Caretaker, 71, says double murder suspect Alex Murdaugh ‘didn’t do it’

Alex Murdaugh‘s mother’s caretaker who has worked for his family for 42 years has said the double murder suspect ‘did not’ shoot dead his wife and son.

Barbara Ann Mixson, 72, said she could not ‘say anything bad about Murdaugh’ as she claimed the suspect is ‘normal’ and a ‘good’ person who would always offer a helping hand to the community.

The caretaker, who cares for Mardaugh’s mother Libby, testified in his double-murder trial yesterday and told the court the 54-year-old had agreed to visit his mother after Mixson had told him she was ‘agitated’ and ‘crying’ over her husband’s health.

The disgraced legal scion claims he was at his mother’s when his wife Maggie, 52, and their son Paul, 22, were murdered and arrived home to find them dead at the kennels of their 1,800-acre hunting estate at Moselle in South Carolina on June 7, 2021.

Following her testimony, Mixson told Court TV that it was hard to stand a few feet away from Murdaugh as she took the stand because she ‘misses’ her hugs with him.

The housekeeper testified in Murdaugh’s double-murder trial yesterday and told the court Murdaugh had agreed to visit his mother after Mixson had told him she was ‘agitated’ and ‘crying’ over her husband’s health

Alex Murdaugh is pictured center with his defense team during his trial for murder at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., on Wednesday

Pictured from left to right: Buster Murdaugh, Paul Murdaugh, Maggie Murdaugh, Alex Murdaugh

It comes as Murdaugh may testify in his own defense as early as today if he chooses to do so, his lawyer Jim Griffin said.

Meanwhile, Mixson said during an interview outside the court that she could not ‘say nothing bad’ about Murdaugh. 

She told Court TV: ‘Alex is just a normal person and a good person… he’s always having a lending hand. He is just a good person. I can’t say nothing bad about him.’

Speaking about taking the stand while Murdaugh sat close to her, Mixson said: ‘It is hard because I miss my hugs.’ 

In response to the interviewer saying ‘He’s a big guy right – he would tower over you’, the family’s housekeeper said: ‘Yes but he knows I’m the boss. 

‘I look him in the face and in my mind and in my heard, I can’t answer for anyone but me, but he didn’t do it. That’s all I’ve got to say.’

During her testimony, Mixson had told the court that she had called Murdaugh on the morning of the killings to tell him he should visit his mother.

She said: ‘I called Alex. I said Alex, your mum is very agitated. She is crying, I’ve given her medicine and I want you to come and check on her later on during the day. And he said: “Ok I will”.’

Murdaugh has claimed he was at his mother’s house when his wife and son were murdered. Maggie was felled by four or five rifle shots and Paul was killed by two shotgun blasts. Murdaugh faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted.

During Murdaugh’s double murder trial, the State has landed major blows to his case – alleging a video places him at the murder scene, his financial crimes drove him to kill, he lied about his alibi, changed his clothes that night, and lured Paul and Maggie to the estate.

The defense team have also ripped into cops who first arrived at the property for failing to preserve the crime scene, allowing other first responders and family members to walk around the estate.

Murdaugh’s former law firm partner, Mark Ball, testified yesterday slamming the ‘disrespectful’ crime scene cops who left behind a ‘piece of Paul’s skull the size of a baseball’.

Ball, who has known Murdaugh for 34 years, said more than a dozen people walked around the scene of the killings before state-level law enforcement arrived.

Murdaugh’s former law firm partner, Mark Ball, (pictured) testified yesterday slamming the ‘disrespectful’ crime scene cops who left behind a ‘piece of Paul’s skull the size of a baseball’

Maggie’s blood-soaked body lies under a sheet at the crime scene on the night of June 7, 2021. She was shot five times with an assault rifle, while Paul was blasted twice with a shotgun a few yards away at the kennels on the estate

But under cross examination, he also called the disbarred attorney ‘a very cunning liar’as he was grilled about almost $9million that Alex stole from his family’s firm, Peters Murdaugh Parker Eltzroth and Detrick (PMPED). 

Ball told the court that following a botched suicide life insurance scam Alex perpetrated three months after the murders, ‘I didn’t know that guy… I didn’t know who that guy was, that’s not the Alec that I knew and that I loved.’ 

Ball and Mixson’s remarks came on the same day Netflix premiered its new series ‘Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal’, which dives into the suspicious deaths linked to the once-prominent South Carolina legal scion and his family. 

In it Paul Murdaugh’s long-time girlfriend breaks her silence to accuse the murdered 22-year-old of physical abuse, claiming he slapped, kicked and punched her.

Describing the murder scene, Ball said it was raining on Maggie and Paul’s bloodied bodies. ‘It just p***** me off,’ he told jurors. ‘It’s a crime scene. You don’t want water dripping all over the place. But more importantly, I thought it was pretty disrespectful.’

While the defense had Ball highlight what he saw as problems at the crime scene and Murdaugh’s devotion to family, prosecutors on cross examination used Ball to walk through Murdaugh’s apparent lies to police.

Those allegedly include where he was just before the killings, his lack of concern for his safety or his surviving son after the shootings, and the theft of millions of dollars from the family law firm.

Paul, Maggie, Alex and Buster Murdaugh attend a dinner at the Carolina Yacht Club. The legal scion is accused of shooting dead Maggie and Paul on June 7, 2021

Murdaugh could testify as early as today if he chooses to do so. 

Defense attorney Jim Griffin asked the judge Wednesday if he would allow Murdaugh to take his Fifth Amendment right against incriminating himself in the 100 or so other allegations he faces – including stealing from clients, money laundering, tax evasion and insurance fraud. 

But Judge Clifton Newman said prosecutors generally get wide latitude in cross examination.

The judge agreed with prosecutors to allow evidence of other alleged crimes to show Murdaugh killed his family to gain sympathy and buy time to hide his financial misdeeds.

 Prosecutors also want to show Murdaugh lied to police about his own subsequent shooting months afterward. He initially said a stranger shot him, but later said he asked a friend to shoot him so Murdaugh’s surviving son could collect $12 million in life insurance.