Prosecutors allege Alex Murdaugh waited one hour before calling police
Correspondent Laura Ingle reports the latest on the Murdaugh murder mystery
South Carolina prosecutors in a new court filing on Wednesday demanded Alex Murdaugh provide his alibi within 10 days ahead of the long-awaited murder trial next year and named the exact date and time frame the disgraced legal scion’s wife, Maggie, and their son, Paul, were believed to be killed.
In the new motion, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office said Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22, were murdered between 8:30 p.m. and 10:06 p.m. on June 7, 2021, at the Murdaugh property located at 4147 Moselle Road in Colleton County, South Carolina.
"If the Defendant intends to rely on the defense of alibi, please give Notice within ten (10) days of the date of this request of the intent to rely on alibi and give the specific place or places the Defendant claims to have been at the time of the alleged offense and the names and addresses of the witnesses upon he intends to rely to establish such alibi," the state's chief prosecutor on the case, Creighton Waters, wrote.
Waters also requested that if Murdaugh plans to rely on the defenses of "insanity, mental illness, entrapment, or duress," to give notice within 10 days of the intent to rely on the particular defense.
Alex Murdaugh sits in court with his legal team, including attorney Margaret Fox during a judicial hearing before Judge Clifton Newman in the Colleton County Courthouse on Monday, Aug. 29, 2022. (Tracy Glantz/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The motion requests Murdaugh supply the state with "any and all books, papers, documents, photographs, tangible objects, or copies or portions thereof, which are within the possession, custody, or control of the Defendant and which the Defendant intends to introduce as evidence in chief at the trial."
Prosecution also requests, "any results or reports of physical or mental examinations and of scientific tests or experiments made in connection with the particular case, or copies thereof, within the possession or control of the Defendant, which the Defendant intends to introduce as evidence in chief at the trial or which were prepared by a witness whom the Defendant intends to call at trial when the results or report relates to his testimony."
Prosecutors and state law enforcement have previously said Maggie was shot by a rifle and Paul was shot by a shotgun, and their two bodies were found near dog kennels on the sprawling hunting estate. Following a 13-month investigation, Murdaugh was charged on July 14 with two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in the deaths of his wife and their younger son.
Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty. Since then, state investigators and prosecutors have released few details about the evidence that they believe connects him to the shootings, leading Murdaugh’s lawyers to file a slew of court documents requesting information to try to publicly weaken the case before the trial is set to begin Jan. 23, 2023.
Deputy state attorney general Creighton Waters addresses the judge during a court hearing over murder evidence in the Alex Murdaugh case, (FOX Carolina)
As part of the back and forth about evidence, prosecutors have divulged there is a cellphone video of Murdaugh, his wife and son near dog kennels around 8:44 p.m. the night they are killed. Cellphone data indicates Murdaugh left at 9:06 p.m. and his frantic 911 call to report he found the bodies near the kennels came an hour later at 10:06 p.m.
Murdaugh's attorneys have requested an FBI report analyzing all the cellphone data.
The defense attorneys argue that there was unknown DNA found under Murdaugh's wife’s fingernails.
They also pointed to a different suspect, Murdaugh's distant cousin, former legal client and recently accused co-conspirator in an alleged opioid trafficking ring, Curtis "Fast Eddie" Smith.
Curtis Edward Smith, 62, is taken back to jail after a judge revoked his bond at a hearing on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022, in the Richland County Courthouse in Columbia, South Carolina. (Tracy Glantz/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Murdaugh’s defense argues that Smith failed a lie detector test regarding the killings.
Prosecutors said there was no evidence to back up a theory from Smith relayed during the polygraph session that Paul Murdaugh possibly killed his mother, Maggie, when he caught her with a groundskeeper at the family's Colleton County hunting lodge and the groundskeeper then shot the son.
Alex Murdaugh, right, is shown here with his family. (Fox News)
Murdaugh previously admitted to asking Smith to shoot and kill him on a rural roadside in September 2021 so that his surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, could collect on a $10 million life insurance policy. But Murdaugh was allegedly only grazed by the bullet as the two men struggled for the gun.
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A day before the incident, Murdaugh was fired from the prominent law firm founded by his family about a century ago for stealing money and later lost his law license. His family also controlled the local solicitor’s office for several generations, and Murdaugh served as a volunteer prosecutor himself there.
State prosecutors said Murdaugh was a drug addict who helped run a money laundering and painkiller ring and stole about $8 million from settlements for wrongful death or injury he secured for mostly poor clients.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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