Alex Murdaugh due back in court amid defense questions about police handling of missing murder weapons

Tracy Glantz/Pool/The State

Alex Murdaugh is due back in court Friday as his lawyers push for South Carolina prosecutors to turn over information and evidence they say could be instrumental to the disgraced attorney’s defense in his second double-murder trial.

In court documents filed ahead of the hearing, Murdaugh’s defense attorneys pressed prosecutors for further evidence, including information about bombshell reports that local police may have handled the murder weapons hours after Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, and their 22-year-old son Paul were fatally shot at the family’s estate, Moselle , in 2021. The murder weapons have never been found.

The defense said the allegations are “exculpatory,” undermining prosecutors’ theory Maggie and Paul were killed by a perpetrator who acted alone.

The hearing Friday comes as the defense has filed a flurry of motions ahead of Murdaugh’s highly anticipated retrial, which is set to begin on April 5 after the prominent former personal injury attorney’s murder convictions were overturned by the state supreme court. It’s unclear which motions will be addressed Friday.

The retrial will be held in nearby Sumter County due to concerns Murdaugh would be unable to get a fair trial in Colleton County, where his first trial was held in 2023.

During the weekslong trial, prosecutors painted Murdaugh as a fraudster who killed his wife and son as a desperate attempt to distract from investigations into his vast financial crimes.

Across two days of dramatic testimony, Murdaugh denied shooting the two, though he admitted lying to investigators about his whereabouts the night of the murders. The jury convicted Murdaugh of all counts.

But the state supreme court overturned Murdaugh’s convictions earlier this year after finding the trial was tainted by the county clerk’s “improper” influence on the jury. The decision was a shocking twist in the high-profile case, which has gripped the public for years and sparked several true crime podcasts, books and documentaries.

In its ruling, the court vacated the two life sentences Murdaugh received for the murder charges, though he remains behind bars on concurrent state and federal sentences of 27 and 40 years for dozens of financial crimes.

Alex Murdaugh’s second murder trial will start next spring, judge rules

At trial, prosecutors argued Murdaugh alone killed Maggie and Paul with two of their family’s guns – a shotgun and a .300 Blackout assault rifle, according to testimony. They theorized he later transported the weapons to his mother’s home in Almeda and disposed of them.

But in a court filing on September 30, the defense said recent local news reports challenge this theory: Citing The Post & Courier , the defense claimed a Lowcountry official told state investigators months after Murdaugh’s conviction in 2023 that a local police chief had spoken of arriving to the scene early and providing the defendant a change of clothes. This official also believed the weapons were taken to the police station and stored there temporarily, The Post & Courier reported.

The allegation, defense attorney Richard Harpootlian wrote, undermines the state’s case.

“It is exculpatory of the theory that the State tried: if the weapons and the clothing left the scene in the hands of law enforcement officers, they did not leave in Defendant Murdaugh’s hands, and they did not go to Almeda,” Harpootlian wrote.

The defense argued the information also calls into question the integrity of evidence collected from the crime scene, and “supports the defense that more than one person was involved in these murders—a defense the State’s own investigation now appears to credit.”

A South Carolina grand jury heard testimony regarding the allegations last month, the defense said, citing an article from FITSNews .

“Witnesses have testified that the Chief of Police of the Town of Yemassee, Greg Alexander, was seen with the murder weapons in the immediate aftermath of the June 7, 2021, killings, and that a second Yemassee officer is under investigation for transporting and concealing weapons and clothing,” the defense wrote.

An attorney for Alexander confirmed his client received a subpoena but said he ultimately did not testify in front of the grand jury. Joe McCullough told CNN the police chief has been drawn into the “Murdaugh maelstrom” and did not improperly remove any evidence.

Alexander responded to the crime scene after scores of other officers, his attorney said, leaving “no opportunity” for the chief to surreptitiously transport evidence.

“Mr. Alexander had nothing to do with taking evidence or concealing it,” McCullough told CNN. “Friday’s hearing will demonstrate the lack of substance to these despicable rumors.”

Harpootlian pointed to prosecutors’ recent statements saying they were not aware of any discovery issues – a statement they made to the judge just 17 days before Alexander’s grand jury subpoena was issued.

“If the reports are accurate, the State has held, since 2023, a witness statement that a police officer handled the murder weapons and the clothing Defendant Murdaugh was said to have worn, and it has never disclosed that statement to the defense,” the defense attorneys wrote.

In their own filing, prosecutors wrote Alexander and Murdaugh are “extremely close,” but did not substantially address the allegations, noting grand jury proceedings are secret.

“The State cannot prematurely confirm or deny the contents of any State Grand Jury investigation until when appropriate,” Senior Assistant Deputy Attorney General Creighton Waters, the lead prosecutor, wrote.

Murdaugh’s attorneys are also requesting information they believe could point to another perpetrator, including further DNA testing on a few pieces of evidence and state data on crimes committed with the same kind of assault rifle used in Maggie’s killing .

The defense attorneys argued analysts should conduct further DNA testing on three pieces of evidence they say contain male DNA: two of Maggie’s fingernail clippings and her cell phone, which was found along the road roughly half a mile from where the bodies were found at the property’s kennels.

The state, however, said there was “nothing ‘new’ or recently discovered” about the DNA from the fingernails, and expressed concern further testing would destroy the samples. They would be “happy to consider steps” for further testing of the phone once they receive more details about the defense’s request, prosecutors wrote in their response.

Henry Taylor/Pool/The Post and Courier

Murdaugh’s legal team also asked for South Carolina Law Enforcement Division data about other crimes involving .300 Blackout ammunition – the same bullets used to fatally shoot Maggie.

At trial, the state called a law enforcement witness whose testimony was intended “to persuade the jury that the .300 Blackout was uncommon enough that its appearance at Moselle pointed to the household that owned three of them, and away from anyone else,” the defense wrote.

However, prosecutors later said the cartridge is the second-most popular rifle round in the country and SLED had entered more than 700 cases involving the weapon into its database since 2021, the defense wrote.

“Evidence that the same weapon, or the same ammunition, has been used in other shootings in the same two circuits is evidence tending to point to another person as the perpetrator,” Harpootlian said in the filing.

Specific shootings referenced in the defense motion did not return any potential matches to Murdaugh’s case, prosecutors said.

“Because the defense cannot establish a logical or factual nexus between the two crimes, the motion represents a speculative fishing expedition for public consumption that lacks legal relevance, creates an unwarranted burden and intrusion into state forensic resources,” Waters wrote in his own filing.

Prosecutors also said in court documents they would turn over raw cell phone data and 3D scans from the kennels that the defense requested.

特雷西·格兰茨/Pool/《州报》

亚历克斯·默多克将于周五再次出庭，他的律师们正敦促南卡罗来纳州检察官交出信息和证据，他们称这些信息和证据可能对这位声名狼藉的律师在第二次双重谋杀案审判中的辩护至关重要。

在听证会前提交的法庭文件中，默多克的辩护律师向检方施压，要求提供更多证据，包括有关爆炸性报道的信息，这些报道称，当地警方可能在2021年默多克的妻子玛吉和他们22岁的儿子保罗在位于莫塞尔的家族庄园被枪杀数小时后就处理了凶器。凶器至今仍未找到。

辩方称这些指控是“无罪的”，削弱了检方关于玛吉和保罗是被单独作案的凶手杀害的理论。

周五的听证会正值辩方提交大量动议之际，此前备受瞩目的默多克重审案即将开庭。这位前著名人身伤害律师的谋杀罪名已被州最高法院推翻，重审定于4月5日开始。目前尚不清楚周五的听证会将审理哪些动议。

由于担心默多克在科勒顿县（他的第一次审判于 2023 年在科勒顿县举行）无法获得公正的审判，重审将在附近的萨姆特县举行。

在长达数周的审判中，检方将默多克描绘成一个诈骗犯，他杀害妻子和儿子是为了转移人们对他巨大金融犯罪调查的注意力。

在为期两天的庭审中，默多克否认枪杀了两人，但他承认就案发当晚的行踪向调查人员撒谎。陪审团最终裁定默多克所有罪名成立。

但今年早些时候，州最高法院推翻了默多克的定罪，理由是审判受到县书记员对陪审团“不正当”影响的影响。这一决定令这起备受瞩目的案件出现了令人震惊的转折，该案多年来一直牵动着公众的心，并催生了多个真实犯罪播客、书籍和纪录片。

法院在裁决中撤销了默多因谋杀罪被判处的两项终身监禁，但他仍因数十项金融犯罪被判处 27 年和 40 年的州和联邦刑期，目前仍在狱中服刑。

法官裁定，亚历克斯·默多克的第二次谋杀案审判将于明年春天开始。

庭审中，检方根据证词指出，默多克独自一人用家中两支枪——一支霰弹枪和一支.300 Blackout突击步枪——杀害了玛吉和保罗。他们推测，默多克之后将这些武器运到位于阿尔梅达的母亲家中并销毁了。

但在9月30日提交的法庭文件中，辩方表示，近期当地新闻报道对这一说法提出了质疑：辩方援引《邮报与信使报》的报道称，在默多克于2023年被定罪数月后，一名低地地区官员告诉州调查人员，当地一名警察局长曾表示提前到达现场，并为被告提供了一套换洗衣服。据《邮报与信使报》报道，这名官员还认为，作案武器被带回警察局并暂时存放在那里。

辩护律师理查德·哈普特利安写道，这一指控削弱了州政府的案件。

“这证明了州政府试图推翻的理论：如果武器和衣物在执法人员手中离开了现场，那么它们并没有落入被告默多克手中，也没有被送到阿尔梅达，”哈普特利安写道。

辩方辩称，该信息也对从犯罪现场收集的证据的完整性提出了质疑，并且“支持了不止一人参与这些谋杀案的辩护——而州政府自己的调查现在似乎也认可了这一辩护”。

辩方援引 FITSNews 的一篇文章称，南卡罗来纳州大陪审团上个月听取了有关这些指控的证词。

辩方写道：“证人作证称，在 2021 年 6 月 7 日的凶杀案发生后，有人看到耶马西镇警察局长格雷格·亚历山大与凶器在一起，而另一名耶马西警官因运输和藏匿武器和衣物而正在接受调查。”

亚历山大的律师证实，他的当事人收到了传票，但表示他最终没有在大陪审团面前作证。乔·麦卡洛告诉CNN，警察局长被卷入了“默多克事件的漩涡”，但他并没有不当销毁任何证据。

亚历山大的律师说，亚历山大是在其他数十名警官之后才赶到犯罪现场的，这使得警长“没有机会”偷偷转移证据。

麦卡洛告诉CNN：“亚历山大先生与收集证据或隐瞒证据没有任何关系。周五的听证会将证明这些卑鄙的谣言毫无根据。”

哈普特利安指出，检察官最近发表声明称，他们并不知晓任何取证问题——而就在亚历山大的大陪审团传票发出前 17 天，他们向法官发表了这一声明。

辩护律师写道：“如果报道属实，那么自 2023 年以来，州政府一直掌握着一份证人证词，该证词表明一名警官接触过凶器和被告默多克据称穿过的衣服，但州政府从未向辩方披露过该证词。”

在他们自己的文件中，检察官写道，亚历山大和默多克“关系非常密切”，但没有实质性地回应这些指控，并指出大陪审团的审理程序是秘密的。

“在适当的时候之前，州政府不能过早地确认或否认任何州大陪审团调查的内容，”首席检察官、高级助理副检察长克雷顿·沃特斯写道。

默多克的律师还要求提供他们认为可能指向另一名作案者的信息，包括对一些证据进行进一步的 DNA 检测，以及有关使用与杀害玛吉的同类型突击步枪所犯犯罪的州数据。

辩护律师辩称，分析人员应该对三件他们认为含有男性 DNA 的证据进行进一步的 DNA 检测：玛吉的两片指甲屑和她的手机，该手机是在距离发现尸体的犬舍大约半英里的路边发现的。

然而，检方表示，指甲上的DNA“并无任何‘新’或近期发现”，并担心进一步检测会破坏样本。检方在回复中写道，一旦收到辩方请求的更多细节，他们将“乐于考虑”对手机进行进一步检测的步骤。

亨利·泰勒/Pool/《邮报与信使报》

默多克的法律团队还要求南卡罗来纳州执法部门提供有关其他涉及 .300 Blackout 弹药的犯罪的数据——正是这种子弹射杀了玛吉。

辩方写道，在审判中，州检察官传唤了一名执法人员作证，其证词旨在“说服陪审团，.300 Blackout 手枪非常罕见，因此在莫塞尔河发现这种手枪就指向拥有三支这种手枪的家庭，而不是其他任何人”。

但辩方写道，检方后来表示，这种弹药是美国第二流行的步枪弹药，自 2021 年以来，南卡罗来纳州执法部门已将 700 多起涉及该武器的案件录入其数据库。

哈普特利安在提交的文件中表示：“有证据表明，同一武器或同一弹药在同一两个巡回法院的其他枪击事件中使用过，这往往表明另有其人是作案者。”

检察官表示，辩方动议中提到的具体枪击事件并未与默多夫的案件有任何可能的匹配项。

沃特斯在自己的文件中写道：“由于辩方无法在两项罪行之间建立逻辑或事实上的联系，因此该动议代表着一场为了博取公众眼球而进行的推测性调查，缺乏法律相关性，造成了不必要的负担，并侵占了州法医资源。”

检方还在法庭文件中表示，他们将按辩方要求提供原始手机数据和犬舍的 3D 扫描数据。