Thread by @AveryGWilks

🚨🚨🚨Alex Murdaugh Double Murder Trial Day 22 (Feb. 22) Megathread begins now 🚨🚨🚨

The defense will continue presenting its case today, calling its own experts as well as friends/colleagues/relatives of Murdaugh.

#AlexMurdaugh #AlexMurdaughTrial #MurdaughTrial #Murdaugh

The Megathread from yesterday, as the trial entered its fifth week

https://twitter.com/averygwilks/status/1628017300166025217

Murdaugh’s son Buster testified yesterday, as did a crime screen reconstruction engineer who opined Alex Murdaugh was far too tall to have fired some of the shots that killed Maggie. Our story on yesterday

postandcourier.com/murdaugh-updat…

Our daily podcast on yesterday’s revelations open.spotify.com/episode/5Fz8PO…

Before we get going today at 9:30 - my sense at this moment is that the defense has still not decided whether to put Alex Murdaugh on the witness stand.

They’re waiting until the last possible minute to decide whether it is worth the risk.

If he testifies, he’ll be up last.

TikTok recorded. Gonna go see about a snake

1. Drama King, the Eastern Kingsnake, has been returned to his normal location after protracted negotiations that began with a hunger strike.

2. Albert

Some photos/exhibits from yesterday, via pool photographers @GraceBeahm and Jeff Blake

1-3. Buster Murdaugh takes the stand to testify in his father's defense

1. Harpootlian interacts with the defense's bullet trajectory analyst.

2-3. Harpootlian wields a deadly weapon

I accidentally forked the Megathread, which unfortunately happens more than I'd like to admit as I work quickly and on different devices.

Anyway, here's my previous post about Mark Tinsley arriving to the media center with his dog Peanut

Back to photos/exhibits.

1. The press release offering a reward for info about the 6/7/21 slayings
2. The backyard of Murdaugh's parents' home at Almeda, where he parked on the night of the killings
3. The backdoor of that home

Court is back in session.

Defense attorney Jim Griffin rises and says the defense team is still deciding whether Alex Murdaugh should testify. But they first want an order preventing the state from cross-examining AM about his alleged financial crimes.

Griffin: “If he testifies about the murders, is he then subject to cross-examination about the financial crimes?”

Prosecutor Creighton Waters: “First of all, obviously the general rule is that cross-examination is wide open” and we can ask whatever we want.

Waters: The alleged financial crimes go right to the heart of AM’s credibility and speak to whatever he says on the witness stand. He cites a lot of case law to back up his argument.

This feels like one of those fights the defense has no expectation it can win, but a point that it has to raise to put on the record for later.

Judge Newman cites several rules and then sides with prosecutors, saying he won’t issue a ruling in advance limiting the scope of cross-examination.

Judge Newman: “For the court to issue a blanket order limiting the scope of cross-examination, that’s unheard of to me.”

Griffin asks if AM can answer questions about the murders but assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to refuse to answer the state’s questions about the financial crimes.

Newman says he is willing to have that discussion later.

The defense calls its fifth witness, Alex Murdaugh's former law partner at PMPED, Mark Ball.

Ball now works with the Parker Law Group. He has been a lawyer for 33 years.

Ball testifies he and AM have known each other for 34 years. They worked together for more than two decades. Their families were close.

Ball testifies he arrived at Moselle around 10:50 p.m. on 6/7/21, about two hours after the slayings. He pulled up to the scene and parked behind a police car. There were no barriers or roadblocks anywhere. Ball said he told law enforcement they needed to block off the scene.

They still didn’t block it off, Ball testifies. “People just kept piling in. More and more people kept showing up.”

An hour and a half later, "there were a good many cars up there."

Ball testifies that law enforcement and first responders were walking all over the crime scene, including between the two bodies. It was intermittently raining, and water was draining off the top of the dog kennels onto Paul’s body and the concrete floor, Ball says.

Ball: “It’s a crime scene. You don’t want water dripping all over the place. But more importantly, I thought it was pretty disrespectful. Paul was a good young man. Quite frankly, it just pissed me off.”

Ball on Alex Murdaugh’s demeanor on the night of the slayings: He was beside himself. I tried to console him.

AM kept saying: “Look at what they did. Look at what they did.”

Ball testifies SLED told the Murdaugh family and PMPED lawyers they could leave the kennel scene and go up to the Moselle main house. He asked if that was wise, and they said yes. Ball said he was concerned for two reasons. One, he didn’t know if it was even safe to be up there.

... or if the killer was still on the property. Two, he wasn’t sure anybody should be at the house. “Where does the crime scene start and stop?” Ball testifies when the family/lawyers arrived at the Moselle house, it didn’t look like SLED had been there yet to search the place.

Ball testifies they got up to the main house at Moselle around 1:30 a.m. or 2 a.m. They helped clean up the house, including putting away the pots and pans on the stove. (Murdaugh housekeeper Blanca Simpson testified earlier that it was eerie that the pots and pans were put away)

Ball testifies that the next morning, 6/8/21, SLED had released the crime scene. He walked and looked around the kennels. “It was still a pretty raw scene.”

He saw birdshot pellets on the floor, on the shelves, etc.

Ball: A piece of Paul’s skull the size of a baseball was lying on the ground. “It really infuriated me.”

He asked SLED if they needed to collect some of that stuff. The agent said they had all they needed.

Ball testifies he told SLED he heard AM’s voice in the 8:45 p.m. dog kennel video. He says he recognizes AM’s voice, having known him for 34 years.

Griffin asks if AM says “I or they” in the “I/They did him so bad” recording.

Ball: “It sounds like “they” to me. That’s what AM told me the night of the murders, too.

Ball testifies about the fatal 2019 boat crash cases. He says AM was much more concerned about the criminal charges against Paul than the civil lawsuit against the Murdaughs, which the family and PMPED lawyers thought was defensible.

Ball on AM: “The person I thought I knew loved his family or appeared to love his family very much. He’d take their calls. He’d do all of those things. After September the 3rd, I’m not sure I know that person. But he always seemed to be devoted.”

Ball on Paul: “Paul has been sort of demonized by this whole affair. It’s not fair.”

Paul and other young people make mistakes. “Paul was a good kid. He was always polite to me.

Ball: The PMPED firm was like a family. “Unfortunately, Alex betrayed that when he stole the money.”

Griffin ends his questioning. Prosecutor Creighton Waters rises for cross-examination.

First question:

Waters: “He was pretty good at hiding who he really was, wasn’t he?”

Ball: “Obviously.”

Waters: “You just testified you didn’t really know this man, did you?”

Ball: “Obviously I did not.”

Ball said he didn’t see the 8:45 p.m. kennel video until a month or two ago. But he has no doubt that Maggie, Alex and Paul’s voices are on that video. He doesn’t need to hear it again.

Ball testifies he spoke with AM several times before a big crowd got to Moselle, “trying to figure out, do you know anything, do you have any idea who did this.” He wanted to know for the safety of the Murdaughs and for the PMPED firm.

Ball on AM on the night of 6/7/21. “He was very upset, obviously.” But he was answering the questions. He was able to make sentences. He denied going down to the kennels.

AM said that he ate dinner, lay down on the couch, took a nap and then went to check on his mother.

Ball testifies AM told him that story “at least three times.”

Waters: “He was always clear that he never went down to those kennels?”

Ball: “It was the same version of it.”

Ball testifies AM’s story changed over time as to whether he checked Paul or Maggie’s body first. One time, he said he checked Maggie first. Then he would say he checked Paul first.

Ball notes AM seemed traumatized. He didn’t think much of it.

Ball says he and his colleagues were very focused on finding out who killed Maggie and Paul.

Waters points at AM. “He was not, was he?”

Ball: “I have said that. But I don’t know, Mr. Waters, how I would respond” in that same situation.

Ball: AM never talked with me about wanting protection for Buster.

But on the Fourth of July, AM came to Ronnie Crosby’s house and brought a pistol in a bag, which was unusual.

Waters walks Ball through testimony about the power and influence the Murdaugh family held over the past century as they ran the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office and a powerful law firm.

Randolph Murdaugh III, AM's father, was still an assistant solicitor when he passed away on 6/10/21, Ball says.

AM was one too. He had a badge, keeping it on the corner of his dashboard, Ball says.

That family legacy was “very important” to AM, Ball testifies.

AM talked with Ball at times about wanting to run for solicitor.

Ball testifies SLED agents were polite and respectful as they searched Moselle in the 24 hours after the slayings.

Waters: They were delicate and respectful of the grieving family, weren’t they?

“In looking back, they probably were too much,” Ball testifies.

“He was an obnoxious user of the cellphone,” Ball testifies of AM’s habits. “I would think it would be unusual to Alex to go anywhere without his phone.”

Prosecutors are trying to show AM planned to kill Maggie and Paul if/when he left his phone at the Moselle house that night.

Ball: “Alex was a very good lawyer. He got good results for his clients. He could look at a set of facts” and figure out how to tackle a case, where to push and where to not push. “He was very good tactically.”

Waters: “(AM) effortlessly and easily lied to you for years, and you didn’t know it.”

Ball: “Didn’t know it, and didn’t catch him. The way he was doing it was very, very cunning.”

Even before the September 2021 discovery of AM’s thefts, the law firm confronted AM a number of times about misspending and other issues, Ball testifies.

In 2018, AM cashed a big check that was meant for his brother.

Ball: AM also had to be confronted repeatedly about spending his firm credit card on personal expenses, including tuition for his sons.

“He just wasn’t a very good rule-follower at all,” Ball testifies.

Waters: “He would pay it back, and people would move on.”

Ball: We consciously decided to put the inquiry into the missing $792K in legal fees on hold after the 6/7/21 slayings.

“The man just lost his wife and child. There’s no way we’re going to be cruel. We’ll get back to it later. And we did.”

Our live feed of updates in this case postandcourier.com/murdaugh-updat…

Our daily TikTok recapping Buster’s testimony and previewing today tiktok.com/t/ZTRnrdCRR/

We're back from a short break.

Prosecutor Waters estimates he has about 20 more minutes of cross-examination to get through with Ball.

Ball is testifying about having to call AM’s clients and tell them that AM stole from them. Ball is going down the list of names, says they were very nice people.

Waters: “You had to tell them that Alex lied to them?”
Ball: “I did.”

Waters establishes that AM stole from Barrett Boulware, one of his closest friends and the previous owner of Moselle. A fire burned down a house Boulware owned.

AM stole more than $354K from the proceeds of that case, PMPED later learned.

Ball testifies he knew AM had lost a bunch of money when the Recession hit and his land investments soured.

But AM then handled a bunch of big-dollar cases. Plyler. Badger. Pinckney. Everyone thought he made enough money to pay off his debt, Ball says.

Ball says they didn't know that AM had stolen from those clients in addition to the money he made legitimately from representing them.

Ball on his initial reaction to the September 2021 roadside shooting “That jackass killed himself.”

Somebody said he had been shot. “I didn’t believe it.”

Waters on the September 2021 roadside shooting: “And just when accountability is going to happen again, the defendant manufactures himself being a victim, correct?”

Ball “That’s what it turned out to be.”

Waters is done crossing Ball. Woof.

Griffin on redirect: AM has been charged with the financial crimes. “And you know this is a murder case.”

Ball: “Yes.”

Ball: AM came into his office periodically to read sympathy notes. But he was not in the right mind to work. We all sat down and talked about it as partners to decide what to do because there were deadlines and work that needed to be done on his cases. ...

Ball: We talked about delicately stepping in on some of his cases to keep things moving along.

Griffin then seeks to answer why AM might not have seemed like he was trying to find Maggie/Paul’s killer: He was already under scrutiny in a state grand jury investigation into alleged obstruction of justice by the Murdaughs in the 2019 boat crash case.

Griffin is now trying to explain why Murdaugh might have left his phone at the Moselle main house before going down to the dog kennels on 6/7/21.

Ball says the cell service was spotty around Moselle, including by the kennels.

Griffin asks why Ball thought the “jackass” had killed himself when he learned of the roadside shooting. Ball said he thought that because of what was about to come out about his thefts and ouster from the law firm. Ball also had been worried about AM’s mental health since 6/7/21

Griffin asks if PMPED was concerned that AM might go on a murderous rampage after they kicked him out of the law firm. Ball said that wasn’t a concern. But he also says he clearly didn’t know AM.

Ball: I spent 34 years at PMPED. Now it’s gone. We had to do all kinds of stuff, pay people back, and change its name because of what AM did.

“I’m mad as hell. You just don’t know how mad I am.”

Griffin: “Are you aware that he had $12 million in life insurance?”

Ball: “I don’t know what he had. … Quite frankly, I’d have to see it to believe it.”

Several of these witnesses - none more so than Ball - are pissed-off hand grenades the two sides are passing back and forth until they blow up in someone’s face.

Waters: You were asked if AM cooperated with law enforcement. But he never told investigators he was down by the dog kennels on the night of 6/7/21, did he.

Ball: “I don’t know what he told law enforcement” other than what’s been out there.

Waters: But he told you three times he was never there.

Ball: “That’s correct.”

Ball steps down from the witness stand.

The state's 6th witness is Charleston attorney Dawes Cooke Jr., who is now defending AM in the boat crash case.

He is being questioned by defense attorney Maggie Fox, making her first appearance in this trial.

barnwell-whaley.com/attorneys/m-da…

AM's initial civil defense attorney in the 2019 boat crash case was John Tiller, who died of cancer last summer.

I've never seen Maggie Fox question a witness, but she works in Griffin's firm. I'm told she is a legal scholar who provides a lot of the brainpower behind what Griffin does in court and in legal motions.

Apologies, this is the defense's 6th witness, not the state's. Got into the habit of typing "state" over the first 61 witnesses in this trial.

Apologies, this is the defense's 6th witness, not the state's. Got into the habit of typing "state" over the first 61 witnesses in this trial.

The defense is using Cooke to try to defuse the state’s notion that AM’s finances were at imminent risk of exposure ahead of a 6/10/21 hearing in the 2019 boat crash wrongful death case.

Cooke testifies the defense wasn’t concerned about plaintiff attorney Mark Tinsley’s motion to compel.

Cooke testifies he doesn’t think Tinsley had any legal right to a detailed accounting of AM’s finances, at least until after a potential trial.

“There was not an existential threat to Alex,” Cooke testifies about the 6/10/21 hearing.

Again, Cooke is disputing Tinsley's prior testimony that the fuse had been lit.

Now we know why Mark Tinsley is here today.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters on cross-examination: Were you present at the trial lawyers’ convention when AM went up to Mark Tinsley and confronted him about the boat crash lawsuit?

Cooke: “No, I don’t get invited to that one.”

Waters: When you were first getting onto the defense team in summer 2021, you didn’t know AM’s true financial condition, did you? That he was broke? That he had been stealing money?

Cooke: “No.”

Waters: If that 6/10/21 hearing had gone forward, there could have been a ruling compelling AM’s financial condition to be revealed, right?

Cooke: “Could have been.” Ultimately, the judge would decide what has to be produced and what doesn’t.

Waters has no more questions.

Fox keeps trying to ask Cooke if - based on his 40 years of experience - he believes it is likely the judge would have order AM to reveal details of his finances at the 6/10/21 hearing. Waters successfully objects.

Fox then establishes that AM wouldn’t have had to turn over the financial documents immediately. Waters clarifies that the process of turning the docs over would have begun.

Cooke notes again that it would be the judge’s decision which docs had to be turned over.

Cooke is done.

The defense's 7th witness is Kenneth Zerci, another crime scene reconstruction guy.

Judge Newman says we will go for about 30 minutes with Zerci before breaking for lunch.

Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian is questioning Zerci, who lives in Connecticut.

Zercie's name actually has an 'e' at the end. It was misspelled in a document filed with the court.

linkedin.com/in/kenneth-b-z…

Harpootlian has appeared bored at hearing prosecutors walk through the qualifications and various trainings and certifications their witnesses have earned.

Now he’s taking care to do the same thing after what prosecutor David Fernandez did to Sutton yesterday.

Zercie testifies he has testified hundreds of times in state and federal trials.

Harpootlian moves to have Zercie qualified as an expert in fingerprint analysis, footprint analysis, tire print analysis and crime scene examination. The state does not object.

Zercie is testifying about the correct way to take crime scene photographs so they are useful later.

We are breaking for lunch until 2:15 p.m.

According to my notes, prosecutor Creighton Waters questioned Mark Ball, a defense witness, slightly longer than the defense did.

The most common comments BY FAR on the @postandcourier TikTok and IG posts are from people who don’t know how to pronounce “Alex Murdaugh” claiming that I don’t know how to pronounce “Alex Murdaugh”

The @postandcourier front page today

@postandcourier We are back after lunch, with Harpootlian questioning Zercie.

@postandcourier Harpootlian shows Zercie the crime scene body cam footage from 6/7/21.

Zercie notes that deputies weren’t wearing booties on their feet to avoid contaminating the crime scene with their footprints.

Zercie also testifies first responders shouldn’t have covered Paul’s body with a sheet on 6/7/21.

Once it was done, the sheet should have been preserved and kept for further analysis in the investigation. The sheet could have picked up trace evidence such hair and loose material

Zercie: It is possible that the shooter might have left trace evidence on Paul’s body, such as hair. That could have been picked up by the sheet.

Zercie testifies he saw no indication that the sheet was saved or processed by investigators.

Zercie testifies investigators misstepped by walking into the Moselle feed room without protective coverings on their shoes. He said the proper procedure is to look into the room, determine areas of interest for evidence collection and then make a plan on how to collect it.

He suggested building a makeshift bridge with 2-by-4s to enter the room without contaminating it.

Zercie testifies he found no evidence that SLED dusted for fingerprints in the feed room.

Harpootlian: Which of those photographs met the standards required for a comparison?

Zercie: None of the photos of the victims.

Harpootlian elicits criticism of SLED's crime scene work.

Harpootlian: “Did they do a terrible job here?”
Zercie: “I don’t know what their limitations were.”

H: “Did they do an adequate job” in searching for evidence?
Z: I don’t believe so. … Much more could have been done.”

Harpootlian asks if SLED had done a better job, might they have found evidence that could have incriminated another suspect and helped to exclude Alex Murdaugh as the killer?

Prosecution objects. Judge Newman sides with them.

Harpootlian ends his questioning of Zercie.

Prosecutor John Meadors is now cross-examining Zercie.

Meadors jumps on Zercie when Zercie corrects himself after mistakenly saying he created two slideslows for this case. He actually created one with two sections in it.

Meadors: “You just said you were mistaken. You have made mistakes in your life.”
Zercie: Yes.

Okie doke.

Meadors: “You’re basically second-guessing the Colleton County Sheriff’s Department, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. You’re being paid to come in and say they did a bad job, aren’t you?”

Zercie: “They may have done the best job they could.”

Meadors’ tactic here would perhaps be more effective if Zercie had been an arrogant or overly critical witness. As it was, Harpootlian had to pry criticism of SLED out of him. Zercie offered it reluctantly.

Zercie has good explanations for his methodology, and he delivers them in a calm voice. He’s quite boring and monotonous, but also seemingly difficult to fluster.

Zercie explains that he doesn’t read witness statements or explanations from investigators about their methodologies because he is a scientist and witness statements are not reliable.

Z: “I don’t want to be subject to bias, accusations or undue influence from others.”

Meadors: “Are you referring to me or Mr. Harpootlian?”

Zercie: “Both.”

Meadors asks how much Zercie is being paid to testify for the defense.

Zercie testifies he is paid $350 an hour and has worked 20 hours on this case.

So that’s at least $7,000. The defense also paid for his airfare.

Harpootlian successfully objects to Meadors badgering Zercie as the prosecutor questions the witness about his conclusions about footprints at the scene.

Meadors now has to stand back a few feet as he questions Zercie.

We’re arguing about photos of footprints at the crime scene, and after 4.5 weeks of this trial, we don’t know the significance of these footprints. Which means we don’t know the significance of this argument.

Meadors: “You don’t have a report.”

Zercie: “Correct, sir. I’ve said that three times.”

Mercifully, Meadors ends his questioning.

Harpootlian stands: “Let me see if I can do this in less than 5 minutes.”

Please.

Harpootlian: You were asked if agent Worley did all she can do, and you said she tried.
Zercie: Yes, sir.
H: The pictures are inadequate, correct?
Z: Yes.
H: That’s because they didn’t follow simple procedures?
Z: Yes.

Harpootlian: “You said she tried. Could she have tried harder? Could she have tried better? Could she have used technology that has been around for 20, 30 years” to better identify evidence at the scene?

Zercie: Yes.

Harpootlian wraps up.

We're done with Zercie.

Taking a quick break now.

Unfortunately, we are back from the break.

The rough draft of my story today (so far) reads a little something like this. Still a work in progress.

WALTERBORO -

The defense calls its eighth witness, Barbara Mixson, one of AM’s mother’s housekeepers and caregivers.

She is 71. Still cares for Libby Murdaugh.

Mixson was also called out on Murdaugh’s roadside shooting confession video for (allegedly) selling Murdaugh pills.

Mixson testifies she knows AM as well as one of her kids.

Griffin: Do you love him like one of yours?
Mixson: “I sure do.”

Mixson testifies Maggie was like a daughter and a friend. They spoke every day.

Griffin: How frequently would AM check on his mom and dad at Almeda?

Mixson: “Practically every day.”

Mixson testifies she called AM on the afternoon of 6/7/21 to ask him to come by Almeda later on that day because his mother was agitated after Randolph Murdaugh III (her husband) was taken to the hospital. That call was at 3:58 p.m.

“She was crying a lot. I couldn’t get her to eat. She was just agitated," Mixson said of Libby Murdaugh.

Griffin elicits testimony from Mixson that she worked 6/14/21-6/16/21, around the time Shelley Smith says she saw AM carry a “blue something” into Almeda.

Griffin: “Did you see a tarp opened up anywhere in Miss Libby’s house?”
M: “No, sir.”

Not on a rocking chair?
“No, sir.”

Griffin: Have you ever seen a blue tarp laid out?
Mixson: “I’ve never seen a blue tarp laid out at the house.”

Mixson steps down.

The defense calls its ninth witness, Micah Sturgis, a former police officer and detective who seems to be an expert in cell phone forensics. linkedin.com/in/micah-sturg…

Alex Murdaugh’s step counts and distance, according to his cell phone data

Sturgis: If a phone’s screen is off, then an orientation change can’t occur and be logged in the phone’s data.

Maggie’s phone’s last orientation change was 9:06:12-9:06:20 p.m. Then it was left in portrait mode until it was recovered the next day.

I think we're trying to determine when and how Maggie's phone was ditched.

Sturgis says Alex Murdaugh’s Suburban passed the location where Maggie’s phone was found at 9:08 p.m. on 6/7/21 and 9:59 p.m.

He testifies “very little” motion would be required to awaken the screen on Maggie’s phone. And at the time AM’s Suburban was passing, screen was off.

It’s a tight window. But it seems Murdaugh’s defense team believes Maggie’s phone was ditched on the side of Moselle Road between 9:06:12 p.m. and 9:06:20 p.m., and that AM didn’t drive by that spot until two minutes later.

Sturgis gets into the one-second activation of the camera on Maggie’s phone at 8:54:34 p.m., about five minutes after her phone locked for the last time. He says the data doesn’t tell him this is the phone attempting to use Face ID.

Sturgis testifies the phone's data indicates this is someone swiping from the lock screen to try to activate the camera.

Sturgis: At 9:07:00 p.m., when Maggie’s phone screen turned off for the next 24 minutes (and when the defense thinks it was chucked out of the window of a moving vehicle on Moselle Road), AM was in his driveway, according to car data.

Conrad establishes that the operating system on Maggie’s iPhone was in the 14 range. But newer updates have changed how iPhones record orientation changes. Not sure yet where this is going.

During cross-examination, Conrad emphasizes that both Paul and Maggie’s phones locked for the final time within the same minute, at 8:49 p.m. on 6/7/21.

Conrad on the one-second camera activation on Maggie’s phone at 8:54 p.m. “Do you think that was someone intending to use the camera and take a picture?”

Sturgis: “I wouldn’t think so.”

Conrad reiterates that an incoming call from AM comes 2 seconds after the orientation change on Maggie’s phone starts. That’s at 9:06 p.m.

Conrad and Sturgis:

9:06:52 p.m., AM’s SUV starts moving from the Moselle house. Eight seconds later, Maggie’s screen turns off for the next 24 minutes.

Conrad stresses that the operating system on Maggie’s iPhone wouldn’t record and orientation when the screen was off.

On redirect, defense attorney Phillip Barber establishes that the “raise to wake” feature on iPhones is different from the orientation-change function.

Sturgis again testifies that very little movement is necessary to awaken a phone’s screen and turn it on.

Barber is trying to argue to the jury that if someone chucked Maggie's phone, the motion would have turned on her phone screen even if it didn't record and orientation change.

Barber is also blaming SLED for only putting Maggie's phone in airplane mode and not putting it in a protective Faraday bag that could have prevented data on her phone from overwriting itself.

As it stands, we only have GPS data on Maggie's phone dating back to 6/9/21.

Data presented in court just now indicate Maggie’s phone was taking more steps around 8:54 p.m. to go the same distance it had gone earlier that hour.

That would indicate the stride was shorter after the state believes she was shot and killed. Weird.

Conrad on recross. Between 9:02 and 9:06 p.m., we see a bunch of steps on AM’s phone. You can’t tell us if his phone stopped at any point there. “He could have walked 200 of those steps in the first two minutes and then slowed down” for the other two minutes.

Sturgis: Well, if he stopped entirely for a minute or some period of time, his phone likely would have stopped recording steps and made a new entry in the recording.

Sturgis is done.

Judge Newman calls it quits for the day. We got through five witnesses.

So, we established that Maggie’s phone screen did not light up when Alex Murdaugh’s SUV passed by the point where Maggie’s phone was ditched on 6/7/21.

But there is some disagreement between the prosecution and defense on whether Maggie’s phone would have lit up when someone chucked it out of a car window.

We are back at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow. Going to start writing now.

Sitting down to contemplate the 30 pages of notes I took and whittle a story out of it

To the extent this needs to be addressed *again*

https://twitter.com/averygwilks/status/1628526121539993602

Story posted

https://twitter.com/AveryGWilks/status/1628559514059300864

This concludes the Alex Murdaugh Double Murder Trial Day 22 Megathread.

Thank you all for following along.