Jurors in Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial will go on a field trip to Moselle, South Carolina, the sprawling hunting estate where Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were shot to death, a judge ruled Monday.
The visit to the 1,700-acre property in Islandton, South Carolina, came at the request of the defense team at the tail end of the trial.
“We believe it would be useful for the jury to visit Moselle, both the area of the kennels and the house, just to get some understanding of the spacial relationships,” attorney Dick Harpootlian told Judge Clifton Newman before the jury entered the Colleton County courtroom.
Newman granted the request but did not specify when the approximately 20-minute drive there would take place.
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Alex Murdaugh becomes emotional Friday, Feb. 24, 2023, as he testifies at his double murder trial. (Grace Beahm Alford/The Post and Courier/ pool)
Harpootlian also complained that there were dozens of trespassers at the property over the weekend “to take selfies in front of the feed room,” and the sheriff had to be called to chase the gawkers away. He asked that the scene be secured for the visit.
The jury returned to the courtroom and the defense called Dr. Jonathan Eisenstat, a forensic pathologist, as their 12th witness.
Murdaugh’s team is expected to call two more witnesses Monday then rest their case.
Assistant Attorney General Creighton Waters said he expected to have at least four rebuttal witnesses and wrap up their case by Tuesday afternoon. Closing arguments could be as early as Wednesday.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters questions Alex Murdaugh during Murdaugh’s murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. (Grace Beahm Alford/Staff)
Monday marked the sixth week of the live-streamed trial that has mapped out the spectacular downfall of the powerful scion of a legal dynasty that was once seen as untouchable in South Carolina’s Lowcountry.
Murdaugh denied fatally shooting his son Paul, 22, with a shotgun and his wife Maggie, 52, with a rifle near the dog kennels at the family’s hunting estate in Islandton when he took the stand Thursday in his own defense.
“Mr. Murdaugh, are you a family annihilator?” Waters asked during a brutal nine-hour cross-examination that spanned two days.
“No, I would never hurt Maggie. I would never hurt Paul,” he told jurors.
From left to right, Buster, Paul, Alex and Maggie Murdaugh pose together on a fishing boat. (Facebook)
Waters portrayed Murdaugh as a pill-addled, serial liar who was on the verge of a devastating financial reckoning.
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He hammered the disbarred attorney about his ever-changing account of the night of the murders – including initially claiming he was not with his wife and son in the minutes before they were fatally shot until investigators found a video that contradicted his alibi.
A video found on Paul’s phone placed Murdaugh at the scene at 8:45 p.m. Prosecutors say both victims were shot to death with family weapons at about 8:50 p.m.
Alex Murdaugh listens as witness Jeanne Seckinger testifies in the double murder trial of Alex Murdaugh at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post and Courier/Pool)
“The second that you’re confronted with facts that you can’t deny, you immediately come up with a new lie?” Waters challenged Murdaugh. “Isn’t that correct?”
“Mr. Waters, as we have established, I have lied many times,” Murdaugh replied.
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