Nancy Grace: Alex Murdaugh has been caught in a really big lie
FOX Nation host Nancy Grace provides analysis of Alex Murdaugh's testimony and discusses the jury's reaction and next steps in the trial.
The Alex Murdaugh double murder trial entered its sixth week on Monday as the defense prepares to call its final witnesses to the stand.
Murdaugh, 54, is accused of fatally shooting his 52-year-old wife, Maggie, and 22-year-old son, Paul, on June 7, 2021, near a row of dog kennels on his Lowcountry hunting estate called Moselle in Islandton, South Carolina.
The complex murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, includes dozens of witnesses and several key players who will help jurors determine whether Murdaugh is guilty or innocent in the murders of his loved ones.
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Alex Murdaugh
Alex Murdaugh is a former South Carolina attorney who worked for the private injury law firm Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick (PMPED), now known as The Parker Law Group, before he resigned in September 2021 following his alleged financial crimes with the firm.
Alex Murdaugh is led into the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina on Tuesday, January 31, 2023. Murdaugh is on trial for the murders of his son, Paul, and wife, Maggie, in June 2021. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital )
Murdaugh's great-grandfather, Randolph Murdaugh, founded PMPED in 1910. He then became the regional prosecutor overseeing five different counties in 1920. The Murdaugh family maintained a stronghold over the prosecutor's office for decades.
The disgraced lawyer is charged with two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during a violent crime in his wife and son's deaths. He is also facing 99 financial crimes in which he allegedly defrauded multiple victims of an estimated $9 million.
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Murdaugh is accused of stealing funds from his own law firm's clients as well as friends and fellow attorneys. Prosecutors argue he shot his wife and son in June 2021 when his financial crimes began to come to light. The allegations temporarily subsided after Paul and Maggie's deaths until September 2021, when his firm revisited the allegations, and he resigned.
A photo of the Murdaugh family taken days before Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were shot to death. From left, Buster, Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh. (Defense exhibit)
The South Carolina legal scion gave emotional testimony in his own trial last week, admitting on direct examination on Feb. 24 that he repeatedly lied to investigators, friends and family, claiming he was never at the Moselle dog kennels June 7, 2021, the night of the slayings.
Buster Murdaugh
Richard "Buster" Murdaugh Jr., 26, is Alex Murdaugh's oldest and only surviving son.
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He has shown up to his father's trial at the Colleton County Courthouse with his girlfriend, Brooklynn White, every day since the jury selection began on Jan. 23.
Buster Murdaugh listens to his father Alex Murdaugh's recorded interview, where he describes a suicide attempt he planned, during Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023. (Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool)
Buster Murdaugh also testified in his father's trial on Feb. 23.
"He was destroyed, heartbroken," Buster said on the witness stand of his father after Maggie and Paul's murders.
He described his father as a doting and devoted parent who "coached every Little League team I played on." He also described a close-knit family, saying he spoke with his mom "every day" and frequently spoke with his dad and brother, too.
Buster Murdaugh, the son of Alex Murdaugh, testifies during his father's trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. (Grace Beahm Alford/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)
Judge Clifton Newman
Judge Clifton Newman is the judge presiding over the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial, which began more than a month ago.
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Newman was born in Kingstree, South Carolina, in 1951. His father was a reverend.
Judge Clifton Newman listens to a series of objections during Alex Murdaugh’s trial for murder at the Colleton County Courthouse on Friday, February 10, 2023. (Joshua Boucher/The State/Pool)
He received his Juris Degree from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in Cleveland, Ohio, where he began practicing law. He returned to South Carolina in the 1980s and opened his own private law firm, Columbia and Manning, where he practiced for 24 years. He spent 17 years as assistant solicitor until the South Carolina General Assembly elected him as circuit court judge in 2000.
Newman is a married father of four and enjoys traveling and spending time "in the country," according to his biography.
Dick Harpootlian
Richard "Dick" Harpootlian is one of Murdaugh’s lead defense attorneys.
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Harpootlian is a South Carolina Democratic state senator, representing District 20, and a friend of President Joe Biden. His wife is the Biden-appointed U.S. Ambassador to Slovenia.
Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian listens during his client Alex Murdaugh’s trial for murder at the Colleton County Courthouse on Tuesday, February 7, 2023. (Joshua Boucher/The State/Pool)
He also served as chair of the South Carolina Democratic party between 1998 and 2003, and again between 2011 and 2013.
Before switching sides and becoming a defense attorney, Harpootlian tried a number of high-profile cases as a state prosecutor, including serial killer Donald "Pee Wee" Gaskins and former University of South Carolina President Jim Holderman for corruption.
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Harpootlian, Murdaugh, and Murdaugh's other lead defense attorney, Jim Griffin, all attended the University of South Carolina School of Law.
Jim Griffin
Jim Griffin is Alex Murdaugh's other lead defense attorney.
Defense attorney Jim Griffin objects to questioning by Prosecutor Creighton Waters as Alex Murdaugh testifies at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. ( Grace Beahm Alford/The Post and Courier/Pool)
Griffin started his career as a federal prosecutor in the District of South Carolina before focusing on health care litigation.
The attorney has "obtained multi-million-dollar verdicts and settlements for clients in civil cases," according to his biography.
Like Harpootlian, Griffin has been practicing law for decades and tried hundreds of cases.
Creighton Waters
Creighton Waters is the lead prosecutor in the Murdaugh murder trial and chief attorney of the South Carolina Office of the Attorney General's grand jury since 1998, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Waters alleges that Murdaugh killed his wife and son in June 2021 in a scheme to distract from his financial crimes totaling about $9 million.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters questions Alex Murdaugh during Murdaugh’s murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. (Grace Beahm Alford/Staff)
Waters cross-examined Alex Murdaugh last week, suggesting the former lawyer has used his family's name and connections to skirt the law. He also got Murdaugh to testify that he lied to law enforcement about not being at his family's dog kennels on the night of Maggie and Paul's murders.
Murdaugh "told anyone who would listen that he was not at those kennels. But evidence will also show ... that he was there ... the cellphones are going to show otherwise," Waters said in his opening statement.
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"The evidence is going to show that Paul collapsed right outside that feeding room. Just moments later, moments later, [Alex Murdaugh] ... opened fire on his wife, Maggie, just feet away," the prosecutor said on Jan. 25. "Pop pop pop ... took her down."
Murdaugh has maintained his innocence since the June 2021 murders.
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