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Prosecutor Creighton Waters finished his closing argument in the murder trial of Alex Murdaugh shortly before 5 p.m. ET Wednesday.
Court is now in recess until 9:30 a.m. ET on Thursday when the defense is expected to begin its closing argument.
Alex Murdaugh lied and fooled everyone who felt like they knew him, prosecutor Creighton Waters said Wednesday, as he made his final plea to the jury.
Murdaugh, fooled Maggie and Paul Murdaugh too, “and they paid for it with their lives,” Waters said.
“Don’t let him fool you too,” he told the jury as he wrapped up his closing arguments.
Waters said that everything Murdaugh did the night his wife and son was murdered was meant to deflect blame.
These included changing his clothes, attempting a “manufactured alibi” which included efforts to call Maggie and Paul’s phones after they were dead, deleting call logs and not taking his phone to the scene, Waters said, summarizing many of the points he made during the trial.
“One man controlled this crime scene initially,” Waters said, pointing to Murdaugh in the courtroom.
Alex Murdaugh was not worried about his surviving son, Buster, after the murder of his family because he was “the only threat,” prosecutor Creighton Waters said during his closing argument.
Waters said some of Murdaugh’s law partners testified he was “not overly concerned” about figuring out what happened to his wife, Maggie, or son, Paul, or about any possible threats to Buster.
He said in one police interview, law enforcement directly asked Murdaugh if there were any threats to Buster, to which he replied “no.”
“Why is there no threat to Buster? Because he was the threat to Maggie and Paul. He knows there is no vigilante out there, that’s why he was never concerned about it,” Waters said.
When asked about what he did after he was heard at the kennel in a video on Paul’s phone, Murdaugh said “I got out of there,” according to Waters.
“He didn’t say, ‘if only I had been there. If only I had gone to the kennels. If only I could have stopped it. If only I had been there a little longer,’” Waters said.
Correction: An earlier version of this post included the wrong characterization of the question posed to Murdaugh about the kennel video.
State prosecutor Creighton Waters, describing what he said was the scene when Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were fatally shot, said Maggie Murdaugh saw what happened to Paul and came “running to her baby.”
With those first two shots, Maggie crumples over, and is shot a third time, the bullet goes through the left side of her head, Waters said. Maggie is then shot for a fourth time in the back of the head, he said.
He asked the jury if that was malice — the intentional harm to another with evil intent — then answered his own question.
“Clearly it’s malicious, clearly it’s malicious. She was running to her baby — heard that shot and was running to her baby when she got mowed down by the only person that we have conclusive proof was at that scene just minutes before and who lied about that very fact until he could no longer do it to you last week,” Waters said.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters argued to the jury that Alex Murdaugh was “manufacturing an alibi” by calling and texting his wife and son, among others, after they were killed.
Waters said Murdaugh was unable to answer important questions, such as the nature of his last conversation with his family and what he was doing during certain time periods that night.
Around 9:45 p.m., Murdaugh calls Maggie’s phone again, Waters said. During his testimony, Murdaugh told a detailed story about his phone falling into the console of the car during this time period.
Waters also pointed to data to show that Murdaugh was driving faster than usual to his mother’s house in Almeda and was making calls the entire trip.
“Because he knows he has to compress that timeline,” Waters said.
Waters said any “reasonable person” would remember the last conversation they had with their loved one if they were killed, but argued that Murdaugh “lies convincingly and easily and he can do it as a drop of a hat.”
“He’s manufacturing an alibi. He’s smart,” Waters said.
The prosecutor also noted to the jury the kinds of questions Murdaugh asked law enforcement after the murders. He said one of the first things Murdaugh did was point out to police how many phone calls he made that night.
“He knows what to do to try to prevent evidence from being gathered. If you listen to his statements again and you listen to the questions he asked, he’s asking questions like that, he’s trying to figure out what do the police have, what do they know,” Waters said.
The video taken by Paul Murdaugh at the family’s dog kennels before he was killed “changed everything” in the case, prosecutor Creighton Waters said, arguing that Alex Murdaugh had the opportunity to kill his son and wife.
Murdaugh admitted that he lied to investigators about his whereabouts on the night that his wife Maggie and son Paul died in June 2021.
The former lawyer acknowledged his voice can be heard in a video that appeared to be filmed at the kennels, where the bodies of his wife and son were found. Prosecutors have used the video to place Murdaugh at the scene of the killings, contradicting his previous repeated statements to law enforcement that he had not been there that night.
Numerous witnesses had testified Murdaugh’s voice is in the background of the video recorded by his son at 8:44 p.m. ET on June 7, 2021.
The video shows opportunity, Waters said in his closing argument Wednesday, “being at the scene of the crime when the murders occurred.”
CNN’s Emma Tucker contributed reporting to this post.
Correction: An earlier version of this post included the wrong description of a video taken at the Murdaugh family’s dog kennels.
Defense and prosecution analysts and trial veterans from some of America’s most high-profile criminal cases will discuss the Alex Murdaugh trial in a CNN primetime special Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET.
The experts have examined the evidence and witness testimony presented in the double murder trial.
The special will be hosted by CNN anchor and senior legal analyst Laura Coates, a former Department of Justice attorney who worked in both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters, resuming his closing argument Wednesday afternoon, said “family weapons” were used to commit the double murders on the Murdaugh estate.
Waters said that the “forensic evidence” that was presented as evidence during the trial supports this theory.
He pointed to testimony from a weapons expert that said that casings for bullets from a Blackout rifle that were discovered near the body of Alex Murdaugh’s wife Maggie matched casings found on other parts of the family’s property by investigators.
Waters noted that this weapon went missing and Murdaugh cannot account for it.
Paul Murdaugh was killed by shots from one of his “favorite guns,” Waters said.
The prosecutor said that investigators determined that two fired shells that killed Paul had “class characteristics” that were similar to a 12-gauge shotgun that the Murdaugh son favored.
He added that Alex Murdaugh had this shotgun with him on the night of the killings and that “Maggie’s DNA and blood” were found on the receiver of the gun.
The presence of the family weapons and their links to the deaths, Waters said, show “the defendant had the means to commit these crimes.”
The court has resumed after lunch. Prosecutor Creighton Waters is delivering the state’s closing argument.
The court is in recess for a lunch break. The break will last an hour and 15 minutes, the judge said.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters is delivering the state’s closing argument.
For 87 years, the Murdaugh family name came to represent a legal dynasty in coastal South Carolina, where three successive generations controlled the local prosecutor’s office.
But that has all fallen apart in recent years. Now, among other legal and financial problems, Alex Murdaugh is on trial after being accused of killing his wife and son.
Here’s a look at the timeline:
June 2021
September 2021
July 2022
You can read the full timeline — with everything we know about Murdaugh’s other legal and financial challenges — here.
The prosecution described the weeks and months leading up to the murders of Alex Murdaugh’s wife and son as a “gathering storm.”
Murdaugh is charged in the June 2021 killings. In closing arguments Wednesday, prosecutor Creighton Waters pointed to what was going on in his personal life as a possible motive for the murders.
Once a successful prosecutor, Murdaugh’s family legacy was in danger because of civil and criminal charges stemming from a fatal boat crash involving his son Paul Murdaugh, Waters argued.
The legal trouble from the boat case was “threatening to expose him for who he really was,” Waters said. Murdaugh was worried about losing his career, his license to practice law and his personal legacy, he said.
The prosecution spent much of the trial detailing Murdaugh’s financial troubles — including how he stole money from his law firm and his family.
Waters also asked the jury to consider Murdaugh’s background as a prosecutor and think about whether or not he is “constructing defenses and constructing alibis.”
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters began his closing argument by telling jurors that the defendant, Alex Murdaugh, is the only person who could have committed the murders of his son and wife.
Waters told the jury that the “forensic timeline” of what happened on the night of his wife and son’s killings puts Murdaugh at the scene of the crime.
He added that the “use of his family weapons” corroborates the defendant’s guilt in the case.
Waters said Murdaugh’s “lies” after their deaths “confirms” his guilt.
Closing arguments are now underway in the murder trial of Alex Murdaugh.
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters is presenting for the state.
