Alex Murdaugh’s final text to his wife, which was sent “after he shot her,” was revealed in court as he collapsed while watching the video of the scene

THE LAST text message from Alex Murdaugh to his wife was revealed during the second week of his double murder trial.

Murdaugh, 64, a former South Carolina attorney, is accused of killing his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, on June 7, 2021.

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Prosecutors allege Murdaugh sent a text that read “Call me baby” shortly after his wife’s murder.

He has pleaded not guilty to murder and possession of a weapon.

Lt. Britt Dove of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) handled Murdaugh, Maggie and Paul’s phones and testified in court on Tuesday.

Maggie’s phone had been on airplane mode with Wi-Fi off, but it was still recording activity, including calls from her husband before he got his last text.

Regarding the phone’s camera, Dove said, “It appears the phone was moved and the camera activated to see if it would recognize a face to unlock it.”

Seconds later, the phone’s orientation changed, indicating someone had picked up the phone with their hand, Dove added.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys focused on a five-word sentence Murdaugh said in a police interview three days after the killings.

Prosecutors claimed he said, “I put him down so badly,” referring to his son Paul.

However, the defense argued he said, “You did him so badly” and even played a slowed-down version of the audio recording for the jury.

Jeff Croft, a senior special agent at SLED, claimed he heard Murdaugh say, “Me.”

Defense attorneys questioned why Croft wrote down the sentence only when he thought it might be a confession.

In June 2021, Maggie and Paul were found dead near dog kennels on their family property.

Murdaugh was charged with murder a year later in July 2022.

Both the prosecution and the defense presented gruesome details of the crime scene in their opening statements last week.

A close associate of the Murdaughs, Rogan Gibson, testified in court today that he is confident he recognizes the voices of Alex, Paul and Maggie in cellphone video taken at the scene just before the murders.

Gibson, who described the Murdaughs as his “surrogate family,” listened to video taken by Paul at the doghouse that night the two were killed.

Gibson told the jury he was sure he heard the voices of Paul, Maggie and Alex in the video recording.

According to Gibson, Paul had promised to send him a video of the dog he was taking care of, but the video never arrived, although the two had spoken on the phone shortly before.

As the video played in court on Wednesday, Murdaugh broke down in tears at the defense table.

Prosecutors claimed that Paul’s voice was heard with the dog as he tried to videotape his tail, while a female voice in the background is believed to be Maggie and the third male voice heard is Murdaugh.

If convicted, Murdaugh faces up to 30 years in prison.