Thread by @AveryGWilks

🚨🚨🚨Alex Murdaugh Double Murder Trial Day 28 (March 2) Megathread begins now 🚨🚨🚨

We’re in the endgame. First up today is the defense’s closing argument. The jury will probably begin deliberating sometime today.

#AlexMurdaugh #AlexMurdaughTrial #MurdaughTrial #Murdaugh

Here’s yesterday’s Megathread for those catching up

https://twitter.com/AveryGWilks/status/1630897514323795968

Our story on lead prosecutor Creighton Waters’ three-hour closing argument yesterday. (The defense expects to go for two hours this morning)

https://twitter.com/averygwilks/status/1631089915160064000

Our daily Understand Murdaugh podcast on the jury’s Moselle field trip and Waters’ closing argument open.spotify.com/episode/0lmaKt…

Our daily TikTok yesterday, which accurately previewed the state’s closing argument and also set the stage for what we’re going to hear from the defense in a couple of hours tiktok.com/t/ZTRWRbvW4/

Going to pull my life together now and get ready for court. For now, I leave you with a very sleepy Scoop who got out of bed to greet me at the top of the stairs when I arrived home from Walterboro around midnight last Friday

TikTok recorded. Reptile friends checked on. Defense’s closing argument an hour away. Let’s ride.

I'm biased, but I do recommend checking out the piece @ABC's @Nightline ran on the Murdaugh trial last night. You might see a familiar face!

abc.com/shows/nightlin…

(If you don't have a cable login, it is also on Hulu)

Some photos from the Moselle trip yesterday, via P&C photographer @WhitakerPhotos

1. The feed room
2. A look at where Maggie was killed
3. The dog kennels
4. Bubba's chicken (I assume)

@WhitakerPhotos 1. The view out of the feed room
2. The hose that Murdaugh dog caregiver Roger Davis testifies was wrapped up haphazardly that evening
3. A look at the entire crime scene, with pool reporter @vbauerlein pictured
4. The dog kennels

The main residence at Moselle, via photographer @WhitakerPhotos

Our daily TikTok recapping the prosecution's closing argument and previewing today tiktok.com/@postandcourie…

We're back. Judge Clifton Newman is addressing an allegation that a juror had improper discussions about the case.

Judge says he met with the juror on the record, and the juror denied discussing the case with anyone.

Newman: Two other people were interviewed in an in-chambers, on-the-record hearing about their contact with that juror.

"Both of those individuals waffled on the nature and the extent of the contact."

Newman: "The juror has had contact or discussions concerning the case with at least three individuals, though it does not appear the discussion was that extensive." But it did involve the juror offering her opinion on evidence presented at trial.

Newman is removing that juror and replacing her with an alternate.

We are down to one alternate now.

Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian isn’t happy about this juror issue and how the matter was investigated. He says SLED handled the juror investigation. One agent handling it was a witness in this case. Another was an investigator in the Murdaugh murders investigation.

Harpootlian: “It is muddled. But we would defer to your judgment. … “SLED has made another bad judgment in this case. This is just a continuum of a calamity of errors.”

Judge Newman brings out the juror by herself. “It’s going to require me to remove you from the jury. You have been, by all accounts, a great juror.” You’ve been attentive to the case and performed well.

Judge Newman: “With all the time you’ve invested in the case, you probably hate not to continue, or maybe you want to go. … I’m not suggesting you intentionally did anything wrong.”

Judge Newman asks the juror if she left anything in the jury room that she needs to retrieve before she goes.

The juror says she left a dozen eggs.

Judge orders the bailiff to retrieve the woman's eggs, and her purse, from the jury room.

Her identity will remain confidential.

Judge Newman orders her to wait until after the case to speak publicly about it.

So that is that. The woman doesn't seem to be in any real trouble, and she will get her eggs back.

Murdaugh defense attorney Jim Griffin rises at 9:55 a.m. to deliver the defense's closing argument. He said yesterday he expects to go for about 2 hours.

He tells the jury he plans to try to address questions they might have after hearing all the evidence.

Griffin praises the jury for their patience and their service over six weeks in this case. He reminds the jury that they were required at the start of this process to presume the defendant innocent of these charges.

Griffin compares the jury’s job to reviewing an instant replay in a sporting event: The call on the field must stand unless the instant replay definitively proves the call was wrong. In criminal cases, Griffin stands, the call on the field is that the defendant is innocent.

Griffin: If the evidence in this case causes you to hesitate as you go to fill out your vote, “if there is any reasonable cause for you to hesitate when you write ‘guilty,’ then the law requires you to write ‘not guilty.’”

Our live feed on a pivotal day in the Alex Murdaugh trial: postandcourier.com/murdaugh-updat…

Griffin: In Scotland, jurors are given three options: guilty, not guilty, or not proven.

In America, we’ve combined the last two. “Not guilty” and “not proven” are in the same bucket.

Griffin is telegraphing that the words “not guilty” mean more than “innocent.”

I imagine that at some point, Griffin is going to also try to relieve the pressure on the jury to convict AM by reminding them that AM is going to jail for a very long time regardless of what they decide in this case.

He's cooked on the alleged financial crimes.

Griffin is using the CCSO/SLED “no danger to the public” statement on 6/8/21 to argue investigators considered AM their prime suspect from day one of the murder investigation.

Griffin: “Does that tell you that on June 8, law enforcement had decided it had to be Alex Murdaugh? It’s a fair question for you to ask yourselves. It’s a question that has not been fairly answered in this trial.”

Griffin: “He is at the mercy of SLED to exclude him from the (investigative) circle. ... SLED failed miserably in investigating this case. And had they done a competent job, Alex would have been excluded from that circle a year ago, two years ago. But he would have been excluded"

Griffin: Remember the hair found in Maggie’s hands? We didn’t hear anything more about it. Was it tested? Was it sent off for analysis? There is no evidence of what, if anything, happened to the hair in Maggie’s hand. Was it from a struggle w/ the assailant? Was it her own hair?

Griffin: SLED didn’t take footprint impressions from the feed room. Experts on both sides both had Paul’s murderer standing on the concrete outside the feed room. “There should have been footwear impressions, but we’ll never know because it was not preserved. It was not taken.

Griffin asks why SLED investigators didn’t do a more thorough, professional search for evidence at the crime scene. He points back to the “no danger to the public statement.” “They had decided that unless we find somebody else, it’s gonna be Alex.”

Griffin: AM desperately wanted investigators to pull data from his Suburban on-board computer. He knew it would show he didn’t ditch Maggie’s phone.

G: SLED failed to do that. They sent a subpoena via fax machine to somebody in Detroit at General Motors. We don’t know why GM ...

Griffin: ... replied that they didn’t have that data. Perhaps there was a number off in SLED’s request. But we know SLED didn’t follow up with GM on the lack of data. The state only got that data during this trial when GM reached out and provided it.

Griffin: They did not properly store Maggie’s phone to prevent location data from being overwritten. And so it was. You heard about faraday bags. They could have done that. “Had they done it, I hope we wouldn’t be here.”

Griffin has spent the first 30 minutes of his closing argument stressing the many perceived flaws in SLED’s investigation, trying to establish that a more thorough, professional probe would have found the real killer(s) and exonerated AM.

Instead, Griffin says, incompetent investigators reverted back to their original hypothesis - that AM did it - and tried to prove it.

Griffin says the 2021 roadside shooting made Alex Murdaugh an easy target.

“From that moment, they started fabricating evidence against Alex."

Griffin says he's a former state/federal prosecutor with friends in law enforcement. "I don’t make that claim lightly.”

Griffin: “They came up with a report that said Alex’s T-shirt had high-velocity blood spatter on it. … That means you’re within feet of a shooting.”

Then, when the defense proved that wrong, “they went from Mr. Bloody Shirt before this trial to Mr. Clean during this trial.”

Griffin: “And here we are with a Mr. Clean theory.” That AM washed off with a hose after brutally murdering Maggie and Paul and “he gets in a golf cart butt naked, I guess, driving to the house.”

Griffin moves on to the blue rain jacket evidence.

Griffin says no one in the family recognized that jacket as AM’s or anybody else’s. Griffin also implies SLED misled John Marvin about where they found it, claiming it was recovered from “back on the property” at Almeda.

Griffin said people make mistakes when remember exact times all the time. But “it’s not all right for him to make mistakes about that.”

Griffin says major pieces of evidence that investigators presented to the Colleton County grand jury to get an indictment of Alex Murdaugh “weren’t true.”

Blood spatter. GSR rain jacket hasn’t been connected to AM. The way shotguns were loaded at Moselle.

Griffin now attacking the state’s motive that AM killed Maggie/Paul to avoid scrutiny of his financial crimes.

“He puts himself in the middle of a murder investigation, and he puts himself in the middle of a media firestorm. That’s their motive.”

Griffin plays the dog kennel video.

“Four minutes later, the state would have you believe that Alex Murdaugh blew his sons brains out of his head after having a conversation about Bubba” and a chicken.

“There is nothing on that tape that indicates any strife, any conflict, any anger … anybody being afraid, anybody running, anybody scurrying. Nothing. It’s Maggie, Paul and Alex down at the kennel. That’s it.”

Griffin: The state’s theory of when Maggie/Paul died is that if you’re not touching your phone, you’re dead. If you don’t answer a text as soon as you receive it, you’re dead.

Griffin: Every witness who took the stand and actually knew them “testified under oath how much Alex adored Maggie.”

Paul was Alex’s best friend.

Griffin plays recordings of the state’s witnesses testifying about AM’s love for his wife and sons.

Griffin circles back to the state's theory of AM's motive for the slayings. “What kind of sense does that make?”

Alex’s financial house was a wreck, so he goes and kills his wife and son?

Griffin raises his voice: “That is their theory of the case. If you don’t accept that beyond a reasonable doubt, ladies and gentlemen, I submit the verdict has to be not guilty because there is no reason for him to do it, no reason whatsoever.”

Griffin: There was no great pressure on AM on 6/7/21. June 7 was no different than “any other day in the frenetic lifestyle of Alex Murdaugh. He had so many balls in the air.”

Griffin: Even if the state’s motive was valid, AM didn’t need to kill his wife and son because his father’s poor health and death would already buy him time from his law firm’s inquiries for about a month.

Griffin uses AM’s reaction to his Sept. 3, 2021, ouster from the law firm to counter the state’s motive. AM tried to have himself killed.

“When Alex is at financial collapse, he doesn’t go kill somebody else. He tries to end it himself."

Griffin on the investigation/prosecution: I hold the Attorney General’s Office in high esteem.

But “sometimes, folks get caught up in a case.” They want to win. And they do what it takes to win.

We are on a 10-minute break.

Griffin, back from a break, disputes that the evidence definitively proves Maggie and Paul were killed with family guns. Especially the shotgun.

Griffin: AM didn’t accuse anybody of lying on the witness stand, as prosecutor Creighton Waters said yesterday. “I’ve been around long enough to know that witnesses can misremember things.”

I reckon now is a good time to bump the pre-trial profile I wrote of Alex Murdaugh's defense attorneys, including Jim Griffin.

Lot of detail in here about why Griffin entered the legal profession and the relationships he forges with his clients.

postandcourier.com/murdaugh-updat…

Here's the Understand Murdaugh podcast episode on the same: postandcourier.com/understandsc/m…

Griffin on the state's science experiment/phone chucking exercise: "He spent all weekend throwing his phone around." Griffin chucks his own phone, which makes a thump in the courtroom mics as it lands. In hindsight, this was inevitable.

Griffin: “Now we’ve got a guy tossing a phone in an office, doesn’t even work for SLED. … That’s not his area of expertise.”

Yet again we see the consequences of the AG’s failure to call phone-chucking expert Mr. PeePaw Bubbers III to the witness stand.

I'm taking this just as seriously as they are.

The state objects to stop Griffin from replaying videos of witness testimony. Judge Newman agrees. Griffin then plays an audio version of that testimony.

Griffin is now speeding through the forensic/digital timeline of 6/7/21.

Griffin's closing argument started punchily. He reminded the jury of the flaws/shortcomings they have heard about the state's murder investigation and accused investigators of manufacturing evidence to implicate AM when their incompetence prevented them from solving the crime.

But since the court-ordered break, Griffin seems to have lost a lot of steam as he meanders through the weeds.

Griffin pulls up the analysis of AM’s step count. He looks at the point in which AM is moving the quickest.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is a slow walk. 1.05 steps per second.”

Griffin paces slowly in front of the jury, counting “One thousand one, one thousand two…” as he goes.

“This is Alex scurrying around, according to the state’s case,” Griffin says.

Griffin picking up some steam here. He points out that the state’s evidence doesn’t have AM’s phone and Maggie’s phone moving together at the same time in the quarter-hour after investigators say Maggie/Paul were killed.

Griffin: The state told you Murdaugh “sped up” after driving by the spot where Maggie’s phone was later found. He did speed up, from 42 mph to 44, to 46.

Read: He’s not punching the gas after ditching evidence.

Griffin says the state has raised suspicion about AM’s drive speed on the way to his mom’s house that evening. He traveled the same speed there and the same speed back. You’d think he’d want to drive slowly if he’s establishing an alibi.

Griffin: If he is manufacturing a timeline that absolves him of the slayings, the easiest way to do it is use both phones. He would have been texting from Maggie’s phone to try to establish that she was still alive.

Griffin: “We know from Maggie’s phone data that her phone was never unlocked, and he has the keys.” Why didn’t AM unlock her phone if he was the one ditching it?

Griffin: “These circumstances raise more questions, ladies and gentlemen, that we wouldn’t have to be dealing with if they had simply secured Maggie’s phone … on June the 8th. We wouldn’t be here.”

Griffin: Were Maggie and Paul killed before AM left Moselle that evening? I don’t know the answer to that. But if they were shot while he was in the house, we’ve proven with an audio expert that he would not have heard.

Griffin with a zinger: “He leaves the property at 9:07. If it happens at 8:50, he’s got 17 minutes. 17 minutes. He’d have to be a magician to make all that evidence disappear.”

Griffin: He would have been covered in blood, biological material, after killing Paul. The shooter is covered in blood. The shooter’s gun is covered in blood. It’s not a sufficient amount of time to clean all that, make all that disappear,

Griffin on AM post-9 p.m.: He calls Buster, John Marvin, Chris Wilson. He goes and sits with Shelley. “He’s got no blood on him. He’s acting normal as every day. He is the same old Alex. Yet their theory is he just blew the people he loved the most in the world, blew them away.”

Griffin: Prosecutors made fun of our rendering of the little grey people who killed Maggie. “We didn’t take the measurements. SLED took the measurements.”

Sure, the shooter could have crouched or knelt. But it also looks like the shooter was moving.

Griffin: “The most common sense thing here is there were two shooters. There were two guns. One gun was high capacity. … If you’re going down there to execute somebody, one gun is enough.”

Griffin points to the “I/they” controversy as evidence SLED cannot be trusted in this case. He’s thankful other witnesses have said they heard “they” and also heard AM saying “they did him so bad” other times after the slayings.

Griffin: “That issue points to a bigger question. What would they be saying in this trial if that conversation wasn’t videotaped?”

Griffin plays audio I don’t think I’ve ever heard before: Part of the CCSO deputy Daniel Greene body cam footage in which Alex is asking about whether law enforcement can get a police officer up to protect his older son, Buster, in Columbia.

Griffin: Prosecutors have made a big deal about AM telling different versions of whose body he checked first when he discovered Maggie/Paul dead on 6/7/21.

Griffin: You heard yesterday Maggie was running to her baby.

“Alex was running to his baby. And can you imagine what he saw?”

Can he really be blamed for not remembering the exact sequence of events?

“Is that evidence of guilt or is that evidence of trauma?”

Griffin: “We are back to the lie. Because that’s all they have in this case, is that Alex lied to them. And he shouldn’t have.” And he kept lying to continue the lie, and he shouldn’t have.

Griffin on AM’s lie: It wasn’t rational, but he was in the throes of addiction, and he had just discovered his wife and son dead. And they swiped his hands for GSR. And he thought he was being questioned by the same SLED agent who investigated his friend, Greg Alexander.

Griffin: The state showed you a bunch of guns during this case, and not a single one of them was used to kill Maggie or Paul. “They want you to think that because you own guns, that you should be viewed differently? I don’t know what else to make of that.”

Griffin: “You’ve heard weeks of testimony about Alex’s financial crimes, drug addiction and lies. But after all that, the state has failed to provide a satisfactory answer to this question: Why?” And that’s because the state can’t answer that. Because he would not do it.

Griffin: The law doesn’t require you to look at AM as a monster. The law requires you to view him as innocent.

Griffin chokes up as he closes: “On behalf of Alex, on behalf of Buster, on behalf of Maggie and on behalf of my friend Paul, I ask that you do not compound one tragedy with another. Thank you.”

Jury is excused for a break.

Prosecutor John Meadors will offer the state’s final argument. He asks if he can go to the bathroom first, prompting laughter. 5 minute recess.

Griffin's closing argument lasted about 2 hours, 15 minutes.

Jury is returning to the courtroom now for the final word from Meadors.

Meadors thanks jurors for sitting through this for six weeks. “And I’m not going to be that long.”

Meadors: “This is a common sense case.” And you didn’t leave that common sense behind when you came here for six weeks.

He calls Murdaugh defense attorney Dick Harpootlian a "smokescreen machine."

Meadors: I’m offended that the defense is claiming law enforcement didn’t do their job “while he (AM) is withholding and obstructing justice by not saying, ‘I was down at the kennels.’”

“Why wouldn’t you tell them that?” Meadors asks. “Credibility. Believability.”

Meadors: This case is about being real. “Always be real. This case is about that defendant never being real.”

Meadors: Why didn’t AM call Buster as soon as he found the bodies? “Buster, stay where you are!” Protect yourself. Someone is trying to kill us.

Meadors: “We don’t have to prove motive! I think it’s been proven. His world was collapsing.”

Meadors mentions Bubba in passing and then hints he will come back to him later: “Don’t let me forget about Bubba.”

Gosh dangit.

Meadors: Malice is established. He shot them multiple times. It wasn’t an accident.

Meadors on reasonable doubt: “You can’t answer every question, and the law doesn’t require it.”

Meadors on AM’s trip to Almeda that night, when he parked out back instead of in the driveway. “We submit to you that’s when he went to hide the guns. That’s common sense.”

Meadors on the Almeda trip: “He wasn’t going to love his momma. He wasn’t going to be with her. He was going because he loves Alex.”

Meadors on AM’s early-morning visit to Almeda days after the slayings, according to Shelley Smith: “Doesn’t call. He didn’t need a timeline to create for that visit. Didn’t want a timeline. Didn’t want a record of that.”

Meadors: This was days after the murder. Shelley sees him come in with something blue and goes upstairs.

Meadors: That blue rain jacket is good circumstantial evidence. “Is Shelley making that up? Did she make that up?”

Meadors is cooking.

Meadors: Remember what AM said when he was asked when he changed clothes on 6/7/21? He wanted to know what time Paul filmed his Snapchat video.

Meadors walks the jury through how AM tried to align his story after the slayings with that of Shelley Smith and Blanca Simpson.

"They're trying to put us on trial for doing our jobs - blaming everybody else," Meadors said.

Meadors tends to alternate quite suddenly between borderline whispers and shouting. Caused me to jump a time or two.

The jury isn't gonna fall asleep on this man's watch.

Meadors: “You think Bubba knew? … BUBBA! Thank God for Bubba. … Thank you Bubba.”

Jesus.

Meadors' dad was a country minister, and it shows.

Meadors: “I think he loved Maggie. I think he loved Paul. But you know who he loved more than that? You know who he loved more than that? … He loved Alex.”

Meadors finishes up, asking the jury to find Murdaugh guilty in the murders of Maggie and Paul.

We are going to break for lunch for 1 hour, 15 minutes.

Jury charges after lunch.

Meadors went for exactly an hour.

To clarify what I think Meadors meant earlier by “Thank God for Bubba”:

If Bubba were not such a mischievous, stubborn, alleged chicken murderer, Alex would never have called out to him on the kennel video on 6/7/21, and the state would have no evidence placing AM at the scene.

Meadors was hired by the S.C. Attorney General's Office, where he wants to finish out his legal career as a prosecutor, in December. He joined the Murdaugh prosecution team and wound up delivering the state's final argument. That's really something.

I'm going to stay in Walterboro as the jury deliberates.

Pool photos from the second and final day of closing arguments, via @WhitakerPhotos and @JAABPhoto

1. Murdaugh defense attorney Jim Griffin argues.
2. Prosecutor Creighton Waters watches him.
3. Prosecutor John Meadors argues.
4. Buster Murdaugh watches him.

Against all odds, I am writing about O.J. Simpson today

https://twitter.com/AveryGWilks/status/1631379339647262744

Today, we've had a juror kicked out of the Murdaugh trial, but not before her eggs were retrieved from the jury room; "Thank God for Bubba;" and O.J. Simpson weighing in that “It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if this guy beats this case."

Reset the counter. It has been zero (0) days since the Alex Murdaugh trial was unnecessarily dramatic.

Court is back in session.

“Madam forelady and members of the jury, you have heard the testimony, received the evidence and heard the arguments of the state and defendant."

Judge Newman is now explaining the law they will have to consider as they weigh Murdaugh's culpability in his wife and son's slayings

“Remember, you have no friends to reward or no enemies to punish,” Newman tells the jurors. It’s their job to be fair and impartial judges of the facts of this case.

Alex Murdaugh was a high-profile trial lawyer, a gregarious Hampton socialite, a part-time prosecutor, the heir to a Lowcountry legal dynasty and a con artist whose thefts brought that legacy crashing down.

But was he also a murderer?

A jury will decide.

https://twitter.com/AveryGWilks/status/1631393216137142302

Lawyers in the case, including Attorney General Alan Wilson, have approached the bench with the jury excused. I'm not sure what about. Audio has been cut.

Will report back if/when I learn more.

We are now in recess as we wait for the verdict.

Murdaugh’s defense team is holding court in the media center.

Update from court: The jury *can* deliberate until 10 p.m. this evening. Doesn't mean they will.

No plan right now to order dinner for the jury. They have coffee, tea, water and snacks.

We will find out if jurors have questions or if they reach a verdict.

Per my pal @cassielcope, NBC really liked our lede today

Programming note: I am planning to join @livenowfox around 9 p.m. EST to discuss closing arguments and jury deliberations in the Murdaugh trial.

The obvious caveat is that if we get a verdict this evening, my focus will instead be on reporting about that instead.

Additional programming note: I'm also planning to join @MSNBC's @11thHour around 11:40 p.m. EST, with the same caveat that a verdict will severely change the course of my evening.

The livestream feed of the court just zoomed out, showing movement in the courtroom, before zooming back in on the South Carolina seal. No audio, though.

The media room just freaked the hell out. People sprinting in every direction. I don't know what's happening.

Court TV is reporting to media the same thing: "We have movement in the courtroom - no word if there's a verdict or a question."

I've heard things. I don't *know* anything.

NEW: The jury in Alex Murdaugh's double-murder trial reached a verdict at 6:41 p.m. It took them less than three hours.

A quick verdict does not seem to bode well for Alex Murdaugh.

I did not eat dinner. I wish I had.

The jury weighing Alex Murdaugh's fate asked no questions and made no requests of Judge Newman. They didn't order dinner, either.

Court is back in session.

Alex Murdaugh is staring downward as the jury returns to the courtroom.

On a count of murder, the Colleton County jury finds Alex Murdaugh GUILTY.

On the second count of murder, the Colleton County jury finds Alex Murdaugh GUILTY.

The Colleton County jury has found Alex Murdaugh guilty of murdering his wife, Maggie, and son Paul.

FULL STORY: Alex Murdaugh, the wealthy scion of a powerful Lowcountry legal dynasty, was found guilty of murdering his wife and son in a pair of grisly June 2021 slayings that captured international attention and kickstarted his precipitous downfall. postandcourier.com/murdaugh-updat…

Alex Murdaugh stared straight ahead as the verdicts were read, betraying no emotions.

His son Buster, stared straight ahead, resting his face in his left hand.

Murdaugh’s defense team renews its previous objections and moves for a mistrial.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters: “The case properly went to the jury, and the verdict was proper.”

“The evidence of guilt is overwhelming, and I deny the motion,” Judge Newman rules.

Judge Newman: We will defer sentencing to a later date. The minimum sentence for murder is 30 years.

Everyone agrees to handle sentencing at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow.

Alex Murdaugh is placed in handcuffs and is silently escorted out of the courtroom.

Judge Newman thanks the jurors for their work on this case. “You all responded and gave due consideration to the evidence. I will make no comment now as to the extent of the overwhelming nature of the evidence, but certainly the verdict that you have reached is supported."

Judge Newman: "The circumstantial evidence, direct evidence, all of the evidence pointed to one conclusion, and that’s the conclusion that you all reached."

Judge Newman: "I applaud you all as a group, and as a unit and individually in evaluating the evidence and coming to a proper conclusion as you saw the law and saw the facts.”

Court is in recess until 9:30 a.m. tomorrow, when Alex Murdaugh will be sentenced.

Judge Newman is known as a tough sentencer, and he went at length to explain that he agrees with the jury's verdicts tonight.

Court TV has asked media not to show the jurors in their coverage, as Court TV literally just did while filming Alex Murdaugh walking out of the courtroom. Jesus, man.

We are writing through the story.

Per our reporter in the courtroom, @thadmoore, the jury wore serious faces as they entered the courtroom.

Murdaugh’s family did not appear to react to the decision. Buster, holding his girlfriend Brooklynn’s hand, looked down at the ground. ...

@thadmoore TM: Only when Judge Newman told jurors their verdict was supported by the evidence did Murdaugh's sister, Lynn, begin shaking her head. Alex did not appear to react when Hill announced the verdict.

@thadmoore TM: After Newman said Murdaugh would be remanded to sheriff’s office custody, a deputy immediately whipped out handcuffs and placed them on Murdaugh’s wrists, the first time he has been handcuffed in the courtroom during the 28-day proceedings.

@thadmoore TM: The Murdaugh family left quickly, escorted by deputies. The prosecution team and SLED agents hugged and patted each other on the back.

Statement from S.C. Attorney General @AGAlanWilson:

"Today’s verdict proves your position and power in life do not matter: no one is above the law, and that includes Alex Murdaugh. It’s been a long six weeks, but Maggie and Paul Murdaugh deserved justice, and they certainly..."

@AGAlanWilson "... did not deserve to brutally die at the hands of someone who was supposed to love and protect them. Alex Murdaugh’s house of cards, built on the foundation of lies, manipulation, and theft, came crashing down."

@AGAlanWilson Wilson: "Let this be a warning: no matter who you are, if you break the law, the truth will come out and you will be brought to justice."

@AGAlanWilson Statement from lead prosecutor Creighton Waters: “I want to thank the jurors for their service and the justice they delivered to Richard Alexander Murdaugh today. Alex Murdaugh tried one last con to prevent the accountability he has never had to face in his life, but the jury.."

@AGAlanWilson Waters: "... saw through that and properly found he murdered his wife and son in cold blood. This has been a long and exhaustive effort that could only have been achieved with the amazing team I have been fortunate to lead. Each and every one rose to the occasion, and I could..."

@AGAlanWilson Waters: "not be more proud to serve with of all of them. I want to thank the entire South Carolina State Grand Jury team, SLED, our other law enforcement partners, the Clerk of Court and court security and court staff..."

@AGAlanWilson "... and the entire community in Colleton County which has welcomed us and treated us so well.”

End statement.

@AGAlanWilson We have a lot more detail up in our current version of the story.

From our latest update: After the verdicts were announced, lead prosecutor Creighton Waters faced a wall of TV cameras and cheering onlookers and likened the trial to his office's Super Bowl. Waters remarked that the trial began in winter and concluded in the spring. ...

"Justice was done today," Waters said. "It doesn't matter who your family is. It doesn't matter how much money you have or people think you have. It doesn't matter how prominent you are. If you do wrong, if you break the law, if you murder, justice will be done in South Carolina"

postandcourier.com/murdaugh-updat…

If you'll indulge me, one final plug for the profile I wrote of lead prosecutor Creighton Waters in December.

I described him then as the man most responsible for exposing the double life Murdaugh lived as a prominent attorney and a thieving con artist.

postandcourier.com/murdaugh-updat…

I've sent our story up the editing pipeline. If you've been waiting to read the final version, the one that is online now is basically it.

Thank you to everyone for the kind words today and throughout this trial. Seriously, it has helped as we grind through 14-hour days to know that so many people appreciate it. No, you do not need to Venmo me, but thank you for the thought.

We will be back tomorrow for Day 29 - Alex Murdaugh's sentencing and the very last Megathread of this trial.

I'll be on @MSNBC's @11thHour at 11:20 tonight to talk Murdaugh. Going to Dairy Land in the meantime.

Hell of a shot by @WhitakerPhotos

@WhitakerPhotos As we reported earlier, Murdaugh's defense team declined to comment after the verdict was announced tonight. They have scheduled a press conference for about an hour after the sentencing tomorrow.

@WhitakerPhotos AM as he was found guilty on all four counts. Via @WhitakerPhotos

Now that we have a second to breathe, how about Judge Newman declaring he wasn’t going to comment on AM’s guilt or innocence and then going on a minutes-long soliloquy about how AM is guilty as sin

More like the Promised Land amirite

Going to Facetime with the BBC here in a second.

Still planning on MSNBC at 11:20 p.m.

OK, folks, I'm gonna call it quits on the Day 28 Megathread. We will be back at it in the morning for Murdaugh's sentencing.