Jurors returned to the Colleton County Courthouse on Tuesday morning as prosecutors continued their case against attorney Alex Murdaugh over the double murder of his wife and son at the family’s storied and massive hunting lodge in June 2021.
The 54-year-old disgraced legal scion – disbarred soon after murder allegations and various 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.
On Monday, DNA evidence took center stage as jurors heard from two forensic scientists with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. Both sides were able to elicit what appeared to be favorable testimony from each witness.
“Is it fair to say there’s no human blood on the T-shirt?” defense attorney Phillip Barber asked SLED scientist Sarah Zapata, referring to the heavily-contested white T-shirt the defendant was found wearing by law enforcement on the night of the slayings.
“The test that I performed was negative for the presence of human blood,” Zapata said.
Barber also was able to elicit testimony from Zapata that her SLED lab tests were “0 for 74” on finding any kind of blood on Alex Murdaugh’s clothes on the night when Paul Murdaugh had his brain ejected from his skull by a shotgun blast at close range while Maggie Murdaugh was killed with what the state calls an “AR-style” rifle.
Grim and graphic details of the brutal murders were also relayed late Monday afternoon by Dr. Ellen Riemer, who conducted the autopsies on the deceased members of the Murdaugh family.
“… his brain was ejected out of the top of the right side of his head and arrived at autopsy in a separate bucket,” Dr. Riemer performed Paul’s autopsy. #AlexMurdaugh pic.twitter.com/zcXpLZqqOO
— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) February 13, 2023
Dr. Riemer now talking about how Maggie could have been bent over after being shot, where she would have placed her hand on her abdomen, where she had been shot. That is how she may have been shot in the wrist, according to Dr. Riemer @LawCrimeNetwork SC v. #AlexMurdaugh
— Angenette Levy (@Angenette5) February 13, 2023
Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian signaled that cross-examination of Riemer will likely be extensive and could go until 7:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday.
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