Jurors returned to the courthouse Friday morning as prosecutors continued to present their case against Alex Murdaugh over the brutal shooting murders of his wife and son in early June 2021.
The 54-year-old disgraced legal scion – disbarred as the murder allegations and myriad 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 Wednesday jurors heard a brief bit of rushed testimony from Snapchat employee, Heidi Galore, who used her tech expertise to produce a timestamp of a video recorded by Paul Murdaugh on the day he was killed. Galore, who was slotted in for a quick round of questioning because she was trying to catch a flight, identified the video in question – which shows the defendant dealing with a sagging tree – as being recorded at 7:38 p.m. on the day of the slayings.
After that, jurors were dismissed for a lengthy hearing on the admissibility of certain evidence from the day before. During that hearing, Judge Clifton Newman upbraided the defense for improperly objecting to a line of questioning by the state about those aforementioned monetary mismanagement issues.
Once jurors returned, the state called two additional witnesses.
Alex Murdaugh speaks with defense attorney Jim Griffin during his trial for murder at the Colleton County Courthouse on Thursday, February 2, 2023. Joshua Boucher/The State/Pool
The first witness was 14th Circuit investigator Dylan Hightower, who was at the 1,700-acre family hunting lodge known as Moselle the day after the murders. Hightower eventually found Maggie Murdaugh’s cellular phone off the side of a road nearby using the Find My iPhone feature with the defendant’s help. The investigator said he also downloaded Alex Murdaugh’s own cell phone in the days to follow and that when he checked the call log against Verizon records, 73 calls had been deleted.
The second witness was SLED special agent Katie McAllister, who testified that she searched the hunting lodge the day after the murders without executing a search warrant because she did not want to displace the over two-down mourners. Under questioning from defense attorney Dick Harpootlian, McAllister said she found no evidence of blood or tissue in any of the showers or bathtubs, no bloody clothes, and otherwise evidence.
[image via Joshua Boucher/The State/Pool]
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