Murdaugh jurors say ‘we may never know why’ he killed his wife and son

Three of the jurors from Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial said today that they still do not know for sure why he killed his wife and son, but could ‘see right through him’ when he took the stand to testify in his own defense. 

Amie Williams, Gwen Generette and James McDowell waived their right to anonymity to appear on NBC’s TODAY show on Monday to discuss the case that captivated the nation for six weeks. 

Murdaugh is now in the custody of the South Carolina Department of Corrections. He was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for the murders of his wife and son, despite his continued claims that he is innocent. 

While prosecutors were able to convince the jury of Murdaugh’s guilt, they were not able to nail down a specific motive for the double killings. 

James McDowell, Gwen Generette and Amie Williams waived their right to anonymity to appear on NBC’s TODAY show on Monday to discuss the case that captivated the nation for six weeks

Alex Murdaugh, shown in a recent South Carolina Dept. of Corrections booking photo, will spend the rest of his life in prison 

Williams on Monday conceded that ‘we may never know’ why he chose to kill the pair. 

‘I don’t know if we’ll ever know. It may have been a combination of things, not just the financial. 

‘But everything was weighing heavy on him,’ Williams said, referring to Murdaugh’s financial crimes and opioid drug addiction. 

Generette believes Murdaugh wanted to ‘have control of everything’ and was driven by ‘greed’. 

‘His wife owned the majority of the things they had. I am thinking it was more like greed,’ she said. 

McDowell said a perfect ‘storm’ of factors led him to kill. 

‘It’s a storm. It may not have been one thing but there are so many things there that contributed to that overall storm. It played a part,’ he said. 

The jurors were so quick to reach their decision, he added, because they’d been writing down questions throughout the trial whenever they retreated to the jury room for a break. 

It enabled them to romp through their doubts after closing arguments, and persuade three jurors who were undecided that Murdaugh was guilty. 

None of the jurors knew what a sensation the trial would become. So far, four out of 12 have come forward to explain their decision. 

Amie Williams (L) said she is still unsure of Murdaugh’s motive but believes ‘everything was weighing heavy on him’. Gwen Generette (R) said she thinks he was driven by ‘greed’ and a desire to be ‘in control of everything’

‘If I was him, I wouldn’t have taken the stand,’ said juror James McDowell, who said the jury was aware of Murdaugh’s past as an attorney and his skill in the courtroom 

‘We read right through it’: None of the four jurors who have so far come forward believed Murdaugh’s tears. All say he harmed his defense on the stand 

Alex Murdaugh with wife Maggie and their sons Buster (left) and Paul (right) 

Generette said it was only when she saw the sea of news cameras outside the court on the first day of the trial that she realized the scale of the case.

‘That’s when I realized, this is a big ordeal.’  

All four of the jurors who have spoken out have said Murdaugh harmed his defense by taking the stand.

‘I couldn’t believe he was taking the stand,’ said Generette. 

None of them believed his tears when he sobbed about the deaths of his wife and son. 

‘I didn’t think he was crying. He turned it on and off. It wasn’t genuine,’ Generette added. 

McDowell said they were also all suspicious of Murdaugh’s background as an attorney.

‘We already know he’s a lawyer. He’s able to be emotional with cases, with himself. 

‘We were able to read right through that,’ he said. 

The evidence that ‘sealed the deal’ for them was a video recorded by Paul moments before the murder, in which his father’s voice can be heard clearly in the background. 

Juror Craig Moyer appeared on Good Morning America last week, before Murdaugh’s sentencing, to to explain why he and his fellow jurors felt Murdaugh was guilty

Murdaugh will now be processed and evaluated before being assigned to a prison facility to begin his sentence. 

It is not the end of his time inside a courtroom. 

He is still facing trial for 99 financial crimes, many of which he admitted during his murder trial, and is also under investigation for the death of his housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield.

Prosecutors are also still investigating his role in a botched, suicide-by-hitman shooting involving his cousin, Curtis Eddie Smith. 

His attorneys say they plan to file an appeal for his murder conviction, and will take it all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary. 

They say he never stood a chance at a fair trial and that the jury ‘could have watched it all on Netflix.’  

The jury said they had no idea what an ‘ordeal’ the trial would be until they arrived to a sea of media and members of the public on day one