Thread by @AveryGWilks

🚨🚨🚨 Alex Murdaugh Double Murder Trial Day 15 (Feb. 10) Megathread begins now 🚨🚨🚨

The state will continue to question its 43rd witness, Beach family attorney Mark Tinsley, when court resumes at 9:30 a.m.

#AlexMurdaughTrial #AlexMurdaugh #MurdaughTrial #Murdaugh

Tinsley is (I believe) among the last of the state’s financial witnesses. After him, I’m guessing the state could call state grand jury forensic accountant Carson Burney (who also testified before with the jury excused). Then we can return to witnesses on the double murders.

Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters said yesterday the state expects to rest its case by midway through next week (Wednesday?).

That gives the state four days to finish up. I imagine SLED agent David Owen to be one of the state’s last witnesses, summing everything up for the jury.

Our story from earlier this week on prosecutors’ scattered approach to presenting this case and the growing concern that as the trial ends its third week, the jury might be struggling to follow everything that has been thrown at them postandcourier.com/murdaugh-updat…

It feels like the state has been building toward a series of reveals that still haven’t come out.

Where are we going with Murdaugh’s clothes? Blood spatter? The Gucci credit card statement? The water found at the scene?

Still time to drop the mic, but the hour grows late.

Daily TikTok incoming

Photos/exhibits from yesterday, via pool photographers @WhitakerPhotos and @JAABPhoto

1. Palmetto State Bank's internal summary of its standing with Alex Murdaugh after the slayings
2. Texts between Murdaugh and Chris Wilson, in which Murdaugh asked for legal fees directly.

1. A promissory note Wilson had Murdaugh sign attesting that Murdaugh owed him $192K. Wilson was worried at the time that Murdaugh might kill himself, and he wanted to be able to make a claim against his estate if so.
2. Murdaugh's September 2021 text apology to Wilson

1. Mark Tinsley holding court before a Colleton County jury. He seems very comfortable on the witness stand, even against hostile questioning. He will be there when court resumes in a few minutes.

The fundraiser for Murdaugh family caregiver Shelley Smith has surpassed $25,000.

I'd be surprised if Murdaugh's legal team brings up Tinsley's $1,000 donation to Smith in cross-examination today.

Tinsley seemed fired up last night about wanting to talk about it.

Court is back in session.

Defense attorney Phillip Barber treats Mark Tinsley like a well-cooked grenade on cross, getting in and out in just a couple of minutes.

Barber asked just two questions and fumbled over the second one a number of times as Tinsley repeatedly said he couldn't understand him.

Barber tries to get Tinsley to answer "yes or no" about his prior testimony that "there wouldn't have been an explosion" at the 6/10/21 hearing on Murdaugh's finances.

Tinsley: “You’re trying to turn it into something it’s not, but I probably said something to that effect.”

The defense truly wants no part of Mark Tinsley, and I do not blame them.

Barber has no further questions after a brief redirect.

Tinsley steps down.

The state calls its 44th witness, Murdaugh family housekeeper Blanca Simpson.

Prosecutor John Meadors is questioning Simpson.

Meadors: “Is this difficult for you to be here today?”

Simpson: “Yes it is.”

Our daily TikTok on the case tiktok.com/t/ZTRtJdPjM/

Narrator: He did not ask him about it on the stand.

https://twitter.com/AveryGWilks/status/1623845279676997633

Mark Tinsley just texted me: "Phil is smarter than I first thought."

(I asked if I could quote him. He said yes).

Blanca Simpson testifies she cleaned and ran errands for the Murdaughs. She said she was close with Maggie. Even during a spell when she wasn't working for the Murdaughs after having a stroke in 2015, she would see Maggie in town and they would stop and catch up.

Simpson testifies that on 6/7/21, Maggie texted her and asked her to stop at the grocery store on her way to Moselle to get some orange Capri Suns for Alex.

Simpson tried at Food Lion.

Meadors: "Were you successful in your search for orange Capri Suns?"

Simpson: "No, sir."

OK

Simpson testifies Maggie told her Alex wanted her to come home to Moselle on the evening of 6/7/21. She said Maggie sounded disappointed. “She kind of sounded like she didn’t want to come home because she really liked being in Edisto because they had a lot of work going on” ...

... to prepare for a Fourth of July party there at the family's Edisto house.

Simpson testifies Maggie told her Alex wanted Paul home as well that evening “to fix the mess” that groundskeeper C.B. Rowe had done with the sunflowers at Moselle.

Simpson testifies that when Alex Murdaugh left for work on 6/7/21, he was wearing brown leather shoes, khaki pants, a seafoam polo shirt and a blue sport coat.

Simpson testifies Alex Murdaugh called her with a shaky voice the morning of 6/8/21 and said: “B, they’re gone. They’re gone.” She thought he meant that they had gone to Edisto. “He said: ‘No, B, they’re dead.’”

Simpson testifies Murdaugh asked her to straighten up the Moselle house on 6/8/21 like Maggie liked it because people were going to come by.

Simpson gets emotional as she testifies about returning to the Moselle house on 6/8/21. She said she got a weird feeling. “It felt cold.” She said it was strange to walk through the kitchen and see no pots and pans in the stove or sink. ..

Simpson: The Murdaughs typically didn’t clean up for themselves after dinner. They would leave things out overnight. She found the pots sitting in the fridge with lids on them. “That was not normal.” Simpson also testifies Maggie’s clean pajamas and underwear were laid out ...

... on the ground in the doorway of the laundry room. That was very strange, she says. Maggie didn’t usually lay out her clothes like that, especially in the middle of a doorway. She also didn’t wear underwear with her pajamas, Simpson says.

Simpson testifies she found a pair of khaki pants by the shower at the Moselle main house on 6/8/21. She took them to the laundry room and washed them.

So, we've got the Murdaugh family housekeeper walking around the Moselle main house and doing laundry with potential evidence on the morning after the slayings, all before SLED goes up to the house to conduct a search.

Our live updates and livestream of today's proceedings. Highly recommend: postandcourier.com/murdaugh-updat…

Meadors seems to be landing some blows here. He shows Simpson the 7:38 p.m. 6/7/21 Snapchat video Paul took of his father. In it, Alex is wearing loafers, khaki pants and a seafoam Columbia shirt. ...

Simpson has testified she washed a pair of khaki pants the next morning. But she testifies she never saw the loafers or Columbia shirt ever again.

Simpson testifies she and her husband lived at Moselle for a bit after the slayings. Murdaugh paid her $1,500 a week to make sure that anything needed for the farm was taken care of. They would cut the grass on that property, which is a lot of grass. It would take two days to cut

Simpson testifies she and her husband also took care of the Murdaugh dogs, Grady and Bubba. She still has Bubba at her home now.

Bubba had a history of taking off running and catching chickens in his mouth. It was hard to get the birds out of his mouth. "He's stubborn."

Simpson testifies she also never saw a pair of Sperry boat shoes ever again either. Shelley Smith, the caregiver for Murdaugh's mother, previously testified Murdaugh was wearing Sperry's when he came to visit her on the night of the slayings.

Score one for the prosecution: Simpson testifies Murdaugh approached her in the days after the slayings. He was pacing back and forth and saying he had a bad feeling. He asked if she remembered the Vineyard Vines shirt he was wearing on the day of the slayings. ...

... Simpson testifies that confused her. She had fixed Murdaugh’s collar that day before he walked out the door. It wasn’t a Vineyard Vines shirt. “I didn’t say anything, but I was kind of thrown back because I didn’t remember that.”

Simpson: … “I felt confused at first. I know what he was wearing the day he left the house. I was basically confused. I didn’t know whether he was trying to get me to say - if I was to be asked - that that was the shirt he was wearing that day.”

This is another witness, in addition to Shelley Smith, testifying to Alex Murdaugh seemingly trying to get a story straight with other witnesses for homicide investigators.

Simpson testifies she was cleaning Maggie’s SUV a week after the murders and found Maggie’s wedding band there as she tried to vacuum the driver’s side seat.

Meadors questions Simpson about whether Maggie was anxious in the months before the slayings. Meadors asks whether Maggie was anxious about money issues.

Harpootlian objects. The jury is excused. Harpootlian is now moving for a mistrial. He says this is hearsay.

Harpootlian: “I don’t think even if you give this jury an instruction, you can’t unring the bell. You can’t correct that.”

Meadors apologizes. Newman doesn't seem interested in an apology.

Now we're hearing Simpson testify about what she would have said, with the jury excused.

With jury gone, Simpson testifies Maggie was worried about a boat crash lawsuit demanding $30 million. Maggie was crying. “We don’t have that kind of money, Blanca.” She said she would give everything away to make the lawsuit go away.

Harpootlian says this testimony is irrelevant because it's about Maggie's state of mind - not Alex's. It's also hearsay, he says.

Newman overrules the objection.

Newman rules Murdaugh's legal team opened the door for this when it asked Paul's friend Rogan Gibson about how happy and loving a family the Murdaughs were and whether there is any conceivable reason Alex would kill his wife and son.

Newman also denies Harpootlian's motion for a mistrial. The defense has raised and preserved plenty of objections for an appeal if Murdaugh is convicted.

Jury is back. Simpson testifies about Maggie’s anxieties about the $30 million demand in the boat crash lawsuit. “She felt that Alex was not being truthful to her with regard to what was going on with that lawsuit.” Maggie said Alex doesn’t tell her everything.

Now we are again hearing the Paul dog kennel video from 8:44 p.m. on the night of the slayings. Simpson testifies she hears the voices of Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh in the background.

Simpson becomes the latest witness to testify that Alex and Paul Murdaugh were always on their phones. Prosecutors are using phone data to try to establish when Maggie and Paul were killed, as well as to raise questions about the near-hour long span that night in which ...

... Alex’s phone doesn't record steps. (Even though the dog kennel video places him at the kennels, away from the house during that span)

Meadors again plays for Simpson the 7:38 p.m. 6/7/21 Paul Snapchat video.

M: “Have you ever seen that shirt he’s wearing again?”
S: “No, sir. Not to my knowledge.”

M: “Have you ever seen those shoes again?”
S: “No.”

Harpootlian rises to cross-examine Simpson. He establishes that Murdaugh described Simpson as “his friend” not his housekeeper.

Simpson testifies Murdaugh described Maggie as “his all.”

“He adored her. He loved her. He adored her,” she says.

Simpson: “I never saw them have arguments. Just some minor disagreements” about the remodeling of the Edisto Beach home, including paint colors.

Simpson: Maggie said she wanted Alex to sit still for 10 minutes so she could talk about it.

Harpootlian: “An uncommon complaint between husbands and wives and wives and husbands, is that right?”

Simpson acknowledges she and her husband have had that complaint with each other themselves.

I just spoke with Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill. She confirms that the Murdaughs - mainly Buster and Lynn - got into trouble with Colleton County law enforcement and Judge Newman for improper contact with Alex, including touching, fist bumping and passing him a ...

... John Grisham novel. They have been warned several times, she said.

“It’s called contraband. No one has seen what’s in it.”

Hill said Judge Newman ordered them to be moved back in the courtroom. But if their conduct persists, they can be sent out of the courtroom, she said

Harpootlian establishes that cell coverage was sporadic at Moselle, including in the main house. It was touch-and-go at the kennels. Calls dropped a lot. “Once you got a signal, you better stay where you were at because if you move, you were going to lose your signal.”

Meadors is objecting to Harpootlian’s questions every few words, sometimes multiple objections per question. It is really throwing Harpootlian off. He is taking a while to regroup and remember his train of thought.

Harpootlian looked at Judge Newman after the last time. “Do you want me to pose the question or not?”

Newman excuses the jury.

Meadors and Harpootlian are both standing, going after each other about how Harpootlian is posing his questions. Newman orders a break.

Reset the counter.

Days since the Alex Murdaugh trial has become unnecessarily dramatic: 0

We are back. Judge Newman calls back the jury and sustains Meadors' objection of hearsay.

Harpootlian elicits testimony from Simpson that Paul and the Murdaugh family left guns all over the estate, including on golf carts they drove around. She recalls once finding a rifle down by the old hangar where Maggie and Paul were killed.

Glove doesn’t fit moment? Harpootlian asks Simpson about the blue rain jacket that was coated with gunshot residue. She says she has never seen that jacket before.

Simpson testifies Murdaugh wore 2XL clothes. The rain jacket was a large.

Simpson testifies the shirt Alex wore at Moselle in the 7:38 p.m. Snapchat video was not the polo shirt he was wearing earlier that morning.

Simpson says Alex had clothes at his office and elsewhere if he needed to change.

Simpson testifies about her texts with Maggie on the afternoon of 6/7/21.

Maggie was worried about Alex with his father's condition deteriorating, Simpson says.

Simpson: Maggie didn't like that it was always Alex who had to handle it if his parents needed something. ...

Simpson: Maggie thought Alex's sibling should have been pitching in as well. She was concerned about the lack of rest Alex was getting.

Maggie's concerns about going to Moselle that night was about leaving the Edisto house open while she was gone.

Harpootlian establishes with Simpson that Maggie didn’t like staying in Hampton after the 2019 fatal boat crash because she felt people there shunned her. She preferred to be at the Edisto Beach house.

Meadors establishes that Murdaugh changed clothes during the day on 6/7/21, perhaps multiple times, and that some pieces of clothes he wore have since gone missing.

Meadors establishes with Simpson that Murdaugh bought new clothes after the slayings, including a Vineyard Vines shirt.

On recross, Harpootlian establishes that Murdaugh lost a dramatic amount of weight after the slayings, so he probably bought new clothes that fit him.

Simpson is done testifying. We are breaking for lunch. Back at 2:15 p.m.

The state's 45th witness is Belinda Rast, Libby Murdaugh’s home healthcare provider. She says Libby is family to her. She works from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.

Rast said she is nervous about testifying.

Rast said she got to know Maggie a little and Paul a lot. He came around more than any of the other grandkids. He liked to get ice cream for Miss Libby.

Rast steps down.

The state's 46th witness is FBI supervisory special agent Matthew Wild.

Wild manages a unit that digs into cell phone data.

Wild testifies he is trained to use cell tower data to pinpoint where people are when they are using their phones.

Wild is standing in the middle of the room and, at great length, explaining to the jury how he does his job.

Cell tower data: On 6/7/21, Paul Murdaugh’s phone was in Okatie from 4:53 p.m. to 6:09 p.m. Paul Murdaugh.

The phone is traveling from 6:17 p.m. to 6:53 p.m.

At 7:05 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., the phone appears to be at Moselle, Wild testifies.

The lack of updates I'm providing directly correlates to the fact that the prosecutor and FBI witness are heavily referencing a map I can't see, and thus I simply have no idea what's going on.

What I believe I heard from Wild and Conrad:

8:05 p.m.: Paul’s phone is back at the Moselle house.

8:14 p.m.: Paul’s phone is still at the Moselle house.

8:35 p.m.: Paul’s phone is within 20 meters of Moselle house.

8:38 p.m.: Paul’s phone is around the dog kennels.

Maggie's phone data:

She was in the Charleston area around 4 pm-ish.

7:07 p.m.-7:50 p.m.: She is driving from the Charleston area west toward Moselle. Most likely on Route 17, which would take her through the center of Walterboro.

7:50 p.m. is her last phone ping

Cell tower pings are generated by phone calls or apps that track location.

We are now reviewing Alex Murdaugh's cell tower pings, which (so far) confirm a number of things that we already knew about his movements after leaving Moselle shortly after 9 p.m. on 6/7/21.

Going at great length here on facts that are not in dispute.

Learning a lot about radio frequencies, though.

There is deep in the weeds, and there is this.

Prosecutor John Conrad establishes in a single question that Moselle groundskeeper C.B. Rowe's phone was not in the vicinity of Moselle during the killings.

That was an efficient use of time, that.

Conrad has finished his questioning of Wild.

The ratio of "time spent" to "useful things learned" during that questioning was brutal.

I'm going to find coffee.

FBI agent Matthew Wilde's last name has an 'e' at the end. I misheard him spell it at the start of his testimony. I regret the error.

Defense attorney Phillip Barber notes Wilde pulled cell tower data for C.B. Rowe and another person because investigators asked him to do so. Barber asks if Wilde pulled data for Curtis “Cousin Eddie” Smith too. Wilde says yes, but he doesn’t have it with him.

That is all for Wilde.

The state's 47th witness is Nathan Tuten, a Walterboro police officer and childhood friend of Paul Murdaugh.

Tuten on Paul: “Paul was the definition of a good person and good friend.” Loyal, reliable.

On Maggie: “One of the sweetest ladies I’ve ever met in my life.”

Tuten says the Moselle property used to have just one entrance, the one by the cabin/shed/hangar/dog kennels. Maggie put in the mailbox there.

Prosecutors making the point that folks normally used that entrance, not the other one.

Well, Tuten isn't helping make that point.

He said the second entrance, closer to the main house, was created a few years after the Murdaughs obtained Moselle.

“Friends used the entrance by the sheds more. Alex and Maggie would use the main gate entrance more.”

Prosecutor asks Tuten if the boys were home and hanging out down by the kennels, would it be common for Alex or Maggie to drive out that way and stop by to see them before leaving?

Tuten says yes. That was normal. Will McElveen said the same thing earlier.

Prosecutor plays the dog kennel video for Tuten.

Tuten identifies the three voices that can be heard. Maggie's, Paul's and Alex's.

Bubba the yellow lab was “hard-headed,” Tuten said. He liked to chase chickens if they got out of the pen. “He would chase anything.”

Tuten testifies he worked as a courier at PMPED from 2019 to May 2022. He continued to work there after the tragedy. Alex was out of the office for a while afterward. He eventually came back in a little bit.

Tuten testifies he cashed checks all the time for Murdaugh, bringing the money back to Murdaugh in a Palmetto State Bank envelope. He testifies he sometimes brought the money back when people were in Murdaugh’s office.

He says the people he saw included Yemassee Police Chief Greg Alexander, Beaufort lawyer Cory Fleming and Bamberg attorney Chris Wilson. Prosecutor moves on without delving further into that.

Tuten testifies that after the slayings, he assisted with Jeanne Seckinger’s inquiry into Murdaugh’s thefts from the firm.

A month after the slayings, Tuten testifies, he drove Murdaugh to the airport for a trip to the Florida Keys with Maggie’s family.

On the way, he says, Murdaugh told him he wanted to clear Paul’s name and beat the boat crash lawsuit.

Defense attorney Jim Griffin is crossing Tuten. He notes Tuten walked out of Murdaugh’s office after dropping off the money envelopes.

Griffin: “Are you suggesting he was giving Greg Alexander any money?:
Tuten: “I’m not suggesting anything.”

Griffin: “Do you know if that’s what the Attorney General was trying to suggest?”
Prosecutors: Objection.
Newman: Sustained.

Griffin moves on.

Tuten testifies he only learned during this trial that Paul’s replacement .300 Blackout rifle - the alleged murder weapon - was missing.

Tuten said he thought Buster's .300 Blackout - which had a thermal scope - was Paul's because Paul used it so often.

Suffice it to say that based on vibes alone, Tuten is not a defense witness.

Griffin tries to establish with Tuten that Paul liked working with his hands, so he wasn’t *always* on his phone. Tuten doesn't really agree.

Griffin: But Paul had a habit of putting his phone down while he worked and forgetting it, then having to find it later.

Tuten agrees.

Griffin establishes with Tuten that Paul got threats on different social media platforms after the 2019 boat crash.

Paul stayed away from Hampton after that, Tuten says. “He didn’t go into very vivid detail about anything.”

Griffin steps down. On redirect from prosecutor, Tuten testifies he doesn't know of any threats Maggie received after the boat crash.

Prosecutor establishes with Tuten that if the lights were on at the kennels, someone from the main house at Moselle could see that.

That does it for the jury. We're about to adjourn.

Judge Newman: We will not have court on Presidents Day.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters says the state is on track to wrap up its case on Wednesday.

We are done for the week. Story coming just as soon as I write it.

Prosecutors throughout this trial have tossed out random, context-free tidbits and walked away.

Credit card statement with a $1K Gucci transaction circled!

Envelopes of cash in meetings with a local police chief!

Encrypted data on Alex's SUV! (Later proven a nothingburger).

Full story

https://twitter.com/AveryGWilks/status/1624194951285293058

🫡 This concludes the Alex Murdaugh Double Murder Trial Day 15 Megathread 🫡

We will Megathread once again when court resumes Monday morning.

Thanks for following along.