he s a loving man and he didn t do it. circumstantial evidence showed defendant called wife maggie and son paul. alex: murdaugh s attorney will have a chance to call their own witnesses if he s found guilty, jacqui, he s looking at 30 years to life behind bars, jacqui. jacqui: we w will be watching, griff. griff: thank you. here to break down attorney alexi rigden. here we ve had more than 20 days of this trial and the prosecution has rested. what have we learned, where do we stand? well, i still think the most important piece of evidence that came out was the kennel video because it put him in the kennels 5 minutes before the prosecutors say the murders took place and what s important is that he lied about it and that s one of the reasons that criminal defense attorneys tell their clients not to speak to the police because he had a lot of face time with investigators and he lied to them every single
leave his surviving son buster with a life insurance payment in excess of $10 million. how would you describe your state of mind at that time. i was [inaudible] what does that mean? i thought it would be better for me not to be here anymore. what do you mean by not be here anymore ? i thought it would be make it easier on my family for me to be dead. murdaugh survived the september 2021 attack with minor injuries and authorities arrested the alleged gunman, curtis eddy smith a former client and distant relative of the defendant. the defense has tried to block the jury from hearing about the alleged suicide for hire scheme arguing it was unrelated to the fatal shootings of murdaugh s wife maggie and his younger son paul three months earlier. the judge initially agreed but then reversed his decision after during cross-examination the defense asked a witness about murdaugh s alleged drug payments to eddie smith.
elwyn lopez leading us off, thank you. now tonight, the case making national headlines, the first witnesses taking the stand in the trial of alec murdaugh, the once prom innocent south carolina attorney, accused of murdering his own wife and son. the officer on what he saw when he got there. murdaugh breaking down in tears in court today. jurors seeing officers body camera video and difficult crime scene photos. more dag at times appearing at times distraught in court. and abc s e hava pilgrim from sh carolina tonight. reporter: for the first time, jurors in the trial of alex murdaugh saw police body cam from the moment officers arrived on the family s property where murdaugh s wife maggie and son paul had been shot to death. that video shielded from public view, but the first officer describing the grisly scene. the male victim lay on the ground to my left, as well as the female victim on the ground to my right. there was a large deal of blood that had pooled around his body. sa