COLLETON COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) – The jury in Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial will continue hearing evidence Friday about his September 4, 2021, roadside shooting in a botched suicide-for-hire scheme.
Murdaugh is accused of killing his wife Margaret and youngest son Paul at their family property in June of 2021.
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The decision to allow the roadside shooting testimony came after Judge Clifton Newman previously ruled it would not be allowed because it lacked sufficient relevance to this case. After questioning by the defense brought up Curtis Eddie Smith, Judge Newman reversed the decision, saying the door had been opened.
SLED agent Ryan Kelly, who investigated the roadside shooting, testified Thursday, and a recording of a September 13, 2021 interview he conducted with Murdaugh and Murdaugh’s lawyers was played in court. During that phone call, Murdaugh admitted to orchestrating the scheme. It was the same weekend he was fired from his law firm for stealing client funds and the same day he was confronted by Chris Wilson about the missing Farris fees. Murdaugh said that he knew he was about to lose everything and he thought his family would be better off without him, so he asked his longtime drug dealer, Curtis Eddie Smith, to shoot him on the side of the road.
The prosecution hopes to show a pattern of violence and deceit by Murdaugh, especially when he is backed into a corner. They also hoped portions of the testimony would debunk a theory introduced Wednesday by the defense suggesting a local drug gang killed Maggie and Paul. In the interview, Kelly asks Murdaugh if he owes money to any drug gangs and if there may be a threat to Buster. Murdaugh says no.
However, Griffin is quick to point out in the interview that whether Murdaugh owes someone money is dependent upon whether Smith was paying all of what Murdaugh gave him.
Defense is expected to pick up cross-examination of Kelly at 9:30 a.m. Friday.
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11:23 a.m. – Waters publishes the condensed timeline from the night of the murders.
The timeline includes extracted data from Paul, Maggie, and Alex’s cell phones, call records from Paul, Maggie, Alex, and Buster Murdaugh and Rogan Gibson, steps taken, Snapchat data, data from the PMPED building access log, and the GPS data from Murdaugh’s car.
The timeline starts at about 6:00 p.m. It includes calls and texts between Maggie and Paul talking about dinner, Maggie and Marian Proctor, Maggie and her mom, Paul and his friends, Alex and his law partners, etc. It also shows the family members arriving back to Moselle from their various previous locations.
Between 6:52 p.m. and 9:04 p.m., there was no cell-pinging activity on Murdaugh’s cell phone. Rudofski also notes that there are several calls on Murdaugh’s phone found in the extracted data that did not appear in his call log.
For clarity purposes, this blog will begin listing more condensed data points from closer to the time of the murders.
Timeline:
- 7:14 p.m. – Paul and Alex’s phones note them both taking around 200 steps within a similar time frame.
- 7:25 p.m. – Paul and Alex’s phones note them both taking around 45 steps within a similar time frame.
- 7:39 p.m. – Paul takes the Snapchat video of Alex and the tree.
11:19 a.m. – Judge Newman says he received a note from the jury after lunch Thursday saying they thought they would select their own foreperson and that they had already selected one. He said they asked if they could keep the person they picked. Newman said no.
11:00 a.m. – The jury is sent to the jury room for a break.
10:16 a.m. – SLED agent Peter Rudofski is called to the stand.
Rudofski investigated the murders, with a focus on consolidating data into a timeline. He has been working on the document for about a year. There is a version that includes the full day of June 7, 2021, and a condensed version from 6:00 p.m. on.
The timeline is still considered a working draft. Additional information has since come in even since the trial has started. It includes data from GM on Murdaugh’s suburban.
Data from Murdaugh’s suburban had already been analyzed by an FBI expert, but it lacked GPS data. That data mostly had to do with the car and its systems turning on and off, going into and out of park, etc. The GM data has more information about the location of the car.
The GM data is presented in court.
A track of the car’s GPS data from June 7, 2021 is presented. Over 4,000 “dots” or data points were used to map out the drives. It shows Moselle, Hampton, and Alameda.
Murdaugh’s track according to GM data:
- 12:06 p.m. – Murdaugh leaves for work
- 12:24 p.m. – Murdaugh arrives at work
- Max speed driving to work 65mph, average speed around 35mph
- 6:24 p.m. – Murdaugh leaves work
- 6:42 p.m. – Murdaugh arrives home
- Max speed driving home 54mph, average speed 41mph
- 9:07 p.m. – Murdaugh leaves for Alameda
- 9:08 p.m. – Murdaugh passes where Maggie’s phone was located the next morning, traveling at 42mph
- 9:22 p.m. – Murdaugh arrives at Alameda
- Max speed to Alameda 74mph, average speed 51mph
- 9:43 p.m. – Murdaugh begins leaving Alameda. Car pauses in driveway for about one minute
- 10:00 p.m. – Murdaugh arrives home
- Max speed from Alameda 81mph, average speed 46mph (including car idling in driveway)
- 10:05 p.m. – Murdaugh leaves house for kennels and arrives less than one minute later.
- Max speed 28mph driving to kennels
- 10:06 p.m. – Murdaugh calls 911
- 10:11 p.m. – Murdaugh heads back to house (indicated on 911 call he was going to get a gun)
- 10:13 p.m. – Arrives at house
- 10:14 p.m. – Drives back to kennels
Waters brings up the fact that it was dark out and the roads along Murdaugh’s route to and from Alameda had not been recently paved as of June 7, 2021. He asks Rudofski if Murdaugh was traveling at safe speeds. Rudofski says no. He asks if Rudofski has responded to emergency situations at night along that route. Rudofski says yes. He says he would not have driven that fast even when responding to an emergency. The posted speed limit is 65mph.
10:04 a.m. – In redirect, State Prosecutor Creighton Waters asks Kelly if Murdaugh gave consistent, coherent answers when he was interviewed multiple times in the hospital. Kelly says yes.
Waters asks if a phone interview was the preferred method for the September 13 interview. Kelly says that they wanted to go to wherever Murdaugh was, they didn’t know and interview him in person, but that was not an option. Murdaugh’s lawyers offered a phone interview, so they took what they could get.
Harpootlian asks if Kelly at any point in time told Murdaugh’s family that they only wanted to talk to Murdaugh while he was in rehab to show him a picture of the truck. Kelly says they wanted to ask him about that, among other things.
Harpootlian asks Kelly if he asked Murdaugh’s doctors if Murdaugh was competent to speak to him on September 4. Kelly said no, but that the doctors would not have discussed that with them without a subpoena for medical records. Harpootlian points out that Murdaugh was on barbituates and benzos. He asks if Kelly still would’ve conducted the interview had he known. Kelly says yes, Murdaugh was the victim and only witness of a crime, and the statement he gave matched his two previous statements.
9:35 a.m. – Court is in session. Defense begins cross-examining SLED senior special agent Ryan Kelly, who investigated Murdaugh’s roadside shooting.
Harpootlian goes over Murdaugh’s medical records confirming he suffered a brain bleed. He shows Kelly photos of Murdaugh taken by medical personnel.
They discuss the phone interview Kelly conducted with Murdaugh and his lawyers on September 13, 2021.
After Murdaugh admitted to the scheme, it was agreed that he would be brought directly from the rehab facility in Orlando to Hampton County to be charged. Kelly says the agreement was that Griffin and Harpootlian would bring Murdaugh directly to Hampton with no stops, but SLED “encountered” Murdaugh and Buster at Alameda, and he was arrested there. Kelly says he doesn’t fault Buster and that he didn’t know he was doing anything wrong, but it was out of the scope of the agreement.
Murdaugh was allowed to return to rehab in Orlando after his arraignment, then was extradited from Orlando again.
Harpootlian hones in on the fact that Murdaugh willingly admitted to all of his crimes and was indicted upon that admission. Kelly says they already knew about the crimes, Murdaugh just confirmed them.
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