Alex Murdaugh trial begins in murder of family members Maggie and Paul Murdaugh

After a brief recess, Waters added: “The defendant said that he was never at those kennels — that he was napping,” Waters said, adding that cell phone evidence shows otherwise.

On the night of the murders Paul recorded a video, Waters says, to send to his friend: “8:44 and 55 seconds, and on that video, you’ll see that video you’ll hear from witnesses that identify Paul’s voice, Maggie’s voice, and Alec’s voice. He told anyone who would listen that he was never there … the evidence will show that he was there. He was at the murder scene with the two victims.

“Just minutes later, “Paul’s phone locks forever.”

“Maggie’s phone locks at 8:49 and 41 seconds … and she never answers another text, never receives another text, never answers another phone call.”

At 9:02, Murdaugh phone begins picking up phone calls again, then he calls his wife, and calls her a second phone just minutes later. “At 9:06, he turns on his car, his Surburban. He texts Maggie, going, ‘Be right back, I’m going to check on mom.”

When he gets back to Moselle at 10:01, he calls 911. 

Earlier in the statements, Waters said that about a week after the murders, Alex Murdaugh went to his mother’s home unexpectedly and was seen going “upstairs” with a tarp-like substance. The substance was later determined to be a blue raincoat that was covered in gunshot residue, Waters said. He added that jurors would be hearing from Murdaugh’s mother’s caretaker. Murdaugh’s mother suffers from advanced Alzheimer’s, he said.

Cell phone evidence from Maggie’s, Paul’s and Alex’s devices are “key,” Waters said.

Waters concludes his opening statements by saying: “Alex murdered Maggie and Paul. He was the storm. The storm was coming for them … just like the storms that are headed for here right now.”