Thread by @AveryGWilks

🚨🚨🚨Alex Murdaugh Double Murder Trial Day 19 (Feb. 16) Megathread begins now 🚨🚨🚨

The state will call its final witnesses and rest its case today or tomorrow. Expect to get into the roadside shooting today.

#AlexMurdaugh #AlexMurdaughTrial #MurdaughTrial #Murdaugh

As ever, I will provide play-by-play here once court resumes at 9:30 a.m.

For now, here’s what we wrote last night about the defense’s withering cross-examination of the state’s lead investigator postandcourier.com/murdaugh-updat…

Yesterday’s Megathread

https://twitter.com/AveryGWilks/status/1625844014489403393

Our 14-minute Understand Murdaugh podcast episode on the highlights from yesterday open.spotify.com/episode/1hFD4O…

TikTok recorded. Computer waking ever so slowly from its crash-induced slumber. Let’s ride

Here’s Albert

I regret to inform you the Eastern Kingsnake is on a hunger strike and has been placed under this cover in order to encourage him to eat.

This is the most dramatic snake I’ve ever met.

Court is back in session in a few minutes. I expect we will hear A LOT about the September 2021 roadside shooting, Alex Murdaugh's opioid use and Curtis "Cousin Eddie" Smith.

But first! More cellphone data.

Remember that time we spent like an hour on Maggie's back-and-forth footprints in the sand at one of the Moselle sheds and then never addressed it again?

Anyway.

We're back.

With the jury excused, Murdaugh defense attorney Jim Griffin stands and disputes that he asked any questions yesterday that opened the door for the state to introduce the 2021 roadside shooting into this case.

“This is the first case I’ve had the benefit of being able to go back to Youtube and see exactly what I asked.”
Griffin reads a transcript of his cross-examination of SLED investigator David Owen. He asked Owen about Murdaugh’s financial crimes and whether he stole to fuel a ...

... drug addiction, and whether he was buying drugs from Curtis Smith. But Griffin never mentioned the 2021 roadside shooting.

Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters says you have to put Griffin’s questioning into context. He says Griffin did open the door for further testimony on the roadside shooting.

Newman: “Mr. Griffin introduced the relationship between the defendant and Eddie Smith.”

We did a pretrial hearing without the jury and made clear the roadside shooting was a bridge too far.

Newman said the defense then built a road over that bride in asking questions “as if they could dance through fire without getting burned.”

Newman: The defense introduced the relationship between the defendant & Eddie Smith and then sought to infer that Eddie Smith might have been or should have been a suspect in the murders. “The state is entitled to explore this relationship between the defendant and Eddie Smith.”

Judge Newman is annoyed at the defense as defense attorney Dick Harpootlian rises to make another point. “We have a ruling. We have a record. We have an exception to the ruling, and now we have another comment. Go ahead,” Newman tells Harpootlian.

Harpootlian doesn’t want statements AM gave to investigators from the hospital after the roadside shooting to be introduced in this case. He says AM had just suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was heavily medicated and wasn’t competent to be interviewed by law enforcement.

Waters: This doesn’t have to take all day. “I do need to be able to relate to the jury though the defendant’s claim … that he was attacked by an unknown assailant on the side of the road” when in fact he had arranged the shooting.

Waters: We do want to streamline this testimony (rather than having the 911 operator, paramedics, doctors, etc. testify), but we don’t want the defense to punish prosecutors for doing so by lodging a bunch of objections.

The two sides are going to try to work on an agreement on how to do this. We’re on a short break.

I have decided to name the Eastern Kingsnake "Drama King" in light of his recent antics and his many escape attempts.

Hat tip to @MPowersNorrell for the idea.

@MPowersNorrell Jury comes back in. Grubbs, the cell phone data guy, takes the stand for cross-examination.

Except that defense attorney Phillip Barber doesn't bother to cross-examine him.

So now we're moving on to the next witness.

I believe that decision speaks to the defense's estimation of the value (or lack thereof) Grubbs' testimony provided to the state's case.

The state’s 59th witness is Kenneth Kinsey, an Orangeburg County sheriff’s deputy and crime scene expert.

Kinsey is also a professor at Claflin College.

Our live updates feed and livestream today postandcourier.com/murdaugh-updat…

It sounds like Kinsey was brought into the case at the end of 2022. He reviewed crime scene reports and photos and traveled out to Moselle to take measurements for a crime scene reconstruction.

Waters is displaying photos of the feed room where Paul Murdaugh was shot. Kinsey explains that blood and bloody footprints lead toward the door after the first shot, which hit Paul in the chest at an angle and wasn’t fatal.

Waters: Were Paul’s arms raised before the first shotgun blast?

“I see no possible way,” Kinsey said.

Waters trying to establish that Paul was killed unexpectedly or by someone he knew.

Kinsey: Paul wasn’t facing the feed room door when he was first shot. More likely he was perpendicular to the door. The wound was oblong, not round. Kinsey estimates the shotgun itself was somewhere inside the door because the shot shell was found inside the door.

Kinsey: Paul’s height was listed with the DMV as 5-foot-6, but the pathologist said he was 5-foot-9. He said he split the difference in his own analysis.

This green cone illustrates the trajectory of the second shotgun blast that killed Paul, Kinsey testifies.

Dramatic upward angle

Here’s what I told @NewsNation about the case yesterday newsnationnow.com/video/murdaugh…

@NewsNation Kinsey testifies he used biological matter found at the scene, including brain and blood matter found high on the walls and door, to estimate the trajectory. He said the second shot was fired from outside the feed room, to the right of the doorway.

Kinsey: Paul was moving toward the doorway after the first shot. When he was shot, his body fell forward outside of it.

Waters: Any way Paul’s injury came from the top of his head in a contact fashion? (As Harpootlian tried to establish earlier this week with Dr. Riemer)

Kinsey: No way. Because then the biological material wouldnt have been sprayed onto the top of the door.

Waters asks Kinsey if there is any forensic value in collecting every single one of the 150-156 pellets that come in a birdshot shotgun round. Kinsey says no. As long as you get enough of them for a sample for the forensic examiner to weigh.

Note: Earlier in this trial, defense attorney Jim Griffin pointed out that investigators didn’t collect some 30 pellets from the feed room.

Kinsey: “There is no forensic value as long as you have enough to determine what type of shot or what type of shell and the weight of it.”

Kinsey on Paul after the first shot: Based on blood evidence, “he’s moving real slow to the door.” The first shot hurt him badly and affected him.

In the courtroom, Murdaugh bends over. Appears to be crying.

Kinsey uses Waters as a prop to explain the angle at which Paul was shot the second time

Kinsey's testimony about how Paul and Maggie were shot, as well the order of the wounds and which were fatal vs. nonfatal, very closely tracks with what MUSC forensic pathologist Dr. Ellen Riemer testified earlier this week.

The shots at Maggie were fired from a military-style rifle “in very quick succession” from about 4-5 feet away, Kinsey says. He says he can tell from the similar angle from which the shots were fired.

Via the @wltx feed, prosecutor Creighton Waters gets onto his hands and knees (bottom-right of the screen) to show how Maggie might have been positioned when the first fatal shot was fired at her.

Kinsey uses a stick to demonstrate the shooter’s position

Waters now asks about the impression found on the back of Maggie’s calf. He shows Kinsey a photo of it. Kinsey testifies he did an analysis of that impression. Murdaugh’s attorneys have been asking about this for weeks now.

Kinsey is explaining how he does footwear and tire tread analysis. He comes off as extremely smart and experienced. He is also a good communicator.

We haven't gotten to the reveal yet.

Waters: Is it your expert opinion that that mark on the back of Maggie’s leg is a tire tread impression and nothing else?

Kinsey: “That is a tire tread impression. That is my opinion.”

So, someone ran over Maggie with the ATV?

Kinsey says the impression on Maggie's calf is consistent with the ATV tire tread.

Waters wonders if it is consistent with Maggie backing up into the ATV.

How did it get there?

"I saw no evidence that she was run over," Kinsey says.

Waters asks if the angle of the shots that killed Maggie is consistent with the shooter coming from the feed room.

Kinsey: “It certainly could be.”

Waters asks about how Paul’s phone came to be lying on his back-right pocket.

Kinsey: “There is no way Paul could have retrieved that phone from his pocket and placed it on the back of his pants.” Someone else did that after his death.

Waters: Was there forensic value in investigators searching and swabbing the Moselle house that night?

Kinsey: Not really because the family left DNA everywhere.

Waters' final question: “Did you see any evidence or anything that would reflect a struggle between Paul and the shooter?”

Kinsey: “I did not.” No defensive wounds on Paul or Maggie.

Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian rises for cross-examination.

Harpootlian: You’re a doctor, deputy, professor. What do I call you?

Kinsey: “I’ll answer to whatever you call me, sir.”

Harpootlian: “You may regret that.”

The courtroom erupts in laughter.

They have a good rapport. Kinsey has testified in Harpootlian’s cases before.

Harpootlian: “I haven’t touched a protractor in 50 years. I’ve done it twice this week.”

He brings one over to Kinsey before they go over the Paul fatal shotgun blast trajectory.

Kinsey: the second shotgun blast that killed Paul was delivered at a 135-degree upward angle, give or take a few degrees.

At such an upward trajectory, Kinsey says he doesn’t think Paul’s shooter was more than three feet away - as MUSC forensic pathologist Ellen Riemer previously indicated.

Harpootlian also establishes that Kinsey isn’t aware of any stippling or soot on Paul’s shoulder. You’d expect that for a close-range shotgun blast, experts have said.

Kinsey notes that Riemer looked only at the bodies and their wounds, not at the other evidence at the scene - like the blood and brain matter splattered high up on the door/walls.

Still trying to figure out where Harpootlian is going here.

Kinsey is in the same boat.

He and Harpootlian go back and forth with a protractor on the angle of the fatal Paul shotgun blast:

Kinsey: “I’ve got a feeling you’re fooling with me, Mr. Harpootlian.”

Harpootlian: “You got that feeling?”

Kinsey: “I’ve got that feeling.”

Kinsey testifies he thinks the shooter on Paul’s second shot was farther than 3 feet away. He says if the shooter had been that close, there would be damage to the feed room door frame because the pellets would have spread only one inch in three feet.

Harpootlian hands Kinsey a Benelli 12-gauge shotgun that has been admitted into evidence. He has Kinsey hold it and re-enact the angle of the second shot.

Kinsey has to get the shotgun really low toward the floor.

Harpootlian: Whoever was holding the shotgun was holding it that low?
Kinsey: “Really low. Not from the shoulder.”

H: Why would the shooter do that?
K: “I can’t figure out why people do what they do.”

Harpootlian seems to be getting toward a reveal in this geography exam. At some point I imagine he will point out that Paul was around 5-foot-9 and his father was well over 6-feet tall.

Harpootlian: “That angle is an unusual angle. Typically, people shoot a shotgun from the shoulder.”

Kinsey says he can’t explain the lack of stippling or powder burn on Paul from the second shot.

“Whoever fired the first shot could have backed up or even was taking cover to see what was going to happen,” Kinsey said.

Harpootlian says the shooter would have had to crouch down to fire the second shot at such an angle. Or perhaps "was a very short person."

Harpootlian moves on from the shotgun trajectory analysis/debate/geometry lesson.

The idea of an elephant ear from Tracy's food truck weighs heavily on the mind.

Harpootlian asserts the large spread of the pellets that hit Paul on the second shot indicate that the shooter was standing farther away.

The pellet spread would be about 1-1.75 inches at 3 feet away, Kinsey says.

Harpootian says the pellet spread on Paul was 6 inches.

Harpootlian: “Do you have an explanation for why the spread would be that big?”

Kinsey: “I’m not a firearms examiner. I’m just familiar with how they work.”

Kinsey did say the spread could be explained by the angle of the second shot.

Harpootlian: “I’m not closing. I have a couple more shots - a couple more questions.” He goes to consult with the rest of the defense team.

Kinsey laughs. Asks to stand for a moment.

Harpootlian actually is done with questioning.

Prosecutor Waters rises on redirect. He establishes quickly that shooters and victims can move during the commission of a crime.

Waters: All that stuff you did with the easel and protractor, “does any of that change your opinion about what happened to Paul?”

Kinsey: “It does not.”

Defense attorney Phillip Barber is again used as a prop.

Harpootlian: “Mr. Barber in the interest of justice has allowed me to point this shotgun at him.”

Harpootlian again re-enacts the dramatic upward angle of the fatal shotgun blast that kills Paul.

Then we break for lunch.

We're back at 2:15 p.m.

Worth noting: The state had Kinsey do a follow-up blood spatter analysis after their first outside expert's report blew up in their faces (when the defense discovered a negative test for human blood on Murdaugh's shirt).

No one asked Kinsey about blood spatter while on the stand

Kinsey is also a footwear/tire tread expert, and no one asked him about the set of Maggie flip-flop footprints going back and forth in the sand by the hangar.

So again, why did we spend so much time hearing about it?

I've obviously never tried a case and don't have a law degree. But I do tell stories for a living.

Storytellers know the importance of Checkhov's gun: every element in a story must be necessary, or you're diluting the story and wasting your reader's time.

If you tell the reader about a loaded gun in the first act of the story, it better go off in the final act.

Some photos from today, via pool photographer @JAABPhoto

Crime scene expert Kenneth Kinsey explains his estimation of the upward trajectory of the the shotgun blast that killed Paul Murdaugh.

@JAABPhoto From yesterday, via pool photographers @JAABPhoto and @GraceBeahm

1. Murdaugh's 8/11/21 interview with SLED.
2. Prosecutor John Meadors presents Murdaugh's green cargo shorts from the night of the slayings to SLED chief investigator David Owen.

Our daily TikTok on this case. Can’t remember if I posted this earlier and I’m not gonna scroll all the way up to find out

tiktok.com/t/ZTRtVQe6W/

Court is back in session.

The state calls its 60th witness, SLED agent Ryan Kelly. He is going to testify about the September 2021 roadside shooting.

Kelly testifies about responding to the scene of the 9/4/21 shooting and finding Maggie Murdaugh’s Mercedes SUV. The rear driver's side tire had been punctured by a small blade, like a pocketknife. But the vehicle had run-flat tires, meaning it could have still driven.

Prosecutors are having some issues with playing a recording they want the jury to hear. So Judge Newman excuses the jury.

We are now hearing the 9-1-1 call.

Audio:
911: “What’s going on?”
AM: “I’ve got a flat tire. Somebody stopped to help me, and when I turned my back, they tried to shoot me.”
911: “Oh, okay. Were you shot?”
AM: “Yeah.”
911: Did they actually try to shoot you or did they shoot you?
AM: “They shot me."

Audio:
AM: "… I can’t drive, and I’m bleeding a lot.”
911: What part of your body?
AM: “I’m not sure, somewhere on my head.”

Ambulance video: AM repeats the same story to paramedics, telling them he was shot by someone who acted like a “real nice guy.”

AM: “It sounded like a shotgun. It was so loud. It didn’t sound like a .22.”

Other voice: “It looks like a small caliber bullet.”

Ambulance video: AM says he thinks he was shot just one time. “I lost my vision right when it happened.”

SLED agent Kelly: I went to Savannah hospital. Met with Alex Murdaugh and Randy Murdaugh. AM told me the same story he told the 9-1-1 dispatcher and a deputy. He was awake and willing to talk with us.

Kelly: AM described a newer model dark-in-color blue Chevy pickup with some type of sport tires.

Said he lost his vision after the gunshot and dropped down to his knees but didn’t lose consciousness.

Kelly: AM described the shooter as a white male, 30-40 years old. Nice-looking. Close-cropped hair and facial hair. AM said he would recognize the man if he saw him again, but he didn't know the person.

Kelly: We found no debris at the scene that could have caused Murdaugh’s tire to go flat. But they did find a gray utility knife in the grass across the street.

Kelly: DNA profiles of Alex Murdaugh and Curtis Eddie Smith were identified on the knife.

Kelly: AM repeatedly gave investigators the same story about how he was shot on the side of the road, why he stopped and who shot him.

The composite sketch SLED created based on Murdaugh’s interviews

Kelly: AM was desperately trying to get access to his phone while in the hospital. He even tried to bribe nurses to let him use his phone.

Apparently, he got his phone and called Curtis Edward Smith. Investigators traced that phone number back to Smith.

Photos of Curtis Smith’s truck and Maggie’s Mercedes going in the same direction toward the roadside shooting, and then Smith’s truck later going on the operation direction

Kelly: We executed a search warrant at Smith’s house. In the residence, we found a drug reference guide he had made personal notes in. Also a 3 ½ inch spiral notebook. It logged numbers and pills. “It looked like some type of sales ledger.”

Kelly: At this point, AM had been fired from his law firm. We were aware of that. We were aware of AM’s prescription drug addiction. And we knew AM had reached out to Smith from the hospital. We also knew Smith lived in a modest home.

Kelly: Yet we’re seeing several hundred thousands of dollars in deposits and financial records in Smith’s bank account. And those funds tied back to AM.

Kelly: Prior to the shooting, AM had made contact with housekeeper Blanca Simpson and asked her about his insurance cards. She sent him a picture of one of the cards.

Kelly: I reached out to Harpootlian to try to get another interview with AM. Harpootlian and Griffin said AM had been entered into a rehab facility out of state. We made plans to travel to Atlanta, where we thought AM was. But those plans did not come to fruition.

Kelly: Harpootlian called SLED 9/13/21. We were able to set up a phone interview.

The jury is about to hear that interview.

Harpootlian laying the ground rules for the SLED interview: “We don’t want to talk about what happened in Moselle, and we don’t want to talk about finances.”

Audio: AM tells SLED he had met with Chris Wilson that morning, 9/4/21, and spoke with Wilson about “everything I had done … finances, pills, lies.”

Audio: AM on the morning of 9/4/21: “I was in a very bad place. I thought it would be better for me not to be here anymore. I thought that it would make it easier on my family for me to be dead.”

Audio: AM says he called Curtis Eddie Smith on the morning of 9/4/21. They met. “I told him that things were getting to be really bad and it would be better off if I was not here.”

“I asked him to shoot me.”

“I think at first he was a little surprised” but then he agreed to it.

AM said he gave Smith the gun, a .38 revolver. It was AM’s gun.

Smith followed him out to Old Salkehatchie Road. AM stopped, punched a hole in his tire with a knife and threw it.

Audio: AM: Smith stopped and pulled up. I didn’t look at his face. I stood close to his car. “He shot me.”

“He missed and hit me in the very back of the head.”

“I lost my vision for a little bit. I’m not sure if it knocked me to the ground or not, but I was disoriented.”

Audio:

Harpootlian: Your intent was to have him kill you so you could collect your life insurance right?
AM: “So my son could. I knew I was about to lose everything, and I figured he was better off that way than dealing with me.”

Audio: Harpootlian: Did Curtis Smith ever ask try to talk you out of it?
AM: “No, sir.”

H: Is that strange?
AM: “I was focused on … on being gone.”

Kelly: How long have you known Curtis Eddie Smith?
AM: “I apologize to you for lying to you at the hospital. I was in a very bad place.”

...

"I've known him for years. I represented him. He knew my dad somehow from playing softball."

Audio: AM tells Kelly he would pay Smith several times a week for pills, sometimes in cash but often with checks.

AM tells Kelly about the fake Forge account. He said he used it to pay Smith, as well as his other accounts.

Audio: Kelly: “Do you know who (Smith) was getting the drugs from?”

AM: “I was told he got them from a black guy in Walterboro. I was told that he has some connections in Beaufort.” Didn’t get a name. “I never saw those guys. I never dealt with those guys. So I don’t know.”

Kelly is asking who else AM bought drugs from. He's naming names.

Kelly: When we interviewed Curtis Smith, he said he would need to talk to his attorney first. Smith mentioned Alex Murdaugh and Randy Murdaugh as his possible attorneys.

AM: Randy Murdaugh didn’t know anything about this. I had lied to him just like I lied to everyone else.

Audio: AM said he called Curtis Smith from the hospital but he doesn’t remember what he said or what Smith said. “I can tell you from past experience that when the withdrawals start, you’d do just about anything to make them quit.” Says that’s probably why he called Smith.

Audio: Kelly is asking where the money came from to purchase drugs from Smith.

Harpootlian jumps in: “This is maybe an area we don’t want to talk about. But let’s just say they were not legitimately obtained.”

K: “Mr. Murdaugh is independently wealthy.”
H: “Not anymore.”

Audio: Kelly: Did you pay Smith to shoot you?
AM: No, sir.
K: You just asked him for a favor, and he did it?
AM: Yes, sir.

Audio:

Kelly: “Do you owe money to any drug dealers?”
AM: “No, sir.”

Kelly: The money you paid to Smith, you were paying in full. So there is no outstanding debt.
AM: “No, sir.”

Griffin jumps in: “Ryan, that’s assuming that Curtis passed all the money along.”

Audio:

Kelly on AM claiming he didn’t pay Smith to shoot him: “I’ll be honest, that doesn’t make any sense to me.”
AM: “I understand.”

Kelly repeatedly asks him if he paid Smith to shoot him. AM repeatedly denies doing so.

Audio: Kelly with a great reporter final question: Is there anything else we should ask you, anything we’re missing?

AM: In regards to what?

K: “I was trying to leave that open-ended.”

Audio: Harpootlian, for the record: “Did you tell us the truth?”

AM: “No, I did not tell anybody the truth … until yesterday afternoon. I’ve been really, really sick."

AM continued: "This is really the first day where I had any coherent thought process. I sincerely apologize again to lying to y’all about everything that I did.”

Audio: AM: “Basically, the way I told you it happened (in the original story) is kind of how it happened, except that it was arranged by me.”

Audio: Kelly: “Why weren’t you truthful with us when this initially happened?”

AM: I don’t have a good reason. I was in a bad, bad, bad place.”

That's all from the interview.

Waters establishes with Kelly that Murdaugh never mentioned Curtis Smith to SLED before confessing to arranging the roadside shooting.

Kelly says AM said there was no threat to Buster Murdaugh and denied that Curtis Smith had anything to do with the 6/7/21 killings.

Waters finishes his questioning of Kelly.

Harpootlian says his cross-examination of Kelly "is going to take a while" and we have a 4:30 p.m. cut-off today (from what Newman said last week).

So we will take up cross-examination when court resumes at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow.

We are done for the day. Story coming in a little while.

Our story:

https://twitter.com/AveryGWilks/status/1626362394170601474

Check out this photo @GraceBeahm made of defense attorney Jim Griffin measuring Alex Murdaugh during the lunch break today.

I imagine we'll hear more about the height difference between Alex and Paul, given the upward angle of the shot that killed Paul.

🫡 That’s all for the Alex Murdaugh Double Murder Trial Day 19 Megathread. 🫡

We’re back at 9:30 tomorrow morning with more trial and more Megathread.