Alex Murdaugh’s only surviving son Buster gave stoic testimony as his father looked on smiling in the South Carolina courtroom where he is on trial for the murders of the 26-year-old’s mother Maggie and brother Paul.
Buster – who has attended Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, every day since the start of the high-profile trial in a show of support for his father – was the first witness called to the stand by the defence on Tuesday morning.
During calm, controlled testimony, he appeared to water down – but not refute – some key points in the prosecution’s case including his father’s behaviour on the day of the murders, the clothes he was wearing and the police interview where he appeared to unwittingly confess to killing his wife and son.
Buster said that his father had been “destroyed” and “heartbroken” in the aftermath of the 7 June 2021 murders of Maggie and Paul.
In what marks the first time the 26-year-old has ever spoken out publicly about the murders, he testified about the moment that he learned that his mother and brother were dead.
Buster said that Mr Murdaugh called him that night and asked him if he was sitting down.
“He sounded odd and then he told me that my mom and brother were shot.”
At first, Buster said that he just “sat there in shock”. Then he and his girlfriend Brooklynn grabbed some stuff and drove down to Moselle, reaching the property in the early hours of the morning of 8 June.
“He was destroyed, he was heartbroken,” he said of his father, adding that he could barely speak.
“I walked in the door and saw him and gave him a hug... just broke down.”
Several friends and partners at Mr Murdaugh’s law firm PMPED were also there and they stayed for several hours before he, his father, girlfriend and uncle John Marvin went to Mr Murdaugh’s parents’ home in Almeda.
Buster testified that he helped pack his father a bag of clothes from his closet to take with them – casting doubts on some of the prosecution’s case.
In the aftermath of the murders, Buster said that he was with his father almost all day every day for “a good while” and kept a close eye on him.
He said that there was no times he could think of when his father disappeared for periods of time – appearing to cast doubts on the state’s suggestion that he disposed of evidence in the aftermath of the murders.
Jurors previously heard from Mr Murdaugh’s mother’s carer Muschelle “Shelly” Smith, who testified that the disgraced attorney showed up at his parents’ home at around 6.30am one morning days after the murders.
He hid a mystery blue item upstairs in the home and then left again, she said.
A blue tarp and a blue rainjacket was found in a search of the home, with the jacket covered in gunshot residue particles.
Prosecutors claim that Mr Murdaugh wrapped the murder weapons in the jacket and intially hid them at his parents’ home.
The guns have never been found.
In one dramatic moment, he insisted that his father said “they” and not “I” during a police interview video which prompted speculation that the disgraced legal dynasty heir may have unwittingly slipped up and confessed to the murders.
Video from the 10 June 2021 interview – Mr Murdaugh’s second interview since the murders – was previously played in court, with the sobbing legal scion speaking about the killings.
SLED Special Agent Jeff Croft testified that Mr Murdaugh said: “I did him so bad.”
Buster refuted this testimony, saying that his father said “they did him so bad” after listening to the footage in court.
“He said ‘they did them so bad’,” he said.
Buster told the court that he had heard his father repeatedly say those five words on the night of the murders.
There was been much speculation around whether Mr Murdaugh said “they” or “I” in the audio, which is difficult to distinguish.
This marks the first time the 26-year-old has ever spoken publicly about the murders of his mother and brother or about his father’s string of alleged crimes.
Buster – the eldest and now only surviving son of Maggie and Mr Murdaugh – has stood by his father throughout the growing number of allegations against him.
Coming as the defence’s first major witness in their case, he played into their strategy to present Mr Murdaugh as a loving family man who could never have killed his wife and son in such a brutal fashion – which saw Paul’s brains shot outside of his skull.
The 26-year-old told the court how he lived with his family – Maggie, Paul and Mr Murdaugh – in Beaufort before they moved to Hampton County in 2000.
Growing up, he said that his parents attended “every game” he and Paul ever played in sports and that his father coached their little league teams.
Over time, the Moselle property became the family’s main home – though they would spend much of the summer at the beach home in Edisto Beach.
He said that he, Paul and his father would often go hunting together on the 1,700-acre estate.
Throughout the weeks-long trial, Buster and several other family members have put on a united front, supporting Mr Murdaugh in court every day.
However, Buster was also notably spotted hugging his aunt Marian Proctor – Maggie’s sister – in court after she testified against his father, including detailing his drug use, an alleged affair years before the murders, and his odd behaviour in the wake of the 7 June 2021 murders.
Throughout the trial, Buster’s own apparently bad behaviour has also been on display inside the courtroom.
Judge Clifton Newman is said to have issued multiple warnings to several members of the Murdaugh family about their behaviour in court and they were told to move to the back of the courtroom.
In court on the week of 6 February, Buster appeared to “flip the bird” at attorney Mark Tinsley as he took the witness stand about the boat crash lawsuit that he brought against Mr Murdaugh.
Sources told FITS News that when Buster was then asked to move to the back of the courtroom, he allegedly kicked over a water bottle in anger.
The judge has warned that he and other family members could be removed from court altogether if there are any further wrong moves.
Buster’s name has also cropped up in a series of other scandals surrounding the once-powerful family.
He is accused of buying alcohol for his younger brother Paul prior to the 2019 fatal boat crash.
On the night of 24 February 2019, Paul was allegedly drunk driving the Murdaugh family’s boat with several of his friends on board. The boat crashed into some rocks and threw the passengers overboard.
Everyone survived apart from Mallory Beach, 19, whose body washed up on shore around a week later.
In April 2019, Paul was charged with three felonies over Beach’s death including boating under the influence and was facing up to 25 years in prison. The charges were dropped after his murder.
Mr Murdaugh was also sued by the Beach family, with prosecutors saying that the lawsuit was picking up pace in the days before the murders, and that the disgraced attorney’s finances were about to be exposed because of it.
Buster’s name has also cropped up in connection with the mysterious death of Stephen Smith – a 19-year-old gay teenager who was found dead at the side of a road in Hampton County in 2015.
His testimony marked the first major witness for the defence, which began its case on Friday afternoon.
During the state’s case, Mr Murdaugh’s attorneys have hinted at a range of theories they plan to present – including that there was two killers and that the murders were tied to a local drugs gang.
Jurors have so heard four weeks of dramatic testimony from 61 prosecution witnesses covering a trove of circumstantial evidence, including cellphone and car data, a damning video allegedly placing Mr Murdaugh at the crime scene and apparent holes in his alibi for the time for the murders.
The final state witness SLED Agent Peter Rudofski laid out a detailed timeline of both the final movements of the two victims – and the movements of their accused killer.
Among the timeline was newly-obtained car data which placed Mr Murdaugh’s car at the spot where his wife’s phone was later found dumped – before he quickly sped away from the scene.
It also showed that he stayed just 21 minutes at his parents’ home that night – less than half the 45 minutes to an hour he claimed to police.
Bombshell testimony from his mother’s carer Muschelle “Shelly” Smith previously disputed Mr Murdaugh’s alibi, saying that he showed up at his sick mother’s house for only 20 minutes that night – before telling her to tell authorities he was there double the length of time.
A cellphone video captured by Paul minutes before the murders also appears to place Mr Murdaugh at the murder scene.
Prosecutors claim that Mr Murdaugh shot dead Maggie and Paul by the dog kennels of the family’s sprawling estate in Islandton, in order to distract from his string of alleged scandals and financial crimes.
Mr Murdaugh, 54, is facing life in prison for the murders of his wife and son. He has pleaded not guilty.
