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Jurors and alternates – though one less than usual due to an illness – returned to the Colleton County Courthouse on Wednesday morning as prosecutors continued to present the state’s case against disbarred attorney Alex Murdaugh over the brutal double murder of his wife and son at the family’s hunting lodge in early June 2021.
During a Monday pretrial hearing, Judge Clifton Newman dealt the defense a substantial setback, ruling that various financial crimes by the defendant are “so intimately connected” to the state’s theory of the case that proof of them “is essential to complete the story.”
The 54-year-old disgraced legal scion – disbarred as the murder allegations and those alleged financial improprieties came to light – is accused of shooting and killing his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52, and their youngest son Paul Murdaugh, 22.
The pretrial decision on those financial crimes – some admitted, some alleged – capped a nearly week-long series of hearings away from jurors’ ears. In the end, the court said those crimes could be mentioned by prosecutors in order to show motive. On Tuesday, jurors heard some financial crimes evidence from the former chief financial officer of the now-defunct Murdaugh family law firm.
As the day ended on Tuesday, the state was back to more direct evidence, calling on South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Trace Evidence Analyst Megan Fletcher. The state’s scientist testified that she and another forensics expert, former SLED employee Jamie Hall, found several instances of gunshot residue, or GSR, on various pieces of evidence connected to the defendant.
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GUNSHOT RESIDUE: Testimony today in #AlexMurdaugh trial – GSR found on Alex’s t-shirt and shorts he was wearing when police arrived as well as on his hands. No GSR on his shoes. Also GSR on the seat belt buckle from the suburban. pic.twitter.com/xAH7Away88
— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) February 7, 2023
The forensic expert testified a “significant amount” of GSR was found on a blue, poncho-like raincoat recovered in September from the home of Alex Murdaugh’s mother in Hampton County, S.C.
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters presaged the blue poncho evidence in the state’s opening statement, saying a witness told police they saw the defendant going upstairs to his mother’s home about a week after the slayings with something that looked like a blue tarp.
On Wednesday, defense attorney Jim Griffin will begin the defense’s cross-examination of Fletcher.
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