Alex Murdaugh’s ‘gathering storm’ of crimes turned him into a ‘family annihilator’, prosecutor says in closing argument

‘After an exhaustive investigation, there is only one person that had the motive, that had the means, that had the opportunity to commit these crimes,’ Creighton Waters told the jury

Alex Murdaugh’s “gathering storm” of financial crimes, opioid addiction and years of “living a lie” culminated with the moment that he murdered his wife Maggie and son Paul, according to the prosecution’s dramatic three-hour closing statement.

In Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, on Wednesday, prosecutor Creighton Waters described how the once-powerful attorney spent years “on the hamster wheel” avoiding accountability as he stole millions of dollars from his law firm and its clients.

While keeping up the pretense of a respected attorney and carrying on his prominent family’s legacy, he had actually been “living a lie” for the last decade and the “pressure became overwhelming”.

The storm then “crescendoed” to that “day of reckoning” on 7 June 2021 when Mr Murdaugh turned into a “family annihilator”, shooting his wife and son dead on the grounds of the wealthy family’s 1,700-acre estate.

“On June 7 2021 at the Moselle property in Colleton County, Paul Murdaugh and Maggie Murdaugh were brutally and maliciously murdered at the kennels by the defendant Alex Murdaugh,” said Mr Waters.

“After an exhaustive investigation, there is only one person that had the motive, that had the means, that had the opportunity to commit these crimes,” he said.

“And whose guilty conduct after these crimes betrays him.

“The defendant is the one person who was living a lie. The one person who a storm was descending on. And the one person whose own storm would mean consequences for Maggie and Paul.

“And that person is the defendant Richard Alexander Murdaugh.”

Mr Waters pointed out the magnitude of the case which has captured attention across the US and beyond, telling jurors that what they were seeing inside the courtroom is “a different story” because the man on trial is “a different man”.

“It’s a different story like it has never been seen before. And it is because this is a different man than we have seen before,” he said.

However, he said that “family annihilators” have been around forever.

“Husbands have been killing wives for years and fathers killing sons goes back to King Herod,” he said. “And when those pressures mount, someone becomes a family annihilator.”

Alex Murdaugh listens during his murder trial (AP)

Mr Murdaugh is accused of shooting his wife and son and then trying to build an alibi for his movements that night.

Paul was shot twice with a 12-gauge shotgun, with the second fatal shot blowing his entire brain out of his skull.

Mere steps away, Maggie was shot five times with a .300 Blackout semiautomatic rifle, as she tried to flee her killer.

During the state’s dramatic closing statement, Mr Waters said that Mr Murdaugh had “the means, motive and opportunity” to kill his wife and son.

Mr Waters “set the stage” of what he said led up to the moment Mr Murdaugh allegedly took two “family guns” and shot his wife and son dead, detailing how the disgraced attorney had long been a prominent figure in the community but was in fact “living a lie”.

A “gathering storm” was building at the time of the murders, said Mr Waters, with Mr Murdaugh’s financial crimes on the brink of being exposed due to both the boat crash lawsuit and his law firm closing in on missing payments.

Mr Waters then went through the timeline on the day of the murders and how Mr Murdaugh was at the scene – but lied about it for over a year and a half.

He then argued that Mr Murdaugh’s actions in the aftermath of the killings – and even on the witness stand – further pointed to his guilt.

“The timeline puts him there. The forensic timeline puts him there. The use of his family weapons supports that,” he said.

Motive: ‘A gathering storm’

Mr Waters walked jurors through the timeline of the events leading up to the murders, charting a line from Mr Murdaugh’s prominence in the community and his escalating multi-million-dollar fraud scheme to the killings of Maggie and Paul.

“He was a person of singular prominence and respect in his community,” he said. “But he has also been a person who’s been able to avoid accountability in his life.”

Mr Waters described the “outside illusion” of Mr Murdaugh as a successful attorney but who, in reality, was so addicted to money that he started to steal” from his law firm.

Throughout the trial, jurors have heard testimony from his law firm and its clients as to how he represented clients in lawsuits and then pocketed the settlement money for himself.

In total, he stole millions from his law firm PMPED and its clients and is now charged separately with more than 100 counts in that case.

Defence attorney Jim Griffin and prosecutor Creighton Waters at the trial (AP)

Mr Waters said the financial fraud scheme went on for years but reached a head after the 2019 fatal boat crash.

“This slow burn was continuing and continuing and continuing until the boat crash happened in February 2019,” said Mr Waters. “That changed everything. That set in motion everything.”

In February 2019, Paul was allegedly drunk driving the family boat when it crashed, killing 19-year-old Mallory Beach.

Paul was facing criminal charges over the incident, while Mr Murdaugh was being sued by the Beach family.

After the boat crash, Mr Waters said that “the pace of his stealing increased” and he stole every dime of a $4m settlement for the family of his housekeeper Gloria Satterfield (who died in a mystery trip and fall at Moselle in 2018).

But also by the day of the murders, the prosecutor said that Mr Murdaugh’s financial crimes were on the brink of being exposed.

The Beach family attorney Mark Tinsley previously testified how he had filed a motion to compel to gain access to Mr Murdaugh’s finances.

The next hearing in the case had been set for 10 June 2021 – three days after the murders.

On 7 June 2021, jurors have also heard how he was confronted by his law firm CFO Jeanne Seckinger about a payment that he had stolen from the firm.

Mr Murdaugh’s father Randolph was also “very, very sick”, said Mr Waters.

The prosecutor said that the Murdaugh’s family legacy – and his place within it – was under threat and he was willing to “do anything to keep that hamster wheel going to avoid accountability”.

Mr Waters added: “If he can just stay one step ahead one day longer… then he will never have to face that accountability that he never has to face.

“All of these factors are converging on one week and one day. And that day arrives, his father is in the hospital... There is a confrontation with Jeanne… He’s working on the boat case and then the tragedy happens. It’s not the only reason but it’s part of the reason.

“The pressures on this man were unbearable and they were all reaching a crescendo the day his wife and son were murdered by him. All on that day.”

Mr Waters told the jury how the murders of his Maggie and Paul made “all those things go away” with the lawsuit hearing postponed and his law firm putting any probe into missing payments to one side in order to rally around him.

When the financial fraud scheme was finally exposed on 3 September 2021, Mr Murdaugh orchestrated the botched hitman plot to make himself “a victim” once again, said Mr Waters.

“When accountability was at his door he was a victim. And he told a detailed lie and went as far as to draw a composite sketch with law enforcement,” he said.

“And it worked for a bit... But this time it fell apart even quicker as his own brother figured out he was trying to buy drugs and it feel apart.”

Another aspect of this “gathering storm” was Mr Murdaugh’s opioid addiction, which Mr Waters said the defendant had admitted makes him “paranoid, agitated, and gives him energy”.

“The withdrawals would make him do anything to get rid of them,” he reminded jurors Mr Murdaugh had said.

However, Mr Waters urged jurors to question the extent Mr Murdaugh claims he was consuming drugs – sowing doubts that the accused killer repeatedly lied on the stand.

He questioned whether 1,000mg a day “sounds survivable”, let alone whether someone consuming that much could have been a successful lawyer, carried out a complex fraud scheme and lived his life without those around him noticing.

“How many times on the fly did he look you in the eye and didn’t tell the truth?” he asked jurors.

Mr Waters also urged jurors to consider how – as an attorney from a long line of attorneys – Mr Murdaugh understands how the justice system works.

“This is an individual who is trained to understand how to put a case together. Think about whether or not this individual is constructing defences and constructing alibis,” he said.

Means: ‘Family guns’

Turning to the means Mr Murdaugh had to commit the crime, Mr Waters told jurors that “family guns” were used to kill Maggie and Paul.

He reminded jurors how the family had three Blackout semiautomatic rifles – and “the defendant can only account for one of them”.

The court previously heard how Mr Murdaugh bought his sons Paul and Buster a Blackout one Christmas.

When Paul lost his, it was replaced by a third – with Paul’s friend testifying that he recalled shooting that replacement gun with him just a few months before the murders.

Ammunition found on the grounds of Moselle matched the ammo that killed Maggie. Mr Waters said they both came from the replacement rifle – which is now missing.

“A family weapon the defendant cannot account for killed Maggie,” said Mr Waters.

The Blackout and a 12-gauge shotgun were Paul’s two favourite guns that he carried. That shotgun has also never been found.

Opportunity: The kennel video

Moving onto Mr Murdaugh’s opportunity to carry out the murders, the prosecutor turned to the timeline of the accused killer’s movements on 7 June 2021 – based on cellphone data.

Key to the state’s case is a damning cellphone video taken by Paul at the kennels minutes before he was murdered.

The video, taken at 8.44pm, captures three voices off-camera – Paul, Maggie and Mr Murdaugh.

Multiple witnesses told the court that the voice was “100 per cent” that of Mr Murdaugh.

Less than five minutes later – at around 8.50pm – prosecutors say that Maggie and Paul were dead. Both victims last used their cellphones at 8.49pm, the data shows.

Mr Waters said that getting access to Paul’s phone “changed everything” in the case.

Aerial view of the dog kennels and feed room where the murders unfolded (AP)

“It showed opportunity... but more importantly it exposed the defendant’s lies. Why in the world would an innocent reasonable father and husband lie about that?”

“He didn’t know that was there,” he said of the video.

For the 20 months between the murders and the trial, Mr Murdaugh denied ever being at the dog kennels with his wife and son that night. He claimed he stayed at the family home, fell asleep on the couch and then drove to his mother’s home when he woke.

When he returned, he claimed he drove to the kennels and discovered their bodies.

Then, when he took the stand, Mr Murdaugh confessed for the first time that he was there at the kennels – and that he had lied for 20 months to investigators, his family and friends about his alibi.

Mr Waters told jurors that the accused killer was “forced” to create a “new story” because “all of those witnesses on the stand said he was there”.

But even with his new story – that he took a golf cart to the kennels briefly and returned to the house almost as soon as Paul’s 50-second video ended – “doesn’t make sense” because of the tiny window of time, said Mr Waters.

“Not a single person close to him knew who he really was... And I submit to you that this was the most blatant lie yet,” he said.

Mr Waters told jurors that Mr Murdaugh first shot Paul with the shotgun.

He suggested that the father shot his son and thought he had killed him, bent down to pick up the second gun and was “startled” by his son still moving.

He then shot upwards at Paul, striking the fatal shot and causing the upward angle, he said.

Maggie then ran over toward her son and was shot.

“[Maggie] was running toward her baby while he picked up the Blackout and opened fire again at close range,” said Mr Waters.

“She heard that shot and was mowed down by the only person that we have conclusive proof was at that the scene minutes before.”

‘Manufacturing an alibi’

After that, the prosecutor said that Mr Murdaugh stripped and wash himself off, getting back in the golf cart and heading back to the house.

There, he said Mr Murdaugh was “manufacturing an alibi” as he knew that he had “to compress those timelines”.

Mr Waters described how Mr Murdaugh called several people and sped to his parents’ home – trying to get his mother’s carer to match his story of how long he stayed – and sped back.

When he arrived back at the property and drove to the kennels, just 19 seconds passed between the moment he arrived at the kennels and him placing the 911 call.

Mr Murdaugh previously told law enforcement multiple times that he had touched his wife and son’s bodies to check for signs of life before calling 911. He changed this account on the stand saying that he had actually touched them while on the phone to the 911 dispatcher.

“19 seconds. Is that enough time for a surprised human being to get out of the car go over and see... the reason why it’s so quick is because he knew exactly what scene he was going to find,” said Mr Waters.

Buster, Maggie, Paul and Alex Murdaugh left to right (Maggie Murdaugh/Facebook)

Mr Waters said that Mr Murdaugh also called Paul’s friend Rogan Gibson before he called any of his family members.

Paul was looking after Mr Gibson’s dog at the kennels and they had spoken on the phone, with Mr Gibson saying he heard Mr Murdaugh in the background.

The video Paul took of the dog was supposed to be sent to Mr Gibson and when he didn’t receive it, he had texted his friend.

Mr Murdaugh may have seen those texts come up on Paul’s phone and worried about what Mr Gibson knew, Mr Waters said.

The prosecutor laid out what he said was malice – pointing to several aspects of the night which suggested Mr Murdaugh planned the attack.

There was the use of two guns which he said was Mr Murdaugh “manufacturing” the scene.

There was also testimony that Maggie did not want to go to Moselle that night but that Mr Murdaugh had asked both her and Paul to come home.

And there was the “unusual” move by Mr Murdaugh to leave his phone at the house when he went to the kennels.

“This is Alex the prosecutor and the lawyer,” said Mr Waters. “He’s thought through this.”

In the aftermath of the murders, Mr Waters also showed “consciousness of guilt” – lying about his alibi and trying to get his story straight with witnesses.

Jurors were reminded about the testimony from housekeeper Blanca Simpson who said she saw Mr Murdaugh in a different outfit earlier that day – an outfit she never saw again. Ms Simpson said he tried to get his story straight with her about the clothes.

The prosecutor once again played footage from three police interviews with Mr Murdaugh – on 8 June, 10 June, 11 August 2021 – all of which he lied about the last time he saw Maggie and Paul.

“Look how easily he did. About such a crucial thing,” said Mr Waters.

Lying on the stand

Mr Waters closed out his statement by accusing Mr Murdaugh of continuing his lies while on the stand to jurors – about why he lied about his alibi.

Mr Murdaugh had testified that he had lied because he was “paranoid” over his suspicions of SLED, warnings from his law firm partners about always have a lawyer present when speaking to the police and investigators having swabbed his hands for gunshot residue.

He claimed that he decided to lie during his first police interview in the early hours of 8 June 2021.

But, Mr Waters hammered home that Mr Murdaugh began lying before that – once again playing bodycam footage from the first officer to respond to the scene where the accused killer claimed he hadn’t seen his wife and son for hours.

“There is nothing more important to someone who is innocent than telling law enforcement when you last saw someone alive,” said Mr Waters.

“People lie because they knew they did something wrong,” he said.

He pointed out that Mr Murdaugh contradicted testimony from multiple witnesses – and lied when he was confronted with other issues on the stand that he was unprepared for.

Alex Murdaugh in police bodycam on night of murders (Colleton County Sheriff’s Office/South Carolina Law Enforcement Division)

He gave the example of rebuttal witness former Hampton County Sheriff T. C. Smalls who contradicted Mr Murdaugh’s testimony that he had given him permission to fit blue police lights in his vehicle.

“Everyone is lying or the master liar?” asked Mr Waters.

Mr Waters then used Mr Murdaugh’s own words against him.

“‘Oh what a tangled web we weave when we first deceive’,” he read out. “How appropriate coming from that man.”

He concluded with a message to the jury: “He fooled them all. And he fooled Maggie and Paul and they paid for it with their lives. Don’t let him fool you too.”