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After a six-week-long murder trial, Alex Murdaugh was convicted for the murders of his son, Paul, and his wife, Maggie, despite his legal team's attempts to disqualify their client as a suspect in the murder, who claimed it was carried out by a 5'2" shooter.
During the trial, the defense team argued that Alex Murdaugh, who is 6'4", couldn't have murdered his family after a defense witness, Mike Sutton, a forensic engineer who specializes in external ballistics, testified that the assailant who shot Maggie with an AR-15-style rifle had to be 5'2" to 5'4".
Alex Murdaugh's wife, Maggie, and his son Paul were killed near the dog kennels at the family's hunting estate in South Carolina in June 2021.
Authorities said that the perpetrator had used two different weapons to kill the victims, and investigations revealed that Paul was killed with a shotgun, while Maggie was shot with an AR-15-style rifle.
Shortly after the defense witness testified that the shooter had to be between 5'2" to 5'4", prosecutors presented their final witness, crime scene expert Kenneth Kinsey, who refuted the claims made by Mike Sutton.
Prosecutor witness in Alex Murdaugh murder trial disproves Defense's theories
During the trial, the defense team claimed that there could have been two shooters separately responsible for killing Paul and Maggie as they were killed with two different weapons.
The team then brought in a forensic engineer, Mike Sutton, who testified that the same shooter was responsible for both murders but said the perpetrator was 5'2" and not the suspect, who measured 6'4".
“In my opinion, it’s very unlikely that he (Alex Murdaugh) fired that shot. You would have to be bending over and have your shooting hand down at or below your kneecap. It just makes it very unlikely that a tall person made that shot.”
As per Fox News, Kenneth Kinsey, who testified for the prosecution earlier on February 16, dismissed the defense witness' theory, saying that Sutton had failed to consider several other variables in his hypothesis, including whether it was a static or a dynamic crime scene.
He said:
"You'd have to consider this to be a static crime scene. Very little movement. This was a very dynamic crime scene."
Kinsey concluded that based on his analysis, the killer could have been 6-foot-4, which is Murdaugh's height.
The prosecutor's crime scene expert also dismissed testimony from another defense witness, blood-spatter expert Tim Palmbach, who claimed that the killer who shot Paul in the chest went around him and then shot him in the head at point-blank range.
Dr. Kinsey described the theory as "preposterous" and "unscientific" and demonstrated by enacting the scene as South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson pointed a shotgun at his head.
