CNN
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Maggie Murdaugh was anxious about cash presumably being demanded of her household in a lawsuit and suspicious her husband wasn’t being fully trustworthy together with her within the days earlier than her killing, housekeeper Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson testified Friday within the double-murder trial of Alex Murdaugh.
“She was involved in regards to the amount of cash that they have been requesting in that lawsuit – $30 million is what she informed me,” Turrubiate-Simpson mentioned. “She mentioned she knew the amount of cash they have been asking.
“She felt that Alex was not being truthful to her with regard to what was occurring with that lawsuit. She mentioned he doesn’t inform me every thing.”
Turrubiate-Simpson, who mentioned she was a good friend of the Murdaugh household, additionally testified Alex Murdaugh requested her the day after Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, the couple’s grown son, have been killed at a household property to scrub the house there.
“He mentioned there was going to be folks most likely stopping by and bringing meals and stuff,” Turrubiate-Simpson mentioned. “He mentioned I simply need the home to look the way in which Maggie would really like for it to look. So, I mentioned OK and I went to the home.”
Alex Murdaugh is on trial for the killings on June 7, 2021. He has pleaded not responsible to 2 counts of homicide and two weapons costs, with the trial anticipated to final about two extra weeks.
A lot of this week’s testimony has centered on Alex Murdaugh’s monetary points. The decide ruled Monday to permit such proof, saying it was “so intimately related” with the state’s case “that proof of it’s important to finish the story.”
Forward of Turrubiate-Simpson’s testimony, some Murdaugh relatives have been ordered this week to sit down farther again within the South Carolina courtroom as a result of inappropriate contact and conduct, the Colleton County clerk of courtroom mentioned.
In courtroom Wednesday, Alex Murdaugh’s sister Lynn Murdaugh Goettee handed him a e-book by way of a member of his protection workforce. It was not shared with the sufferer’s advocate, and Goettee had been admonished simply 5 minutes earlier than that, a supply with information of the incident informed CNN.
The e-book was thought-about contraband as a result of it was not clear what was in it, the supply mentioned, including Murdaugh was already again in his jail cell with it earlier than anyone might examine it. The e-book – John Grisham’s “The Choose’s Checklist” – was later confiscated.
State Choose Clifton Newman additionally was made conscious of an obscene gesture Alex Murdaugh’s surviving son Buster Murdaugh made towards Mark Tinsley, the lawyer representing the household of Mallory Beach, who was killed in a 2019 boat crash involving Paul Murdaugh, Colleton County Clerk of Court docket Rebecca Hill informed CNN. The gesture occurred Monday throughout Tinsley’s testimony exterior the presence of the jury.
The youthful Murdaugh was admonished for the incident, Hill mentioned. Lynn Murdaugh Goettee and Buster Murdaugh have been warned that any extra violations will lead to them being barred from the courtroom.
Amid the e-book incident, Wednesday’s testimony was interrupted when a bomb menace was known as into the clerk’s workplace and the courthouse in Walterboro was evacuated, Hill mentioned. Court docket resumed hours later.
Tinsley’s testimony continued Friday after ending Thursday with him on the stand. He represents the household of the 19-year-old Seaside, who was killed when a ship owned by Alex Murdaugh and allegedly pushed by Paul Murdaugh crashed.
Turrubiate-Simpson and Nathan Tuten, Paul’s childhood good friend, additionally each recognized in courtroom Friday Alex Murdaugh’s voice in a key video authorities say was recorded shortly earlier than the killings.
The video, simply wanting a minute lengthy, was filmed on Paul Murdaugh’s telephone beginning at 8:44 p.m. the evening of the killings, a law enforcement witness testified earlier in the trial. Three totally different voices may be heard within the footage, which appeared to have been recorded across the Murdaugh household’s kennels, based on that earlier testimony.
Turrubiate-Simpson and Tuten each recognized Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh’s voices within the clip. At least three other witnesses within the trial have recognized Alex Murdaugh’s voice because the third one within the video, although he has repeatedly denied being on the kennels across the time of the killings.
Authorized groups on Thursday supplied a glimpse into the remaining trial schedule: Closing arguments might begin round February 23, primarily based on attorneys’ estimates – weeks after Friday’s initially scheduled finish date.
The state hoped to relaxation its case by the center of subsequent week, prosecutor Creighton Waters mentioned, whereas the protection will want at the least per week, protection lawyer Dick Harpootlian mentioned, noting it may very well be on the shorter facet due to how lengthy testimony already has lasted.
The protection has out-of-state professional witnesses who would require journey and lodging, Harpootlian mentioned, declaring the size of the state’s case is making that tough and costly to schedule. The state thus far has known as 44 witnesses and launched greater than 400 displays of proof.
Harpootlian deliberate to ask the decide to let jurors go to Moselle, the searching property the place Maggie and Paul Murdaugh have been killed, he mentioned in opening statements.
Correction: A earlier model of this story incorrectly reported whose testimony was underway when Buster Murdaugh allegedly made an obscene gesture; it was Mark Tinsley’s. It additionally misstated which John Grisham e-book was confiscated from Alex Murdaugh; it was “The Choose’s Checklist.”
