CNN
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As prosecutors near the end of their case, Alex Murdau’s attorneys will allow a disgraced former South Carolina attorney to stand in his own defense in his wife and son’s murder trial. I am strongly considering.Thinking.
The defense is expected to make a decision in the next few days, sources said. But the decision will be made late and probably at the last minute, sources said.
Murdow has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and two charges of using a weapon in the June 7, 2021 murder of his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdow, and son, Paul Murdow, at the family home in Islandton. bottom.
Murdoh claims he called 911 after returning home from his mother’s visit to find his wife and son dead from gunshot wounds. The case is being prosecuted because it has ties to a local attorney’s office, but it accuses the 53-year-old man of carrying out the murder to distract attention from a string of financial crime charges. .
Aside from the murders, he faces 99 charges resulting from these schemes.
The testimony of Roger Dale Davis Jr., who cleaned Murdow’s kennel near where the body was found twice a day, continued on Tuesday.
He describes the routine, pointing out that part of the cleaning involves hosing the kennel down with a hose, coiling it up and hanging it outside, and doing it carefully to avoid kinking or breaking the hose. Did.
Davis testified that on the day of the murder, he went to the premises twice as usual, one in the morning and another at about 4:30 in the afternoon. It wasn’t stored properly.
“I’m very particular about how I wound that hose up, but it’s kinked,” Davis said of the photo. Someone used it after I did it.”
Under cross-examination, Davis admitted that a hose could be seen on the floor of the kennel in a video taken by Paul the night of the murder. I wasn’t paying close attention.
Davis also became the latest witness to identify Alex Murdoh’s voice alongside those of Maggie and Paul. In cell phone video, law enforcement witnesses testified that Paul was filmed in the kennel area at 8:44 p.m. that night. A murder has occurred.
Prosecutors attempted to use the video to place Murdoh at the scene of the killing, contrary to his remarks in interviews with law enforcement that Murdoh was not at the kennel before discovering the body.Police said he called 911 at 10:07 p.m.
Defense attorneys questioned Davis on Tuesday about his perceptions of the Murdau family, particularly Alex Murdau. Below, Alex Murdau testified that he never saw Maggie speak up.
Defense attorney Jim Griffin also asked Davis about a case where one of the dogs was seriously injured in the kennel.
“And Mr. Alex couldn’t shoot the dog,” Griffin said.
“Yes,” said Davis.
Earlier Tuesday, the court heard cross-examination of Dr. Ellen Reamer, a pathologist at the Medical University of South Carolina, who testified the day before about the victim’s fatal injuries. He seemed upset.
Riemer said Margaret Murdoh was shot at least four times with an “assault rifle” and Paul Murdoh was shot twice with a shotgun. His left shoulder entered the left side of his neck and head and came out the right side of the top of his head.
Reamer testified that Paul’s hands were down when he was shot, telling the court: he testified.
During cross-examination on Tuesday, defense attorney Dick Harputrian approached Reamer about the possibility that the gunshot to the head Paul received was a contact wound. He cites a highly regarded book on gunshot wounds among pathologists and describes how Riemer’s admitted shotgun contact wounds are similar to his Paul wounds. However, she reiterated that she did not determine that Paul’s injury was due to contact.
In a redirect, Riemer emphasized that no soot was found on Paul’s skin, as would be expected from a shot fired from a barrel within six inches of the wound. She found a stipple on Paul’s chest scar, she said. But the stipple was not on his other scar.
Prosecutor Clayton Waters also appeared to be trying to block any hints that Paul Murdow may have died as a result of suicide.
“A lot of what was said in the book when they were talking about contact wounds was investigating people who committed suicide using shotguns, right?”
“Frequent contact wounds indicate suicide, but it is possible that another person could have shot you even within contact range,” Waters said, noting that Reamer’s findings on Paul’s cause of death were homicide. .
“I couldn’t believe it matched self-harm at all,” Reamer said.