Alex Murdaugh trial updates: John Marvin faults SLED, doesn’t believe brother killed wife, son

The video above will play a live video stream of the Monday, Feb. 27 proceedings in the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial or a replay upon completion.

After the June 7, 2021, killings of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, Paul’s uncle, John Marvin Murdaugh – who had a “very close” relationship with the slain 22-year-old – made a heartfelt vow to his slain nephew.

“I told Paul I loved him, and I’d find out who did this to him,” John Marvin, as he is most commonly called by those in the Lowcountry who know him, testified Monday afternoon during the 26th day of his brother Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial.

“Have you found out?” asked Murdaugh defense attorney Jim Griffin.

“I have not,” John Marvin replied, despite the fact, his older brother had admitted to lying to police and the court about being at the murder scene, and despite the fact that state police and the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office have said that Murdaugh turned out to be the only remaining suspect after a roughly year-long investigation.

John Marvin also testified that he, Alex, and the entire Murdaugh family had fully cooperated with law enforcement throughout the entire investigation, even helping find Maggie’s cell phone despite the fact that state agents reportedly brushed off his offer to help. He added that Alex himself provided Maggie’s cell phone passcode when it was found.

During cross, Assistant District Attorney John Conrad brought up Murdaugh lying about being at the crime scene, and being present in a cell phone video taken by Paul minutes before he was killed. Conrad asked if lying to the police was cooperation.

“I’d would say that yes, he lied,” admitted the witness.

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John Marvin went on to criticize the S.C. Law Enforcement Division (SLED), testifying about their investigation of the crime scene and adding that, when he returned to the scene, the family dog kennels at Moselle, there was still evidence and bits and pieces of his nephew’s biological material left on the ground. Upset and disgusted, he helped clean up his loved one’s remains.

“It was not cleaned up,” he said, choked with emotion. “I saw blood, I saw brains, I saw pieces of skull… No mother, no father, no uncle should ever have to see or do what I had to do. I had to do it for Paul… It was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life.”

During John Marvin’s often emotional testimony, Alex Murdaugh, sitting at the defendant’s table, did not show the usual emotional tears upon hearing graphic testimony. Instead, he kept his eyes intently fixed on his brother, waiting for this every word with an apparent concentration.

John Marvin alleged that SLED agents lied to him and his family about where they found one controversial piece of evidence – a blue raincoat coated with gunshot residue – and the family was also told by police that they had found blood spatters and more incriminating evidence on Alex’s shirt – which turned out to be false.

They said the shirt was covered in blood, he testified, and Alex “went so far as to wipe his face on it” and that’s how they knew he was the killer.

Earlier in the trial, experts testified that there were no blood traces found on the shirt Murdaugh was wearing when police responded to the scene. State prosecutors now suspect that he cleaned up and changed clothes after the killings.

John Marvin testified that when he went into the Murdaugh’s residence after the killings, people were congregating in the house and “cleaning up,” despite the fact that it could have been considered a secondary crime scene.

John Marvin called the Murdaugh’s involvement in the 2019 boat crash that killed Mallory Beach, for which Paul was criminally charged and Alex sued, “media-inflamed rumors” that were “totally blown out of proportion.”

The youngest Murdaugh sibling went on to testify about the “great,” “close” and loving relationship Alex had with Maggie and Paul, adding that Alex was “destroyed” and “broken” after the killings.

“Words don’t do it justice,” he added. “I’d have to create a new word to describe how distraught he was.”

Cross examination reveals another potential Alex Murdaugh lie

In previous testimony, PMPED Chief Financial Officer Jennie Seckinger had testified that, when she confronted Murdaugh on the day of the killings about missing legal fees, he took a phone call and said that his father, Randolph, was “terminal.”

During cross examination, John Marvin testified that his father’s condition on June 7 was considered “hopeful” by the family, because he had pneumonia, which is treatable. It was not until June 8 when doctors informed the family that they were sending Randolph home to die in the care of hospice. He died June 10, two days later.

Defense rests; judge denies second motion to throw case out

Murdaugh’s defense rested its case after the John Marvin testimony, then immediately made a second motion to have the case tossed out with a “directed verdict.” It took Judge Clifton Newman less than 30 seconds to deny that second motion, as he had with the first motion made by Murdaugh’s team after the State rested.

On Tuesday, the State plans to call no more than five witnesses in “reply,” or rebuttal, of testimony and evidence presented by the defense. Court officials say that these witnesses could include Colleton County Coroner Richard Harvey, and Murdaugh’s former law partners Ronnie Crosby and Mark Ball, who all previously testified.

Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters said he expects to wrap up the reply by Tuesday afternoon, although Murdaugh attorney Richard Harpootlian said he was skeptical of such a quick time estimate given the State’s pattern of presenting lengthy testimony during the five previous weeks of the trial.

Once the reply stage is completed, the jury is expected to visit the crime scene at Moselle, and then begin hearing closing arguments from both sides, which could take most of a full day.

The jury could be deliberating as early as Thursday, estimate court officials.

Monday a.m. updates in the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial

After five weeks of often tedious and grueling testimony from more than 70 witnesses in the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial, the Colleton County jury will be taking a field trip this week – to the scene of the crime, Moselle, where Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, were graphically gunned down on June 7, 2021.

Over the State’s objections – due to the amount of time that has passed since the killings and the crime scene becoming overgrown or changed in some way – Judge Clifton Newman granted Murdaugh attorney Richard Harpootlian’s request for the visit. However, jurors and attorneys will only be allowed to visit the dog kennels where the shootings occurred, and not the primary residence or other areas.

Law enforcement officers will be on hand to secure the scene, primarily because large numbers of curious people following the case have been visiting the area during the trial and trespassing or taking “selfies.”

It is unclear in what capacity the media will be allowed to cover the jury's trek to the crime scene. That is pending further information and a decision from the court, said Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill. She said she hoped to know more in the afternoon.

As Murdaugh faces life in prison without parole in the double murder case, which is now in its sixth week, it is unclear when that field trip will occur, however. The defense has one more witness to call after the lunch break Monday and then expects to rest. After that, the state has roughly 4-5 rebuttal witnesses. Closing arguments could begin Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning – following the site visit – with the jury possibly deliberating by weeks’ end.

Alex Murdaugh’s experts say “two shooters” used execution-style blasts

Murdaugh’s defense called two paid, expert witnesses to counter previous testimony from the state – and not surprisingly both offered opinions that differed from the State’s witnesses.

Dr. Jonathan Eisenstat, an expert in forensic pathology, disputed the accuracy of Colleton County Coroner Richard Harvey’s estimated time of death and testified Monday morning that Paul and Maggie were not killed in the exact manner in which two of the State’s experts said – but rather they were shot execution-style in point blank range or contact blasts to the skull.

Eisenstat also testified that whoever shot Paul pressed the gun barrel into his skull and would have been covered with blood spatter and biological material, but he did admit that Maggie’s shooter could have been much taller than she was.

Cross-examination revealed that Eisenstat did not perform any direct testing on the bodies but relied on evidence and documents provided by the defense – while getting paid more than $10,000 for only two days in the courtroom.

Tim Palmbach, an expert in crime scene and blood spatter analysis, along with shooting incident reconstruction, echoed Eisenstat’s findings in every way – then took it a step further by theorizing that two shooters killed Paul and Maggie. He stated that the blow to Paul’s head would have actually stunned the shooter and perhaps even injured him by flying matter – rendering him unable to quickly kill the second victim, at least temporarily.

“The totality of the evidence suggests a two-shooter scenario,” said Palmback. “Why would one shooter bring two long weapons to an event?”

Cross-examination raised the question of why crime scene evidence, such as the lack of shotgun pellets in the bottom of the dog kennel feed room door behind the victim, Paul, did not support his theory.

Court is expected to resume at 2:45 p.m. with the defense’s final witness.

Alex Murdaugh murder trial: The State's evidence likely to impact the Colleton County jury

What evidence will have an impact on the Colleton County jury in the Alex Murdaugh trial, and will it stick? What is the State's most powerful evidence?

Here's Michael DeWitt's analysis of what may transpire this week in court.

Witness list in the Alex Murdaugh trial

Murdaugh is now one of the dozens of people to take the witness stand in this case.

The parade of witnesses that have already taken the stand and could still potentially take it ranges from investigators with different South Carolina police departments to Alex Murdaugh's still-living son, Buster. Testimony from those witnesses was on hold Friday morning as Judge Clifton Newman heard arguments and debated whether to allow evidence of the former South Carolina attorney's alleged financial crimes and other "bad acts" as motive in the deaths of Murdaugh's wife, Maggie, and son, Paul.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Murdaugh trial live stream, updates: Week 6 begins with final witnesses