Murdaugh tries to get indictment thrown out in court
LEXINGTON COUNTY, SC (WSAV) — Alex Murdaugh is back in court as his lawyers fight to get his original indictment thrown out Friday.
"So the grand jury was misled here greatly when they returned this indictment," said Jim Griffin, Alex Murdaugh's attorney.
That was the basis of this hearing in Lexington County. The defense said lead investigator David Owen made false statements to a grand jury back in 2021 about blood spatter evidence found on Alec Murdaugh's shirt the night his son, Paul, and wife, Maggie, were murdered.
"The DNA in the areas of spatter was identified as belonging to Alex, Maggie and Paul," said Griffin. "Not true. Not true. Anyone who knew, in reckless disregard, should have known that was not true, particularly as the DNA. There's no basis to say there's no expert who told him that there was DNA in the blood spatter that matches Paul. No. Expert, nobody"
Defense attorney Jim Griffin, adding the SLED investigator, told the grand jury that guns at the Moselle property could be linked to similarities with the murder weapons.
Those murder weapons have not been found.
But 300 blackout rifles loaded with different kinds of buckshot, turkey shot or birdshot, all in the same chamber, were discovered in the home and the various types of ammunition were found on the property.
Griffin still says evidence shows no direct connection and Owen, who has called it "mistake of fact," didn't tell the whole truth.
"He was trying to elicit some confession out, if you will, or an incriminating statement by trolling," said Griffin. "Well, if he knows it's not true in August of 11th of 2021, it doesn't become a mistake of fact. In Nov. 2021, when he said the same thing to the state grand jury, which is transcribed."
Prosecutors say Owen did not misrepresent anything in the testimony he gave about blood spatter. It was not false. It matched expert evidence he had at the time and the mixed ammunition inside the guns at Moselle. Part of the evidence that shows the murder weapons could have come from Alex or the house.
"And our point is, number one, is that the evidence of the shirt is not even false," said Creighton Waters, prosecutor for the SC Attorney General's Office. "The expert still stands by it. And then number two, the mixed loads of the shotguns is definitely supported by the evidence."
Waters added that the details the defense is trying to say derailed the case barely had an effect on the indictment or the verdict
"If we look in there, this particular is maybe two or three lines out of the entirety of the presentation. It was about a three or four page presentation," said Waters. "So there was a lot of evidence being presented, the centerpiece of which was the timeline that had really started to crystallize."
The prosecutor specifically outlined how the kennel video, which puts Alex Murdaugh at the murder scene moments before the killings, would have also been a key to the indictments in 2021.
The defense countered that argument.
"If you listen to that video, no one is getting murdered on that video," said Dick Harpootlian, Murdaugh's attorney. "Nothing on that video gives any indication Maggie and Paul will get murdered that night."
Jurors in the original murder trial said the kennel video, and Alex's denial that he was by the kennels at the time of the murders, were key to their decision to convict the disgraced attorney.
Judge Debra McCaslin said she would take all arguments under advisement and rule in writing by next Friday.
If there was any indication of how she may rule, she did ask prosecutors whether they would be ready to go in front of another grand jury on December 10 to try and re-indict Alex Murdaugh.
They did say yes and that they would be ready.
The Judge said no matter how she rules, the trial date of April 5th will not move.
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Source: Crime
