(Grace Beahm Alford/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool) Grace Beahm Alford/The Post And Courier via AP The accident and the ensuing backlash from the community “kind of consumed” his 52-year-old mother, Buster said.Īlex Murdaugh listens to testimony during his double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., Monday, Feb. “I knew he would go out at a bar and there’s somebody that wants to talk about it, make a scuff about it,” Buster said. People were sending Paul messages about the crash, Buster said, and “a lot of times he’d be walking down the sidewalk and, you know, a car comes by and they would yell some stuff at him.” Paul had pleaded not guilty to charges in connection to the accident, and court records show the charges were dropped after his death. Paul’s boat case ‘kind of consumed’ Maggieīefore his death, Paul Murdaugh was being bullied on social media and in public for his alleged involvement in a February 2019 boat crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach, Buster Murdaugh testified, describing social media messages his brother received and confrontations in bars. We went over at lunch a lot of times, went over in the evenings a lot, just no real set schedule,” Buster said. and testified late night visits were unusual.īut the family followed no set schedule when visiting his grandparents, which his father did often. The caretaker, Mushell “Shelly” Smith, cared for Murdaugh’s mother from 8 p.m. The defense also sought to counter the testimony of a caretaker for Murdaugh’s mother, who testified for the state that Murdaugh visited his mother’s home in Almeda the night of the killings between 8:30 p.m. “Did he say that more than one time?” defense attorney Jim Griffin asked. “The first time I heard him say that was the night that I went down to Moselle,” he said, referring to the Islandton property, “the night of June the 7th.” The tape of the June 10, 2021, interview was not the first time he’d heard his father say, “They did him so bad,” Buster said. The witness, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Special Agent Jeff Croft, said he believed Murdaugh said “I did him so bad” in reference to Paul’s body during an emotional interview with investigators on June 10, 2021.Ĭroft did not follow up about the statement, however, and the defense maintained Murdaugh instead said, “They did him so bad” – a claim Buster backed up Tuesday. The defense used Buster Murdaugh on Tuesday to undermine the testimony of a state witness who told the court late last month he believed Alex Murdaugh inadvertently confessed to carrying out the murders while speaking to investigators. His defense attorneys have criticized the prosecutors’ case as speculative and waved off their focus on his alleged financial schemes as irrelevant. Grace Beahm Alford/The Post and Courier/AP Instead, their case has relied heavily on circumstantial evidence that they say shows Murdaugh lied to investigators and was at the scene just minutes before the killings.īuster Murdaugh testifies during the murder trial of his father, Alex Murdaugh, in Walterboro, South Carolina, on Tuesday, February 21, 2023. In the last three weeks of the trial, prosecutors have tried to overcome the lack of any direct evidence – such as an eyewitness – tying Murdaugh to the killings. Paul Murdaugh confronted his father about finding pills a month before he and his mom were killed, prosecutors sayīuster Murdaugh was the third witness called by the defense, which began its case Friday after prosecutors called more than 60 witnesses to bolster their argument Alex Murdaugh, 54, killed his wife and son at the family’s Islandton estate on June 7, 2021, in an attempt to distract from his alleged financial crimes, which were being rapidly uncovered and for which he now faces 99 charges separately from the murders.Īlex Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and two weapons charges in the killings, and the defense has painted Murdaugh as a loving father and husband being wrongfully accused after what it says has been a poorly handled investigation. (Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool) Joshua Boucher/The State/AP The 54-year-old attorney is standing trial on two counts of murder in the shootings of his wife and son at their Colleton County home and hunting lodge on June 7, 2021. Alex Murdaugh, center, sits with his attorneys during his double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse on Thursday, Feb.
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