ended Monday and will pick up Tuesday, likely with financial witnesses.

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