Law&Crime Sidebar - 6 Crucial Moments from Alex Murdaugh’s Brother John Marvin’s Testimony in Family Murders Trial

Episode Date: February 28, 2023

Alex Murdaugh’s brother took the stand and testified in the family murders trial that’s shaking up South Carolina on Monday. During an emotional day on the stand, John Marvin Murdaugh gave his version of events, detailing his knowledge of the investigation and his brother’s actions after Maggie and Paul were shot to death.John Marvin Murdaugh gave his version of events, detailing his knowledge of the investigation and his brother’s actions after Maggie and Paul were shot to death. The Law&Crime Network’s Jesse Weber breaks down six crucial moments from John Marvin’s testimony.LAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergWriting & Video Editing - Michael DeiningerGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Vanessa Bein & Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. In my mind and out loud, I told Paul I loved him. I told him, I don't know. I just, I loved him and I promised him that I'd find out who did this to him. You still know what to do, but it was just, it was tough. And you promised him you would find out who did this to him. Yes, sir, I did. Have you found out?

I have not. John Marvin, the brother of accused killer Alec Murdoch, takes the stand and provides emotional and graphic testimony of cleaning the crime scene, as well as potential missteps by law enforcement. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Let's talk about the testimony of the last defense witness in the Alec Murdoch murder trial. As we come to the end of the trial of the once prominent attorney who has fallen from grace and is now accused of murdering his wife, Maggie, and son Paul by allegedly shooting them to death back on June 7, 2021. We want to focus on how the defense wrapped up their case.

And specifically, the testimony of John. Marvin Murdoch. This is Alec Murdoch's brother. He provided very emotional and graphic testimony. And I have to imagine that there was a strategic reason to save him for last, presumably as the last defense witness, his testimony is going to be fresh in the jury's minds as they begin their deliberations in the next few days. So let's get into it. And where John Marvin really started is he talked about the family. He talked about the relationship between Alec and Maggie, that it was a good relationship. It was a good marriage. This is consistent with what we've heard during the course of the trial, that there was not this kind of contentious relationship where Alec would want to kill his

family. There was evidence that maybe there were certain problems. Maybe they were worrying about the financial lawsuit that Alec Murdoch and the family was facing. There might have been concern over finances. There was even testimony that Maggie may have had her ring off at one point, but really nothing that stands out. And John Marvin explained how much he loved Paul, how he had a close relationship with him. He talked about how he actually saw Paul earlier that day. Nothing out of the ordinary. He even says he spoke to Alec on the phone when Alec was presumably driving to their mother's house. This is after when prosecutors say Maggie and Paul were killed and John Marvin said Alex's demeanor was normal on the phone. But listen to John Marvin describe how he found out

about the deaths of his sister-in-law and nephew. Elick called me and just absolutely has hysterical. As soon as I heard his voice, knew something bad was going on, didn't know what. And, you know, I'm in my pajamas. He said, you know, something bad is really happy. I don't know how his exact word, but I think he said Maggie and Paul have been hurt really badly. Please get here as fast as you can. So it's going to be a question of whether Alec Murdoch was actually hysterically crying and John Marvin's telling the truth. If the jury accepts, that, then that's going to help the defense because it shows that Alec Murdoch was genuinely distraught over his wife and son. Then again, someone could kill their family and still be

upset. Interestingly, he said that when he arrived at the Moselle property, he did think that Alec had showered. Remember, Alec Murdoch said he showered before dinner that night before Maggie and Paul were killed. Prosecution seems to suggest that Alec may have showered after the killings to clean himself up. But what we really need to discuss is, what John Marvid did. So he calls a friend in law enforcement the next day, and he asks what's going on with the crime scene. And eventually he gets the green light to go in to that crime scene

and listen to what happened next. And was it cleaned up? No, Jim, it was not cleaned up. Were there skull fragments? Yeah, so. You know, so, excuse me, oh, this could be really difficult. So I could easily see where Maggie had been. You know, I saw the night before where the sheets were,

and somebody had told me that who was who. So I could see where Maggie had been, and it was grass, and, you know, they had covered it up with dirt, so it really was nothing to see where Maggie was. I walked over to the feed room and y'all have heard the descriptions y'all saw it I've never seen pictures and I've told them before coming to this court

that I was not going to see pictures but y'all can imagine what I experienced it had not been cleaned up I saw blood I saw brains I saw pieces of skull and when I say brains it could just be tissue I don't know what I was saying it was just it was terrible and for some reason I thought it was my

something that I needed to do for Paul to clean it up I felt like it was the right thing to do I felt like I owed him and I started cleaning and I can promise you no mother or father or aunt or uncle

should ever have to see and do what I did that day. I don't know, I'm not blaming anybody, but it's just, I was just overwhelmed. I did everything I could, and I would have moments where I would, I would stop crying for a moment, and just, you know, just in disbelief. At one point, I called my brother Randy and told him what I was doing, trying to describe what I was doing. And he immediately told me to stop doing it. It was not good for me. It was not healthy for me to be there. And I couldn't stop. I just, I had to do it for ball. It's just what I had to do. That is horrifying. And there are clearly outstanding questions about law enforcement allowing him to be there, not preserving

evidence, mistakes they made in this investigation. And that's been a major point from the defense. You can't believe the state's case, the state's evidence, because there was contamination. Maybe there was evidence of other assailants that was destroyed. The defense has really highlighted sloppy police work. But I think the bigger issue for the jury is with this testimony, I think, is when you hear about the brutality of this attack, and the defense called their own experts to suggest that Paul was killed at close range. His head was essentially, I'm sorry to say this, blown off. It may cause the jury to pause. Pause to think about whether or not Alec Murdoch could really have done this to his own son. And these details are important for them to hear.

It is a question I'm sure that the jury is going to wrestle with. But let's stick with the idea of John Marvin helping law enforcement. But it was brought to my attention that Maggie's phone was not there. And law enforcement had not found it. And I can't say that, in fact, I can probably say that I didn't think of it because I'm not a big phone user or a big app user or whatnot. But somebody brought my attention and says, listen, if Buster or Elek, if they have an app on their phone, like find my phone or find my friends or an app like that, they said you very likely can find out where the phone is. If the battery is not dead. And so I went to Buster and sure enough, I said Buster, do you have this one of these

apps like they're talking about? And he said, yeah, sure I did. I said, well, open it up. He opened it up and he handed me the phone and I see Maggie's name and I press it to activate it. And it pings Maggie's phone just out front of the property. And I was like, I hate to say him. I said, Holy shit, there it is. And I said, Buster, I'm taking your phone. I'm going to go back down to the shed and show it to law enforcement. And who did you approach first about the phone? Well, I don't know who it was.

Presumably it was SLED agents, because keep in mind, I didn't know any of these guys with SLED. I mean, there were a couple of faces that I'd seen before, but I don't know these guys. I've come to know them, but I don't know them or didn't know them then. So I went up to a sled agent, or two sled agents, and said, presumably sled agents, and said, hey, I've got Buster's phone here, and it's got an app on it that can find the phone, and it's showing Maggie's phones right out here, unless, you all want to let us go get it. And he said, no need, we have technology coming later today that we should be able to find it. And it just blew me away that I'm sitting here showing them where Maggie's phone is, but they won't take the time to walk with me or take this phone itself. I mean, I'd give them the phone to go find it.

So I walk over, I knew Duffy Stone. He was the solicitor. I knew one of his investigators. I walked over to them and said the exact same thing. And they immediately said, absolutely, let's go find this thing before the battery goes dead. And what happened? That we did that. Well, we started, actually we started walking down the back entrance or the kennel entrance, if you will, and as we were, at that time, the agent was holding the phone.

You know, I'm looking at it with him. And when it pings, it creates a dot or location, and that dot jumped from right at the end of that road, down the road, I don't know, maybe a half a mile, three quarters of a mile. And so we walked back, got into a car, and drove down. to where it was showing the phone. And was the phone... And I rode with those agents, the solicitor's office agents. Was the phone ultimately located on the side of the road? Absolutely. We found it in a matter of minutes.

Okay. Do you remember how it was collected? I mean, were you present when it was collected? I was. So I was on... There was a cow pasture on one side and it's wooded on the other side, and I was on the side that the cow pasture's on, if you will. and I heard him say, I got it. And so, you know, of course, I'll walk back beside his car, and, you know, I'm good ways from it, but I see him over there. And I think he took either some ribbon or some flagging or flagging tape and marked the phone.

And I don't think he touched it. I think he left it right where it was, called SLED. And maybe at that time, maybe they had been communicating, but SLED had blocked off the road at this point, and one of the agents came up and picked the phone up. This again goes to the idea of law enforcement not doing the right thing, right? They're blowing John Marvin off. How was it that he was the one who found such a crucial piece of evidence, Maggie's phone on the side of the road?

And then, of course, this helped suggest that Alec was cooperative with police. And if he really is the murderer, would he have been so cooperative? Then again, on cross-examination, John Marvin did admit that his brother, may not have been that forthcoming. Before August of 2022, at that interview, when you heard your brother's voice at the kennels, had he ever told you that he was down there just prior to the murders? No, sir. Did he ever tell you that afterwards, after you listened to that video?

No, sir. And I'm trying to think if we've been able to have an opportunity to even speak. Okay. Okay. All right. So you'd agree that if he had not told Sled that, that was not full cooperation, correct? If he had not told Sled that he was at the kennels just before the murders, he had not actually been fully cooperative. What's your question?

Would you agree that that is not full cooperation? By him not telling Sled that he was at the kennel? Correct. I would say that, yes, he lied. Okay. Yeah, Alec Murdoch lying about being down at the kennels, essentially the crime scene. That's not great. There's one thing to not tell law enforcement the truth, but to not even tell your own family.

I mean, the jury is going to have to weigh whether he lied about this because he was paranoid from drugs and thought everyone was out to get him or because he murdered his family and tried to cover it up. John Marvin also testified that he thought what law enforcement did next in the case was quite odd. John Marvin, were you aware of a news release that was issued that morning? Tuesday, June 8, that the public had no need to be alarmed or concerned for their safety? Yes, sir. Well, what was your reaction to that?

I mean, it's quite baffling. It still is. Two people have been killed, and they're telling me that everybody's safe. That tells me that whoever's done this is in jail, and they are 100% positive. because if they're not in jail, nobody's safe. The idea here that law enforcement had tunnel vision. They only looked at Alec Murdoch. They didn't thoroughly look into other individuals like they should have. Now, I also want to hit upon another important moment from his testimony,

and that is when he talked about Alex's drug problems. So if you recall, Alec Murdoch blamed his addiction for his paranoia, the reason he says he lied to police during the murder investigation, particularly like I said, him not being down at the kennels, the crime scene before the killings. So understanding this drug addiction, understanding what he was going through is very important. Listen to what John Marvin observed. Prior to Labor Day weekend 2021, were you aware of to whether or not Alec had a opioid addiction? No, sir. Did you transport Alec, drive it, Alec, from the hospital in Savannah to a DJ?

facility in Atlanta that weekend or? Well, I believe it would have been on that Monday. I was not driving. Randy and I took him. Randy was driving and I was in the bag. But yes, sir, we did take him to a detox facility. And where was the facility located? Just outside of Atlanta.

Okay. And what was, can you describe for the jury, Alex, Alex's condition, like physical condition in the car? Yes, sir. So when I met Randy over in Savannah, he had Alec and I got into car or Randy's truck with him. I'd never seen anything like it. I've seen television shows of talking about the leg twitching and squirminess, if you will.

and that's the first thing I mean you could just tell he was sweating he was thrashing about you know Jim I don't know how much detail you want me to go into what did he turn around the seat of the car and what was he doing yeah so so maybe halfway there at one point he had taken his seat belt off and he had his head down where your fanny would be in the seat and is trying to stretch his legs and just kind of steady just like thrashing him and kicking them. It's just, again, I've seen TV, but I've never seen something like this in real life. And was he able to control himself? No, sir. I said about detail. So he messed himself. He had diarrhea. It just couldn't control it.

And then... And I say diarrhea. I'm not talking about at a restroom. I'm talking about... I'm talking about in the car, in his pants. Clearly, this was a serious problem for Alec Murdoch. But how the jury is going to weigh the drug factor into their deliberations. We'll wait and see. And that's all we have for you here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us.

Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.