Day 13: After bomb threat delay, Alex Murdaugh trial resumes with car data testimony

Alex Murdaugh, a once prominent Hampton-based attorney from a well-known politically-connected family, is on trial in the deaths of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul.

Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty. He faces life in prison without parole if found guilty. The trial started Jan. 23 with jury selection, opening arguments and the initial round of witness testimony. For now, the trial is expected to stretch at least another week, through Feb. 17.

How to watch the Murdaugh double murder trial, who to follow from The State, Island Packet

4:40 p.m. — Court in recess until Thursday morning

Just before Judge Clifton Newman sent court into an early recess, FBI automotive forensics expert Dwight Falkofske shared a timeline of activity recovered from computers in Alex Murdaugh’s car for the night of June 7, 2021:

• 9:06:49 p.m. — Data shows the vehicle turned on and is taken out of park

• 9:22:45 p.m. — The car is put into park. It was out of park for about 16 minutes

• 9:44:54 p.m. — Murdaugh’s car taken out of park

• 10:00:30 p.m. — Car put in park again

• 10:01:17 p.m. — Car is taken out of park

• 10:01:29 p.m. — Car is parked again

• 10:01:30 p.m. — Car is out of park

• 10:01:43 p.m. — The vehicle is parked again before shutting down

• 10:04:49 p.m. — Vehicle is back on, taken out of park

• 10:05:55 p.m. — The car is parked once more

• 10:06:18 p.m. — Murdaugh calls 911 with Bluetooth connected to his car

• 10:13:39 p.m. — The car is taken out of park. Investigators did not find a message indicating it was parked again. Falkofske said occasionally, the system will miss such messages.

Falkofske said he couldn’t determine if the car was moving when it was taken out of park. The data only recorded whether the vehicle was in park or not.

Prosecutors hinted the timestamps at 9:06 p.m. and 9:22 p.m. correspond to Murdaugh leaving Moselle to visit his mother’s house on the night of the murders, and timestamps from 9:44 p.m. to 10 p.m. indicate his return trip.

After Murdaugh called 911 at 10:06 p.m. on June 7, 2021, he told investigators he returned to the Moselle main house to grab a shotgun, which he was later seen carrying in body camera footage.

Mushelle Smith, the caretaker for Murdaugh’s mother, said she remembered Murdaugh visiting his mother for around 20 minutes that night, which prosecutors suggested is backed up by the park and out of park timestamps.

She testified Monday that several days later, Murdaugh approached her at his mother’s house, where family had gathered after Murdaugh’s father, Randolph, died.

Smith delivered an emotional testimony, claiming Murdaugh told her unprompted he’d been at the house for 30 or 40 minutes the night Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were killed.

Court will resume at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

3:50 p.m. — Little location data from Alex’s car night of murders

While some calls were recovered from Alex Murdaugh’s car computers the night of June 7, 2021, FBI automotive forensics expert Dwight Falkofske said there was only “a little bit” of location data recovered.

Investigators were mostly able to recover data showing whether the car was in park, Falkofske said. They couldn’t say for certain what gear the vehicle was in besides park, Falkofske clarified.

Law enforcement pulled data of two phone calls from Murdaugh’s car the night Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were killed. The first call took place at 10:06 p.m., and was dialed to “9111.” The next call took place a few seconds later to 911.

3:18 p.m. — FBI electronics expert testifies

Dwight Falkofske, an FBI electronics and automotive forensics expert, has taken the stand.

The witness before Falkofske was Brian Hudak, a SLED computer forensics agent.

Hudak’s brief testimony was used to introduce information collected from the computer systems in Alex Murdaugh’s vehicle.

3:10 p.m. — Court resumes after bomb threat

The Alex Murdaugh double-murder trial resumed after an almost two-hour delay due to a bomb threat. SLED officials have not yet announced if the threat was substantiated.

Prior to the evacuation, SLED agent Brian Hudak had taken the witness stand. Hudak said he specializes in computer forensics.

12:56 p.m. — Courthouse evacuated for bomb threat, SLED says

The State Law Enforcement has released a statement after the Colleton County Courthouse was evacuated during the Alex Murdaugh double-murder trial.

“A bomb threat was received by Colleton County courthouse personnel. The building has been evacuated and SLED along with the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the threat. No additional information is available from SLED at this time.”

12:30 p.m. — Courthouse evacuated

Brian Hudak, a SLED agent specializing in computer crimes, is the state’s next witness.

Judge Clifton Newman instructed the jury to leave the room for a recess shortly after Hudak took the stand, and announced they would have to evacuate the courthouse.

It was not immediately apparent why the building was evacuated.

Newman also said they’d break for lunch until 2:30 p.m.

12:20 p.m. — Forge employee never received checks from Alex

While Alex Murdaugh was allegedly using the name of financial firm Forge Consulting to siphon money from his clients’ lawsuit settlements, an employee of the firm said he never received checks from Murdaugh.

Murdaugh’s former paralegal, Annette Griswold, testified early Wednesday she repeatedly offered to send checks Murdaugh made out to Forge Consulting to Michael Gunn, the company’s principal senior consulting agent.

Griswold said Murdaugh would tell her he was going to meet with Gunn in person soon and it wasn’t necessary for her to handle the checks.

When Gunn took the stand, he testified he had “absolutely not” met with Murdaugh to receive the checks, nor had Murdaugh opened a legitimate Forge Consulting account for the funds Murdaugh was claiming.

Prosecutors have alleged Murdaugh used a Bank of America account associated with the name Forge Consulting to steal money from his clients and make it seem as though he was structuring the funds into an annuity, allowing clients to receive the money over time.

Gunn said Forge Consulting hadn’t banked with Bank of American for “four or five years” by the time Murdaugh was signing the checks.

12 p.m. — Financial executive takes the stand

Michael Gunn, the principal senior consulting agent for Forge Consulting, has returned to the stand.

Gunn previously testified without the jury present. Gunn is giving his testimony again before the jury after Judge Clifton Newman ruled evidence of Murdaugh’s alleged white-collar crimes was admissible in the murder trial.

Murdaugh used the name of Forge Consulting, a real financial firm that deals in structured settlements and annuities, to take legal fees and settlement money owed to clients for his personal use, multiple witnesses have testified.

Forge Consulting has denied involvement in the crimes Murdaugh was accused of.

11:38 a.m. — Former paralegal IDs Alex’s voice on kennels video

Alex Murdaugh’s former paralegal, Annette Griswold, became the fourth witness to identify Murdaugh’s voice in a video Paul Murdaugh took around 8:40 p.m. on June 7, 2021, the day Paul and Maggie Murdaugh died.

“I hear three voices: Paul Murdaugh, Maggie Murdaugh and Alex Murdaugh,” Griswold testified. “I’m 100% sure.”

Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters then asked Griswold to read a portion of a text message she received from Murdaugh on Sept. 26, 2021, while Murdaugh was in rehab for a reported drug problem.

“The worst part is knowing I did the most damage to those I love the most,” the message read.

Prosecutors have repeatedly played Paul’s cellphone video, trying to show Murdaugh was at the Moselle kennels with his wife and son before they died. Murdaugh told investigators the last time he saw Paul and Maggie was at dinner, and that he’d never gone with them to the kennels.

His phone did not record any steps, or text message and phone activity from about 8 to 9 p.m. June 7, 2021, according to records provided in earlier testimony.

Griswold said it was unlikely Murdaugh would be anywhere without his cellphone.

“He was always on his phone, always on his cellphone, always on the office phone. He would quit one conversation and grab up another, sometimes he would have both phones to his ear,” Griswold said.

Prosecutors have suggested Murdaugh went to the kennels without his phone, committed the murders, and left Moselle around 9 p.m., at which point he began texting and calling Maggie to “manufacture” an alibi.

10:50 a.m. — Law firm employees worried murders were client retaliation

In the days following Maggie and Paul Murdaugh’s murders, Alex Murdaugh’s then-paralegal Annette Griswold said employees at the firm were in “mama bear” mode.

Confusion in the wake of the murders left employees at PMPED, now Parker Law Group, worried the killings were targeted retaliation against Murdaugh, his family and potentially the entire law firm.

Griswold is first cousins with Mallory Beach’s father, she said. Beach died in 2019 after Paul Murdaugh crashed a boat he was reportedly driving while intoxicated. The Beach amily filed a wrongful death suit that named Murdaugh as a defendant.

“I know some of them didn’t like the idea I was still working for the firm,” Griswold testified.

Employees wouldn’t let Murdaugh or his brother, Randy, who also worked at the law firm, leave the building if any “strange cars” were in the area.

“We didn’t want them to go out and have to talk to reporters. We didn’t want them to have to run out and run into anybody,” Griswold said. “We were scared for them. We were very protective.”

Griswold said she didn’t think about the missing fees Murdaugh was confronted about the same day as the murders until September 2021.

While in Murdaugh’s office on Sept. 2, 2021, Griswold said she noticed a check fall to the ground “like a feather” from files she was reviewing. That check was signed by Murdaugh, Griswold said, and made payable to the “fake Forge (Consulting)“ account Murdaugh allegedly used to steal from clients.

“He’s been lying to me this whole time,” Griswold remembered thinking. “He’s had these funds. He lied to me.”

10:34 a.m. — Paralegal says Alex routed money while she was gone

Alex Murdaugh’s former paralegal said she believes Murdaugh took advantage of times when she wasn’t working to route false checks to an account he used to allegedly take money from clients.

Annette Griswold, Murdaugh’s paralegal while he worked with Parker Law Group, formerly PMPED, handled most of Murdaugh’s professional transactions. However, Griswold said she noticed several times Murdaugh would wire money to this “fake” account while she was not working, despite that she’d been the one handling the cases.

Griswold testified Murdaugh would deliberately send the payments to another paralegal who wasn’t familiar with the cases, and would often send them late in the day so they would be processed quickly with “no questions asked.”

10:20 a.m. — Witness: Alex treated staff differently after son’s boat crash

Annette Griswold, Alex Murdaugh’s former paralegal at what is now called Parker Law Group, said Murdaugh’s demeanor at the office changed significantly after Paul Murdaugh’s fatal 2019 boating accident.

“He was just harder to reach, and there were a couple instances in which I referred to him as having his ass on his shoulders,” Griswold testified. “He just wasn’t himself with us anymore. ... He came in and would yell our names, and just didn’t treat us the same as before the boat accident.”

Murdaugh became especially worried about employees going into his office while he was gone, Griswold said. This time period lined up with Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes, which left a long paper trail that Parker Law CFO Jeanne Seckinger testified this week tipped her off to Murdaugh potentially “stealing” money from clients’ settlements.

Part of the scheme Murdaugh is accused of was using checks falsely filed to “Forge Consulting,” a real financial firm, to siphon money from his own clients’ settlements. Forge’s senior consultant, Michael Gunn, testified in motion hearings last week that Forge had no involvement with Murdaugh’s alleged crimes.

“I would ask if I could mail his (Murdaugh’s) checks to Michael Gunn,” Griswold said. “He (Murdaugh) would always say, ‘No, you know what, I’m seeing Gunn this weekend. He’s coming out to the farm, (or) we’re going to meet halfway for dinner.’”

The state has suggested Murdaugh was attempting to “hide assets” or stash money in Maggie Murdaugh’s name so the income wouldn’t be discovered in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Mallory Beach’s family. Beach died in Paul’s boating crash.

Murdaugh has not been convicted of any financial crimes, but prosecutors posit his crumbling finances and a looming white-collar trial may have motivated Murdaugh to kill his wife and son.

10 a.m. — Jacket had gunshot particles on outside

On redirect, prosecutor John Meadors revealed further detail on gunshot residue tests done on the blue rain jacket.

“Actually, how many particles were on the garment?” Meadors asked.

“In total there were 52 particles,” Fletcher said. “Fourteen that I confirmed on the outside, and there were 38 on the interior of the rain jacket.”

“And those numbers are unusual, aren’t they?” Meadors pressed.

“For the interior of a garment I would believe they were unusual, yes,” Fletcher said. “Typically, people wear their clothing right side out.”

Finding 38 particles inside the jacket could be consistent with a “recently fired firearm” coming into contact with the jacket’s interior, Fletcher said.

Defense attorney Jim Griffin, however, referred back to what gunshot primer residue evidence can’t prove.

“You can’t tell us how it got there or when it got there, is that correct?” Griffin asked.

“That’s correct,” Fletcher confirmed.

Fletcher left the stand.

Annette Griswold, Alex Murdaugh’s former paralegal at what was formerly called PMPED, was called as the next witness.

9:43 a.m. — Defense hits back at gun shot residue evidence

Defense attorney Jim Griffin launched his cross-examination of Megan Fletcher, a SLED forensic scientist and trace evidence expert, by pointing out how easily gunshot residue can be transferred from surface to surface.

“Gunshot primer residue is not biodegradable, correct?” Griffin opened. “If gunshot primer residue is on a surface, it will stay on that surface for hundreds of years?”

Fletcher confirmed it is not, since the particles are made up of traces of heavy metals, such as lead. While no studies have proven the residue can stay for “hundreds of years,” Griffin suggested, Fletcher said it’s possible for the particles to stay for long periods.

Griffin said the residue would easily accumulate on a firearm over time unless it was cleaned, which Fletcher agreed with.

“If you touched a gun that had been fired at any point, it (residue particles) would transfer to your hands,” Fletcher said.

“My question to you is, is it very possible that where you’re sitting right now, there is gunshot primer residue?” Griffin asked.

“That is a possibility, yes sir,” Fletcher said.

One limitation of gunshot primer residue evidence, Fletcher said, is uncertainty about when exactly a particle might have settled on a surface.

Alex Murdaugh’s defense team has thoroughly established the Murdaughs as frequent hunters and firearm users. Two of Paul Murdaugh’s friends who took the stand previously testified that they would ride ATVs around the family’s Moselle estate and hunt wild hogs. Guns were commonly used around the property.

The defense suggested gunshot residue found on Murdaugh’s clothes, and especially in a blue rain jacket prosecutors hinted Murdaugh could have wrapped a potential murder weapon inside before hiding it, does not mean he’d fired a weapon recently or hidden a weapon inside the coat.

“If it (the blue jacket) laid on top of this dirty little shotgun, it could have transferred that 38 particles of gunshot primer residue?” Griffin asked.

Fletcher said it was possible, if the weapon hadn’t been cleaned for a long time.

Yesterday, she testified that the 38 particles identified on the inside of the jacket was a “significant” amount. SLED investigators also found two particles on the shirt seized from Alex Murdaugh the night of the murders, one on Murdaugh’s hands and three on his shorts.

9:30 a.m. — Cross-examination of gunshot residue expert starts

Court will start Wednesday with the cross-examination of SLED forensics expert Megan Fletcher, who spent considerable time on the witness stand Tuesday going over gunshot residue particles she found on Alex Murdaugh’s hands and clothes.

On Tuesday, after long and winding testimony, prosecutor John Meadors revealed why the state’s opening statements placed such emphasis on a blue rain jacket recovered from Murdaugh’s mother’s house after the murders that the state says tested positive for gunshot residue.

“If a recently fired firearm were wrapped up inside that jacket, would that be consistent with your findings?” Meadors asked.

“There is a possibility of that, yes,” Fletcher confirmed.

Fletcher said her examination revealed a “significant” number of particles on the inside of the rain coat, more than were found on the jacket’s exterior. She said 38 particles were “consistent” with gunshot primer residue, while Murdaugh’s T-shirt had three.

The particles can be spread by being close to a gunshot, touching something that already had gunshot residue on it, or someone wearing clothes and firing a gun themselves, Fletcher said.

The blue jacket was first examined in October 2021, months after Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were killed, Fletcher said.

She said particles will stay on a surface until they’re “actively removed.”

A murder weapon has never been recovered.

Through Paul’s friends, defense attorneys Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian have established the Murdaugh family were prolific hunters and gun users, with numerous firearms strewn across the Moselle property. Paul and his friends would often ride ATVs around woods on the estate and hunt wild hogs.

Murdaugh’s defense team is likely to rebut the state’s suggestion by pointing at how common gunfire was on the property, leaving gunshot residue found everywhere on the property, called Moselle.