'He lied and lied!:' John Meadors closing argument in Alex Murdaugh trial: full video

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: May it please the court. Good afternoon. On behalf of Attorney General Allen Wilson, Deputy Don Zalinka, and Deputy Attorney General Craig Mortars, and this entire team, and I want to name them all, but thank you for being here. Thank you for the attention you've given this case. Being a juror is not an easy job. I'm not a jury watcher. I don't sit and stare at jurors, but goodness knows we've been here six weeks. I have looked over occasionally. Not to pry, but I've noticed when I have looked, you've all paid attention, so thank you. Six weeks. Thank you. And I'm not going to be that long. Your clerk, Miss Hill, has done an outstanding job bringing the world to Colleton County, bringing the world right here, with the hospitality or grace. Making everything as convenient as she can. But the one thing she didn't do, and couldn't do, is give you a booklet on how to be a juror. Five and a half weeks ago, when y'all got here, six weeks ago, she didn't have that pamphlet for you, because they don't exist. There's not a book on how to be a juror. But you have been preparing for this moment, in this courtroom, to decide this case, your entire life. And it's called life. It's called living. It's called experiences. It's called interacting with your spouse, your children, your neighbors, your coworkers, your good experiences, your bad experiences, evaluating people, and deciding what's credible, what's believable. It's true in every case of every tribe in my 34 years of doing nothing but murder cases. Credibility, believability. And I agree with Mr. Griffin. When I looked at this case the first time, I said to myself, this is a CSC case. Now, in our world, that means criminal sexual conduct. It's not a criminal sexual conduct case. This is a common sense case. And you didn't leave that common sense with you when you came here six weeks ago. It's with you now. It's been with you during the six weeks here. And you're going to take it back into the jury room. I've been listening yesterday and today, and we all have, about law enforcement didn't do this, law enforcement didn't do that. I think they actually said they fabricated evidence. Putting law enforcement on trial. I once called Mr. R. Putin in a trial an automatic smokescreen machine. I think what the defense is doing in this case is more like an eclipse. You remember that eclipse on August 17th of 2017 where it kind of got dark for a little bit? And the birds started chirping and you almost, you felt like it was dark. And then it cleared, the eclipse went over, and the light came back. That's what the defense is doing. Taking away, taking you away from the facts, from the credibility. And saying, wait a minute, there's an eclipse here. There's a smoke screen here. Look at that. And I, somebody said the word offensive. I find it offensive that a family with a great-grandfather, a grandfather, a father, Celestia Randolph Murdoch, who was good to me when I was a young man, prosecutor. He knew I wanted to do this as my job. He knew I cared about this job. This is the best job in the world. I tried to be solicitor three times at all. It doesn't get any better than this job. And I find it offensive that the defense, through the defendant, who was also a part-time solicitor, is claiming that law enforcement didn't do their job. Listen to me, please. Didn't do their job while he is withholding and obstructing justice by not saying, I was down at the kennels. I was down at the kennels. I was down at the kennels. And he's going to blame everybody else. Is that offensive? Is that offensive? Mr. Griffin said a minute ago, can you imagine coming up on the scene and seeing, can you imagine not telling law enforcement, lying, that I was down there, and I saw them. I was right there. Why wouldn't you tell them that? Maybe get some more evidence. Did you hear somebody? No, I wasn't even down there. Credibility, believability. That really does sum it up. You remember six weeks ago today, when Mr. Waters' fantastic opening and talked about direct evidence. And direct evidence is something you, you know it when you see it. It's evidence you gather with one of your senses. You hear it, you feel it, you smell it, you touch it, and you come in here and tell witnesses, hey, this is what I heard, what I felt, what I smelled, what I touched. But do you remember when he was describing circumstantial evidence? There was a storm that day coming. Part of his theme, the storm just happened to come. And you could hear it coming. And then, during part of his opening, you remember it started raining? You could hear it. You could feel it. It's almost like circumstantial evidence morphed into direct evidence. And that's what happened in this case. Circumstantial evidence became direct evidence in many instances. This case is about two things. It's about being real. Being real. And choices. My mama gave me a book when I was a little boy about the Velveteen Rabbit. I was actually going off to college. Dealing with people and learning about people. Tough times in life. Go get the Velveteen Rabbit and read it if you haven't already. But she just put it in the front of that book. And I love my mama. Always be real. Always be real. And this case is about that defendant never being real. And choices, which I'll get to at my end. Thank you, gentlemen. But they blame everybody but Alex. Everybody but Alex. Let's go back to the first. I'm not going to bring it out. But this back here. The press release was sent out. There's no danger. There's no danger. What did Alex not do? They showed a tape there. He's asking the sheriff, I think, to call Buster. First time he tried to call Buster. That took the sheriff a while to get out there. You know when the first time he called Buster? It was about 40 minutes. Well, actually, he texted him. Didn't even call him. Wasn't his first thought. Wasn't the thing after he did 9-1-1. It was later. Perhaps even when some of his friends had gotten there. Oh, don't call. No. Right off the bat, if this happened, call my son. Call him. Buster, stay where you are. You're with your girlfriend up there north of Charlotte. Go, go, go. We got some people after us. That's what's real. Don't you go to the police station right there. And what else do you do, too? You don't talk about being real. What do you do? Y'all, I just left my mama. She's with Shelly. Get somebody over there. Get them over there. If these people are out here to kill us, get them over there. Go, please. Take them right now. They're by themselves. I can't do that. That's where I took the guns. I can't tell them that. That's what's real. And he brings up the boat case right away. Right away. A year and a half previous. He's coming up for a hearing. Nobody's thinking about that boat case except Alice. And right then, he's using it to throw off. Here's your first suspect. Does that make any sense? They have a hearing coming up. They're going to look into resolve this thing. Nobody's out there thinking about a boat case on a Monday night. Anybody upset about that? Think about all the facts that would have to happen. They'd have to know both of them. As Mr. Waters said, somebody in the boat case would have to know that they're both there. They'd have to know they were there. They'd have to know that Alex just wasn't there. Oh, no, wait a minute. That he was there, but just for a little bit and went back up to the house. And they'd have to come. You know what? We don't need a gun. There'd be guns there for us to use. Yes, and that's great circumstantial and direct evidence. I'll get to that. They'll have guns there for us. They'll have guns there for us. We can use them. Does that make any sense whatsoever? Let's talk about murder. Murder is the intentional, malicious killing of another living, breathing human being with malice of all time. What's malice? Y'all know what malice is? It's the name malice. It's the evil wickedness one person shows to another. You know how long it's got to exist? Just like that. It's the pulling of a trigger. Pulling of a trigger. Pulling of a trigger. Pulling of a trigger. Pulling of a trigger. Pulling of a trigger. Malice of all. It can be expressed. Rarely happens. I'm going to kill you. Or it can be inferred. It can be inferred with the use of one gun. There's no claim to self-defense here. They're claiming they weren't there. It can be inferred two guns. Malice of forethought. And we don't have premeditation in this state. We don't have to prove premeditation. We don't have to prove motive. I think it's been proven. His world was collapsing. Mr. Griffin goes, does that make sense? It isn't his mind. His world's collapsing. His world's coming down. This was the only way he could save. It's the only way he could save our lives. But if you don't, if that motive, well, I don't know. Is that enough? Don't know. We don't have to prove motive. We're certainly there. That's one explanation. But if he's down there and he's angry, let's don't sound like a real jovial bear. Bubba! Don't let me forget about Bubba. Bubba! Come here! Maybe he just got angry. Maybe he got angry at Paul. Maybe he got angry, you know, you started all this with the boat case. And maybe he just lost it. Maybe he just lost it. Maybe he looked like a suicide. And then Maggie came. And he had to shoot her. I don't know. Only one person knows. And that's why we've got the motive. That's why we say he did it. But we don't even have to have motive. Just angry. He did it. Nobody else could have done it. Nobody else did do it. I'm going to get to that. And that's how we prove beyond. I want to say all that. But our burden is only reasonable now. But losing it. And then you get the question, well, have you proven malice? Well, yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. Two shots to Paul. Malicious. First one didn't do it. But the second one finishes him off. Five shots to Maggie. Not an accident. One shot. Two shots. Three shots. Four shots. Maybe five shots. Depending on whether this one's running through. That's malicious. So if you find he killed him and you get the malice, I don't think there's any dispute in me about this malicious killing. But I've got to go over that with you. Malice of forethought. And then the burden. The burden on us in this case, as in every case, is tried in this wonderful land of ours. That's why this is so great. I agree with you. It's beyond a reasonable doubt. I'm going to borrow one of these waters if that's okay. Okay. It's not beyond all doubt. If that's the case, this courtroom wouldn't have been here historically as long as it had. The law doesn't describe that. And listen to his honor. And I'm not playing up to him. He is the best. He's the law. Listen to him when he reads the law. Beyond a reasonable doubt. It's not beyond all doubt. We can't do that. It's beyond a doubt that would make reasonable folks hesitate to act. I was trying to retrial a case years ago and reading reasonable doubt from this ex-solicitor. Solicitor Watson. I'll give him credit. Describing reasonable doubt. And he said, sometimes, you know, questions are just questions. You can't answer every question. And the law doesn't require it. If after hearing all the evidence, if you're firmly convinced of the defendant's guilt, you must find him guilty. If, on the other hand, you're not firm within this, then you must find him not guilty. He goes to see his mother. He goes, and you see the on-star taking him up to the side. Over near the smokehouse. We submit to you, that's when you went to hide the guns. It's common sense. We submit to you that there's a driveway there. Nice pavement. You can look at it. Nice paved driveway. Submit to you, when he came, it was 9.30 at night. Testimony's very unusual. Very rare. Kind of funny is, Miss Nixon, who testified earlier, we talked to her recently, didn't remember any of the conversation, but said she called and said he told him, your day is not doing well. Well, he didn't go over there that afternoon when he got the phone call, when his office is right near there. Go see him then. He didn't do that. He waited to 9.30. I don't know if anybody's got any folks that are suffering from Alzheimer's, but when they're asleep, they're tired. He wasn't going to love his mom. He wasn't going to be with her. He was going there because he loves Alex. He loves Alex. And he was going there to create his alibi at 9.30 at night. You should come and sit. And you remember, she said he called. What happened after that? Well, it was about five minutes or so. At first, I was thinking, that's when he was going to hide the gun. And the time frame over there is so important, not for how long he was from left to come back, but it's how long he was in there with Shelly. How long he was in there. Because that's when he was hiding the guns. The guns are missing, young. He was hiding the guns. And what did Shelly say? He didn't stay long. 15, 20 minutes. He left. And later that week, later that week, and I don't know which one in my mind right now, I'm so tired, but one of the days she came by, I think it was after the visitation, and he says, Shelly, you remember? You remember I was here about 35 or 40 minutes? Y'all remember looking at her up here on the stand? And she got visibly upset. I said, what's wrong? I asked her, what's wrong? What's wrong there? Was he there 35, 40 minutes? No, sir. Why are you upset? It's a good family. You think she knew right then? He's coming back to say, hey, I was here 35, 40 minutes now, visiting my mom. Shelly said, no. No, you won't. So upset that she calls her brother a police officer in Yannissey. You think she knew right then? And that's real. That's real. Shelly's real. You saw her body language is so important, right? Body language is so important. She's talking about the defendant. All our body language. You see Shelly's? And then one day that week. Never before. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever before. It's 6.30 in the morning. Doesn't call. He didn't need a timeline to create for that one's visit. Didn't want a timeline. Didn't want a record of that. He comes to see Shelly. You ever been on that time before? What was he saying? It was some blue, vinyl-like, remember I tried to show it? It was like this. What did you think it was? A tarp? I don't know what it was. And they tried to gloss over it now. Take one thing they didn't gloss over. You remember when she was on the stand? I said, well, have you talked to them before? Have you talked to their investigators? Yes, sir. Did they record you? Yes, sir. Can I have a copy of it? And then we came back and we got a copy and two investigators, they were worried about it then, went down and talked to her and talked to her about her times and ran times by her and asked her if she'd ever seen anybody in this blue coat. They were worried about it because that's great circumstantial evidence. It kind of morphs into direct evidence. I saw him coming at 6.30. You even heard of the last one of the experts, could it stay on there for five years, ten years? Sure. This was days after the murder. Shelly sees him come in with a blue sun. Well, where did he go? He went upstairs? Why? I don't know. Did you see it later? I thought I saw it on the chair. Can't answer every question. Mr. Mixon sure didn't see it the next day. Now I asked her, was there another tart there? Well, there was a blue and silver tart. Picture of it, too. That wasn't it, though. This was all blue. And the only other blue tart that said evidence, and I let it go in just so I could argue this right now, is the tart that they showed Shelly that they got from K-Mart. That's not real. This is not, no. Looked like that. I don't know what it was. He had it bungled up. Well, lo and behold, when we find out this information, and they try to make a big deal about it, I think it makes it more pure. She's at a traffic stop or an accident or something, still is police officer, I forgot about this. You can't make it up. So they'd get a search warrant, and they'd get a search, and lo and behold, crumbling in the closet is a blue final something when you pull it out, and it's this jacket. You see that evidence of a fact and another fact that leads to the fact in question? I don't know why he put it in there. I don't know why he killed his wife and son. I don't have to say why. I think he did it to protect the one he loved the most, the one he really loved the most, so he could keep his lifestyle and not be embarrassed financially. And he wanted to keep going and loving Alex. I don't know why he kept that jacket. Maybe it was Solicitor Murdoch's jacket. Certainly consistent. It might have been in that truck. I think one of the family said he kept a lot of stuff in that truck. It might have been out in that stuff house. I don't know. But he brought it back in there and hit it. 6.30. Days after the killing. And what's inside? Wait a minute. What's on the outside? A little bit. Gunshot here and there. What's on the inside? The inside. Minimum 38 particles. It got so much that Megan Fletcher finally said, you know, we'd get, I can't remember the term right now, we'd get so many, I'd just stop. I'd have been there for days. Gunshot resident. Inside. Inside the rain jacket, the blue tight garment that Shelly said. I saw him carrying something like that. He got rid of the guns. And he's hiding there for some reason. Thank goodness he did. Because they thank goodness for Shelly. For bringing that in. That's what he disposed of the guns with. And what else happened? She said he left and before that she thought he'd left and he came back and he had moved to ATV and then he said he was in another truck and he came back and then he left. He's disposing and hiding whatever he was doing with that evidence. Only one person knows. But that blue rain jacket, that tarp is incredible circumstantial evidence that we ask you to consider when you go back there. Is Shelly making that up? How could she make that up? How could she know that there'd be a blue tarp in that closet? Same closet, same stairs, he went upstairs. We went upstairs. I can't explain the tarp on the chair. It don't have to. We can't answer every question. That doesn't mean it's not reasonable doubt. She saw a boot tarp light. It was in that closet. It's got gunshot residue on it a few days after. Maggie and Paul were brutally murdered. And that's consistent with every reasonable hypothesis. And you know the thing he told Shelly? Good night when they were talking. You're getting married, aren't you? Remember her saying that? You're getting married. If you need any money or help with it, let me know. It's an incredible time. Oh, and your job. Don't you work in school? You know, I've got friends down there. Get down to your man if you need me. I was there 35, 40 minutes long. Can you make up the sequence of facts that lead to the conclusion he's trying to get her to say? I was there longer. I wasn't outside longer. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Blanca loved Maggie. I didn't realize that really until I talked to her just a few times. I met her years ago in a federal prison. Remember when I saw her. Remember her name. But you know, even when Blanca was, quit working for him for a while. And you remember she had health problems and said she saw Maggie on the road somewhere. And that kind of pulled off and just talked. Just caught up. Blanca cared about Maggie. And knew her so well, she knew what she wore to bed and what she didn't wear to bed. And that kind of bothered about the clothes that were laid out. Some undergarments, which she knew she didn't wear. But Blanca's texting Maggie. Maggie's texting Blanca on June 7th. And in one of his statements, and I'm going to get to those. He said, you know, Maggie wanted to come. She wanted to come. No, sir. No, she didn't. She was having to work on her data stuff. He tried to stay in here today. Look, she was in Charleston. She was going back to data stuff. And then the text of Blanca, well, I left the workers there. But I guess it'll be okay. He had said, come. I want you to come. She didn't want to come. We also know that from her sister Mary. Who added a little regret in here today. Didn't hear much regret from over there. But you know who regretted me? Who was real? It was Mary. I encouraged her to go. She didn't want to go. They got in club. You know, it's like siblings. Jane Marshall. James. I had to get for my siblings on the record. We love each other. But she had that relationship. You know, we weren't close. But then we got closer as the kids got older. We were close. We talked. One of her best friends. And she told her, why don't you go on over there? She regretted that. But she killed her back. But that refutes his lie. Oh, she wanted to come. She wanted to come. That's what you wanted to come. Why? Had he already planned it out? Was his world collapsing? He didn't have to. We don't have to prove he did. But he got her there. She wasn't planning on me. Blanca's got the food ready. She leaves. Stay on the real train for a minute. She goes home. She gets a call sometime that night. And this is real. What does she do when she hears? She drops the phone. Remember that? Her husband had to get on the phone. She dropped the phone. Real emotion. Because she cared about Maggie. That's real. And you remember she described that day when she left Alex leaving and then I put his shirt up. Got his collar. Helped him with his, I assume it was a blue jacket. I don't know. Described the shirt. Remember he just kind of tucked it in. And now on Alex's second interview when he's confronted by David Owens. And they actually showed him the video of the tree. They showed him that. When did you change? When I saw you that night you were wearing shorts. When did you change? You remember what Alex said on that interview? When is that? When is that time? What's that? And then he told him the time. 744. Whatever it was. He said, I guess I'll change after that. Well those are the clothes he was wearing when he murdered Maggie and Paul. Those are the clothes. And what does Blanca tell us? That was on August 11th. She said sometime mid-August. I didn't even know this. I got it. You can't make it up. Sometime mid-August he comes to see her. Do you remember that shirt when I left that day? I said no. I mean yes. It was a Vinnie Vine shirt. You weren't wearing a Vinnie Vine shirt. I fixed your collar. He tries to get her to tell what he was wearing. He tried to say no. No, you weren't wearing that shirt. That Columbia shirt you've got one of those. But guess what? I ain't seen that one since. I have not. Blanca and Shelly. That's great circumsation. Did you ever see that shirt again? Never saw that shirt again. Ever. What shirt? You know what? I forgot about Shelly. I don't think this was mentioned. When Shelly sees how it's that line. You remember what she said about clothes? Shorts. Shirt. You remember what she said about shoes? Sperry type. A cloth shoe. You remember that? When Dave Owens and those get there and when I think I accidentally put some of the dust out on the... Those weren't Sperry's shoes. He's changed his shoes again. I'll get to you in a minute while I ask him for it. From the one to visit his mom, he's got Sperry type shoes. He comes back and puts on the tennis shoes. Why? Is she making that up? Michael said I've never seen those shoes before. When I got there the next morning there was a t-shirt that looked like it had been pulled down and fell on the floor. Where does he keep it? She washes her clothes. Those are clean shorts up there. This is where he kept his shorts. Did he wear these shorts much? No, he didn't wear them much but she knows that family. She knows where the shorts are, where the shoes are. Do you remember the Sperry shoes? Yeah. Did you see those? You never saw them again. Never saw that shirt again that he was wearing in the video. Never saw it again. And when he confronted her at the house about what he was wearing she had real feelings. And told y'all about [00:33:55] Speaker ?: that. [00:33:55] Speaker 1: And told law enforcement about that. Is that real? And why is that important? Because it goes back to credibility and common sense. Those were clean clothes that Shelly had lost. Excuse me that Blanca had lost. And when we get there on the scene that night you remember Laura? That's what? She's sitting in the back. David's in the front. Alex in the front. His lawyer's on the side. You know there's something else I don't understand. Your wife and your son have just been killed and you're worried about having a lawyer around. I said you know it's just sled agents. We need to have a lawyer around. Really? My wife and son have just been butchered and I'm worried about having a lawyer. But they did. And that threatening, overbearing, cheating, manipulating. You remember when I asked up Dave put his hand on his shoulder? So did Laura. What are you doing? I got a heart. Was that rushing to judgment? I got a heart. They didn't rush to judgment. They were saying, tell me what happened. Tell me what happened. Well, and he starts looking at his phone. You can check my phone, the alibis that he's created, that he's doing. And he says, I went and ran. I got on my knees over here. Went and ran and I tried to take the pulse of Paul. I'd still be on the ground hugging my son. And I tried to turn him over. I kept trying to check his pulse. Really? I went to Maggie, checked her pulse. And you can't do that in the 20 seconds. He's now trying to say you can't. You can't. And they tried to change that. And he never did it. Because what did she say? What did Ms. Rutland say? He was clean. He was clean. He was clean. He was clean. He'd washed up. Yeah, and you hear the water running in the dog video. You hear it. He'd washed up. And this phone, I tried to make a big deal about this phone that you do see right afterwards when we know he was down there. There's some movement on Maggie's phone. But every expert has said just because if one phone's down here and the other one's walking, you're not going to have steps on that phone. He took Maggie's phone, the golf cart, however he got, drove back up to get those shorts and those, that shirt. And yes, you can get it and manipulate it and call to see if you made a call, put it down. That's not going to record steps on that phone because it's not moving. But that doesn't mean it wasn't with his phone. Don't fall for that. That's not real. Every expert said that. Every expert said that. And doesn't that make sense? You can grab it, see, make a call, put it down. You keep walking, it's not going to record it. If it's there, if it's in the car, it's in the suburban, and I'm getting to that. So what happened? This is why I asked Miss Rutten, and they're bringing in drug use. If he did as many pills as he said, he'd be dead. You can't take that many pills. That's your common sense. But why I asked her this, and I'm asking, I want to look at every one of y'all. Tell me what he was like in that car. You've got the video. Did he appear to understand you? Were his answers timely? Were they subject matter appropriately? Yes. Do you understand him? He can understand you. Look, he's thinking. He's opening the door. Was he in his right mind? Of course he was. And why is that so important? He says he didn't go down there. Is that enough? Yes. With everything else, that's enough. I never went down there. He's in his right mind. I never went down there, Dave. I never went down there, Lord. I never went down there after supper. I stayed up. I took a nap. He goes and takes a nap from 6-7. The next time they met, 6-10, I took a nap. August 15th, you sure you're down there? I'm up there taking a nap. I never went down there. Never, ever, ever. You think he would have taken the stand and said, you know, I was down there. Y'all, if that video hadn't come out on that phone. Well, no. Now, under Mr. Waters' cross-examination, I lied. Why'd you lie? I wrote it down, I'm still not clear. I had paranoid thoughts. Usually, I can take a deep breath and get through it, but I couldn't, so I just lied. Once I lied, I continued to lie. And he continued and continued and continued until 627 days later, when he took this stand, the first time he'd ever told anybody. Anybody. He told his family, he told his friends, he told everybody and they believed him. I wasn't down there. Why is that so critical? That's the time of death. That's when it happened. That's what the record showed. That's when the conversation, yes, it is important. Paul, he used his phone all the time. Paul was in a conversation about the dogs interacting. Well, send me the picture. He does. And then it stops. Yes, that's what it happened. And then Maggie's phone. A little bit text. She reads that text. I think she went to her car. Y'all decided. Nobody knows. One person knows. She goes to her car and she's got some rings there she's putting back on. I think she's got two rings there and she's putting on another in the car. Maybe they've been working in the kennels. There's one shooter. There's only one shooter. And she hears that shot and she comes back around. She hears the shot. She reads the last text. Y'all will have it in there. I think she opens the thing about Swister Murdoch. He does. And then you don't see anything else. You don't see anything else on the phone. So is that common sense? Yeah, that's when they were gone. Yes. Yes. When they interact so much. Yes. That's common sense. And that's why it's so important. You want to help law enforcement? You're in law enforcement? I was down there. Y'all know what? I was down there. I didn't take that nap as long as I did. Did you hear anything? Why would you not give that information? Okay, then the tent with his lawyer, Mr. Griffin, in the car. Did you go down there? No. Look at him. Is he coherent? Is he under the influence of anything? Is he withdrawing? [00:41:15] Speaker ?: No. [00:41:16] Speaker 1: I want to help you. I want to help you. And then on the 15th, here's this video. Here's you in the tree. Now, Rogan says he thought he heard you down there earlier. I don't think so. Why not say it then? Think about it. It's just Rogan's work. Does that make any sense? It's just Rogan's work. No, sir, [00:41:38] Speaker ?: no, sir, [00:41:38] Speaker 1: I can handle that. You made a mistake like Shelly did. I can walk it and close. I can handle that though. But when the video comes out, he's stuck. He's stuck. I'm going to try to wrap up. Yesterday morning at 2.53 in the morning, I don't sleep much during trials, but I kind of woke up. And what he did when he took the stand was corroborated that he's a liar. He corroborated the fact he doesn't tell the truth. The one thing that was more important than anything. And you know, they're putting these law enforcement on trial. Talking about blood evidence. Talking about other things that were presented to the grand jury. That blood evidence was investigated and the state didn't offer it. That's what you do in your prosecution. Didn't try to offer it. Now they're trying to put us on trial for doing our job. Think about that. Blame everybody else. They looked into this and it didn't turn out to be. So now we're going to blame them. We didn't try to present it. They're now jamming us for doing our job. Jamming us for doing our job. All the evidence of the guns. gunshot and do we make mistakes? Yes. And that happens in life. But you don't lie and misremember being at the scene of a murder when you said you weren't even there or being at the scene where your family was brutally murdered. Don't lie about that. That's not a mistake. That's not a mistake. This is the state of South Carolina versus Richard Alexander Murdaugh not the state versus David Owens not versus Lev. And I want to tell you something. Sled, Walterboro, Laura Rutland is working with David Owens. Sled starts working with the FBI. They're working together. This is think about it. Rush to judgment. They gave that man every benefit of the doubt. Oh, what are y'all doing? How's it going? You remember that third interview when David Owens said, [00:44:18] Speaker ?: well, [00:44:19] Speaker 1: and I submit to you, they're taking those interviews where he's trying to come find out what they've got on him. Why is this thing looking? How's this thing looking? Well, we've got some shell casings by Maggie's body. Out over there where y'all shot in the range and some shots out there by the side of the shell casings, they all came from the same gun, all cylinder to the same gun. You think if they didn't, they could find an expert to repeat that they would have? the gun was there. You see his reaction? They all came from the same gun on Maggie. Now, the other one, Mr. Griffin tried to argue, Paul Greer, yeah, it could have come from that shot. I don't know. Is that credible evidence? But it could have. Not saying it did or did, but it certainly could have. He's got that gun. It's got Maggie's blood on it. Don't know if comes from a fine family in Columbia. I can tell you that. It says we were down here not in March. It was more like we were shooting his gun on the side of the house in those shell casings. That's where they found them. And lo and behold, the shell casings around the were all silver in the same gun. They been in the same gun. Yes, Mr. Waters is right. That's a family owned gun. And is that incredible circumstantial and direct evidence? Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. It is. That's powerful. You can feel it like the rain. The murderers come in. There'll be a gun there. We'll just use their gun. Does that make any sense? Y'all too young. You ever watch Columbo? When I first looked at this case, this is an episode of Columbo, except this is real. And you get to see one of my heroes, the detective, didn't always look that good with all that. But he got to see the crime, and then you got to see him figure it out, and the mistakes they made. And that's what happened here. He killed them. He thought he could get a timeline, but it got him. Within 20 seconds, he's texting Maggie when that phone, when he's passing the location of her phone. It's a common sense. He threw that phone out, called her, threw it, threw it, and the orientation didn't go on. They said if you pick it up, yes, we had somebody come in here, you throw it rough and it doesn't come up. And one of the chances is anything else. He almost had to bump into him. Almost had to bump into him. And you take this new story, I was down there till 850 whatever, go and take a quick nap, come back. He didn't hear the shots, just happens to come back. It's common sense. Don't leave it with you. Take it back there with you. I'm down there now, my wife told me this, I'm down there under this new story, and the deal is to come talk, go see my mama at 930, and you're right down there, you've just seen them now, well you said before you hadn't seen them, don't forget that, and you go up to the house, why don't you say, [00:47:56] Speaker ?: hey, [00:47:57] Speaker 1: Max, I'm going to go see mom real quick, just a few minutes later, no, you go up there, you take a quick nap, you know what, I'm going to try to call them, let them know I'm going down, does that make any sense? And then when you get to the wire, you'll see the light. When go right over there, hey, I ain't going down there, no, you hear any saying, you do anything, he just takes on, he just takes on, does that make any sense? We've proved that nobody else could. Does it matter when he's rushing back? Yeah, I doubt he's ever killed two people before, so he's not thinking, he's frantic, puts the wrong two shells in the gun, coming back, Scott Maggie's phone, it had been sitting there, that's why the steps weren't on there, he's moving, he gets it, I can't take this phone with me, he's a lawyer, so he tosses it out, that's the only thing that makes sense, and what did he say about Paul's phone, when I started to get, I didn't know, I got it out, and then it kind of just popped out too, does that make any sense? You've got to evaluate everything, you can't believe somebody's credible one thing, how can you believe them on the ultimate issue when they said they didn't, when the only thing they corroborated for you throughout the investigation, throughout this trial, and throughout Mr. Waters' cross-examination is he's a liar, and that's all you can judge people on. The three witnesses that were beautiful, that were uncontroverted, and one was Paul, he didn't testify to you up on the stand, but he testified to Dr. Raymond, and he testified to his son. And here's so beautiful of evidence, it's so pure. He didn't know he took that video. That's why he said he wasn't down there. And this is beyond all that. We respectfully submit. Paul knew. Dad, I got some insurance. I got some insurance. Not the kind of insurance you've made money off of, an insurance some clients you gave back and some you didn't. I've got some insurance on you. I don't know why you killed me. I made some mistakes. You heard a lot of good things about Paul, too. I know I put your life open, your life, your fake life, with this boat case. Your finances are coming out. I know that. But if you go lie and say you weren't down here, I got you. I don't know when it will come out. Maybe you'll go ahead and lie. But this is going to come out. Paul had that insurance on him. Maybe that's why he was worried about that phone. And you can't make that up. Because you remember when I asked David that video was out there except Paul? No, sir. And that's incredible evidence. And it did sit there until law enforcement working together. The states, the locals, sled, everybody, got it out. And that's great law enforcement. Thank you. Yes, and that's when the case changed. Along with all the other things. Maggie testified to him. He shot me here. He shot me here. And look at all the shell catches around there. Y'all look at them. They're the same ones that we were having shot with Paul. They're the same ones that have been shot down there. Yeah. They came out of the same gun. That's great direct insurance thing. And finally, finally, in my, my daughter-in-law sat like them. And my aunt Sissy still calls my dad jack this. My daughter-in-law been married about three months. One of the happiest days of my life because they were happy. they were watching that kennel video. She and her dog Tater. And when Bubba started to bark, I said, man, I was not dead, Bubba. Tater barked. And Sally said, isn't it something that you're best witnessing here are the dogs? You know, some people say they got a six cent. You think Bubba knew? You think Bubba knew something? We got Alex to say something. Bubba! Thank God for Bubba. DNA, and that DNA when people live together, you'll have it all over your shirt. That's not it. But DNA, in this case, that dog legates all. Thank you, Bubba. And guess where Bubba is now? Bubba's with Blanca. Bubba's with Blanca. You can't make that up. And that puts him down there. And that's the lie he told and told and told I wasn't down there. Why aren't y'all doing something law enforcement? Why aren't you telling us you were down there? Why aren't you telling us you were down there? [00:53:33] Speaker ?: you? [00:53:34] Speaker 1: Thank you. If he tried to respond as Mr. Griffin said, it would show that he was going to Malmita. He had to get rid of that phone. He had to get rid of it there. Finally, it's a book, Your Greatest Power. My dad gave it to me when I was young. He said, read it. Your greatest power. You know what it is? Your greatest power is your power to choose. Choice. We've all got it. We're born with it. We use it every day. We use it when we treat people, whether we say hey, whether we're nice, whether we forgive people. We make good decisions. We make bad decisions. But what my dad always told me, don't blame anybody else. If you make a good choice, that's good. Don't get too cocky. Be humble. But that's good. But if you make a bad choice, you're responsible for it. the consequences. It's your greatest power. And for whatever was going on in his mind, his world's collapsing. It's coming down. All these worlds coming down financially. He's confronted that day by somebody's law firm. Where's this check? He's got another hearing coming up. It's emotive. Don't have to have it. But he is there. And is this rational? [00:55:19] Speaker ?: Do you remember [00:55:19] Speaker 1: when he said that? Is that rational? Was it rational? to be on the side of the road and claim your shot? And when you're in the ambulance, and you're talking to the officer in the ambulance, and you say, what happened? Oh, by the way, he wanted to kill himself. He called 911. He called 911. When he told the officer in the ambulance, what happened? Well, some guy shot me. He even did a sketch. He faked the sketch. But what did he tell the guy in the ambulance? It sounded like a shot. He's trying his world. And he says there in that last interview, the call-in interview, Mr. Harfootley and Mr. Griffin, what you've got in there. Ryan, I'm sorry, I lied about everything. I was under a lot of pressure. I had a lot going on. Really? Your wife and your son were murdered three months ago, and now this is the real Alex. Boy, my world's coming down. My world, Alex's world is coming down. Been confronted by his law partners. Losing his job. Now it's me. My world's being affected. Not about that, but now. I'm sorry I lied. I've lied about everything. Alex, Richard Alexander Myrdal loved. I think he loved Manny. I think he loved Paul. But you know who he loved more than that? You know who he loved more than that? And who he's going to make sure that that life, wanted to make sure that life, he loved Alex. And he exercised his greatest power of choice to make sure that life continued or tried. And he couldn't. And now, ladies and gentlemen, after his honor charges you, you're going to go back there and exercise your greatest power based on the evidence you've heard, the evidence you haven't heard, the credibility, the believability of the witnesses, and especially of Richard Alexander Myrdal. It was lied and lied and lied and lied. And it's been okay. It got you through. It stops here. We respectfully request it. It stops here today. No, it's not a death. And we're going to exercise our greatest power to find you guilty of killing Maggie and Paul. Thank you.