‘The evidence was clear:’ Murdaugh juror reveals quick deliberation in SC murder trial

Just hours after Alex Murdaugh was convicted of killing his wife and son, a curious public is already getting an inside look at the jury deliberations that led to the long-anticipated guilty verdict.

Juror Craig Moyer gave an interview to ABC News’ “Good Morning America” that aired Friday morning, about 12 hours after the Colleton County jury reached a unanimous verdict that could send Murdaugh to prison for the rest of his life for the murder of wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22.

Moyer told the network jurors took a quick poll once they entered the deliberation room Thursday evening. Two jurors voted to acquit the disgraced Lowcountry attorney, while another was unsure. Moyer voted to find Murdaugh guilty.

“We started deliberating, going through the evidence, and everybody was pretty much talking,” Moyer said. “And about 45 minutes later, after all our deliberating, we figured it out.”

When the interviewer points out that’s a fast deliberation for jurors to reach unanimity on such serious charges, Moyer responded, “the evidence was clear.”

The key piece of evidence convincing Moyer was a short cellphone video shot by Paul that clearly includes Murdaugh’s voice at the family’s dog kennels moments before the killings.

Although Moyer could clearly hear Murdaugh on the tape — and multiple witnesses who knew Murdaugh confirmed the voice was his — Moyer still said he was surprised Murdaugh later confessed to being at the kennels and lying about it when he took the stand.

“That was his only savior right there,” Moyer said.

Murdaugh took the rare and risky move of testifying in his own defense, admitting to lying to investigators and to stealing millions of dollars at his law practice, all in hopes of convincing the jury he was telling the truth about not killing his family. But Moyer said if anything Murdaugh’s performance on the stand cemented his guilt.

“His responses, how quick he was with the defense, and his lies. Steady lies,” Moyer said of what convinced him to convict. “(He was) a good liar, but not good enough.”

Murdaugh’s answers lacked empathy and real emotion, Moyer said.

“He never cried,” Moyer said of Murdaugh’s emotional testimony. “All he did was blow snot. ... I saw his eyes. I was this close to him,” he said, indicating his distance to the ABC interviewer.

Murdaugh will be sentenced for the murders Friday morning. He faces life in prison without parole.

This story was originally published March 3, 2023 at 9:40 AM with the headline "‘The evidence was clear:’ Murdaugh juror reveals quick deliberation in SC murder trial."