good thursday morning, i'm lindsey reiser at msnbc headquarters in new york. right now we're keeping our eyes on a courtroom in south carolina. disbarred attorney alex murdaugh will take the stand in his double murder trial and it could happen any moment now. this was the scene outside the courthouse this morning as a long line of folks streamed in to hear his system. we're going to bring it to you as soon as it happens. also right now, shock and pain in orlando florida after a

deadly rampage. police say the suspect in the murder of a 38-year-old woman later returned to the scene and shot and killed a 24-year-old reporter who was covering the story before fatally shooting a 9-year-old child in a home nearby. for the journalists in orlando, it's a story that hits unbelievably close to home. >> this is every reporter's absolute worst nightmare. >> coming up, the details we're learning about the 19-year-old suspect and how the community is trying to make sense of this tragedy. plus, any second we expect to get our hands on the national transportation safety board's preliminary report on the ohio train derailment that led to the controlled burning of hazardous chemicals. it could offer new clues about what went wrong. there are still lingering questions about the health is and safety of the air and water. >> this land is everything to me. >> we have a stigma here that we're dirty, and it hurts everybody here.

>> transportation secretary pete buttigieg is in east palestine for the first time since the derailment three weeks ago. we're live in the community ahead. all right, everybody, right now we've been telling you we're keeping a close eye on this courtroom in south carolina. disbarred lawyer alex murdaugh saying moments ago he will testify in his own defense. he is accused of killing his wife and son, and this comes after jurors heard from murdaugh's former law partner on what he saw when he visited the crime scene the night of the murders. our catie beck is outside the courthouse. also joining me is kristin gibbons feden, a former prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst. knowing you may have to jump away anytime once alex gets on the stand, what are you hearing from the defense on why they want to call him? >> reporter: this is a stunning decision. although we had some warning that this was coming, right up until him holding up his hand before that judge, i think a lot of people were doubting this was actually going to go through.

it is an incredibly rare and risky decision to put a defendant in a murder trial on the stand in his own defense. it almost never happens because of the huge exposure and vulnerability that happens on cross can examination, especially in a case that has had five weeks of testimony. this jury has a ton of evidence before them. this prosecution can spend a lot of time picking through inconsistent statements and questioning murdaugh on some really difficult things, some things that are not related to the murder case. as we heard several times now in a motion to the judge, the defense trying to limit the amount of information about those alleged financial crimes because those charges are still pending. the judge saying he can't predetermine what the prosecution is going to ask, and he's going to deal with those objections on a per objection basis at this point. but still, a very, very risky move for the defense to do this.

they do have some unexplained, unanswered questions that perhaps only alex murdaugh is qualified to answer. the one that comes to mind the kennel video that places him at the crime scene minutes before the murders. the jury has not heard from the defense yet. any explanation or any contradiction on why that video shouldn't be trusted or why he perhaps wasn't there. he's going to have to come up with an ar that on the stand today. >> you've been out there every single day. we showed the long lines of people waiting. do you get a sense that there are a ton more people today wanting to hear from him? >> reporter: absolutely. i mean, this trial is a spectacle in a small town, and it is drawing spectators from far and side. every morning we see a line, but the line this morning was especially long with camping chairs starting in the dark hours of the morning, folks lining up here to try and get a seat inside that courtroom. now, i think the testimony will go through the day.

you can expect a very long and robust cross examination now that they have the entire body of evidence to work with. >> and one thing real quick before we go to kristen, the defense said they would want to wrap up this week. does this sort of throw a wild card into that? >> reporter: i think it's still very possible. from what i hear, they are down to the bottom of their witness list. it seems that this may not be the last witness, they may have one or two more, but it does seem possible if they do finish with his testimony today that they still could wrap tomorrow. >> okay. kristen, let's talk about this risk that catie was talking about. she laid out the reasons why not to call him, this cross examination. we've got the time line that alex gave to investigators that's been called into question. we have the snapchat video taken by the kennels right before the murders. we have this alleged financial crime, why take this risk? it's stunning he's going to take this risk, and i think it's a decision that probably his

defense attorneys told him not to do. he is a lawyer, he probably believes, as many defendants do that they're going to be able to get up on the stand and convince the jury that he didn't do it. you know, lindsey, i think one thing that's critical here is this is not a case of self-defense where he needs to provide a justification as to why he gave the fatal blow. his defense is that he wasn't there and he didn't do it so there is absolutely no reason why he needs to take the stand. there is nothing he needs to justify because as he sits right now, he is cloaked in the presumption of innocence. the jury must accept him as innocent at this stage. >> given what we know about the prosecution spent three weeks a month, more than 60 witnesses here, the defense taking a week, and what does it tell you about their strategy here in a case they feel they have if they're ready wrap so quickly? >> their strategy is to paint him as a person who basically

fell apart and had no other option but to murder his wife and his son to cover up the misdeeds. everything was falling apart, and i think that's another reason he shouldn't take the stand. he's going to be exposed and have to answer all of those questions, and it really does feed into the prosecution's narrative and their ultimate motive, which actually detracts from the defendant's ability to just simply poke holes and raise enough reasonable doubt to convince one juror to find him not guilty. >> thank you both so much. as soon as alex murdaugh takes the stand we're going to bring you his testimony live. we are also following breaking news in eastern ohio, the national transportation safety board has just released its preliminary report on the train derailment in east palestine. it comes as transportation secretary pete buttigieg is making his first visit to the community nearly three weeks after the crash. nbc's ron allen is in east palestine, ohio, and also with me nbc's tom costello.

you've been reading this report. what sticks out to you? >> by the ntsb, and we expect an ntsb news conference at 1:00. here's the headline at this hour, and i'm reading it off of this press release. so let me just summarize this for you. when a train is coming down the line, there are what's called a hot bearing detector. it's a gauge or a monitor that detects how hot are the bearings underneath the train. this report found that as it went through the third hot bearing sensor, it detected the heat was 253 degrees on the bearing. that is far too hot. that's 135 degrees hotter than what the railroad itself says we should stop the train at this point. this was 253 degrees. that's a very, very hot reading that created an automatic audible warning to the train that you've got a possible issue here. the engineer applied the brakes.

automatic brakes were also applied, and they detected what appeared to be smoke and fire underneath. that is a big indicator that this train was coming in very hot with its bearings potentially on fire, but clearly well above the threshold at which the train should have already stopped when it started getting hotter and hotter and hotter if you will. as surveillance video from a local residence showed what appeared to be a wheel bearing in the final stage of overheat failure moments before the derailment. as we've heard, there have been reports that there was fire underneath the train before it derailed. this report would suggest that was the case and in fact, the bearings were overheating well in excess of the temperature at which the alarm goes off and at which they should have stopped the train at that moment j you can see that video on our screen showing what looks to be sparks here or even that fire you were talking about. flag us as you continue to read

if there's anything more you want to add. obviously this starts the long process for what went wrong, what needs to be implemented in the future, but what folks care about where you are is is my water safe, is my air safe. are leaders going to stay here and do the right thing. we know secretary pete buttigieg is in town today. what do people want to hear from him? >> reporter: they want to see him there. some are going to be very encouraged that he's here. he's been criticized for not being here. in fact, president biden has been criticized for not being here. for context, this is a very red part of the ohio. it's a place where president trump won the vote by as much as 70%. another reason that he was perhaps here yesterday. three weeks later people are still very concerned about their air, their water. there are still reports of people experiencing sicknesses because of it they say. although, it's important to emphasize that officials here continue to emphasize on a daily basis that every test of the air

or water here shows that the environment is safe, and they are going to continue that testing indefinitely. listening to the report, i think residents here are going to want to understand what liability, what responsibility the rail company has and the crew aboard it, and was this something that could have been prevented by the crew aboard the train -- >> there's nothing about the chemicals per se, it's all about the cause of the accident. not about -- >> pete buttigieg is here, the secretary of transportation is here, yes, he was here this morning at the site of the train derailment. he is holding meetings with first responders, local officials and he's going to meet with some people from the community, and again, i believe he's going to get an earful from the townspeople here, not just for not coming, but also because of what they perceive as indifference to this rural red area by the biden administration and the federal government, even though, again, the epa chief has

been here twice. they insist that the epa, the ntsb, other federal agencies were on the ground from day one, hours after this derailment happened, but it's not something that really resonates with residents are here who are, in fact, traumatized by what happened. they are still angry about what happened, and they're very concerned about the future of their town. we believe that secretary buttigieg is going to also be very critical of the rail company. he's released a number of statements in the previous days talking about the need for more rail safety and talking about the fact that there are several things that the rail companies could do right away that they have been blocking because they want to try and keep costs down. he points out that this rail company, norfolk southern earned $4 billion last year, and he's calling for things like safer railcars carrying these hazardous materials. he's calling for a notification system when trains are carrying

hazardous materials like this one was. apparently there's no system in place where they have to notify the local authorities down the line that they're bringing this train through so that those local communities, states can be ready with their first responders if need be. this is something that governor dewine has focused in on saying that the response could have been better if, in fact, the state, the community knew that this train was coming through and they weren't prepared for it. a lot to get through. the bottom line is that, yes, people here are still angry. there's still a lot of anxiety about their safety, not just now but for the future as well. >> okay. ron allen, appreciate it. thank you so much. and tom costello, our thanks to you as well, and tom, if something else comes up, you can let us know. right now we're going to stay on this and we're going to bring in sill kajano, a hazardous materials specialist, with the youngstown fire department. he knows the area. he'll with visiting east

palestine today. what is your first reaction to what we heard from tom about this ntsb report? >> nothing really new. the pictures of the bearing failing were pretty much put out there early on during this incident and we all kind of suspected it was the bearing failure that probably caused the derailment. the other question when it went past the hot box sensors why this wasn't transmitted to the engineer of the train from the people who monitor sensors if it's actually even being monitored. that was one of the bigger questions that i guess still remain to be answered. >> transportation secretary pete buttigieg, obviously we've been talking about it in east palestine, and republicans have claimed he's been slow to react to this. he said the department's ability to regulate the rails is constrained because of this rule that was withdrawn by the trump administration regarding braking systems. are you hopeful that this could lead to meaningful change, and

what do you want to see happen? >> there's a lot of things that have been eroded over the years by the lobbyists, the rail companies to washington, d.c., and state legislatures. i think this incident is hopefully a wake-up call to everybody who is involved that these things that verse our rails all the time. in youngstown we have three rail lines in my office that jo overlooked the rail lines. just warning east palestine that they're coming doesn't stop the fact that they probably get these trains on a continuous basis every single day. so warning them is not going to help them be prepared, but helping them prepare and injecting safety measures that are going to prevent these

things. if they'd have had electric car brakes he might not have had such a big pileup. unfortunately, east palestine has bore the brunt of what i think is going to be a historic incident and hopefully one that's going to urge people almost like the india incident and the subsequent release of a similar chemical in west virginia, that hey, it's time to start regulating this stuff. that happened in '82, and it was the genesis of a lot of the regulatory measures that were instituted to help the communities respond to these things, and hopefully this is going to be a national wake-up call. >> sil, you mentioned east palestine having to bear the brunt of this. in our reporting five toxic chemicals have been identified around the derailment site, everything from chemicals used to make plastics, packaging materials, resins, coating, inks, paints, one is a known carcinogen and symptoms of

exposure include drowsiness, disorientation, numbness, nausea, irritation to the eyes and skin, sore throat, breathing difficulties and rashes. we're hearing from anecdotes of people there including a mother who tells nbc news she's worry about her 12-year-old son's painful, itchy rash, and there was a professor that nbc news also interviewed who's worried not just about these known chemicals but about what was created during this controlled burn. what would you tell the people there, you know, in your visit who were concerned about this? >> they have the right to be concerned. they're the ones living through this. you have the people who stop in and they drink the water for one day. these people are going to drink the water and live in this town for the rest of their life. and the professor that was quoted has the right. i was saying early on, this was the laboratory experiment from hell. they mixed a whole bunch of chemicals in a pit and burned them off. nobody is talking about the dioxins, the buy feals, the clor

roe benzenes. not to mention the fact that the vinyl chloride will create hydrogen cchlorides. there's a ton of chemicals. dioxins tend to precipitate up. in my statement about we nuked a town to get a railroad through, there's a video of this guy from darlington that there was black stuff precipitating out of the clouds onto his property. does that stuff contain dioxins? what does it contain? they're heavy, they tend to fall out. so there's a ton of things that these people got to worry about. i just got a report in the email, who's in charge by the railroad with doing remediation. there's some things on there i have questions about the way they're doing. and hopefully maybe i'll get those answers tonight.

>> sil caggian please come back and let us know if you got those answers. >> don't let people forget about this. coming up, a shocking shooting in orlando, three people killed including a reporter and a 9-year-old. the details on the investigation. and more than 70 million americans are in the path of a monster winter storm with experts warning dangerous conditions that could lead to moments like this. a police officer narrowly avoiding getting hit by an out of control semi on an icy road. we'll have the latest forecast ahead.

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tv. >> there are people here who knew that reporter, his fiancee and i were just embracing. this is every reporter's absolutely worst nightmare. >> nbc's guad venegas is there for us live. this is a tragic scene, a complicated crime scene, how did this play out? >> reporter: >> lindsey it is, it started wednesday morning when orange county sheriffs say a woman in her 20s was shot and killed. detectives arrived at the scene of that incident, conducted their investigation, and then it was five hours later when the sheriff says a news crew, a local news crew that was covering that incident was attacked by gun fire. we now know that one of them was 24-year-old dylan lions who was killed and a photographer jesse waldron who remains at last report in the hospital. the sheriff says the suspect went into a nearby home and shot

a mother and killed a 9-year-old girl who has now been identified as fiona major. here's the sheriff speaking at a press conference trying to explain what happened yesterday. >> he was an acquaintance of the woman this morning, but as far as we know had no connection to the reporters and no connection to the mother and a 9-year-old. >> of course there's a lot of questions that remain unanswered. we now know that spectrum, the company the reporter worked for released a statement saying he was a talented and motivated professional who was living the dream in orlando adding that he will not be forgotten. and of course one of the things that local authorities will try to figure out is why the suspect attacked that news crew and why he went over to the home where he shot the mother and the

9-year-old girl. that suspect has been detained. authorities say it's 19-year-old kevin moses who the sheriff said had a history, a criminal history including gun charges and of course this investigation will continue as two survivors remain hospitalized according to the last report, lindsey. >> okay. guad venegas thank you. switching gears, from coast to coast, nearly 50 million people are still under some kind of winter alert. heavy winds and ice storms have left nearly a million people without power and more than a thousand flights have been cancel or delayed as crews work to de-ice runways. this police officer on the left-hand side of your screen running out of the way narrowly escaping getting hit by that semi that lost control on this road in wyoming. nbc's niala charles is live from minneapolis where the snow has been coming down all morning. meteorologist angie lassman with a look at how long it will all

last. take us through the conditions zplort we're expecting about a foot of snow. we're in the second and final round of snow here in minneapolis, and this last one has been a doozy. about 6 inches overnight with more to come, and it's been coming down fast. about 1 to 2 inches every hour. so here in minneapolis, roads are completely covered, despite the fact that snowplows are running through here constantly working 12-hour shifts. luckily the message that the governor has been putting out to minnesotans which is stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary has finally broken through and people are listening. now that the roads are completely covered, we've seen driving to a minimum and because of that the crashes have significantly decreased. before that, although a lot of snow was all over the roads, people were still driving causing hundreds of crashes for the last several days. but even then people are still minnesota tough. just about a minute ago, i saw someone riding a bike past me,

lindsey. so although a lot of minnesotans are now hunkering down at home, there are still the brave ones that will find a reason to be out here. >> they don't mess around. sometimes when it's snowing i've seen shorts, but anyway, angie, talk to us about where the storm's headed. >> yeah, so we're actually going to see those storms start to wrap up. we're going o'see things wind down. we're going to take a look at the west coast and see things ramp up there. let's talk about what we're dealing with on our radar. you can still see that snow falling just like we heard in minneapolis, green bay, you're still picking up additional snowfall in the upper peninsula of michigan. most of it has worked out across parts of the northeast. we may have a couple of lingering snow showers, so we've seen some of these winter alerts expire as well. still plenty of people in them in parts of the planes and great lakes region and on the west coast. that's where we're going to be watching for the coming days to see impactful weather. also dealing with summer-like conditions. a bit of a stark contrast between the west and the east. we've seen temperatures well

above normal the past couple of days. washington, d.c., could hit a high of 80, 81 degrees today. that would break a record, of course, that was set back in the 1800s, it tells you just how warm we're going to be over the next day or so in much of the eastern half of the country. meanwhile, on the western half of the country, bitter cold. we have millions of people that are going to be dealing with these temperatures into the subzero range for at least a little while longer. you can see where we currently stand feeling like 31 below in rapid city. salt lake city feeling like just 11 degrees. so the cold arctic air has settled in, and it's not just this region. we're going to see the west coast closer to california dealing with abnormally colder temperatures over the coming days. we have a low pressure that's going to dive down from parts of canada. you can see the circulation around this system working into places like california. that means that snow levels are going to be a little lower when we have all that cold air in place, and we have plenty of moisture in place. this is something we'll have to deal with on the west coast for

the coming days. we will see ample amounts of rain, snow and wind. all of that is going to make it difficult for travel over the coming days. potentially we could be seeing snow at levels that is quite unusual, places like the hollywood sign, you might see a little bit of flurries there as we get through the next couple of days, los angeles county did issue a blizzard warning yesterday and it stays in effect. we're expecting some of those conditions. something to watch as we head into weekend. this will likely be impactful for us with flooding concerns and power outages, travel will still be difficult, not on the east coast but now on the west coast in the next couple of days. >> thank you both. tomorrow marks one full year of the war in ukraine, and a major question this morning, will russia use that grim check point to recharge its assault on the country. right now the united nations general assembly is holding an emergency special session to vote on a resolution put forward

by ukraine to push for a, quote, comprehensive, just, and lasting peace. meanwhile, we're getting a gripping look at the front lines of the war including daily life inside ice cold trerchls on the front lines in eastern ukraine. chief correspondent richard engel has more from dnipro. >> reporter: ukrainian troops are digging in to stop a russian offensive in the east. >> back to the trenches. >> reporter: conditions are atrocious after a heavy snow last week, temperatures are warming up. the only consolation is all the mud slows russia's advance. lieutenant bogdon is in charge. we met him a year ago right before russian troops invaded. >> we won't lose our country. we'll fight them with our bare hands if we have to, he said. since then, he has been at the front. a russian mortar tore through his left side, but after two months in the hospital, it was back to battle.

nearly all of his 150 soldiers were killed or injured over the past year. and now the soldiers say russian troops are 800 yards away. >> just up there? >> yeah. >> and do they have similar trenches to this? >> reporter: but now there's a problem, a russian drone is overhead. >> incoming small arms fire right here. >> yes, yes, he says. the soldier's fire a rocket propelled grenade. lieutenant bogdon tells us it's like this every day or worse. >> why does this war matter to americans, do you think? >> because it's a war for democracy. ukraine and russian war is war of democracy versus russia dictatorship. so it's important. >> reporter: a fight ukrainians say they will take to the end. >> our thanks to richard engel

for that reporting. tomorrow night richard will have a special report about civilians who helped liberate kherson from russian occupation. ukraine's se cent resistance airs tomorrow on msnbc. i want to bring in jason beardsly, senior coalitions adviser for concerned veterans of america, and director of veterans initiatives at stand together. jason, when you see the drive and the determination of these fighters in ukraine in richard's story, what goes through your mind? >> first and foremost a huge amount of respect for the countrymen in ukraine. we're about a year into this and you've already seen that russia has essentially strategically and tactically lost this fight. they made a mistake. they thought they could take the capital within three days, and we've watched over the last year an endless amount of just ham-fisted attempts by vladimir putin's forces to take all of ukraine. they haven't within successful in that. so that's actually a good news

story. the hard part here, though, is frankly, it's going to be very difficult for ukraine to mount a sustained combat offensive and for them to take back the territory that they've lost in the east. my recommendation and i think zelenskyy had said this is pushing for peace is the right way out of this because the other alternative is a lot more war and a lot more death. >> a bipartisan group of 12 lawmakers are calling on the white house to provide these f 6 fighters to ukraine. ukraine's been wanting it. would that make any difference? >> it's not going to make all the difference in the world. i know a lot of people think that is, but it's very important those back side to understand that it's not material support that winds a war. and if you want are proof of that, look at what the united states did. i'm a combat veteran from iraq. plenty of our veterans in afghanistan, we were fully spoted. we had full air, armor, we had the entire suite of material, and for 20 years we fought to maintain control of the country. so the point is we can dump

equipment all over ukraine for the next ten years, but that does not guarantee a victory. spirited fighting like this is going to go on for a long time if someone doesn't move this towards an off-ramp. >> i sort of get the idea, the off-ramp could be some negotiation knowing that it might be very difficult for ukraine to regain some of this territory that russia has won. that said, does putin have an incentive to do that? >> yeah, it's very tough for putin to see that way out, i mean, with talk of united states accelerating these conditions, it makes it harder. listen, this is what makes diplomacy the stronger angle for the united states. president biden has really talked about his relationship with xi jinping weighing in on china to keep them from accelerating this is going to be a big play in this. if they do the work the diplomatic corps is sent to washington, d.c., to do they

will make ovations over and over to quell this. does that mean that putin wants to end this? not necessary, but he's already lost a lot. he's going to be looking for the maximalist way he can get out of this, but it's not going to be his entire objective. that was to take kyiv. he hasn't been able to do that. i think he's going to walk away at the end of this with crimea and the donbas in the east, and the point is the faster they get there, the less ukrainians have to be in the position they're in now. >> thank you so much for being with us. a programming note tonight, joe scarborough will host a prime time special as we reach the one-year mark of the war in ukraine. he's going to talk to the secretary of state antony blinken, national security adviser jake sullivan and mark milley. watch war in ukraine: one year later on msnbc. we're keeping an eye on the courtroom in walterboro, south carolina, where alex murdaugh is expected to take the stand any

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vicks sinex targets congestion at the source, relieving nasal congestion and sinus pressure by reducing swelling in the sinuses. try vicks sinex. we are still closely watching the courthouse in south carolina where any minute now alex murdaugh is expected to take the stand in his own defense. let's get back to catie beck, and kristen gibbons feden. knowing that i may have to cut you guys off any minute once alex is sworn in. one thing that we've seen with some of these defense witnesses, for example, when alex' surviving son buster took the stand, an easing in, painting a picture of family life. do you expect that to be the case with the defense today? >> reporter: absolutely. the whole point of putting him up there is to humanize him and have an emotional appeal to the

jury. they have not seen that side of alex murdaugh from alex murdaugh. they've heard paul's friends describe him. they've heard maggie's sister say the home life seemed good, that she was happy, that there was a wholesome picture. they are certainly going to spend a considerable amount of time having him discuss those relationships and the fact that there was no animosity. there was no real motive or anger for him to do this. >> kristen, when we talked at the top of the hour, you said it's likely that alex wants to do this, which, again, is totally his right. it's likely that the defense does not want to call him to the stand. is there any scenario that you can see this as the defense helping their case? >> not really, again, this is not a case where he needs to take the stand and justify his acts. his whole defense is he wasn't there and it wasn't him. and further to that is when the judge asked mr. murdaugh whether or not he wanted to consult his

lawyers, his lawyer stood up and said he does not need to speak to me, which makes it clear to me this is against the advice of counsel. alex is a former prosecutor. he understands the risks. he's a lawyer, although disbarred. but again, he understands the risks of this, and he will unlike, you know, average witnesses, will be able to discuss and speak to, you know, and handle cross examination from a fellow prosecutor. >> dave, let's talk here about what you think the prosecution, once they get to that cross examination will hone in on. >> i think the greatest weakness in the defense is the fact that alex murdaugh told everyone who would listen that he was not at the dog kennels that night. turns out he was. he was there five minutes before the murders occurred, and why would he be there and lie about it afterwards. that's going to be crucial. this happens a lot where

defendants who think that the smartest person in every room, they want to testify, they think they can put one over on the jury, and then they get humbled really quickly because prosecutors are really good at sifting through the garbage and exposing people for who they are. this guy to me is a sociopathic. he's the kind of guy who would commit a crime like this. they're going to get into a lot of negative stuff about him. i don't think it's going to go well for him. >> obviously a strong opinion there from dave. but talk to me about what we've heard this morning. we heard from a friend of paul's, right? >> yeah, he took the stand, and that was sort of a short witness, again, discussing conversations he had with paul, with al exnot adding a lot to the weight of the defense's case. we haven't really heard from any witnesses from them on their side yet that have really emotionally moved this jury. they actually are looking rather bored in that couomh you. a lot of distraction, a lot of looking out in the audience, and

so this is five weeks of testimony. they have been here a really long time. i to think alex murdaugh when he addressed the judge this morning seemed confident. seemed calm. he actually seemed like he was waiting at the gate for this moment to speak. he did not seem like he had any hesitations or nerves about it whatsoever. >> the jury's in the room, knowing that i may have to cut you off, we did hear the defense ask the judge for the sort of blanket fifth amendment protection that alex wouldn't have to testify during cross examination about these alleged financial crimes. was that the defense throwing something at the wall to see if it stuck. the judge basically said -- let's go ahead and listen in a second, sorry, dave. >> wishes to take the stand. >> put your left hand on the bible and rise your right.

do you swear or affirm that the testimony you give today will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. >> yes, ma'am. >> thank you. >> have a seat on the witness stand. >> that microphone, and if you don't mind stating your full name again and spelling your last name. >> i'm alex murdaugh m-u-r-d-a-u-g-h. good morning. >> mr. murdaugh. on june 7th, 2021, did you take this gun or any gun like it and shoot your son, paul in the chest in the feed room at your property off mozell road? >> no, i did not. >> mr. murdaugh, did you take this gun or any gun like it, and blow your son's brains out on

june 7th or any day or any time? >> no, i did not. >> mr. murdaugh, did you take -- such as this and fire it into your wife maggie's leg, torso, or any part of her body? >> no, i did not. >> did you shoot a 300 blackout into her head causing her death? >> i didn't shoot my wife or my son anytime ever. >> mr. murdaugh is that you on the kennel video at 8:44 p.m. on

june 7th the night maggie and paul were murdered? >> it is. >> were you, in fact, at the kennels at 8:44 p.m. on the night maggie and paul were murdered? i was. >> did you lie to deputy laura rutland on the night of june 7th and told them that you stayed at the house after dinner? >> i did lie to them. >> i did lie to them. >> did you lie to agent owen and agent croft from the follow-up interview on june 10th that the last time you saw maggie and paul was at dinner? >> i did lie to them. >> and in the interview of august 11th, did you tell agent owen and agent croft did you lie to them by telling them you were not down at the kennels on that night? >> yes.

>> alex, why did you lie to agent owen, agent croft and deputy rutland about the last time you saw paul? >> as my addiction evolved over time i would get in these situations or circumstances where i would get paranoid thinking, and it could be anything that triggered it. it might be a look somebody gave me. it might be a reaction somebody had to something i did. it might be a policeman following me in a car. that night june 7th after finding mags and paul, don't talk to anybody, all my partners were repeatedly telling me that. i had a deputy sheriff taking gunshot tests from my hands.

i'm sitting in a police car with david owen asking me about my relationship with my wife and my son, and all those things coupled together after finding them coupled with my distrust for sled caused me to have paranoid thoughts. normally when these paranoid thoughts would hit me, i could take a deep breath real quick, think about it, reason my way through it and just get past it really quickly. on june the 7th i wasn't thinking clearly. i don't think i was capable of reason, and i lied about being

down there. and i'm so sorry that i did. i'm sorry to my son buster. i'm sorry tograndma and papa t. i'm sorry to both of our families. most of all i'm sorry to mags and paul paul. i would never intentionally do anything to hurt either one of them. ever. ever.

>> did you continue lying after that night, did you not? >> once i lied, i continued to lie, yes, sir. >> why? >> you know, what a tangled web we weave, but once i told a lie, i told my family, i had to keep lying. >> alex, tell the jury what happened on the evening of june 7th, starting when you met up with paul. >> i had been at work that day, a fairly normal day.

want me to start in the morning or -- >> sure, start in the morning. >> just a regular morning. maggie was leaving to go out of town. she was going to a doctor's appointment. and she had some stuff to do where she was having some work done on our house. so, but maggie was there that morning. she went to leave. and she told me she was doing these things. i always, always asked maggie to come back home and stay with me. but anyway, maggie had left. she did her thing. i went to work. did work. i learned from paul paul that --

>> who is paul paul? >> that's paul, my son. my son paul murdaugh. >> your name for him was paul paul? >> yeah. i mean, we called him paul paul. >> okay, go ahead, i'm sorry. >> and buster and maggie -- i called him paul paul, but mags called him paul paul, bust called him paul paul. a lot of people called him paul paul. but, anyway, i learned about the -- i had known that cb, the guy that worked for us, had sprayed the sunflowers. i knew about that. but i had been out of town. i didn't know they were dead. paul let me know they had died. so we had to replant the dove field. that's the dove field, dove field is just a big social part of having property, people would come and it is just a social big part of it. dove field was a big deal.

so when the sunflowers got killed, paul was -- we knew they were dead, paul was coming home. and i learned that early monday morning. >> and did -- and we'll catch back up, but at some point in time did you meet up with paul? >> yeah. after work i met paul paul at the property. >> and we're going back and talking about more of the day, but i want to focus in on the evening right now. >> okay. >> when paul gets to the property, what do you all do? >> first thing we do is we go to the dove field and we look at the dove field. and. >> how did you get to the dove field? >> he had come in my brother's truck. we got in my son buster's black pickup truck. we called it buster's truck, the black pickup truck, you heard it called too. but i call it buster's truck. >> okay. so you're in buster's truck and

you go to the dove field. tell the jury what else. >> that's first thing we do. we go to the dove field and look and it is clearly -- it didn't -- you could tell they were -- you could tell they had been sprayed and you could tell they were dead. i mean, might have still had a tiny bit of life, but they were dead. so we knew that. we knew we had to replant the whole field. so that didn't take but a second. but after that, paul paul -- we just rode the property. we spent time together. we just -- we rode around and we spent time together on the property. >> duck pond? >> oh, yeah, we went to several food plots. we went to single oak stand, we called it, across the road.

we went to the bridge stand. we went to the -- we went to the duck pond where we stayed for a minute. and -- >> did you -- >> i can remember the duck pond specifically because i helped paul paul plant the dove field. and the corn in the dove field. so sunflowers, corn, sunflowers, corn. i helped him plant the sun -- the corn in the dove field. paul paul had planted the duck pond by himself, and he's making it really big deal to me about how much better the corn was doing in the duck pond than it was in the dove field. we stayed there for a little while. we rode. we were at the cabin for a little while. we rode around the cabin, looking at it. >> the cabin is what?

>> that's -- it's just a little small -- it is truly a cabin. it is a four-room structure. it has got a little living area, a little kitchen, two little bedrooms and one little bathroom. and it is what you heard talk about where the kids stayed some summers, and -- >> is that what the jury has seen, some overhead pictures, it is right there on moselle road. >> it is right up on moselle road and it is close to the driveway that goes to the shop and the kennels. >> did you spend any time at the shop? >> oh, yes. i mean, the shop was -- that was sort of the hub. that was the main place. if you weren't at the house, you might be out going to this field or this food plot or this duck pond or this part of the river, but the shop is -- where the

kennels were located, you know, that was -- you always were there, something was always going on there, you're always doing something there. that's where all the tools were. that's where all the equipment was kept. i mean, that was -- that was the main hub. >> right. >> and so we were there that day. i mean, it was a point in time where we unloaded the bulldozer that had been on different part of the property, was on a trailer. we unloaded it, sprayed it down real quick. that was one of the many things we did that day. >> one of the things that the jury has seen, alex, is a snapchat video of you and -- doing something with a tree. do you remember that? >> oh, yeah. >> so what was happening there? >> that's just part of when we were -- we were riding. that particular location, where that was, is at a food plot that we called saw tooth oaks. it was named that because there was some saw tooth oaks that were planted there, that you can't see in the picture, but

what that tree is, all these food plots there is an area where -- it is not as big as a field, but it is like a field where you plant vegetation for wildlife, like it might be cow peas or soybeans, but you plant. and then there is a feeder to attract deer. then, we planted these little fruit trees on these stands, and what you see me doing is fooling with the fruit tree that i had been tending to and it had fallen over, i had straps on it, strings on it that were holding it up. one of the strings popped, i undid the other string and it was falling over and paul paul was laughing at me trying to get it back up right. it is just a fruit tree i had been dealing with for really for years. >> and -- >> and it wouldn't stand up straight. >> and were you and paul having a good time at that point? >> you could not be around paul

paul -- you could not be around him and not have a good time. >> were you close to paul? >> you couldn't be any closer. than paul paul and i and buster and i. he's wonderful, wonderful. >> one of the things you enjoyed doing together, just riding the property? >> i loved doing anything with paul paul. it was an absolute delight. but, yeah, one of the things, i mean paul's passion, paul was passionate about a lot of things, but that property was really a passion of his. he loved to do -- he loved to work it, he