Ex-law partner says Murdaugh said he ‘knew he was going to get caught’ on alleged thefts

Ronnie Crosby rushed to his then-law partner’s house the night he learned Alex Murdaugh’s wife and son had been shot to death at the family’s rural Colleton County home.

All the attorneys at what formerly was known as Peters Murdaugh Parker Eltzroth and Detrick were concerned about Murdaugh after the June 7, 2021, murder of Maggie and Paul. Many of them considered him a close friend.

But, on Tuesday, Crosby sat on the witness stand and identified Murdaugh’s voice on a video recorded on Paul’s cellphone shortly before he and his mother were gunned down by the family’s dog kennels — the third witness to link Murdaugh to the voice on the video.

“Those are the voices of Paul Murdaugh, Maggie Murdaugh and Alex Murdaugh,” Crosby said after listening to the video.

In an earlier conversation with Murdaugh, Crosby testified that the question of whether Murdaugh went down to the kennels with the victims that night came up, “and he specifically said that he had not.”

Tuesday was the ninth day of witnesses called by the state in its prosecution of Murdaugh for the murders on June 7, 2021. But it was also the first day mostly dedicated to testimony about Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes, which prosecutors contend motivated the killings in an attempt to keep them from coming to light.

Crosby recounted a conversation with the law firm’s CFO in May 2021, in which it was suggested Murdaugh may be structuring his payments to avoid liability in a lawsuit over his son’s 2019 fatal boat crash.

“I said, ‘Oh f--- no, we did not,’” Crosby recalled. “We were absolutely not going to participate in anything illegal, unethical or that would create liability or issues with the South Carolina Bar.”

By September of that year, Crosby said he was shown checks that were meant to go to the firm made out in Murdaugh’s name.

When the partners confronted Murdaugh about it, he reportedly said, “He knew he was going to get caught at some point.”

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Jim Griffin, Crosby said he saw Murdaugh carrying a gun “for protection” after Maggie and Paul’s death, a change in behavior that Crosby said Murdaugh did not do before the killings. He also noted that Murdaugh put out a hefty reward for information leading to the capture of his wife and son’s killer.

This story may be updated.