By Nathan Layne
(Reuters) – Closing arguments are set to start on Wednesday in the trial of Richard “Alex” Murdaugh, the now-disbarred South Carolina lawyer charged with gunning down his wife and son in a complex and grisly case that has garnered international attention.
After sitting through more than a month of testimony, jurors on Wednesday morning will visit the Murdaugh family estate for a “jury view” of the crime scene before returning to the courtroom to hear final remarks from the prosecution and the defense.
“After the jury view you will return for closing arguments, then I will instruct you as to the law that you are to apply, then you will deliberate in an effort to reach a verdict,” Judge Clifton Newman told jurors before adjourning on Tuesday.
Newman said he expected the jury would be back in court for closing arguments around 11 a.m. ET.
Murdaugh, the 54-year-old scion of an influential legal family in an area west of Charleston, has been charged with killing his wife Maggie, 52, and youngest son, Paul, 22, at dog kennels on their estate, known as Moselle, on the night of June 7, 2021.
Prosecutors have argued that Murdaugh committed the murders in an effort to generate sympathy at a time when his life was collapsing amid allegations that he had stolen huge sums from clients and his law partners, partly to feed a drug habit. They have painted him as a serial liar throughout the trial.
Murdaugh, who has said he had nothing to do with the murders, faces 30 years to life in prison if he is found guilty.
The case has drawn intense media coverage given the family’s immense judicial and political power in and around Colleton County, where the trial is taking place. For decades until 2006, family members served as the leading prosecutor in the area, and Murdaugh was a prominent personal injury attorney in the state.
In addition to the murders, Murdaugh has been charged with dozens of financial crimes, including an alleged scheme to have himself killed so that his older son, Buster, could collect a $10 million insurance payout. During the trial, Murdaugh admitted to stealing from clients and his law firm.
Murdaugh’s lawyers have sought to portray him as a loving family man who, while facing financial troubles and suffering from a years-long addiction to opioids that led him to lie and steal, would never harm his wife and child.
Last week Murdaugh testified that he had lied about his whereabouts on the night the killings, changing his account after the jury was presented with video evidence placing him at the scene minutes before investigators say the murders occurred.
Murdaugh said he lied to investigators about his alibi that night because of paranoid thoughts tied to his drug habit and because he did not trust the police.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; Editing by Leslie Adler)
