The Alex Murdaugh defense cannot go fishing through a bunch of shell cases and bullets related to the .300 Blackout ammunition used the night Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were shot to death, a judge has decided.
At an “urgent matters” hearing Friday in Lexington, the presiding judge in Murdaugh’s double-murder retrial, Debra McCaslin, said compelling the State to produce the evidence sought would amount to giving in to a defense “fishing expedition.” She said if this kind of ammo was found in similar circumstances, “red flags” would go up, and that has not happened.
The State calls it “completely speculative.”
The Defense was asking for every case and bullet of this ammo found in shootings for the past 5 years in 8 surrounding counties.
While this was a setback for the Defense, it did win a legal victory. McCaslin said DNA from skin under Maggie Murdaugh’s fingernails and from her cellphone (found away from the double-homicide scene) can be tested by a separate lab chosen by the Defense. The State had argued against that because, after previous testing, there is no little of the material left. The DNA, from previous testing, is not linked to the Murdaugh family or any other known suspect.
There was considerable evidence during the hearing that Judge Debra McCaslin is growing weary of Defense and State bickering, she said:
“I’m gonna tell y’all – this trial’s going April the fifth, whether you like it or not. We’re going to go through this and if something comes up missing at the last time, please do not ask for a continuance. It’s not going to happen. … This case will be tried in a courtroom, under the rules of evidence and the law – not in the press and not in the court of public opinion. I will not allow these proceedings to become a circus, and I will not permit anyone involved in this case to use this courtroom as a platform for publicity or theatrics.”
She told attorneys for both sides to act professionally in her courtroom (they were making comments to each other like “facts matter”) – “Y’all need to stop this, OK? I don’t want this tit for tat between y’all. Y’all are lawyers – you’re professionals. This is a court. This is not a sound bite.”
This legal and law enforcement saga has been going on since June 7, 2021, when Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were found brutally shot to death in a dog kennel at the family’s sprawling Lowcountry estate, Moselle. Alec Murdaugh, 58, a once prominent local attorney from a well-connected family, is serving 27 and 40 years for state and federal financial crimes.
The murders were his way of attempting to cover for these crimes, as his law firm was about to discover them, through sympathy over the fact that he had lost his wife and son, the State has theorized.
The second murder trial for Alec Murdaugh, after an SC Supreme Court guilty-verdict-reversal, will not the conducted in Walterboro, Murdaugh’s home county where the first trial was conducted.
McCaslin has ordered the trial moved to Sumter. She has said Colleton County jurors could not be impartial.
She has been conducting pre-trial hearings in her Lexington County courtroom – the venue moves to Sumter County starting with a Nov. 13 hearing, and continues there with a Jan. 20, 2027, pre-trial conference, and an April 5, 2027, trial date.
The State is not seeking the death penalty.
The Judge left undecided one point that the Defense has raised in a published court filing – and that is, who might have handled the murder weapons.
That issue involves questions of State Grand Jury secrecy, enshrined in law.
The State says it can neither confirm nor deny that the Grand Jury is investigating this murder-weapons-handling issue, or has investigated the issue by calling subpoenaed witnesses.
These allegations by the Defense involve the Yemassee Police Department. These allegations related to removing the murder weapons, and allegedly gathering and storing Murdaugh’s clothing from the night of the homicides, have been denied.
Murdaugh’s 2023 guilty verdict and life sentence in the first trial were overturned earlier this year by the SC Supreme Court because of a court official’s misconduct and because the presiding judge allowed too much evidence of financial crimes into the murder trial, which might have prejudiced the jury.
While admitting financial crimes, Alec Murdaugh has steadfastly denied killing his wife and son.
Reporting for this article is from a CNN article: “Judge in Alex Murdaugh’s retrial insists the case will not ‘become a circus’ as parties clash over evidence” and other sources.
