Alex Murdaugh: Can the State Still Prove WHY He Did It?!

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brueski and Robin Drake.

**Tony Brueski** (0:08)
Let's move on to the prosecution of this case. They told the judge that they're ready to try Alex Murdaugh before the end of 2026 The judge gave them till April. That's 10 months to rebuild a case that just lost its most powerful narrative. The 12 and a half hours of financial crimes testimony, the Supreme Court said, went too far. Now they did say you can't talk about it, they said, watch it, watch your step a little bit there buddy. Now everybody looks at that and go, oh my gosh, that was the most damning part of this.
I don't know if it was, I mean, it was damning. It was certainly a very strong part of this case. But what about the boat crash? What about the activity that he did in that whole scene of trying to intimidate witnesses as it appeared or get people to tell a certain story certain ways? We saw some of that come up in round one. None of that has been brought to light. That could, I think, taint Alec in front of a jury pretty good as well. But again, different case, but somewhat connected here. How much of that do you think can get in in round two to taint the character of Alec Murdaugh, Bob?

**Bob Motta** (1:18)
I mean, it's going to be substantially less. Yeah, I agree with you. I don't think that's a death knell. I don't think there's anyone that watched that trial from beginning to end, that didn't think it was too much of the financial crime shit that came in at trial. It was too much. You didn't need that much.
Some version of the financial crimes is always coming in because it goes to the state's theory of motive. It's always going to come in. I mean, that was the brilliance of the way Creighton decided upon landing on that particular motive because he knew that was going to be allowing him to get in these financial crimes that lay him out as the shit bag that he is. And I'm talking about Murdaugh. Yeah.
Because otherwise, if you're not putting that forward as your motive, I don't know that it's relevant to come in in a murder case. You know what I'm saying? So that was kind of an ingenious move by Waters to get that stuff in. And I think if you trim all the fat off of it and you're still getting it in, it might be more effective in terms of, because sometimes in the law, less is more. And I think that this might be one of those situations where they're going to get enough in to where they get the vibe that look, Alex, he had a motive for creating sympathy and to buy himself time because he was going to try to make all this shit right in terms of like the missing money and the IOTA, the lawyer trust account, all that stuff. All he needed was a little bit of time.

**Tony Brueski** (3:00)
Yeah.

**Bob Motta** (3:00)
Like I just needed to divert everybody's attention to this horrible thing that happened on my property and I didn't do it.

**Tony Brueski** (3:06)
I don't know. I don't know, Judge. Go over here. Look at this. That's all it is.

**Robin Drake** (3:11)
So can they still admit? Because I thought it was really the big link for me, one of them besides all the financial stuff, obviously, as the main thing. But his attempt to shoot himself or hire someone to shoot him prior to this, to garner that sympathy as well, I thought really laid out that this was just another example of that. Is that something that can come in?

**Bob Motta** (3:31)
Oh, I think so.

**Robin Drake** (3:32)
I mean, I think that's a strong one. Because again, when we're showing arcs of behavior, is it like, that's my question always, can you convict someone to be in a shitbag?
Because he is, and I think that's what all those things are shown. But this actually, that to me is a real data point on something he's done in the past, to sway sympathy in his favor. And this is just another act of that.

**Bob Motta** (3:52)
I mean, look, it's going to get that aspect of it is going to be litigated again, in motion, in limine. I mean, the defense is certainly going to try to keep it out, as not being relevant to the actual shootings and homicides. And we got a new judge. So it's going to depend on the way that she views it.