South Carolina legal scion Alex Murdaugh’s double-murder trial begins with opening statements

Attorney Jim Griffin speaks with Alex Murdaugh tears up after the jury was excused and the defense and prosecution teams discuss how to handle sensitive crime scene photos during his double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. (Joshua Boucher/The State via AP)

Disgraced South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh, who is accused of fatally shooting his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, in 2021, appeared to cry and wipe tears away in court on Tuesday as his defense and prosecutors made opening statements.

Murdaugh's apparent tears began when defense attorney, Dick Harpoolitan, described the moment Maggie Murdaugh was shot in the head.

"And after she falls to the ground and had one bullet that has...probably traveled up and hit her brain, she's on the ground, and whoever the perpetrator was walked up, took that AR, and put one in the back of her head. Executed," Harpoolitan stated Tuesday.

The defense described the graphic manner in which the shootings were carried out, leaving apparent brain matter from the victims on the ground at the crime scene.

Alex Murdaugh pulled out a tissue as his attorneys described the violent scene and wiped his nose and beneath his eyes.

Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian, left, and prosecutor Creighton Waters speak as they finish jury selection for Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. (Joshua Boucher/The State via AP)

Dick Harpootlian begins his closing statements by telling the jurors Waters was stating “theories” and “conjecture.”

“This is Alex Murdaugh. Alex was the loving father of Paul and the loving husband of Maggie. You’re not going to hear a single witness that say[s] that their relationships … were anything other than loving.”

He added that the prosecutors’ case is “not believable.”

“Executed. Executed. Why? This is going to be interesting, because we don’t know why. He doesn’t know why,” Harpootlian said.

Murdaugh left the home at 9:06, and returned at 10:01 on the night of the murders. 

Harpootlian adds that Murdaugh then gave police the password to open Maggie's cell phone.

"And we also know at 9:06 ... that phone is being thrown on the side of the road almost a half-mile away." That, he said, "is magic. That is inexplicable."

He later adds: "The facts are what matter here. The facts."

He then alludes to footage showing Murdaugh's interactions with investigators:

“When you hear those questions on the video tapes on the night. He’s found his wife and son brutally butchered … he’s hysterical.”

“Why is it September 2022 before they charge him? Harpootlian later adds. “They decided that night he did it.”

He adds: “Whether he’d been down to the dog pens that night or not, doesn’t matter. Really doesn’t matter.”

"He didn't do it. He is presumed innocent ... When you look at him, you have to believe he is innocent. He didn't do it," Harpootlian later tells the jurors. "That's so difficult to do. I get it."

"There’s no direct evidence. There’s no eyewitness,” Harpootlian goes on. “There’s no forensic evidence tying him to the crime. None."

From left, Buster Murdaugh, 26, his mother Maggie Murdaugh, his brother Paul Murdaugh and his father Alex Murdaugh. Alex is accused of fatally shooting Maggie, 52, and their son, Paul, 22, June 7, 2021. (Facebook)

After a brief recess, Waters added: "The defendant said that he was never at those kennels -- that he was napping," Waters said, adding that cell phone evidence shows otherwise.

On the night of the murders Paul recorded a video, Waters says, to send to his friend: "8:44 and 55 seconds, and on that video, you'll see that video you'll hear from witnesses that identify Paul's voice, Maggie's voice, and Alec's voice. He told anyone who would listen that he was never there ... the evidence will show that he was there. He was at the murder scene with the two victims.

"Just minutes later, "Paul's phone locks forever."

"Maggie's phone locks at 8:49 and 41 seconds ... and she never answers another text, never receives another text, never answers another phone call."

At 9:02, Murdaugh phone begins picking up phone calls again, then he calls his wife, and calls her a second phone just minutes later. "At 9:06, he turns on his car, his Surburban. He texts Maggie, going, 'Be right back, I'm going to check on mom."

When he gets back to Moselle at 10:01, he calls 911. 

Earlier in the statements, Waters said that about a week after the murders, Alex Murdaugh went to his mother's home unexpectedly and was seen going "upstairs" with a tarp-like substance. The substance was later determined to be a blue raincoat that was covered in gunshot residue, Waters said. He added that jurors would be hearing from Murdaugh's mother's caretaker. Murdaugh's mother suffers from advanced Alzheimer's, he said.

Cell phone evidence from Maggie's, Paul's and Alex's devices are "key," Waters said.

Waters concludes his opening statements by saying: “Alex murdered Maggie and Paul. He was the storm. The storm was coming for them … just like the storms that are headed for here right now.” 

A diagram shows where Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were fatally shot on the family's sprawling hunting estate in Islandton, South Carolina, on June 7, 2021. (Colleton County Court)

Judge Clifton Newman addressed the panel of 18 jurors -- including six alternates -- before the Prosecutor Prosecutor Creighton Waters begins his opening statements.

"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 ..."

"Pop pop pop ... took her down," the prosecutor said. "Catastrophic damage. Killed her instantly."

"Neither Paul nor Maggie had any defensive wounds ... as if they didn't see a threat coming from their attacker."

Murdaugh "told anyone who would listen that he was not at those kennels. But evidence will also show ... that he was there ... the cell phones are going to show otherwise."

Waters told the jurors they would be seeing footage showing Alex Murdaugh's conversations with investigators on the night of their murders.

“Watch those closely. Watch his expressions. Listen to what he’s saying. Use that common sense. Does this seem right?”

Murdaugh's only surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, and his adult brother, John Marvin, were present in the courtroom for the opening statements.

The 12-person jury consists of 4 White men, 6 White women and 2 Black men.

The boat Paul Murdaugh was driving when he drunkenly crashed into a bridge in Beaufort, South Carolina, killing Mallory Beach and injuring four others. (Beaufort County Sheriff's Office)

A South Carolina judge on Tuesday approved a settlement agreement between members of the Murdaugh family and victims of a deadly 2019 boat crash on the Murdaughs' boat.

Earlier this month, the family of 19-year-old Mallory Beach, who died aboard the Murdaughs' boat during the accident, reached a settlement with Buster Murdaugh, 26, the only living son of disgraced South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh, 54, as well as the estate of Alex Murdaugh's deceased wife, Maggie Murdaugh.

Alex Murdaugh is accused of murdering his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, in June 2021.

While the Beach family is "pleased" with Judge Daniel Hall's ruling, they do not feel it was the "best decision given the circumstances," Beach family attorney Mark Brandon Tinsley told Fox News Digital in a statement. It was, however, "the only decision for all who had any real interest," he said.

Tinsley added: "We also believe the ruling will help give some closure to the people who so desperately deserve it.”

Alex Murdaugh, right, is shown with his family in an undated photo.

Prosecutors have suggested that the family patriarch murdered Paul and Maggie over mounting debts and fear that his decadeslong schemes to embezzle money from his clients would be exposed.

The Murdaughs, a prominent Democratic family in South Carolina, had wielded enormous judicial and political power for over a century. Four generations served as the local prosecutor, known as the solicitor, who oversees the five counties at the southern tip of the state. 

But their dominance began to wane in 2019 after Paul was accused of drunkenly slamming his father’s boat into the pilings of a bridge in Beaufort, killing 19-year-old Mallory Beach, injuring four others and triggering a series of lawsuits that shone a spotlight on Alex’s alleged crooked financial dealings.

Since the double slaying, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) reopened investigations into the mysterious 2015 death of Buster’s classmate Stephen Smith, with whom Buster was rumored to be having a secret affair. Authorities also launched a fresh probe into the 2018 death of the Murdaugh’s long time housekeeper.  

Paul Murdaugh, who was later killed, allegedly by his father, in an undated booking photograph. (South Carolina Attorney General's Office/WTAT-TV/DT)

Alex Murdaugh's youngest son Paul sent his friends a Snapchat video shortly before his murder — and it is a key piece of evidence in the state's case against him, South Carolina prosecutors revealed last week in a new court filing.

"Amongst other things, critical to the case is a video sent out to several friends at approximately 7:56 p.m. on the night of the murders," wrote Senior Assistant Deputy Attorney General Creighton Waters in a petition to secure the attendance of a Snapchat witness. "The contents of this video is important to proving the State's case in chief."

It's the first time the video has been mentioned publicly by prosecutors, who have been tightlipped about the evidence they have against the scion of the once-powerful legal dynasty. In the filing, the prosecutor asked Judge Clifton Newman to sign an order requiring a Snapchat representative to testify at the Colleton County trial.

"The witness, Snapchat Inc Custodian of Records, of Santa Monica, California, is a material witness because in a search warrant return, Snapchat provided records belonging to one of the victims in this case," Waters wrote in the petition. "Because this video was provided by Snapchat, a Snapchat custodian is required to testify in person that the video is a true and accurate record kept in the normal course of business activity."

The documents do not indicate what is shown on the Snapchat video.

Alex Murdaugh is accused of gunning down his son, Paul, and his wife, Maggie, on June 7, 2021, near the dog kennels on their sprawling 1,700-acre hunting estate known as Moselle in Islandton, South Carolina.   

Prosecutors say he used a shotgun to blow off his son's head, which was "severed" from his body, according to court papers.  

Maggie was shot with a semiautomatic rifle five times — including in the back of the head — and died about 30 yards from her son, according to police and court papers.   

Prosecutors have suggested that the family patriarch murdered Paul and Maggie over mounting debts and fear that his decadeslong schemes to embezzle money from his clients would be exposed.  

Murdaugh has denied involvement. He alleges that he found his wife and son's lifeless bodies at 10:06 p.m. when he placed a hysterical 911 call to police. He has one surviving son, Richard "Buster" Murdaugh.   

Video shows  Alex Murdaugh being led into Colleton County Courthouse on Monday for jury selection in the trial for the double slaying of Murdaugh’s son, Paul, and wife, Maggie, in June 2021. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)  

Alex Murdaugh is led out of the Colleton County courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023. He is accused of murdering his wife, Maggie, and their son, Paul. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)

Opening statements begin Wednesday in the South Carolina trial for disgraced local lawyer and prominent figure Alex Murdaugh in connection with the shooting deaths of his wife and one of their two sons.

Alex Murdaugh, 54, is accused in the double slaying of Paul, 22, and Murdaugh's wife, Maggie, 52, in June 2021. Since their deaths, he has been disbarred and has further been linked to several more deaths in the community, and an alleged failed attempt to take his own life. 

Since Monday, the embattled legal scion has been photographed entering and exiting the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro. Jury selection began Monday, with hundreds of prospective jurors being whittled down by Wednesday to a panel of 18 jurors, including six alternates.

Murdaugh has vehemently denied his involvement in the pair’s deaths. If convicted, he faces up to life without parole and a minimum of 30 years in prison. His trial is expected to last weeks.