Alex Murdaugh trial: Family of slain mother Maggie Murdaugh give revealing testimony

The video at the top of the story will play a live video stream of the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial or a replay of today's proceedings upon completion.

WALTERBORO - After members of slain son Paul Murdaugh’s family sat for the second day and heard gruesome autopsy details early Tuesday, family members of slain mother Maggie Murdaugh gave emotional and revealing testimony in the Richard “Alex” Murdaugh double murder trial.

As the S.C. Attorney General’s Office continues with Day 17 of its efforts to convict the disgraced lawyer Murdaugh on charges he shot and killed his family on June 7, 2021, today’s emotional testimony brought out possible infidelity, admitted opioid abuse, a roadside suicide plot and more of what attorneys called “Murdaugh’s lies,” – but not all of this inflammatory testimony made it before the jury.

Court is expected to resume with an in-camera hearing, without the jury, at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. Judge Newman will then hear arguments on the admissibility of further testimony involving Murdaugh’s roadside suicide plot.

Following that hearing, the jury is set to return at 10:30 a.m. and possibly hear testimony from law enforcement agents involved in the September investigation.

Maggie Murdaugh's only sibling offers emotional, but inflammatory testimony

Tuesday marked the first day that members of Maggie’s immediate family took the stand, and it was an emotional but revealing experience.

“Do you miss her,” lead prosecutor Creighton Waters asked Marion Proctor, Maggie’s only sibling.

“Almost every day,” Proctor replied, describing her slain sister as a sweet, free spirit who loved her family.

Proctor described Paul as a sweet, sweet boy who had been “misrepresented in the media” after the 2019 boat crash that took Mallory Beach’s life.

However, “Maggie felt very strongly that Paul was not driving the boat when beautiful Mallory Beach was killed,” said Murdaugh attorney Jim Griffin in cross examination.

Maggie used Paul as “Little Detective” to monitor Alex Murdaugh's drug abuse

While this isn’t the first evidence of Murdaugh’s alleged opioid abuse, Proctor’s testimony today offered the first glimpse of the Murdaugh family’s knowledge of his confessed, long-term drug abuse – and how they coped with it.

Proctor testified that Maggie called Paul her “Little Detective” who was “always looking to make sure Alex was behaving.” She added that Maggie had expressed concerns to her for some time about his prescription pain pill addiction, and that “If there were any pills in the house that Alex wasn’t supposed to have, Paul would find them.”

Judge Clifton Newman had previously ruled that Murdaugh’s drug habits were fair game in the proceedings.

Judge admits testimony about suicide plot, rejects infidelity statements

As Proctor began testifying upon cross examination about how her family’s view of Murdaugh changed around September 2021 – when his failed roadside suicide plot and financial crimes began coming to light – the defense objected, citing S.C. Rules of Evidence 404(b), which sets a standard for what crimes and other “bad acts” are admissible in murder trials.

Judge Newman ruled that her testimony was admissible.

The State plans to dive deeper into the events of the 2021 Labor Day weekend to prove Murdaugh’s pattern of lies and extraordinary distractions, but the defense has further objected because these crimes, for which Murdaugh has been indicted, occurred after the killings.

“That opens a Pandora’s Box of 404(b),” said Griffin. “How can you have motive after the fact?”

Newman is expected to hold an in-camera hearing Wednesday morning to determine the admissibility of further testimony on the September roadside incident.

“The issue here is Mr. Murdaugh’s lies…?” questioned Murdaugh attorney Richard Harpootlian.

“If Mr. Harpootlian is willing to stipulate in front of the jury that his client is a liar, I’m okay with that,” retorted Waters.

With the jury out of the room, Newman further ruled that any mention by Proctor of a possible infidelity of Murdaugh that might have happened 15 years prior was not admissible. The defense had objected to this line of questioning because it was “prejudicial” and “inflammatory.”

The silenced testimony, which was about a possible affair that Maggie thought Alex had that still bothered her years later, would have been used to counter the defense’s position that Maggie and Alex had a perfect, “lovey dovey” relationship.

Maggie’s sister encouraged her to go to Moselle – where she was killed

Proctor testified that during the last conversation she had with Maggie – on the day of the killings – her sister informed her that Murdaugh wanted her to return from Edisto to Moselle because he had learned his father was dying. She told Maggie that since Randolph, Alex’s father, was sick, she should go.

“You encouraged her to go to Moselle?” asked Waters. “I did,” the witness answered, breaking into tears.

That was the last time Proctor spoke to her sister.

Proctor later pointed out, however, that she thought it was odd that Maggie did not go to his parents’ home in Almeda to be there for them on the night of the killings, when that was the entire purpose of her visit.

Murdaugh makes other “odd” statements to Maggie’s family

Proctor recalled that, when she asked Murdaugh who could have killed Maggie and Paul, he answered, “I don’t know, but whoever had done it had thought about it for a really long time.”

“I didn’t know what that meant,” she added.

Proctor also recalled another statement after the killings that she described as odd: “He said his number one goal was clearing Paul’s name. But my number one goal was finding who killed Maggie and Paul.”

“I just thought that his priority should have been finding out who killed them,” she added. “It was just so odd. We were living in fear and thought this horrible person was still out there.”

She also testified that everyone in her family and the Murdaugh family appeared to be afraid of the “real killers” out there – except for Alex, whose conversations focused on the boat crash case and getting his other son, Buster, back in law school.

Alex Murdaugh double murder trial: Key observations and unanswered questions

Murdaugh’s brother-in-law, Bart Proctor, identifies his voice in video

Murdaugh’s brother-in-law, Bart Proctor, became the latest of multiple witnesses to testify about Murdaugh’s voice in a video that places him at the crime scene minutes before investigators believe they were killed.

Proctor said he was “100 percent sure” that was Murdaugh’s voice in Paul’s cell phone video.

Law partner John E. Parker unknowingly loaned Murdaugh money to repay stolen fees

Earlier in the day, the State called one of its own, Carson Burney, a forensic accountant with the State Grand Jury Division of the S.C. Attorney General’s Office. Burney testified about Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes and his financial condition as several threats were bearing down on him in the week of the killings.

Burney testified that he traced the $792,000 in allegedly stolen legal fees from the Wilson Law Group’s checks to Murdaugh’s accounts, and where that money went.

In statements that strongly supported the State’s motive claim that financial threats and exposure were the motive for the killings, Burney testified that Murdaugh, after being confronted by his own firm on the day of the killings, did not have $792K in his bank accounts to replace the stolen money quickly.

Burney also stated that Murdaugh did not have roughly $500K to replace money he stole from the Gloria Satterfield Estate, nor did he have $10 million that was being demanded in a wrongful death lawsuit stemming from a 2019 boat crash involving his son, Paul. Those crimes were also coming to a head of possible exposure about that time.

But right after the killings, the forensic finance man added, Murdaugh’s financial statements revealed that he had borrowed money to replace most of the stolen legal fees – including a $250,000 loan from his senior, managing partner at the PMPED law firm, John E. Parker.

Tuesday a.m. updates

Murdaugh team tangles with feisty forensic pathologist, comes up short

On Monday, Dr. Ellen Riemer offered detailed and chillingly graphic autopsy testimony. Riemer is the forensic pathologist with the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston who autopsied Paul and Maggie Murdaugh on June 10, 2021, three days after they were shot and killed at their family home in Colleton County, Moselle.

During cross examination on Tuesday morning, Murdaugh attorney Richard Harpootlian attempted to challenge Dr. Riemer's assessment of the angles, trajectory, and range in which the victims were shot, as well as the positions of their bodies when shot. He repeatedly asked the witness if it were possible that Paul was shot at contact range in the top of the head, while referencing a book titled "Gunshot Wounds" by Vincent J.M. Dimaio."

At one point, Harpootlian, in challenging her conclusions, asked Riemer, "Do you agree that people can disagree with you?" But a feisty Riemer, who has conducted roughly 5,500 autopsies in her 20-plus year career and been called as an expert witness roughly 250 times, responded, "People can disagree, but that doesn't mean it can change the truth."

General Motors analyst delivers Murdaugh's automobile GPS data

Devin Newell, a fuel performance and data analyst with General Motors, took the stand briefly to deliver data from the 2021 Chevy Suburban that Murdaugh was driving on the night of the killings.

The data, which was not discussed in detail by this witness, included vehicle speed and GPS location data - which could tell investigators and the jury a story of Murdaugh's movements on that night.

SLED and the S.C. Attorney General's Office had previously sent a search warrant to GM for those records, and were told they didn't have them - until last Friday, when GM officials contacted state prosecutors saying they had more data now.

Murdaugh kennel master testifies on details of dog kennels

Roger Dale Davis Jr., who had worked for Murdaugh for roughly four years caring for the Murdaugh family pets and hunting dogs, testified late Tuesday morning.

Davis testified about how he took care of the animals and hosed out their pens and was very "particular" in how he did his job. He viewed photos of the dog kennel crime scene and stated that things were not the way he left them that day. He pointed out the water hose in the crime scene photo was twisted, kinked, and not rolled up properly.

"I'm very particular how I roll that hose up," said the down-to-earth Hampton County resident, who lives just a mile and a half from the Moselle crime scene. "Somebody used that hose after I did."

Alex Murdaugh trial updates: Autopsy report reveals chilling manner Murdaughs were murdered

Davis also testified that it was unusual to see water pooling up in various places of the kennels pictured in the crime scene video.

State prosecutors have suggested in previous questioning that it may have been possible for Murdaugh to have used that kennel hose to clean up himself or the crime scene after allegedly killing his family.

Court is expected to resume around 2:15 with further testimony, as the crowds have thinned out due to a recent COVID exposure in the jury panel, and the State hopes to rest its case by Wednesday.

Check back for updates.

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This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Alex Murdaugh trial live coverage: Day 17 testimony, updates, more