Murdaugh’s ex-partner slams ‘disrespectful’ cops for walking on blood-spattered crime scene
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Alex Murdaugh’s former law firm partner criticized “disrespectful” police officers at the crime scene who left behind “a baseball-sized piece of Paul’s skull.”
Mark Ball, who has known Alex for 34 years, described the gruesome scene on the family’s hunting ground in Moselle, South Carolina, the night Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, were shot dead. . He described his former colleague as distraught.
But during cross-examination, he also called the disbarred attorney “a very cunning liar” when questioned about nearly $9 million Alex stole from his family’s firm, Peters Murdaugh Parker Eltzroth and Detrick (PMPED).
Ball told the court that following a failed suicide life insurance scam Alex pulled off three months after the murders, “I didn’t know that guy… I didn’t know who that guy was, that’s not the Alec I knew.” and that I liked it.’
His comments came the same day that Netflix premiered its new series “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal,” which delves into the suspicious deaths linked to the once prominent South Carolina legal scion and his family. In it, the long-time girlfriend of Paul Murdaugh breaks her silence to accuse the murdered 22-year-old of physical abuse, alleging that he slapped, kicked and punched her.
Maggie’s blood-soaked body lies under a sheet at a crime scene on the night of June 7, 2021. She was shot five times with an assault rifle, while Paul was shot twice with a shotgun a few feet away. away in the kennels of the farm.
Maggie, Paul and Alex show up at the youngest son’s high school graduation. Describing the crime scene, Ball said that he was raining down on the bloody bodies of Maggie and Paul. “She just screwed me over,” she told the jury. It’s a crime scene. You don’t want water dripping everywhere. But more importantly, I thought it was pretty disrespectful.
Mark Ball (pictured), who has known Alex for 34 years, described the gruesome scene on the family’s hunting ground in Moselle, South Carolina, the night Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22 They were shot dead. He described his former colleague as distraught
Describing the crime scene, Ball said it was raining on the bloody bodies of Maggie and Paul. “She just screwed me over,” she told the jury. It’s a crime scene. You don’t want water dripping everywhere. But more importantly, I thought it was pretty disrespectful.
He said that the next morning it was still “a pretty gritty scene” and that a piece of Paul’s skull lay on the ground after he had been shot twice with a shotgun.
“It really infuriated me,” Ball told the court.
Last night he had tried to comfort Alex, who kept saying, ‘Look what they did. Look what they did.
The defense theory is that someone else killed Maggie and Paul in revenge for a fatal boating accident in which the 22-year-old was driving under the influence.
Alex told the policemen who arrived at the crime scene: “I know what it is about: my son was shipwrecked.”
At the time of the murders, the legal scion was facing a wrongful-death lawsuit over Paul’s drunken boating accident that killed his 19-year-old friend Mallory Beach.
Ball testified: ‘Paul has been somewhat demonized by this whole thing. He’s not fair.’
He added that, like many youngsters that age, Paul had made mistakes, but “he was a good kid.” He was always polite with me.
On the day of the murders, Alex confronted PMPED’s CFO over more than $792,000 that had “disappeared” from a recent case owed to the company.
In the months that followed, Alex was found to have stolen millions from his partners and clients in a decade of embezzlement.
Defense attorney Jim Griffin, left, and Alex Murdaugh speak before Murdaugh’s trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, on Tuesday.
Buster, Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh on a family vacation to Lake Keowee, South Carolina
Ball told the jury that PMPED was like family, but “unfortunately Alex betrayed him when he stole the money.”
During cross-examination, prosecutor Creighton Waters asked, “He was pretty good at hiding who he really was, wasn’t he?”
Ball replied: ‘Obviously.’
Waters continued: “You just testified that you didn’t really know this man, did you?”
Ball admitted: “Obviously I didn’t.”
The prosecutor asked, “He lied to you effortlessly and easily for years, and you didn’t know it.”
Ball admitted: ‘I didn’t know, and I didn’t catch it. The way he was doing it was very, very clever.
The lawyer said Alex was repeatedly confronted about his personal expenses on the company credit card, including his children’s tuition.
Alex Murdaugh arrives in court wearing a white shirt and gray suit on Wednesday.
Buster and his uncle John Marvin Murdaugh looked more cheerful when they arrived at court on Wednesday.
The Murdaugh clan, including Alex’s brother John Marvin (second from right), son Buster (center), sister Lynn (blue blouse) and Buster’s girlfriend Brooklynn White, arrive at court on Wednesday.
“He wasn’t a good rule follower at all,” the defense witness testified.
But Ball said that investigations into the stolen funds ceased immediately after Maggie and Paul’s deaths.
‘The man has just lost his wife and child. There is no way we are cruel. We will come back to it later. And we did it,’ he told the court.
Prosecutors rested their case on Friday and the defense has been calling witnesses ever since.
Buster Murdaugh, Alex’s only surviving son, was called to the stand Tuesday to present highly successful testimony.