CNN
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Prosecutors within the homicide trial of Alex Murdaugh performed footage in court docket Wednesday that might undercut the disgraced former legal professional’s declare he was not current on the scene of the killings when his spouse and son have been murdered.
Courtroom proceeded Wednesday with the continued testimony of Lt. David Britton Dove, a supervisor within the pc crimes heart on the South Carolina Regulation Enforcement Division, who extracted all forensics from the cellphone of Murdaugh’s 22-year-old son Paul, in addition to these belonging to Alex Murdaugh and his spouse Maggie.
The video, simply wanting a minute lengthy, was filmed on Paul’s cellphone beginning at 8:44 p.m. the evening of the killings, Dove testified. In his assessment of the trio’s telephones, the footage was the one video or photograph Dove deemed related to the investigation, he mentioned, telling the court docket it seemed to be recorded within the space of the Murdaugh household’s kennels.
Dove believed Paul was attempting to take a video of a canine’s tail, he instructed the court docket, including three completely different voices might be heard within the footage. And whereas Dove didn’t personally know the voices, he mentioned, “You possibly can inform that they’re completely different voices.”
Murdaugh appeared emotional whereas the video performed in court docket. The prosecution ended its direct questioning of Dove with out clarifying who the voices belonged to.
Prosecutors imagine one of many voices heard on the video performed in court docket belongs to Murdaugh, and that voice is the one different on the video in addition to the victims, putting him on the scene on the time of the murders.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters of the South Carolina Lawyer Common’s Workplace – which is prosecuting the case as a result of Murdaugh household’s decades-old ties with the native solicitor’s workplace – teased the video in his opening assertion final week, saying that whereas Alex claimed to investigators he was napping on the home, video proof would present he was current on the household’s kennels, the place the our bodies of his son and spouse have been discovered.
“You’ll see that video and also you’ll hear from witnesses that determine Paul’s voice, Maggie’s voice and Alex’s voice,” Waters mentioned, telling the court docket Paul was filming a canine that belonged to his good friend as a result of they have been involved concerning the animal’s tail. Murdaugh “instructed anybody who would hear he was by no means there … The proof will present that he was there. He was on the homicide scene with the 2 victims” minutes earlier than Paul’s cellphone “locks endlessly.”
Prosecutors have indicated mobile phone proof is essential of their case in opposition to Murdaugh, who has pleaded not responsible to 2 counts of homicide and two counts of possession of a weapon through the fee of a violent crime within the killings of his spouse Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh and his 22-year-old son Paul on June 7, 2021.
Murdaugh known as 911 the evening of the killings to report he’d discovered his spouse and son shot useless on the household’s residence in Islandton, South Carolina – a property often called Moselle.
However prosecutors accuse Murdaugh of committing the murders to distract consideration from a collection of alleged illicit schemes he was working to keep away from “private authorized and monetary break,” per court docket filings. Separate from the homicide expenses, he’s additionally dealing with 99 expenses stemming from alleged monetary crimes, per the state legal professional normal.
Proof will present, the state has claimed, that Murdaugh’s alleged monetary crimes have been “about to come back to gentle” when his spouse and son have been killed.
In his testimony Tuesday, Dove, the fifteenth witness known as by the prosecution, detailed the communications of Maggie’s cellphone the evening of the killings, together with a textual content from Alex at 9:47 p.m. that learn, “Name me babe.” It was by no means learn.
In his opening assertion final week, Waters instructed the jury Murdaugh repeatedly known as his spouse that night earlier than texting her that he was going to go to his mom and driving to Almeda, South Carolina.
“It’s as much as you,” Waters mentioned, “to resolve whether or not or not he’s attempting to fabricate an alibi.”
In response to Dove’s testimony Tuesday, the evening she was killed, Maggie learn two textual content messages in a bunch chat at 8:31 p.m. and eight:49 p.m., seconds earlier than her cellphone locked for the ultimate time.
The show of Maggie’s cellphone turned off minutes later, at 8:53 p.m. At 8:54 p.m., the orientation modified to panorama and the digicam activated – a sign, Dove mentioned, the cellphone was moved and the digicam tried to find Maggie’s face in an unsuccessful try to unlock.
Maggie’s cellphone confirmed repeated missed calls from her husband over the course of the subsequent hour, Dove testified, together with proof it had switched to portrait mode. That, the skilled mentioned, was one other indication the cellphone was possible held in somebody’s hand. A last name from Murdaugh was missed simply earlier than 10:04 p.m.
However these calls seemed to be lacking from Murdaugh’s cellphone, Dove mentioned Wednesday, testifying that decision logs present a niche in calls between June 4 and 10:25 p.m. the evening of June 7.
“A spot like that will point out” that calls have been “truly faraway from there,” Dove mentioned, including the one strategy to take away the calls from the log could be to take action manually.
Requested particularly if the calls have been deleted from the log, Dove mentioned, “it could seem that manner,” noting there was no strategy to know after they have been deleted or who was accountable.
