Disgraced South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh is again on the witness stand Friday in his double homicide trial, dealing with cross-examination from a prosecutor decided to make him recount each time he lied to a shopper.
Murdaugh, 54, is on trial within the deaths of his spouse and son close to kennels at their Colleton County residence in June 2021. However in two hours of cross-examination Thursday, prosecutor Creighton Waters did not point out these killings.
As a substitute, he centered on how Murdaugh preferred to flash the badge he bought as a volunteer prosecutor serving to out on instances along with his father and the thousands and thousands of {dollars} Murdaugh stole from his legislation agency and shoppers.
Prosecutors have mentioned Murdaugh killed his spouse and son to realize sympathy to purchase time as a result of his monetary misdeeds have been about to be found. Murdaugh stanchly denied killing them in questioning Thursday from his attorneys.
However again and again, he admitted he stole cash and lied, together with telling police he was not at the kennels the evening his spouse and son have been killed. A video discovered greater than a yr after the deaths when state brokers hacked his son’s iPhone proved in any other case, and Murdaugh admitted he lied to police and his household from the start, blaming paranoia from his ache killed dependancy.
“The issues that I did fallacious damage a number of the folks that I care about probably the most. I did a number of injury and I wreaked a number of havoc,” Murdaugh mentioned.
Murdaugh is charged with murder within the deaths of his spouse, Maggie, 52, shot a number of instances with a rifle, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, shot twice with a shotgun. He faces 30 years to life in jail if convicted.
On the stand, tears ran down Murdaugh’s cheeks when his lawyer requested if he blew his son’s brains out or shot his spouse a number of instances.
“I’d by no means deliberately do something to harm both of them,” Murdaugh mentioned.
Murdaugh is charged with about 100 different crimes, starting from stealing from clients to tax evasion. He’s being held with out bail on these costs, so even when he’s discovered not responsible of the killings, he is not going to stroll out of courtroom a free man. If convicted of most or all of these monetary crimes, Murdaugh would possible spend a long time in jail.