Alex Murdaugh Juror Tells All — How Jury Knew Disgraced Lawyer Killed Family

James first of alla juror number 5 30. 5 30. okayum when you were first called up forjury duty did you realize it was goingto beum so I wasn't positive but we weregiven a questionnaire so a lot of thosequestions kind of pertain to the case insome wayum so I didn't know for certain but Idid think that it was going to be thiscaseum you know I don't really think I hadany thoughts it was just I was there todo my civic duty and I really didn'tthink that I would be chosen I'd heardthat there was like 900 some people thatwere given you know the questionnaireand everything so out of 900 I didn'treally think that I'd be chosenhappened and I don't know what what isyourum I think that it was talked about afair amount butI didn't I actually work over inCharleston and I've been up in Clemsonat school so I haven't really been inthe area for like the past four years soI mean it's something you hear about butit's not something that I was really Ihave so many other things going on it'snot something that I dedicated a lot ofmy time talking about or payingattention to you said you were you wentto Clemson yeah oh okay uh so yougraduated yeah okay can I ask how oldyou are 22. ohso you're around Paul Murdoch's age yeahwell I would have been the same age ashim in 2021 as far as whenever he passedawayverdict umwhat you know we've heard reports youguys celebrated for two hours and 50minutes I went upstairs last night tofigure out what was going on andsomebody said yeah we asked them if theywanted dinner and they said no we'll bedone in 10 minutes so it went fairlyquickly for a six-week trial until canwe take us inside the room a little bitwell I will say that whenever you knowwe had asked if we wanted dinner we wereactually rounding up our last fewquestions that anybody had so it wasn'tthat we already had an answer it wasmore so that we knew that the questionsthat we had we had answers to we justwanted to talk through them and makesure they made sense so we just neededthat extra 10 30 minutes I think it wasabout 30 minutes that we actually tookum and it wasn't that you know we hadalready had the decision but we knewthat we were right there at itumso did it so the whole two hours and 50minutes what went on both like in thebeginning like just going through theinstructions orum well we had a pretty good idea ofwhat the instructions were just becausethe judge read them to us butum I would say when we first got inthere what was important to us was justto see where everybody was at and makesure if everybody was on the same pagemaybe we just need to talk throughthings make sure that it all makes senseto everybody but we did have a few thatweren't on the same page so we did likean anonymous vote at the beginning justto see where everybody was at and oncewe found that out we kind of just openedthe floor for anybody who ever hadquestions and then we would talk throughthose we had the evidence in the otherroom so if we had questions regarding acertain thing we were able to refer backand we just went one question at a timewe didn't want anybody to not be able tosay anything so we did take turnsspeaking so anybody was talking overanybody if anybody left we made sure towait until they come back we didn't wantanybody to be left out or anybody tomiss any piece of informationumI think that's all yeahumI think more so thansomebody being dead set on one thing orthe other we all I think we're very goodin taking all the evidence and notjumping to any conclusions but rathertaking all the evidence and seeing whereit led us whenever we got to the end andthere were some people that weren'tconvinced I don't think it was so muchthat they knew that he was not guilty ashe they just weren't sure yet theydidn't they didn't might not have knownanswers to certain questions so that'swhen it really took about two hours tokind of walk through something theymight not understand go back to theevidence go back and see what somebodysaid about something and answer thosequestions for those people like I saidit wasn't that they knew that he was notguilty but they just weren't sure andthey needed the answers to thosequestions and we were able to get thosesoyes it wasokay um we took one at the beginning welike I said went through all thequestions that anybody had and then atthe end we took another vote and we notonly took that out of the vote but wewent back through beginning to end aboutall the details and the facts just tomake sure that you know somebody's storydidn't differ from somebody else's wewere all pretty sure that we knew whathad happened and we knew who had pulledthe triggerum so then we took a vote at the end andthen we took a moment to gatherourselves we wanted to make sure thateverybody wasthey knew what they were going to say asfar as what they thought and what theirvote was going to be we didn't wantanybody to have any questions we didn'twant anybody to feel nervous about whatthey were saying or that they weren'tsure and we wanted everybody to makesure that that's what they said becausethat's how they felt we didn't wantanybody to feel peer pressured or likethey had to say somethingand you weren't allowed to take thingsyeahum it was very tough but I will say thateveryone in the jury poolthey paid very close attention that wasactually one of our concerns towards thebeginning was not having anything to youknow take down notepads but in the JuryRoom we were able to have a paper andpen so if we had any questions that'skind of where we would write down ourquestions and we saved them all the wayuntil deliberation a lot of times thosequestions were answered throughout thetrials so they didn't those questionsthat make it deliberation because theywere answered by another witness orsomebody else but we were able to writeback there so we would just have to youknow wait for one of those 15-minutebreaks and then jot it down real quickso that's kind of how we got throughthat of not having anything to write itdown that's reallyit's really it's things they couldn'tremember can you give me an exampleum so I thinkthat one of the questions we'reregarding kind of the um the gunsituation I think that there was maybe acouple people that weren't very familiarwith Firearms so it was and I completelyunderstand it's a little hard tounderstand how you can matchuhcasing to a gun if you don't have thatgun and I think it was important toyou know realize that they weren'tmatching a casing to a gun they werematching a casing to another casing thathad been shot by the same gun and weknew that the gun that shot one of thosecasingshad been seen by one of the witnessesthat Paul was shooting that gun with hisfriend so thenyou know that both those casings hadbeen cycled through the same gun andthat casing was at the crime scene sothat's how you're able to place that gunat the crime scene and know that it's afamily gun when you got out there andyou you know did you look at him whatwas that like so throughout the entiretrial one of the things that Iwanted to do just because I felt like itwould benefit me is watch both sidesboth the prosecution and the defense andsee what their reactions were to certainthings that were said so my eyes wereconstantly going from prosecution todefense to the witness you know I wantedto see everybody's reactions and howpeople were taking things what theirresponses were so whenever we got outthere to you know Express what ourverdict was I wanted to watch and seehow the defense and the defendantreacted so I know that I'd heardsomebody say that was in the audiencethat we never looked but I know that forme I looked at the defense I wanted tosee what the reaction wasI think that the only thing that stoodout to me and it wasn't shocking to mebut was that there was no reaction itwas just a straight facewas it to you because itto me it seems to be the biggest part orat least one of the biggest pieces ofthe state's caseum I think it's a very crucial piece andI think that it'sincredible timing as to when they wereable to get it and I think it'sincredible timing on Paul apartI don't think that anyone would haveever known that he was down there if itwasn't for that video I think thatthere's a lot of evidence that pointstowards Alex but I feel like that doessolidify itum he can't you know deny that he wasthere at that point because there's avideo that places him there I think thatit speaks a lotthat somebody that couldn't speaksomebody that couldn't be a witness wasable to be a witness even after they hadpassed awayI can't help in his own murderinvestigation right unwittingly rightwere there other pieces of evidence thatyou thoughtwere really criticalI think that every piece of evidence wascriticalum you know I've heard a lot aboutwhen was the point that you really feltlike you know you were going to sway oneway or the other and it was veryimportant to me to not make thatdecision prematurely so I would say thatI never made a decision until after bothclosing arguments after I knew that allthe evidence I felt confident making adecision because I think that if youmake a decision before you're able tosee all the pieces of the puzzle youknow you may have jumped out you knowyou've gotten in front of yourself Ithink that for me I am familiar withfirearmsso being able to place both of thoseguns there and although it was not theshot shells were not matched to eitherthe shotguns it was very interestingthat one of the shotguns that happenedto be one of Alex favorite was missingso that was kind of important to me itwas important to me that they couldplace both those guns there based off ofthe Matched markings on the shot shotshells and spent casings I'd say anotherpiece of evidence that was important tome was his own you know his own time onthe witness standumit was just there was a lot of thingsthat you were able to gather based offof what he said how he said it how hewas reactingdid he ever make eye contact with you Ikept seeing him look over I didn't knowif he was looking at just a few of thejurors or did you ever so like I said Iwas constantly looking at prosecutiondefense and the witness on the standthroughout the entire trialum being able to make eye contact withsomebody is I I don't know why but I'llmake eye contact with people a lotespecially during the trial and it wassomething that I noticed that he veryrarely ever made eye contact with me andI don't know if it was on purpose or ifit's just because I always sat all theway on the end you know I was kind ofaway from the rest of the jury once welost a few alternates but that wassomething that I noticed is just that wedidn't make very much eye contactdid you seeum tears from him a lot of people I Isaw them sometimes but obviously I'meither watching on television or I'm inthe courtroom in hisfamily did you see tearsum yes I did I know that some people mayhave said that he did or didn't butwhenever I like I said I watched a lotof people there was six weeks worth oftime where I was just watching peopleand listening to people and I would saythat there were several times that hewas crying whether they were genuine ornot I don't know but I would say that hewas crying at certain parts of the trialdid youum I think that he isI think that he's good at being able totalk to people and I think that part ofthe way that he is able to be so good attalking to people is that he'sconvincing and I think that wheneverhe's convincing he's convincing himselfas well and I think he's able to do thatbecause he oftenmeshes the truth with a lie so I thinkthat there was some truth and I thinkthat it's true that he did love hisfamilyumbut I think that he also makes his liesin there and whether those what thoseare and where you differentiate thoseI'm not sure but I think that at timeshe was telling the truth and I think attimes he was lyingwas there a specific point where youthought I mean obviously we know he wastelling the truth about being down atthe kennels butmaybe you felt obviously he didn't tellthe truth when he talked about whatleaving the Kennels because I remember aspecific portion of that testimony whereCreighton Waters asked himwell what did you say to Maggie when youleft the kennels or you just get on thegolf cart and go do were you did thatdid you catch that when he and he saidthings likewell I would have said you know if hewere leaving the kennels I would havesaid did you right but he was saying hewas saying you know I'm not I can'tremember what I said but I would havesaid you know yeah I know exactly whatyou're saying he said well I would havesaid bye or something because I thinkthey were trying to establish how muchtime he was down there after that videobefore he went back and he was sayingwell you know I would have said bye Iwouldn't have just like hauled back tothe houseum again I forget what your question wasoriginally but was there anything that'sin particular that stood out about thatit was probably a bad question on mypart like I I just noticed that hedidn't he got really quiet when askedabout what did you say to Maggie did yousay bye orhe said something like I'm out of hereor something likeI think that it was pointed outthroughout the trial well particularlythat portion of the trial that there's alot of things that he was able toremember vividly and there was a lot ofthings that he was not able to recalland that was something that I paidattention to because some of the thingsthat he could remember vividly arethings that I wouldn't remember tomorrowand then some of the things that hecouldn't remember vividly were thingsthat I wouldn't forget in 10 years sothere's and whether that's just adifference on what's important to whoyou know whether him and I differ onwhat we would find priority to rememberor what we would kind of you know forgetabout I don't know I don't I don't knowevery person in the world but I found itinteresting some of the things that hewas able to remember and some thingsthat he was nottaking the stand was that did that kindofclinch it for you I mean were you yousaid you didn't make up your mind untilthe end until the closing arguments wereandbut that was that something major thatreallywas part of your decisionum like I said earlier I think that allthe evidence all the witnesses they wereall a major part of the trial whetherone weighed more than other I think thatthere were some things that you couldkind of rely on a little bit betterwhenever he did get on the stand I knowthat it was very abnormal abnormal I'venever been a juror before and I've neversat through trial before but I did knowthat the defendant taking the stand wasvery abnormal I wouldn't say that atthat point that sealed the deal oranything I just took what he said Itried to weigh it both ways I tried tosee if what he was saying and if it wasthe truth made sense then that wouldmake sense but then I ran it the otherway and if what he was saying justdidn't add up then it didn't add up so Itried to do that with each piece ofevidenceI tried to run it both ways as to if itwas true and if it wasn't true if Icould rely on it or if I couldn't andthen which one made more sense and whichone you know kind of how they weresaying about the circumstantial evidencedid it all point to the same conclusionyou know which one of these whether itwas the truth or whether it wasn't andwasn't reliable which one points to theconclusion and fits the story betteruh I wouldhe talked about a lot and he's veryknowledgeable I would say that he wasyou know a very big part of the case aswell as you know a majority of the teamum I found it very interesting some ofthe things that he talked about justbecause it was it was things that I wasinterested inum I think it was very interesting as tohow he walked through the crime scenethings that he noticed things that hereally you know dug into and things thatreally caught his eye but you knowwhether he was extremely you know thebiggest part of the case or somethinglike that I think that he was extremelyimportant definitely gave us a lot ofgood informationexecution was getting way too into theweeds with financial stuff that'ssomething that we've gotwith did that bother you guys becausesometimes you guys look a little boredwhen not you specificallyum I will say that I it's a whole newexperience for me just for the last partof that question so I don't think that Iwas really bored a lot of times you knowmaybe I was a little uncomfortable forsitting there for a while but I wasstill interested I thought that you knowit's a very interestingsituation very interesting caseum but as far as for what your originalquestion wasumI don't think they got too far into theweeds becausethey I don't know that's a tough one forme to answerumit's all evidenceyou know whether it was just for themode of the financial stuff doesn't youknow it doesn'tit's not a factor on whether he wasbehind the trigger or not to me you knowthat was something they didn't have toprove they didn't have to prove motivebut they thought that it was importantfor us to you know see that evidence soanything that in my opinion anythingthat they put on the table for us tohearit's important to hear because thejudges made the decision that that'simportant for us to hear so I personallydon't think that they got too far intothe weeds but somebody else may thinkdifferently than me suresure you know I have a lot of respectfor all of them they all put a lot ofhard work and time into the caseum I think I would respect all of them Idon't think that I had a favorite Ithink that some of them definitely youknow just had a different style of beinga lawyer and being my first time youknow sitting in the trial like that itwas just interesting to see how each oneof them what angle they took how theyworked through the case so you know I IjustI have a lot of respect for all of themfor putting so much time and effort intothe caseyeah so I think that a lot of us weretired last night we spent a long sixweeks we weren't able to talk aboutanything for six weeks and that all cameto a point last night I think thatafterwards we all kind of decidedthat we'd made a very big decision andwe did not want to jump you know outthere and start talking to people wedecided that we just wanted to kind ofchill out and go home for the nightumlast night we decided that we were goingto ask everybody if nobody wanted totalk nobody had to if people didn't wantto come to the sentencing they didn'thave to but a lot of us did want tostand together you know we wanted to gothere we wanted to finish this out as agroup I will say that all the jurorswere very incredible people and we allcome from different walks of life and wewere able to bond over the six weeks soa lot of us you know some of us hadparticular reasons why we couldn't bethere and it's not that anybody didn'twant to stand together we were allunified but certain people just couldn'tmake it today but as a group we diddecide that we wanted to come back todaywe wanted to finish out the trial andthen we would go from there as far astalking to anybody or you know we wantedto make sure that everybody wascomfortable with it and everybody wasgetting out you know in front ofthemselves or in front of the jury youthink of what he said today he said I'minnocent and judge Newman kind of hadthis back and forth with himumI don't really think that you know I wasjust there to hear what he had to saybut I think that judge Newman did a verygood job of you know finishing out thetrial and I think that everything thathe said was uh was a very goodrepresentation of Judge Newman and Ithink that he had a you know were yousurprised that Alec didn't say you knowI'm sorry for the things that I've doneor anything I mean he didn't he said I'minnocent I wouldn't didn't hurt them orwouldn't hurt them I mean you know whatI mean I mean he usually sometimes thedefendant will throw themselves on themercy of the Courtand you know ask for leniency or ask forthe latest sentence he could have beengiven 30 years but there was none ofthat did that did you have a reaction tothatumI came today to finish out the trial andyou know I definitely wanted to hearwhat he had to say if he had to sayanything I didn't think that he wouldsay anythingumI think that heI thought that he may have felt like hehad already said enough you know he'dalready said what he would or would nothave doneumso I didn't really expect him to sayanything whenever he did I took it witha grain of saltwell I don't really own very many tiesbut my dad has quite a few so at thebeginning of the trial I wanted to be agood representation of the community andmy peers so I made it a point to youknow be rep be presentable and dressnicely every day so you know every oncein a while I'd throw in a tie and thisis actually one of my dad's tires but Ifelt like it was very fitting for theyou know trial so I'll wear it or I woreit several times throughout the past sixweeks and I felt like today with the endof it all it was very good day to wearsomething representing our JudiciarySystem yeahyeah right instead every time I saw youin court so um you know I think that'sgreat to show great respect for the forthe court umthere are sometimes people don't alwaysdoum James is there anything else you'dlike to addumI think thatI have quite a few things to sayumI think that there was a lot of peoplethat put a lot of time and effort intothe case I have a lot of respect for allof those people I think they worked veryhard and I worked I think they workedvery diligentlyum I think that some things wereI think some people were put in sometight spots and they didn't want tooverstep their boundaries but they stillwere able to get their job doneultimately and I think that came from alot of help from Paulum I think that as the jurors we alsodid have a tough six weeks I think thata lot of credit from that would go toFaithum I think very many times throughoutthe six weeks we prayed together weprayed before we went in we prayedbefore we came out to give the verdictI would say that that was a huge factorin us being able to sit comfortably withour decisionumso you felt like God was maybe guidingyou a little bit absolutelyumI think that having Clarity of mind andjust asking to you knowallow me to be able to hear what I needto hearumI think it would affect anybody but Iwill say that whenever I'm sitting upthereI try not to think too much about myselfand I try to think about what I need tobe seeing I know that these areimportant images that I need to beseeing so that I can take in all theevidence you know there might besomething that I see that may stick withme and although it may be gruesome it'ssomething that has to be seen for Pauland MaggieumI also think that regardless this is anincredibly difficult time for the familyand I hate it for all of themum again whenever I'm up there I try notto think about myself or how I'mimpacted I just try to listen as closelyas I can to everything that they'resaying and retain as much information asI can just so that I can have the mosthonest and true opinion that I'm capableof having so you know I can't say how Iwas feeling in the moment or what Ithought I was just taking every singleword that they said and trying to pickit apart and make it all fit togetherand you know just really retain all thatinformation and you're feeling okayyou're very mature for your age for 22.I mean these are some horrible imagesthat you guys had to see I didn't get tosee them but I can only imagine evenwhat we weretold was on the imageshow are you feeling I mean are you Iknow you're probably still decompressingfrom this you know we spoke earlier Ithink thata lot of the jurors we're going to needmore time to just really get a grasp onthat it's that it's over we've we'redone with the trial and now we have toget back to our lives I think that it'lltake a bit more time to really know howwe're all feeling but at the momentI'm just you know I'm secure in mydecision and it's there were definitelysome awful things that we had to look atand that we had to see and some of thosemay stick with some of the jurors andall the jurors for a very very long timethey were definitely not something thatyou see every day and something that youhope to never have to see or somethingyou hope never happened but it's justgonna you know take time for a lot ofpeople I'm sureand you said you know you've had to dothis for this for Quality do you feellike you have a clear idea of whathappened thatthat nightum I do just based off of the evidenceand you knowobviously there's some differingopinions from different Witnesses andstuff butum I do think that being able to see allthe evidence hear all the witnessesand just seeing where everything playedout being able to go out there to theactual crime scene itself and you'reable to see how close proximity andyou're able to see different littlethings that maybe weren't pointed out inby any of the witnesses or any of theyou know prosecution defenseyou're able to kind of picture it andyou're able to kind of see what happenedand that kind of goes back to earlierwhenever you were asking if I think thathe told any truth whenever he was on thestand and I think that it makes sensefor him to go down there on the golfcartum I don't think that he went down thereoriginally with him so you know that'sone of the parts of the truth that he Ibelieve filtered in with most of the lotwell that kind of goes to anotherquestion that you had asked earlierumabouthim on the stand and things that he saidso that was one thing that I kind ofnoticed is he's up there and he'stalking a lotoftentimes the prosecution would justlet him run with it whenever he startedto say something they just wouldn't saymuch and they would let him build on itand build on it and whenever he wastalking about whether she was going tocome or whether she wasn't he hadmentioned thatit had been there had been priortestimony that any time that she wasgoing to be going to the beach that shewas going to be taking the dogsso he used that and he said that shedidn't have the dog so she was obviouslyplanning on coming back to Moselle butshe was going to a doctor's appointmentand I know that you can't take your dogsinto the doctor's office and she's notgoing to leave them in the hot car so Idon't really think that proves anythingand they were also having work done downthere at a store you don't want yourdogs running around the house wheneveryou've got work going on down there sothere's just some little things likethat that didn't really add up you knowhe was trying I felt like he was tryingto put something in there to solidifyhis story but really it was just kind ofa little bit more questionable[Music]um you know we don't we don't have adead set time on when everythinghappened as far as after the video weknow there's a period of time betweenwhenever that video ends and whenever hepicks up his phone at the houseum so who I think that I hear a hose inthe background whenever they're takingthat video and I know that Alec iscalling for Bubbaso I do think that Maggie was probablywashing out the dog pins and I thinkthat he was getting the chicken and thatwas another part of his testimony is hewas saying you know Bubba is running upto me he's wanting to show me thechicken he's wanting to give it to mehe's proud of it but at the same timeyou hear him holler for Bubba two tothree times in the video It Doesn'treally seem like he's you know runningup to him it kind of seems like he'shaving to call him to him and I knowthat I've got several dogs and there aredogs that are happy and they want to runaround with it themselves you know sothere's just small things like that likeI saidI was listening to every word and I wastrying to just make it make sense andthere's some things that are just likewell that doesn't really make sense withwhat I saw in the video where thatdoesn't make sense with what I heardhere things like that do you think hetalksthat umyou know I'm not sure I think that hehad the phone at some point in time andthere was debate on whether it wouldturn on or whether it wouldn'tand we have no idea how he threw thephone we have no idea whether he washolding it in his hand the whole timeand had it turned off we don't know butit makes sense to me for him to havethrown the phoneI I don't want to keep you any longer Ireally appreciate it umanything else you want to add too muchyeah sureum so do you think if he hadn't takenthe stand do you think like how did himtestifying sort of affect things for youguys is it possible thatmaybe it would have left I mean couldyou see it but it be been a not guiltyverdict if he hadn't taken the stand I'mtrying to kind of understand how thatplayed into it did that like solidifythings in your mind orI think it was an aspect and I think itwas a part of the trial but I don'tthink it was the make or break point andI don't think that it was a situationwhere if he didn't take the stand hewouldn't have been found guiltyum I think that there was enoughevidence there gathered by sled andproduced by Paul thatit was there he was there and I thinkthat we all you know had enough evidencethere that whenever we went anddeliberatethere was enough there whether he got onthe stand or not withoutI'm not sure because there was thekennel video and you know like I said Imade my decision at the end of the trialwhenever I had all the evidence so youknow I'd have to go all the way back tothe beginning and forget everything Iknew and then go without the Kindlevideo to be able to make that call therewas a lot of evidence and I just knowthat was a part of it and a crucial partof it and I think that who it wasprovided byspoke a lotdid the mo cell visittake you more toward guilty or notguilty and whyum so again like I said earlier I waiteduntil the end to make my decision butwhenever I'm at the end and I'm you knowthinking about all this evidence therewas parts that I noticed at the mosulproperty that you knowwere evident to me this solidified myanswer of guiltythere was a lot of question aboutsay there is a a lot of questioningabout the second shotum to Pauland to methe way that it was described in the waythat it was portrayed it just didn'tlook right but what did make sense to meand something that I'd made note ofbefore we went to the Mozilla propertybecause I didn't know that we were goingto the military property but I wascuriousumis that for one I think that he wouldhave been looking at Pauland whenever we get out there it's avery tight ring and there is about a oneto one and a half inch Threshold at thebase of that door I think if he'slooking at Paul and he's just shot abuckshot whichif you're you know if you're nuts firmit can rock you pretty good I think hecould have been unbalanced and I thinkhe could have tripped over thatthreshold and that puts him on theground shooting upward his paws comingout and I think that makes sense to mefor the angle of the shotum why do you think he did itahI don't think like that I don't I don'thave the capability of thinking to beable to do something like that so Idon't think that I'd ever be able toanswer why somebody would do somethinglike that I think that they'reis a lot ofcontributing factors that somebody couldthrow in and we heard a lot throughoutthe trial but I still think there's morethat we haven't heard and there stillmay be more that nobody knows about Ijust think thatI think that it doesn't make sense to dothat but I know that there's people inthe world that don't make sense and theydo things without making it make senseso I don't I don't know that there is ananswer other thanthat it happened and that it shouldn'thave I think we can all agree on that