Murdaugh Murder Trial: What’s happened so far

COLLETON COUNTY, S.C. (WTOC) - Thursday will mark one month since the Murdaugh murder trial began.

It took four full weeks for the prosecution to rest its case.

The trial started out with opening statements where prosecutors laid out how they believe Alex Murdaugh killed his wife and son.

State prosecutor, Creighton Waters emphasized that Maggie and Paul Murdaugh did not have defensive wounds, meaning they didn’t see the attack coming.

“The defendant over there, Alex Murdaugh, took a 12-gauge shotgun and shot him in the shoulder,” Waters said. “He picked up that 300 Blackout rifle, and opened up on his wife, Maggie, just feet away.”

Waters continued, “Pow, pow! Two shots, abdomen, in the leg, took her down. And after that, there were additional shots.”

South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agent David Owen later testified that Murdaugh lied to authorities, when he told them he was not at the family’s kennels that night. A video recorded by Paul Murdaugh at the kennels appeared to tell a different story. You can hear a man’s voice in the background., who witnesses identified as Alex Murdaugh.

“Come here Bubba... come here, Bubba,” the male voice can be heard saying in the video. Bubba is the family’s dog.

In Murdaugh’s first interview with authorities, on the night of the murders, he cried and told investigators he had checked his son’s body, then his wife’s, before calling police.

“I ran out, and I knew it was really bad. My boy over there, I could see, it was...and, I could see his brains,” Murdaugh said.

But, last week, SLED Agent Peter Rudofski testified that data from Murdaugh’s Suburban shows after spending just 20 minutes visiting his mother, he called police just 20 seconds after he got to the crime scene - the prosecution implying that he could not have checked both bodies in that short amount of time.

The prosecution also got into Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes and drug addiction, calling one of his closest friends to the stand.

“He said he had a drug addiction, and he admitted he had been stealing money from his law firm and from clients,” Chris Wilson said.

Below is a timeline of the Murdaugh case:

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