Thread by @AveryGWilks

🚨🚨🚨Alex Murdaugh Double Murder Trial Day 10 (Feb. 3) Megathread🚨🚨🚨

We begin today at 9:30 with more arguments re: Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes and whether they should be admitted into his murder trial.

#AlexMurdaugh #AlexMurdaughTrial #MurdaughTrial #Murdaugh

I’ll post updates below.

But for now, catch up on what happened yesterday with our story on how this financial-evidence fight has thrown a major wrench into the proceedings postandcourier.com/murdaugh-updat…

We are working out of the Walterboro Wildlife Center reptile room again today, I assume because of an event here this weekend that requires the main space

1. My pal, the still unnamed Eastern Kingsnake
2. Albert
3. Don King, a snapping turtle

Photo dump from yesterday, including exhibits presented in court. All via the photo pool, @WhitakerPhotos

These are still photos from drone footage of the Moselle kennels/hangar taken after the slayings

1 and 2: Maggie's phone as investigators found it 6/8/21, the day after the killings, about a half-mile from the Moselle home.

3, 4: More overhead shots of the Moselle kennels/hangar

All of these are photos investigators took when they found Maggie's phone. Gives an idea of its juxtaposition to the road.

1. Bamberg attorney and former/current(?) Murdaugh friend Chris Wilson testifies yesterday
2. A look at Murdaugh inside the vehicle ferrying him to court
3. Map of where Maggie's phone was found

Our Murdaugh news landing page, a good bookmark for close and casual followers of this case and the wider Murdaugh saga postandcourier.com/murdaugh-updat…

“When the hounds are at the door … for Alex Murdaugh, violence happens,” lead prosecutor Creighton Waters told the judge.

postandcourier.com/murdaugh-updat…

The @postandcourier front page today

The front pages for previous days this week. Murdaugh occupying some prized real state

With the jury out of the room, the state calls its fourth financial witness, Palmetto State Bank CEO and President Jan Malinowski. He took over that job after its former CEO, Russell Laffitte, was ousted over his dealings with Alex Murdaugh.

Malinowski was a big witness for the U.S. Attorney's Office as they successfully won convictions on all six charges against Russell Laffitte in his November federal trial.

Malinowski testifies Palmetto State Bank’s leaders met Aug. 12, 2021, two months after the murders, to discuss Murdaugh’s relationship with the bank. At the time, Murdaugh owed some $4.2 million to the bank, he said.

Malinowski is covering a lot of the same ground that was tread in Palmetto State Bank CEO Russell Laffitte’s November trial. He’s testifying about Murdaugh’s massive debts and Laffitte’s practice of loaning him money - without justification - to paper over them.

When a PSB executive asked about Murdaugh’s account on 8/9/21, it was overdrafted by more than $350K, Malinowski testifies. Russell Laffitte responded by transferring more than $400K to Murdaugh’s account to cover that up.

A reminder that @thadmoore wrote the definitive piece last month on how Alex Murdaugh's money problems snowballed into an avalanche of thefts and cover-ups, leading to the federal conviction of former Palmetto State Bank CEO Russell Laffitte postandcourier.com/murdaugh-updat…

Our live updates feed on today's proceedings:

postandcourier.com/murdaugh-updat…

The link above includes a live stream as well as updates from our team on the ground in Walterboro

Our daily Understand Murdaugh podcast episode on what unfolded yesterday and how it may significantly shift the course of this trial open.spotify.com/episode/5rMn9f…

Prosecutor Waters: If it had come out at any particular time “that Alex Murdaugh had been stealing money from his partners or stealing money from his clients, would this bank have continued to loan him money?”

Malinowski: “No sir.”

Waters establishes that Murdaugh got a $750,000 loan from PSB ostensibly to remodel the family’s Edisto house, but he instead used that money to cover an overdraft and pay back Chris Wilson for the missing Mack Trucks case legal fees.

Even after that, after the 6/7/21 slayings, Murdaugh’s account once again ran into the negative. It was overdrafted by more than $347,000, Malinowski testifies.

“Perhaps the most generous overdraft policy ever seen,” Waters says, evoking laughter from the audience.

“Quite possibly,” Malinowski replies.

Waters establishes again that PSB would not have treated Murdaugh with as much deference if they had known he was stealing money. “If the truth had come out, it’s a new ballgame?” Waters asks.

“Yes, sir,” Malinowski said.

Defense attorney Jim Griffin closes Malinowski's testimony by establishing PSB profited from the relationship, making more than $4 million from Alex Murdaugh in interest payments.

The state calls its fifth financial witness, Tony Satterfield, one of the sons of Murdaugh's late housekeeper and nanny Gloria Satterfield.

Again, the jury is not in the room. This is all in an effort to determine if the financial evidence will be admitted in the murder case.

Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters is questioning Tony Satterfield. Satterfield testifies he thought Alex Murdaugh was his lawyer after his mother died after a fall on the Murdaugh’s Moselle property.

Murdaugh brought his buddy, Cory Fleming, into the case but didn’t tell ...

... Satterfield about his relationship with Fleming, Satterfield testifies. Satterfield said Murdaugh told him he couldn’t sue himself, so he needed Fleming to do it.

Satterfield said Murdaugh told him he had a $100,000 insurance policy that would provide the Satterfields ...

... some money after the loss of their mother.

Satterfield testifies Murdaugh did not tell him about a larger, $5 million umbrella insurance policy that covered Murdaugh. Murdaugh continued to speak with Satterfield about the case, and Satterfield continued to believe ...

... that Murdaugh was his lawyer.

Murdaugh told Satterfield the case was hard, but that they were making progress. Eventually, he pledged to get each of Satterfield’s sons $100,000 each.

That money never came, Satterfield said.

In June 2021, the Satterfield family heard about a settlement in their case. That was around the time of the murders. Satterfield said he called Murdaugh and asked about the case.

He said Murdaugh said they were still making progress and hoped to be done by the end of the year.

Satterfield said Murdaugh did not tell him about the $505K settlement or the $3.8 million settlement the Satterfield lawsuit had already generated.

“Did he get your permission to steal your money?” Waters asked.

“No," Satterfield said.

Griffin gets up for a brief cross-examination. He establishes that Satterfield can't remember whether he called Murdaugh about the reported settlement before or after the 6/7/21 slayings, just that he did so sometime in June 2021.

Satterfield steps down from the witness stand.

Griffin will obviously want to establish that call came *after* the 6/7/21 slayings, not before. If it came before, it could play into the state's argument that Murdaugh knew his financial crimes were about to be exposed.

Needless to say, that will be brutal testimony for Alex Murdaugh if the jury hears it.

The defense has argued Murdaugh was incapable of killing his wife and son in such a gruesome way.

Waters can establish with Tony Satterfield that Murdaugh was capable of villainy.

Tony Satterfield testified he knew Murdaugh a long time and trusted him inherently. He thought Murdaugh was his lawyer, even in a case against Murdaugh himself. Tony had no inkling Murdaugh was merely using his mother Gloria’s death the steal from his own insurance carriers.

This is also precisely why the defense is adamant this shouldn’t be admitted into the murder trial. A jury will have a hard time hearing this and still believe Murdaugh was a good guy.

The state calls its sixth financial witness (with the jury still out of the room), Carson Burney, a forensic accountant with the state grand jury. Works for the Attorney General's Office.

He is being questioned by his coworker, prosecutor Creighton Waters.

Whoops, sorry, he is being questioned by his coworker Johnny Ellis James. Not Waters. Their voices sound kind of similar. My bad.

Burney testifies he was assigned to trace the money Murdaugh stole, including money that went through Murdaugh’s fake Forge account at Bank of America.

We are yet again talking about an Excel spreadsheet. Burney created pivot tables to track where the money went.

This is Johnny Ellis James' first appearance in this case. He's a state grand jury prosecutor with some pep in his step.

Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters has handled most of the financial witnesses, so far. James works closely with waters in the state grand jury.

John Marvin and Buster Murdaugh just walked into the courthouse, seven minutes before the jury was scheduled to return to the courtroom. They haven't been here for most of the financial witnesses. Mostly just when the jury is in the room.

Here’s our daily TikTok recapping yesterday and previewing today’s court proceedings

tiktok.com/t/ZTRsEnrpX/

We get our first Curtis "Cousin Eddie" Smith mention of the trial as Burney testifies about how Murdaugh wrote him dozens of checks.

We've known for a while that Murdaugh wrote Smith hundreds of checks worth about $2.4 million.

Burney steps down. The jury comes into the room. We are moving back to the murder portion of this trial.

The state calls its 22nd witness, Thomas Darnell, a fingerprint examiner with SLED. Fingerprints!

The courtroom is jam-packed. Our reporter, who has a reserved seat, just tried to get in and was denied.

Darnell, who has done fingerprint work for about 30 years, testifies he has rarely, if ever, found fingerprints on fired shell casings. Those casings are exposed to heat and friction, and “fingerprints are so fragile.”

Darnell testifies he swabbed the camo shotgun Murdaugh retrieved from the Moselle house that night. He said fingerprint examiners typically swab several parts of the gun, including the trigger, to try to find prints.

Darnell testifies he examined a phone - identified by prosecutor Savanna Goude as Paul’s - for fingerprints. “I did not find anything I could identify. I found a very small amount of fingerprint evidence on the phone.” Not enough detail for comparison, though.

Darnell testifies he also processed several guns seized from the Murdaugh home, including a .300 Blackout and three shotguns. He tested a 30-round magazine with .300 Blackout cartridges for fingerprint evidence but didn’t find detailed-enough prints.

Harpootlian seems to be questioning how investigators gathered fingerprints - or didn’t gather them - at the crime scene on the evening of 6/7/21. Particularly in the feed room where Paul was shot to death.

Darnell never went to the scene.

Harpootlian: You would want to do a meticulous examination of a small room like that to look for fingerprints, right?
Darnell: “I would.”

H: Wouldn’t you expect to see notes that they looked for them?
D: Yes. I would. Detailed ones.

H: “Would it surprise you to know that Mr. Murdaugh was seen - when first responders came - holding that shotgun?” And yet there was no evidence of prints on that gun.

D: Correct. “Prints aren’t always left on a surface when you touch something.”

Harpootlian establishes that Darnell identified no fingerprints of value on anything. Not sure what we're doing here, exactly.

Darnell steps down. SLED agent Blake Johnston steps up to testify that he collected buccal swabs of CB Rowe (Murdaugh groundskeeper) and Connor Cook (2019 fatal boat crash survivor). He steps down.

Former SLED agent Lawrence Wiggins testifies he took buccal swabs of Roger Davis (believe he took care of the Murdaughs' dogs) and Anthony Cook (2019 fatal boat crash survivor). He steps down. We're humming along now.

The state calls its 25th witness, SLED agent Chandler Horney. I did not make this up.

Agent Horney collected buccal swabs of Morgan Doughty and Miley Altman, both survivors of the 2019 boat crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach. Paul Murdaugh was criminally charged with driving the boat drunk when it crashed into a Beaufort County bridge piling.

The state's 26th witness is SLED agent Jomar "Joe" Albayalde. He took buccal swabs from Randy Murdaugh, Alex's older brother, and a couple of names I don't recognize and won't try to spell.

I didn't see the defense table at the time, but I imagine Murdaugh's legal team had to physically restrain Harpootlian from standing to cross-examine Agent Horney, given his affinity for slapstick humor.

The state calls its 27th witness, SLED’s Paul Greer. We heard from Greer in pre-trial motions last week. His testimony is crucial to the state’s argument that Maggie Murdaugh was killed with a Murdaugh family weapon - a .300 Blackout rifle that had been fired at Moselle before.

Greer is questioned by state prosecutor David Fernandez.

Here is our story on what Greer testified about his analysis in a pre-trial hearing last week.

Murdaugh's defense team is going to attack his level of certainty that he can match the shell casings at Moselle to a single gun - and no others. postandcourier.com/murdaugh-updat…

Greer has spent several minutes explaining guns and ammo to a Colleton County jury.

We are breaking for lunch until 2:45 pm

Hearing Greer testify a second time (first time before the jury) has been particularly draining.

State has presented six financial witnesses who might all have to re-testify if the judge sides with prosecutors on financial evidence.

Court is back in session.

Greer is testifying about firearms identification analysis, how SLED can view the microscopic markings a gun’s interior leaves on shell casings and compare them to other shell casings to see if they were cycled through the same weapon.

The state is building toward testimony that shell casings found near Maggie's body and elsewhere on Moselle show she was killed with a body that had been used on the hunting estate before - a Murdaugh family weapon.

Prosecutors have alleged that gun is a .300 Blackout that Alex Murdaugh bought for Paul and which remains missing.

Murdaugh bought two .300 Blackout rifles for Paul, one for 2016 Christmas and another to replace that one in April 2018. Both are unaccounted for.

SLED's Paul Greer testifies the two shotgun blasts that killed Paul Murdaugh were fired from the same gun.

With all due respect, this is some brain-numbing testimony.

Is there no possible way to tell the jury what the point of all this is?

I know what the point is, and I still am struggling to follow this line of questioning.

Finally, we get to the point.

Greer testifies that the spent .300 Blackout shell casings had identical marks on them as the older casings found on the Moselle shooting range and by the Moselle main house. Greer testifies that shows they were all cycled through the same weapon.

Jim Griffin has raised objections to this testimony at several points throughout, by the way. Judge Newman has already ruled Greer's testimony is admissible and said that any further challenge to it will have to come on cross-examination.

Griffin is cross-examining Greer now. He establishes that Greer can't tell the jury that any of the weapons presented in court were used to kill Maggie or Paul.

Griffin establishes that Buster’s .300 Blackout rifle was malfunctioning with Greer tested it. The gun wouldn’t automatically load the next cartridge after each shot. So Greer had to manually load it. That means the gun could not fire rapidly.

Griffin gets frustrated that Greer isn’t answering his questions directly. Even on yes or no questions, Greer is instead turning to the jury and providing lengthy explanations in complete sentences. It has been confusing at times.

Griffin asks Greer if every single .300 Blackout in the world leaves its own signature tool mark on the shell casings it ejects. Greer doesn’t really answer. “It’s hard to say,” he said. But says he can still support his analysis.

Griffin is attacking the state's assertion that the shell casings around Maggie's body matches older shell casings on Moselle. Griffin has supposed different .300 Blackout rifles can leave the same mark.

We are deep in the weeds with Greer's testimony and my mentions reflect that.

The Eastern Kingsnake is lively, at least

Griffin now moves on to challenging the field of firearms identification in general.

He says it is subjective, up to the interpretation of the person reviewing the tiny tool marks on shell casings and looking for matching marks.

Griffin: You agree that your chosen field is part art, as well as part science?
Greer: It’s an applied science.

Griffin asks Greer if he is 100 percent certain the shell casings near Maggie's body were fired from the same gun as the older shell casings ejected elsewhere on the Moselle property.

Greer declines to say 100 percent. But he says that is his conclusion.

Griffin steps down. Prosecutor David Fernandez is up on redirect now. Then Griffin will get to re-cross Greer.

And then hopefully we can all go home and purge this from our memories.

After that cross-examination, Fernandez gives Greer a chance to defend his field. Greer says firearms identification analysis has been around since the early 1900s. It is widely accepted.

The jury was just excused and told to return at 11:30 a.m. Monday.

The two sides just discussed an apparent conversation Murdaugh had with his lawyers, relatives and law partners on 6/10/21 - three days after the slayings - before SLED came to interview the Murdaughs.

Waters said he wants to know what was said there but doesn't want to ...

... violate attorney-client privilege. Waters said he wants to ask people who were there what was said, potentially on the witness stand. He said the conversation was about the slayings of Maggie and Paul.

They decide to take this issue up Monday. So, there's that.

We'll be back (without the jury) at 9:30 a.m. Monday. Stay tuned here. I'll punch out a story on today's proceedings asap.

Our story from today

https://twitter.com/AveryGWilks/status/1621658036531089410

🫡 This concludes the Alex Murdaugh Murder Trial Day 10 Megathread 🫡

Thank you all for following along, and for the kind words and encouragement all day.

I will spend the weekend gathering strength to Megathread my face off once more next week.