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Alex Murdaugh is currently on trial for shooting and killing his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, at the family's hunting estate in June 2021.
As per the New York Post, during the trial, prosecutors at Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial played a video that showed the suspect at the crime scene minutes before they were shot multiple times near the family’s dog kennel.
The video, filmed by Murdaugh’s 22-year-old son Paul Murdaugh, reportedly discredited the South Carolina disbarred attorney’s long-held claim that he was not present near the dog kennels when his wife and son were murdered. Murdaugh had told authorities that he was allegedly taking a nap on their couch while his family was shot.
However, Lt. David Britton Dove of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division’s computer crimes unit testified that the video shot minutes before the killing revealed three voices. The video that showed a dog at the kennel was less than a minute long and was reportedly filmed five minutes before Paul and Maggie were killed.
In the trial, prosecutors alleged that the voices belonged to the two victims and Alex Murdaugh, an assertion corroborated by two friends of Paul Murdaugh who testified that they were positive they heard Alex, Paul, and Maggie Murdaugh's voices in the background of the clip.
The video was presented as crucial evidence to incriminate Alex Murdaugh in the deaths of his family
The video, presented as crucial evidence by prosecutors in the Alex Murdaugh murder trial, challenged the suspect’s previous interviews with police, where he alleged that he was never in the kennels on the night of the murder.
During the trial, prosecutors painstakingly detailed the timeline of the murder, which included the video shot five minutes before Paul and Maggie were fatally shot.
Prosecutors argued that the video, which began at 8:44 pm on June 7, 2021, placed Murdaugh at the scene of the crime after two friends of Paul testified that they heard the suspects’ voice in the video filmed five minutes before they were killed. South Carolina’s chief prosecutor, Creighton Waters, said:
“The evidence is going to show that these things every one of us carries around in our pockets, that he [Alex] was there and he was there just minutes before with Maggie and Paul just before their cellphones go silent forever and ever.”
During the trial, officials testified that Paul did not use his cell phone after recording the video of the dog. The dog was reportedly left in the family's kennel by Paul's friend, who asked for a photo of its tail in a text message around 8:49 pm, five minutes after the clip was recorded. However, officials said that Gibson’s multiple texts to Paul, who was active online minutes before, went unanswered.
Alex Murdaugh has maintained his innocence, though prosecutors allege that he killed his family to cover up his financial crimes. If convicted, Murdaugh faces a minimum of 30 years in prison.
