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On Tuesday, one of Alex Murdaugh’s law partners testified that he is certain that Alex is heard in a video filmed by Paul Murdaugh minutes before Paul and Maggie were murdered.
Lawyer Ronnie Crosby testified that Alex specifically told him that he did not go down to the dog kennels with Maggie and Paul. Alex allegedly told Crosby and other people at the firm that he worked until 5:30-6 p.m. before he went home, rode around the family property with Paul, and had dinner.
After dinner, Paul and Maggie reportedly went down to the dog kennels, where they were fatally shot. Alex claimed to have called 911 after discovering their bodies.
“The three voices on that video are the voices of Paul Murdaugh, Maggie Murdaugh, and Alex Murdaugh…I’m 100% sure that’s whose voices are on that audio,” Crosby said.
The state played video from the night of the killings for Ronnie Crosby, a friend and former colleague of Alex.
Crosby said he’s 100% sure he heard Paul, Maggie, and Alex in the video. Paul’s friends Rogan Gibson and Will Loving also said the same. #MurdaughTrial pic.twitter.com/y2XeKNJwpD— Joseph Leonard | WSAV (@JLeonardNews) February 7, 2023
Maggie, who was also killed on the family’s South Carolina property, can be heard in the video which reportedly was filmed at their dog kennels. She is apparently heard mentioning that a dog had a bird in its mouth. In addition to Paul and Maggie’s voices, a man is heard speaking intelligibly in the background.
Crosby’s testimony presumably contradicts Alex’s alibi on the night of the murders. Alex has claimed he was napping on the family property when his wife and son went to the dog kennels and were fatally shot. Alex said he woke up and went to his mother’s home before returning and finding their bodies.
In addition to Crosby, Paul’s childhood friends Rogan Gibson and Will Loving said they were sure Alex is the man heard in the dog kennel video.
Here is the video prosecutors played in court today. They allege Alex and Maggie Murdaugh can be heard off camera as this video was recorded around 8:55 p.m. on the evening Maggie and Paul were shot and killed. pic.twitter.com/MQL9qSnWEa
— Avery G. Wilks (@AveryGWilks) February 1, 2023
Gibson testified that on the night of the murders, he asked Paul to take a video of his dog in a kennel. Paul reportedly filmed a 56-second video between 8:44 and 8:45 p.m. Prosecutors said that was around the time Maggie and Paul’s phones became inactive because they were dead.
On Monday, Mushelle Smith, who is Alex’s mother’s caretaker, testified that Alex instructed her to say that he was at his mother’s home for 30 to 40 minutes on the night of the slayings. However, Smith said Alex was only there for 20 minutes on the night in question, including the five minutes he took to get into the home.
According to Smith, Alex did not tell her why he wanted her to know this information. Though she said the conversation concerned her to the point that she contacted her brother, who is the Varnville police’s assistant chief.
While on the stand, Smith said Alex came over at 9 p.m. on the night of the slayings, which she thought was unusually late. He allegedly also called the house phone to say he was there even though he was right outside the home.
Prosecutors said cell phone data and forensic evidence tie Alex to the slayings. Meanwhile, Alex’s attorney, Dick Harpootlian, said the cell phone records were incomplete and asserted that Alex would be covered in blood if he killed his wife and son at close range. Harpootlian said no blood was found on Alex’s clothing.
In September 2021, months after Paul and Maggie’s slayings, Alex suffered superficial head wounds when he allegedly had former client Curtis Smith, 61, shoot him in the head so his surviving son, Buster, would receive a $10 million insurance payout.
A day before the shooting, Alex was forced out of his family law firm amid allegations he misappropriated funds.
Two days after the apparent botched suicide, Alex announced he was entering rehabilitation for drugs. Shortly after that, he was charged with insurance fraud in connection with the September 2021 suicide-for-hire plot and released on bail.
However, in October 2021, Alex was rearrested upon leaving a rehabilitation center in Florida for allegedly stealing $4.3 million from Satterfield’s estate. In that case, he was accused of stealing insurance payouts that were intended for Satterfield’s family. Authorities plan to exhume her body amid an ongoing investigation regarding her death.
In addition to the murder charges, Alex faces more than 100 criminal counts related to fraud.
In June 2022, Alex and Smith were indicted for allegedly purchasing and distributing oxycodone in multiple counties. In December 2022, Alex was indicted for tax evasion for allegedly failing to claim the $6 million he allegedly earned through illegal acts between 2011 and 2019.
Alex was charged with Maggie and Paul’s murders days after he was formally disbarred by the South Carolina Supreme Court.
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[Featured image: Ronnie Crosby/Twitter video screengrab]
