Alex Murdaugh trial set to hear from attorney for teen girl killed in boat ... trends now
Alex Murdaugh's double-murder trial is set to hear from the attorney for the family of a teenage girl who was killed in a boat driven by his drunken son Paul.
Mark Tinsley, who represents Mallory Beach's mother, will be called to the stand as prosecutors continue laying out evidence about Murdaugh's financial crimes in the absence of the jury.
At the time of Paul's death he was facing a wrongful death lawsuit after crashing his father's boat while under the influence of alcohol in February, 2019. Murdaugh told cops Paul and his mother Maggie had been killed in revenge for the accident.
However, prosecutors say that on the day Paul and Maggie were murdered, Murdaugh had been confronted over $792,000 he had siphoned from his law firm in a bid to shield his fortune from Beach's family.
Judge Clifton Newman is expected to rule later this morning on whether jurors will be allowed to hear the evidence - which has so far come from six witnesses - which prosecutors say is essential to proving that Murdaugh killed his wife and son.
Murdaugh, 54, shook his head in court Monday as the video was played, mouthing to his attorneys, Jim Griffin (left) and Dick Harpootlian (right): 'I did not say that.'
The defense theory is that somebody killed Paul and Maggie in revenge for the boating accident in February 2019 that left 19-year-old Mallory Beach (pictured) dead.
Paul was driving his father's boat (pictured after the crash) in February 2019
Alex Murdaugh pictured with his wife Maggie and their two sons Paul (left) and Buster
The state argues Murdaugh shot his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, at their hunting lodge in Islandton, South Carolina, on June 7, 2021, to divert attention away from a decade of malfeasance that was gathering 'like a perfect storm.'
Murdaugh's defense team want the evidence tossed out, arguing that there is 'no logical connection' between the financial impropriety and the killings.
Murdaugh - a chronic opioid addict - would go on to arrange for a hitman to shoot him in the head three months later in a botched life insurance fraud scheme.
The jury have been dismissed as the sensational allegations have been heard by Judge Newman.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters last week told the judge: 'When the hounds are at the door, when Hannibal's at the gate for Alex Murdaugh, violence happens.'
He told the judge the evidence was essential for jurors to understand the defendant was 'out of options and out of time.'
Waters said: 'He was burning through cash like crazy. He was out of options. The $792,000 was gone in no time at all. He had been living in a velocity of money that is really quite stunning.
'And he constantly needed to achieve more money to avoid the reckoning that was coming.
'The evidence will show on that particular date, June 7, 2021, when he's being asked about these fees, the financial condition is not there. He's extremely leveraged in the debt that he has.
'And he's forced to do these things to stay ahead.'
He argued that evidence about Murdaugh paying a hitman to shoot him in the head 12 weeks after the killings of his wife and son was relevant because there was a 'symmetry' between the two acts of violence which centered around money.
But defense attorney Jim Griffin said: 'Your honor there is no logical connection and it does not lead to evidence of motive.'
Murdaugh's lawyer places a hand on his shoulder to comfort him as he sobs. The 30-minute interview took place around 1am - about four hours after the killings - inside a state agent's vehicle.
'There is no financial gain, there is nothing to be gained ... it is all just a theory, there are no facts,' he told the judge.
He rubbished the idea that killing his wife and son would help Murdaugh 'get out from scrutiny.'
The judge was forced to exclude the jury as the state called to the witness stand Jeanne Seckinger, who was CFO at Murdaugh's firm Peters Murdaugh Parker Eltzroth and Detrick (PMPED), at the time of the killings.
She recounted how on the day of the murders she had confronted Murdaugh about the missing $792,000.
'He was leaning on a file cabinet outside his office,' Seckinger told the court. 'He looked at me and said "what do you want now?" and gave me a very dirty look, not a look I had ever got from him before.'
Seckinger said she told him they better step into his office and she proceeded to tell him how she had reason to believe he had received the funds owed to the law firm for the case.
The CFO explained that in their line of work all fees went directly to the legal firm - if not, 'that would be stealing.'
Seckinger said that Murdaugh assured her that the money was there and that he could get it - he then went on to discuss his ailing father, the family patriarch Randolph III, and the conversation between the pair continued 'as friends.'
Later that day, prosecutors allege
