Alex Murdaugh Trial: Defense Rests, Testimony Analysis

Personally, though, I found Jeanne Seckinger, the chief financial officer at Murdaugh’s former law firm, to be the most compelling — maybe because she was the witness who most evidently disdained him. Her anger in ultimately discovering Alex’s many alleged thefts was plain to see, and she really laid out in extensive detail just how much he allegedly stole. By this point in the trial, we’d heard from a bunch of witnesses about what a great father and husband Alex was, but now here was Seckinger openly telling the jury that despite working with him for years, she now feels that she never truly knew him because of all his deceptions. 

On the technical side of things, I thought it was a smart strategy from the prosecution to end their case with a timeline document that recapped all the forensic evidence the jury had heard so far. There were so many odd little things that the document revealed about that night, but I found the most potentially incriminating to be Alex’s phone recording him practically running shortly after the killings. 

Was there a time when you thought, OK, this guy is getting off — or alternatively, that the jury had to return a guilty verdict?

As I write this, the defense is still presenting their case and we haven’t begun closing arguments, so there’s only so much I can confidently say. But I’ve honestly gone back and forth as to whether I believe he’ll be convicted or not. 

This case is lacking any direct witnesses and even the murder weapons haven’t been located. On the surface, it also makes little sense for someone as seasoned a lawyer as Alex to kill his family in order to divert attention away from himself. Surely he would know that any murder investigation would likely focus deeply on him as the husband and father of the victims? 

But…I must admit that the prosecution’s case has also felt convincing. There’s a ton of circumstantial evidence that they’ve laid out for the jury, which essentially will force them to ask themselves what’s more likely: whether they believe all these horrible coincidences all occurred on the same day or whether they believe Alex was behind them all. 

In the end, it will only take one jury member who doesn’t buy the state’s case for things to end in a mistrial. If that happens, I don’t know whether the state will bring it back to trial, given how long this took and how expensive it undoubtedly was. Remember: Alex is also going to go to trial on dozens and dozens of other alleged financial crimes. It’s likely he’s going to spend a significant period of his life behind bars. But it remains to be seen whether any of that will be for the murder of his wife and son.