Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial starts with cellphones, bullets

By JEFFREY COLLINS
Associated Press

After 19 months of speculation, prosecutors have finally laid out their evidence that Alex Murdaugh killed his wife and son as they opened the double murder trial for the disgraced South Carolina attorney. Prosecutor Creighton Waters said Wednesday that there was gunshot residue on a seat belt, bullets pulled from bodies that matched ammunition boxes from around the home and cellphones never used again just a few minutes after Murdaugh, his wife and son were all heard on a video. Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian says prosecutors incorrectly locked in on Murdaugh’s guilt from the start and have spent all that time trying to jam bits of evidence that can be explained away or leave an incomplete picture into a story that frames the wrong man.