Day 17: Alex Murdaugh’s sister-in-law says he told her Maggie ‘didn’t suffer’

Alex Murdaugh, a once prominent Hampton-based attorney from a well-known politically-connected family, is on trial in the deaths of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul.

Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty. He faces life in prison without parole if found guilty. The trial started Jan. 23 with jury selection, opening arguments and the initial round of witness testimony. For now, the trial is expected to stretch at least another week, through Feb. 17.

How to watch the Murdaugh double murder trial, who to follow from The State, Island Packet

4:26 p.m. — Court adjourned, Labor Day shooting hearing scheduled

Marian Proctor, Maggie’s sister, left the stand.

Prior to stepping down, she said Maggie Murdaugh would call her son, Paul, “little detective.”

Proctor said Paul earned the nickname because “if there were pills (Alex Murdaugh) wasn’t supposed to take,” Paul, she said, would find them.

The state then called Marian Proctor’s husband, Bart Proctor, to the stand.

Bart Proctor is now the eighth witness to identify Murdaugh’s voice in a video Paul took at the kennels the night he was killed.

After asking Proctor to identify Murdaugh’s voice on the video clip, lead prosecutor Creighton Waters ended his questioning. Proctor was cross-examined by defense attorney Jim Griffin about the blue raincoat SLED agents recovered from the home of Libby Murdaugh, Murdaugh’s mother.

Griffin asked if Bart Proctor ever saw Paul wear the raincoat. Bart Proctor testified he had not, then left the stand.

With no more witnesses from the state available today due to a scheduling conflict, Judge Clifton Newman excused the jury.

Before legal teams left the courthouse, Waters said the state intends to argue evidence related to Murdaugh’s shooting on Sept. 4, 2021. The incident took place after the murders, Griffin argued, and therefore shouldn’t be considered admissible as a motive for the killings.

Waters countered the roadside shooting is part of a long chain of events that began around June 7, 2021. In an effort to distract from emerging evidence of Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes, Waters said Murdaugh may have orchestrated the shooting.

“’Oh my God, the real killers are back,’” Waters said, “I believe that’s the exact effect the defendant intended.”

Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian said Murdaugh “intended to die” in the shooting to provide life insurance money for his surviving son, Buster, who has been sitting every day in the courtroom.

“Unfortunately Eddie Smith (Murdaugh’s distant cousin and alleged accomplice), at 4 feet away, couldn’t shoot somebody in the head,” Harpootlian said.

After the shooting, Waters said Murdaugh had investigators create a composite drawing of the alleged gunman and later admitted his account of the shooting was not true. That detail lends more credence to the state’s theory, Waters argued.

“If Mr. Harpootlian wishes to stipulate in front of the jury that his client is a liar, the state will allow that,” Waters said.

Harpootlian said his team wasn’t anticipating the hearing today and isn’t yet prepared.

The hearing will take place at 9:30 Wednesday. Waters did not say Smith will testify. The jury will return at 10:30 a.m.

4:17 p.m. — Judge rules on fidelity testimony, Labor Day shooting

Judge Clifton Newman said Marian Proctor, Maggie Murdaugh’s sister, can testify about how her concerns for Alex Murdaugh and his family’s safety changed after Murdaugh was shot on Sept. 4, 2021.

However, Newman ruled Proctor can’t testify about Alex and Maggie Murdaugh’s marriage.

The debate began when lead prosecutor Creighton Waters indicated, without the jury absent, he intended to ask Proctor about a 2007 incident in which Murdaugh was contacted by a woman he’d gone to high school with. At the time, Proctor said, Maggie thought it was someone Murdaugh was previously involved with and it bothered her.

Maggie made Murdaugh leave the house for a time when the incident happened, Proctor said.

3:55 p.m. — Legal teams debate ‘fidelity’ evidence

With the jury excused, a brief hearing was held on the state’s push to ask Marian Proctor, Maggie Murdaugh’s sister, about “fidelity” issues in her marriage with Alex Murdaugh.

Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters said the state intended to ask Proctor about an incident that occurred in 2007. Murdaugh was contacted by another woman on social media, Proctor said, which angered Maggie.

During that time, Proctor said Maggie made Murdaugh leave the house for a period of time.

“Maggie thought it was an affair that happened many years ago,” Proctor testified without the jury present. “But Maggie still brought it up.”

Maggie didn’t think “any thing was going on” at the time, Proctor clarified, but it still bothered her.

“I’m not trying to make it bigger than it is, but … the state’s entitled at least in a limited fashion to offer some testimony in this regard that everything was not perfect as the defense has repeatedly elicited,” Waters explained to Judge Clifton Newman.

Defense attorney Jim Griffin objected, calling the evidence “inflammatory.” The event was 15 years ago, Griffin argued, and the defense has already had witnesses testify that Murdaughs’ marriage wasn’t “perfect.”

Newman sent the court into a break while he considers his decision.

3:36 p.m. — Maggie was ‘happy,’ sister says

On the stand, Marian Proctor’s testified mirrored past witness’ perception of Maggie and Paul’s relationship with Alex Murdaugh.

“It was good,” Proctor testified. “It wasn’t perfect, but Maggie was happy.”

The family was tight-knit, Proctor said, and would attend sporting events and fish together often.

During defense attorney Jim Griffin’s questioning of Proctor, Proctor said she found it strange Murdaugh seemed more focused on “clearing Paul’s name” in a 2019 wrongful death lawsuit than finding Maggie and Paul’s killer.

“You’re not critical of Alex wanting to clear Paul’s name after he was murdered, are you?” Griffin asked.

Proctor confirmed she wasn’t criticizing Murdaugh, but felt he should’ve put more effort into finding the killer.

“How do you know that wasn’t a priority?” Griffin asked.

“We never talked about it,” Proctor said. “It was just odd. We were sort of living in fear because we thought this horrible person was out there, but we didn’t know the motive behind the killings.”

3:03 p.m. — Alex told Maggie’s sister she ‘didn’t suffer’

When Marian Proctor first learned her sister, Maggie Murdaugh, was killed, she was at home watching a movie with her husband.

“Bart (her husband) had just gotten a text from Randy (Murdaugh), saying there had been a tragedy,” Proctor said, “and could Bart please call him back on his cellphone. (Randy) had called on Alex’s cellphone.”

Proctor’s husband stepped outside to take the call. He came back in soon after to share the news of Maggie and Paul’s deaths.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” Proctor said, finishing her sentence in tears. “I didn’t think it was them. ... I said, ‘There has to be a mistake. There’s got to be some explanation.’”

When she saw Alex Murdaugh in the days following the murders, Proctor asked Murdaugh if Maggie “had suffered.”

“He assured me that she had not,” Proctor said. “Now I don’t know that I think that was true.”

Proctor said he wasn’t sure who committed the murders, but whoever had must have “thought about it for a really long time.”

“Did that strike you as odd?” lead prosecutor Creighton Waters asked.

“I just didn’t know what that meant,” Proctor said.

2:51 p.m. — Maggie ‘not at all’ involved in family finances

Marian Proctor, Maggie Murdaugh’s sister, said Maggie was never involved with her family’s money.

“Not at all. ... They had a comfortable life. Maggie was happy,” Proctor testified. “It wasn’t a lavish life, but it was a comfortable life. Money, just, it was never an issue for her that she knew about.”

Last week, the Murdaughs’ former housekeeper, Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson, revealed a private conversation she’d had with Maggie.

During their talk, Turrubiate-Simpson shared Maggie was concerned about the family’s declining finances, especially in the wake of Paul Murdaugh’s 2019 boat accident and subsequent lawsuit.

“She was worried because the lawsuit was presented, saying they wanted $30 million,” Turrubiate-Simpson said. “Maggie was crying, saying, ‘We don’t have that kind of money, B. ... If I could give them everything we’ve got and make this go away I would do it in a heartbeat. I’ll start over. We’ll start over. I just want it gone.’”

Turrubiate-Simpson also said Maggie felt Alex Murdaugh wasn’t sharing important details about the lawsuit.

“She said, ‘He doesn’t tell me everything,’” Turrubiate-Simpson testified.

2:45 p.m. — Maggie’s older sister testifies

Marian Proctor, Maggie Murdaugh’s sister, has taken the stand.

Proctor is Maggie’s older sibling by five years, she said.

2:40 p.m. — Defense disputes Alex’s finances as motivation

On cross-examination, defense attorney Jim Griffin undercut prosecutors’ suggestion Alex Murdaugh’s collapsing finances could have motivated him to murder Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.

Throughout the trial, evidence of Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes has emerged. On June 7, 2021 — the same day Paul and Maggie were killed — Murdaugh was confronted by the CFO of his law firm about $792,000 in missing fees from a case he’d represented.

Later that year, Murdaugh had also accumulated millions in debt to Palmetto State Bank.

But at the time of the murders, Griffin said, the situation wasn’t so dire.

“On June 7, Mr. Murdaugh’s financial freight train was about to go off the ravine? That’s not what you’re telling this jury, is it?” Griffin asked.

Griffin added the audit didn’t consider Murdaugh’s non-liquid assets like property, his 401k, and his ownership stake in the PMPED law firm.

Burney responded he was only “looking at the accounts,” rather than making a financial assessment.

2:30 p.m. — Court back in session

The jury has returned to the courtroom with Carson Burney still at the stand.

Burney is a forensic auditor with the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office. He traced transactions made through Alex Murdaugh’s account, included the “fake Forge” account Murdaugh allegedly used to siphon lawsuit settlement funds from his own clients.

Burney is being cross-examined by defense attorney Jim Griffin.

1:00 p.m. — Court breaks for lunch

Judge Clifton Newman broke for lunch. The trial will resume at 2:15 p.m.

11:55 a.m. — Moselle employee testifies

Roger Dale Davis Jr., a Moselle employee who would regularly care for the property’s dogs, agreed with prosecutors Tuesday when asked whether water pools found at the crime scene the night of June 7, 2021, would be unusual.

During his four years of employment — which included feeding Moselle’s dogs and cleaning the kennels — Davis said water wouldn’t usually pool around the feed room, where Paul Murdaugh’s body was found.

Paul’s body also had a pool of water around it.

The water was contentious in earlier testimony, and the defense repeatedly objected when prosecutors attempted to ask if the water had blood streaks in it.

10:30 a.m. – Defense suggests Paul died of ‘contact’ shotgun wound

During cross-examination of Dr. Ellen Riemer, a forensic pathologist who conducted Paul and Maggie Murdaugh’s autopsies, defense attorney Dick Harpootlian proposed several alternate theories in Paul’s death.

On Monday, Riemer testified she believed Paul was killed by two shotgun blasts. The first one, she said, was to the upper left side of his chest but was not fatal. The second shot moved across his left shoulder, into his neck and up through his skull.

The second shot, Riemer concluded, was immediately fatal.

Harpootlian posited the head wound may have instead been the entrance wound, and further asked if Riemer had searched thoroughly for soot around that wound.

Riemer confirmed she hadn’t, since she wouldn’t look for soot around an exit wound. Soot is deposited around a gunshot wound if the gun is within 6 inches of someone’s skin when it’s fired, a “contact” wound often seen in people who die by suicide. Soot would only accumulate around entrance wounds.

The presence of shotgun pellet entrance wounds on the shoulder indicated the shot originated from that direction, Riemer concluded, and no soot or stippling was found around those wounds. Riemer said that indicated the shooter was likely more than 3 feet away.

“People can disagree, but that doesn’t change the truth,” Riemer said, responding to Harpootlian’s suggestion Paul was killed by a contact-distance shotgun blast.

9:30 a.m. – Court resumes with autopsy cross-examination

Dr. Ellen Riemer, the forensic pathologist that conducted the autopsies of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, was on the stand Tuesday morning.

On Monday, lead prosecutor Creighton Waters finished his questioning.

Much of Riemer’s testimony was used to establish a likely sequence for Maggie and Paul’s deaths. Paul was killed by two shotgun blasts — the second of which was fatal — and Maggie died from “four or five” .300 Blackout shots, Riemer testified.

The uncertainty stems from the potential for one of the shots to have caused two wounds, she said.

Monday’s session also included testimony from SLED DNA analyst Sarah Zapata, who said DNA from an “unrelated, unidentified” male was found under Maggie’s fingernails.

Defense attorney Phil Barber suggested the evidence could point to Maggie struggling with a killer from outside the family. Zapata said the small amount of DNA — just three alleles — could also have been picked up from numerous other sources.