Law&Crime Sidebar - Alex Murdaugh Trial: Prosecutors Unload Incriminating Evidence Against Accused Family Killer

Episode Date: February 9, 2023

Prosecutors continued to unload incriminating evidence against Alex Murdaugh in court Tuesday as forensic experts and former colleagues testified against the disgraced lawyer. The Law&Crime Network’s Angenette Levy breaks down crucial testimony surrounding the mysterious blue jacket and Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:If you like Law&Crime Sidebar, you might like Canadian True Crime, Canada’s top independent podcast. Check it out here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...LAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo 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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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. Hi, I'm Christy, an Australian who's called Canada Home for more than a decade, and I'm also the host and producer of Canadian True Crime. Join me for an immersive, deep dive into some of the most thought-provoking and often heartbreaking true crime cases in Canada. Using facts curated from court documents and news archives, I take you through each story from beginning to end.

You can find Canadian True Crime on Apple Podcasts, your favorite podcast app, or visit canadiantruecrime.cai. I would say there were a significant number of particles of particles characteristic of Gunshot Prime Residue on the inside of this jacket, yes. Gunshot residue on the inside of a rain jacket, does it tie Alec Murdoch to the murders of his wife and son? I'm Anjanette Levy and welcome to Law and Crimes Sidebar podcast. On Tuesday, jurors and Alec Murdoch's double murder trial heard for the first time about his theft from his law firm and clients.

He's charged with a number of financial crimes as we've been telling you around 99 or so. On Tuesday, the chief financial officer for his former law firm testified about confronting Murdoch on June 7, 2021, about $7,000 in missing fees from a lawsuit that had settled with another firm. Hours later, Paul and Maggie Murdoch were murdered. Jeannie Secondger went through a number of checks she found that Murdoch had deposited for himself. And we have the, what's this right here? That is the date of the check. where the funds were stolen from. All right, and then right here?

That's the client name. All right, and then right here? That's what we call the civil action number that's been filed within the court. All right, and then the category? Is what type that he did, and most of them are forged payments, or you see a couple other,

took insurance, so he had a few methods. All right, and then over here, is that when y'all had to pay the money back? Yes, so for each one of these, the money that was stolen, and all the partners got together and had to put the money back into client trust, and we went through

and corrected and met with every client and distributed money back to them. That's an ongoing basis still going on. For all these clients, you had to pay, the law firm had to pay money back. The partners came up with money and paid all the clients back. And why did y'all have to pay all that money back?

Because Ellic had stolen it. Jeannie Seconder, who's known Alec Murdoch for 40 years also opined on his skills as a lawyer using some pretty colorful language. What were your observations of him as a lawyer? I think Eleg was successful more, not from his work ethic, but from his ability to establish relationships and to manipulate people into settlements and clients into liking him. So he did it through the article, basically. That can be an art.

Did he, in your estimation, in your judgment, was he more of a technical type lawyer, or was he one that really understood how to use the emotion of a case? He would use the emotion of a case and the emotion of his clients. So Jeannie Secondger basically said that Alec Murdoch was a BS artist. On cross-examination, Alec Murdoch's lawyer. lawyer Jim Griffin reminded Secondger that this trial is actually about the murders of Maggie and Paul and pointed out she may have some bias. And we're not here today to try those charges on the financial crimes. We're here. You

understand. You're testifying because he's been charged with the murder of his wife, Maggie, and his son Paul. I do. Okay. And they were murdered on June 7th, 2020. Yes, sir. Now some of these, it looks like, according to your testimony, that this misconduct has been going on since as early as 2011? Unfortunately, when we found that out. Right. So some 10 years before the murders of Maggie and Paul, correct? That's correct.

He managed to fool a lot of people, myself included. understand and understand do you have the right to be very hurt and angry about that and are you hurt and angry about that oh yes i take it very personally haunts me that i let this or that this happened you feel like it happened on your watch and i think anybody'd feel normal feeling like that's the big portrayal of trust next up was ronnie crosbie he's known alec murdock for much of their lives, and they were former law partners together at the now disbanded law firm. Crosby described his relationship with Paul Murdoch. I need Paul since he was born.

Both he and Buster had always referred to me as Uncle Ronnie. We lived just across the way from each other, so I got to know him. I don't know if he used to when he got into hunting he hunted a lot on my property handbuster I have a farm right here in Collin County where I grew up and so I got to know him you know that way and then Paul was you think this would be that hard Paul was really good with kids and he took a liking to my son who's younger but he spent a lot of time with him. He'd take him hunting, fishing.

They did a lot of hog hunting together. Paul had some hog dogs and, you know, just was around him a lot. He had a great personality. It's really, you know, somebody kid I really loved, you know. Paul will come over to your property, a good bet. Yes, and then, you know, and then sometimes as my son got older, he would go over to Moselle and not with Barker. I'm not with Paul.

Crosby said that he knew that Alec Murdoch had had some financial difficulties because of some real estate deals that went south. On the night of the murders, he said he drove to Moselle and went directly to the kennels around 11 p.m. He said that he came back to Moselle and that he went to the house and that when he got to the house, he discovered that Maggie and Paul were not there,

and that he then got back in his car or suburban which was an office-issued vehicle and he drove down to the kennels and it's more than just kennels there I think y'all have seen maybe sheds there and he discovered Maggie and Paul's bodies did he say

whether or not he had gone down to the kennels with Maggie and Paul before he left to go to Almeda after 9 p.m. That came up in one of the conversations, and he specifically said that he did not. He did not. He did not. Did you recognize any voices on that video? The three voices on that video are the voices of Paul Murdick, Maggie Murdo.

Mertick and Elek Murdick. And how sure are you? How sure are you? I'm 100% sure. That's who's voices. Or on that, the audio there. If you like this show, you might like Canadian True Crime. That is Canada's top independent podcast. Canadian True Crime is a passion product produced and narrated by Christy Lee.

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for you, so find Canadian True Crime on your favorite podcast app or at canadiantruecrime.ca. Crosby is now the third witness to tell jurors that he 100% is certain that that was Alec Murdoch's voice on that kennel recording. That was recorded at 844 p.m. the night of the murders minutes before Paul and Maggie were murdered. Crosby then spoke about when he learned that Alec had been stealing from clients and what Alec had to say about it. I was giving a folder that had paperwork in it and that paperwork consisted of checks both front and back and I was asked to review them were those the

what's been called the fake forge checks I believe the fake forged checks there was not all of them that Ms. Seconder went over but I believe that there was I could probably call the names of most of them that were there I know it was Anderson, Bush Moore there was about five or six

of them and I believe they had a copy of the Ferris check there too. Ferris check? Yes, and I'd sat for a minute and reviewed it. I think Danny said you're going to need a drink. Did you have a drink? Yeah, I'll tell me more than one. What happened after that?

Well, they didn't tell me what was in it. They let me review it on my own. and I immediately said this is bad and my words then were that we have to terminate Ellick he cannot no longer practice with us and that was within I don't know how many minutes but it was

not a long period of time because the way Jeannie had it laid out it was clear what had happened and that this money had been stolen. Did any of the partners go to confront Alec with this information that had been uncovered? Yes, there was a meeting the following morning at Lee's House. I did not attend. I did not need to attend. I was still getting ready for trial.

I had already decided where this was going. and they met, and then we, Danny and Randy, Alex's brother, went and met with Ellick. And what was your understanding of what the defendant said as a result of that? That he admitted and said that he knew he was going to get caught at some point in time and admitted to them that he did it. On cross-examination, Alec Murdoch's attorney Jim Griffin went back to the theme that the crime scene was tainted. Were you able to get inside the crime scene tape? I don't know if there was crime scene tape up at that point in time.

Okay. So you were able, as you recall, just walk up, were Maggie and Paul's bodies covered at the time you got there? Yes. But you were able to get into the crime scene close enough where you could tell what you thought the caliber of the shell case. Right. And I didn't walk from where I was parked there.

I walked completely around the hangar and went over to talk to people. I knew that there, the fire and rescue people, just to get what their assessment was. And I could see from where they were positioned, I could see, I wasn't like, I didn't get over it, but I could see from a distance. from a distance, and I'm very familiar with firearms, and I saw what I thought was a 223 casing.

The last witness of the day was Megan Fletcher, and she testified about gunshot residue test results from Alec Murdoch's belongings. She said there were a small number of particles found on Alec Murdoch's hand, his seatbelt, his shirt, and shorts that he was wearing the night of the murders, but there was no GSR found on his sneakers, which is notable. But 38 particles were found on the now notorious blue rain jacket found at Alec Murdoch's mother's home. And finally, since this is an inanimate object, how long would you expect that gunshot primer residue to stay on there? Until it's actively removed. Say that again, through a foot.

Until it's actively removed. That means wash, it's clean. whatever? Yeah, brushing it, like aggressively brushing it off, washing it in a washing machine, cleaned, hosed off, something like that. If a recently fired firearm was wrapped up, wrapped up inside that jacket, would that be consistent with your findings? There is a possibility of that, yes, sir. Thank you very much. That's all we have. Thank you. Fletcher said that the GSR on Alec Murdoch's hand and his clothing and seatbelt could have been transferred, but she couldn't say when. And that's it for this edition of Law and Crime Sidebar podcast.

It is produced by Sam Goldberg and Michael Dininger. Bobby Zoki is our director of YouTube. Alyssa Fisher is our booking producer. And Kiera Bronson handles our social media. You can listen to Sidebar and download it on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your podcasts. And of course, you can always watch it on Law and Crimes YouTube channel. I'm Janette Levy, and I will see you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus.

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