Alex Murdaugh trial - live: Ballistics expert says Murdaugh too tall to be shooter as son Buster takes stand

Oliver O'Connell and Rachel Sharp

Alex Murdaugh’s surviving son Buster has testified at his father’s trial for the murders of the 26-year-old’s mother Maggie and brother Paul.

Buster – who has sat in Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, every day since the start of the trial – was called to the witness stand by the defence on Tuesday morning.

His testimony comes after the defence began its case on Friday, fighting back against a trove of circumstantial evidence including cellphone and car data, a damning video allegedly placing Mr Murdaugh at the crime scene and apparent holes in his alibi.

Jurors have already heard four weeks of dramatic testimony from 61 witnesses for the prosecution, culminating with a detailed timeline piecing together the final movements of the two victims – and the movements of their accused killer.

Among the revelations in the 88-page timeline was a voicemail message revealing Maggie and Paul had discovered the disgraced attorney’s stash of opioids a month before their murders.

Testifying for the defence, an expert witness claimed that the shooter could only be 5’2” to have fired some of the shots at the crime scene. Forensic engineer Mike Sutton then faced tough cross-examination from the prosecution.

Alex Murdaugh murder trial

Surviving son Buster gives stoic testimony as dad smiles on at murder trial

05:30 , Oliver O'Connell

Alex Murdaugh’s only surviving son Buster gave stoic testimony as his father looked on smiling in the South Carolina courtroom where he is on trial for the murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul.

Buster – who has attended the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, every day since the start of the high-profile trial in a show of support for his father – was the first witness called to the stand by the defence on Tuesday morning.

Read on:

Alex Murdaugh’s surviving son Buster gives stoic testimony in murder trial

Murdaugh’s son recounts father telling him mother and brother were murdered

04:30 , Oliver O'Connell

‘He sounded odd’: Alex Murdaugh’s son recounts father telling him about murders

Judge compares defence attorney to Kyrie Irving after he shared ‘sloppy investigation’ post

03:30 , Oliver O'Connell

The judge in Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial has compared one of his defence attorneys to Kyrie Irving as he scolded him for a social media post branding the criminal investigation “sloppy”.

At the start of day 19 of the disgraced legal scion’s trial in the Colleton County Courthouse on Tuesday, Judge Clifton Newman questioned Mr Murdaugh’s attorney Jim Griffin about one of his tweets about the case.

On Saturday, Mr Griffin shared a link to a The Washington Post op-ed titled: “Alex Murdaugh trial reveals a sloppy investigation.”

Rachel Sharp has the story.

Alex Murdaugh judge compares defence attorney to Kyrie Irving

How Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial became a circus

02:30 , Oliver O'Connell

Murder. A botched hitman plot. Mystery deaths. Millions of dollars of stolen money. Opioid addiction.

The case involving Alex Murdaugh appears to have it all when it comes to drama and plot twists.

It’s then little surprise that his murder trial now going on in Walterboro, South Carolina, has captivated the public all across America.

But it should then also come as little surprise to see the high-profile case spilling out into a spectacle far beyond the testimony jurors are hearing in the courtroom.

In just one dramatic week, the trial has been rocked by a bomb threat, apparently obscene gestures and bad behaviour from the Murdaugh family members, a controversial GoFundMe account and a Covid-19 outbreak among jurors.

Here’s how Mr Murdaugh’s murder trial has descended into a circus:

How Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial became a circus

Behind the sensational true-crime saga, a human story of loss

01:30 , Oliver O'Connell

Clémence Michallon speaks to Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason, directors of the new Netflix documentary about the Murdaugh case and its impact on the community.

Murdaugh murders: Behind the sensational true-crime saga, a human story of loss

Murdaugh trial viewers shocked as defence lawyer makes ‘tempting’ joke while pointing gun at prosecution

00:30 , Oliver O'Connell

Alex Murdaugh’s defence attorney caused a stir at his murder trial as he cracked a joke while appearing to put a gun at the prosecution table.

Attorney Dick Harpootlian made his daring joke in the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, on Tuesday during testimony by Mike Sutton, a forensic engineering expert witness for the defence.

Andrea Blanco has the story.

Alex Murdaugh’s lawyer makes ‘tempting’ joke while pointing gun at prosecution

Murdaugh defence witness suggests Maggie was killed by 5’2” shooter – not her 6’4” husband

Tuesday 21 February 2023 23:30 , Oliver O'Connell

A defence witness in Alex Murdaugh’s high-profile double-murder trial has suggested that Maggie was gunned down by a 5’2” shooter – and not her 6’4” husband.

Mike Sutton, a forensic engineer who specialises in external ballistics, took the witness stand on Tuesday as the defence fights back against the trove of circumstantial evidence laid out by the prosecution over the past four weeks.

Based on the projection of one of the bullets at the crime scene, Mr Sutton told the court that he believes the assailant who shot Maggie with an AR-15-style rifle had to be 5’2” to 5’4”.

Mr Murdaugh is 6’4” tall.

Rachel Sharp reports.

Alex Murdaugh defence witness suggests Maggie was killed by 5’2” shooter

Tuesday 21 February 2023 22:29 , Oliver O'Connell

Mr Sutton’s testimony concludes.

Court will resume at 9.30am tomorrow.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 22:21 , Oliver O'Connell

Harpootlian bring up the SLED report in which the bullet defects in the feed room, dog house, small animal cage (quail pen) etc were documented and labelled.

Mr Sutton confirms that he read the report and used it as a source as part of his investigation.

Harpootlian keeps emphasising that much of the evidence collected was done so by SLED.

Mr Sutton also says in response to a question that different ammo would not have made a difference to his audio tests.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 22:06 , Oliver O'Connell

Fernandez presses Mr Sutton on the many variables that could affect the trajectory of a bullet or shotgun pellet — including whether the victim or shooter were moving.

Mr Sutton concedes that none of those are within the realm of his expertise.

Cross-examination concludes and Harpootlian begins redirect.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 21:53 , Oliver O'Connell

Fernandez calls into question the trajectory linked to the bullet hole in the paper-product end of the quail pen and the study of it, given the lightweight material and that a projectile was not found.

He asks whether Mr Sutton considered that the shooter may not have been a 5’2” person standing, but could’ve been a taller person crouching.

Mr Sutton responds that he did, and notes that he also took into account the positioning of the shell casings.

There are objections when Fernandez keeps referring to the shooter as an 11 or 12-year-old on account of their alleged height.

Mr Sutton concedes that shell casings may have been moved or ricocheted or may have been ejected in an unorthodox manner.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 21:29 , Oliver O'Connell

Fernandez’s questioning regarding Mr Sutton’s expertise in gunshot spread is particularly pointed but the witness is remaining calm as he answers.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 21:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Moving on to the study of the audio evidence, Fernandez establishes that the shots fired were not an exact replication of what was used in the murders. They were not conducted with the exact same guns or ammunition.

Fernandez also contends that no test was done about the background noise in the courtroom when the recording of the shot was played. Further, he shows a photo of the trees that had grown up between the kennels and the house in the 19 months between the murders and Mr Sutton’s tests that may have muffled the sounds of the shots.

Mr Sutton contends that this would have made little impact on the ability to hear the sounds of a gunshot over a TV and other appliances in the house.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 21:06 , Oliver O'Connell

There was an awkward back and forth between Mr Sutton and Fernandez over the chart showing the speed of the SUV over time. One of the axes of the chart is not labelled so it is difficult to tell when Murdaugh passed the place where Maggie’s phone was discovered.

Mr Sutton tries to retrieve a laptop in which both axes are labelled but Fernandez insists he uses the chart that has been entered into evidence as he did earlier. This appeared to demonstrate that during Mr Sutton’s direct examination, he was guessing as there was no time label on the chart.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 20:50 , Oliver O'Connell

Fernandez hints heavily that much of Mr Sutton’s work is based on guesswork. He contends that it is creating a hypothesis and testing it with reconstructions.

He has no certification in the reconstruction of shooting incidents and is not a firearms expert.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 20:43 , Oliver O'Connell

The jury is brought back in and cross-examination of Mr Sutton by prosecutor David Fernandez begins.

Mr Sutton says that his report provided to defence was finalised yesterday but says that is standard.

He gets paid $350/hour for his services and has worked 40-50 hours on the case. He also worked on the Mallory Beach boat crash death case. Both are with defence attorney Jim Griffin.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 20:22 , Oliver O'Connell

Harpootlian reapproaches the question of the phone being thrown from the window and manages to ask it in a way that does not cause an objection.

Mr Sutton says that if thrown from a car an object such as a phone would hit the ground at 45mph (as the car was going that speed) and would tumble or slide to a stop over a distance. He says that the leaves, shrubs etc by the roadside might stop it travelling as far as it might.

Looking at the speeds Murdaugh travelled on the return journey when he hit 80mph, Mr Sutton notes that this was just for a second, with Harpootlian suggesting that it may have been him overtaking another vehicle. Mr Sutton says that while he hit these high speeds it was just for a short time and therefore his average speed was not much affected.

Direct examination concludes and the court takes a short break.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 20:14 , Oliver O'Connell

Harpootlian has more success in asking whether Murdaugh would have been able to see the bodies of Maggie and Paul as he approached in the car with his headlights on that night.

Mr Sutton says he believes that the headlights would have illuminated the area around the shed and kennels but he says he cannot say what Murdaugh may have seen that night.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 20:10 , Oliver O'Connell

Mr Sutton also looks at a chart of the speed of Murdaugh’s SUV as he drove from the house to Almeda to his parents’ home.

Harpootlian is trying to match Murdaugh accelerating to the moment that Maggie’s phone was discarded on the side of the road. The state initially contended that he would have possibly slowed down to throw the phone from the vehicle as he passed that point.

The chart shows the car was more or less accelerating past this point from approximately 42mph to 45mph.

Harpootlian tries to ask about how the phone would be thrown or would travel through the air if ejected from a car window. There is an objection that it is beyond his expertise. The objection is sustained.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 19:57 , Oliver O'Connell

Mr Sutton moves on to his second area of expertise — whether the sound of a shotgun or a rifle could be heard in the main house if fired at the kennels.

The distance is 1,100 feet and he testifies that there is a lot of vegetation and other factors that would muffle the sound.

He explains they had the air conditioning, refrigerator, and television on as they would have been that night when they fired their test shots.

The shotgun was fired within and just outside the feed room. The Blackout rifle was fired just outside the kennels and was much louder, Mr Sutton says.

The results were 165db for the rifle and 155db for the shotgun.

An audio recording is played in the court and the shots are barely audible (for the recording the TV was not on).

In his professional opinion, Mr Sutton says no one in the house would have been able to hear the shots from within the Moselle Road house.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 19:48 , Oliver O'Connell

Mr Sutton explains the tests he carried out to establish the shotgun blasts that hit Paul.

In the feed room, one of the shots went through the back window and hit a tree outside. Mr Sutton ran a string from the tree through the hole in the glass and into the room. This corresponded to where Paul was standing when the first buckshot hit him in the chest (blood ran down onto the floor leaving footprints from his sneakers).

Following this string, the shooter would have to be firing from the hip to hit Paul at the right angle from the doorway of the feed room approximately three feet away.

The second shot that hit paul in the shoulder and head would also have to be fired from the hip at a much greater angle.

Court resumes after lunch

Tuesday 21 February 2023 19:25 , Oliver O'Connell

Court is back in session and the jury is being brought back in.

Direct examination of defence witness Mike Sutton continues with attorney Dick Harpootlian.

Murdaugh defence witness suggests Maggie was killed by 5’2” shooter – not her 6’4” husband

Tuesday 21 February 2023 19:18 , Oliver O'Connell

A defence witness in Alex Murdaugh’s high-profile double-murder trial has suggested that Maggie was gunned down by a 5’2” shooter – and not her 6’4” husband.

Mike Sutton, a forensic engineer who specialises in external ballistics, took the witness stand on Tuesday as the defence fights back against the trove of circumstantial evidence laid out by the prosecution over the past four weeks.

Based on the projection of one of the bullets at the crime scene, Mr Sutton told the court that he believes the assailant that shot Maggie with an AR-15-style rifle had to be 5’2” to 5’4”.

Rachel Sharp watched his testimony.

Alex Murdaugh defence witness suggests Maggie was killed by 5’2” shooter

Murdaugh’s son recounts father telling him mother and brother were murdered

Tuesday 21 February 2023 19:02 , Oliver O'Connell

‘He sounded odd’: Alex Murdaugh’s son recounts father telling him about murders

Murdaugh’s surviving son Buster gives stoic testimony as dad smiles

Tuesday 21 February 2023 18:42 , Oliver O'Connell

Alex Murdaugh’s only surviving son Buster gave stoic testimony as his father looked on smiling in the South Carolina courtroom where he is on trial for the murders of the 26-year-old’s mother Maggie and brother Paul.

Buster – who has attended Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, every day since the start of the high-profile trial in a show of support for his father – was the first witness called to the stand by the defence on Tuesday morning.

Read on:

Alex Murdaugh’s surviving son Buster gives stoic testimony in murder trial

Murdaugh judge compares defence attorney to Kyrie Irving

Tuesday 21 February 2023 18:22 , Oliver O'Connell

The judge in Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial has compared one of his defence attorneys to Kyrie Irving as he scolded him for a social media post branding the criminal investigation “sloppy”.

At the start of day 19 of the disgraced legal scion’s trial in the Colleton County Courthouse on Tuesday, Judge Clifton Newman questioned Mr Murdaugh’s attorney Jim Griffin about one of his tweets about the case.

Rachel Sharp has the story.

Alex Murdaugh judge compares defence attorney to Kyrie Irving

Tuesday 21 February 2023 18:02 , Oliver O'Connell

The court is now breaking for lunch as Harpootlian informs Judge Newman he has another hour of questioning of the witness to go.

Court resumes at 2.15pm.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 18:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Mr Sutton’s conclusion is that the potential shooter would be between 5’2” and 5’4” tall to be in a shooting position unless they were laying on the ground or kneeling.

Based on the position of the shell cases from the shots fired at Maggie, he can more easily determine where the shooter was located.

As the court was told earlier, Murdaugh is 6’4”. The measurement of his kneecap is 25”.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 17:45 , Oliver O'Connell

The focus of much of Sutton’s testimony has been related to the bullet hole found in the quail pen.

He shows two positions for the shooter based on the trajectories and the position of Maggie’s body.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 17:30 , Oliver O'Connell

From the angles from which bullets are fired, Mr Sutton explains you can determine the location of the shooter.

The jury is shown two 3D scans of the scene (one with the roof of the shed removed for clarity). The positions of Maggie and Paul’s bodies are shown.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 17:17 , Oliver O'Connell

Mr Sutton examined the crime scene at Moselle, specifically the bullet holes in the quail pen and elsewhere.

He examined photos and measurements relating to the scene made by SLED agents.

Harpootlian is walking him through the photos and asking about the various angles of trajectory of the bullets fired around the kennels.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 17:08 , Oliver O'Connell

Mr Sutton’s expertise is in ballistics (tracking the flight of a bullet); acoustics — what can be heard by whom in a specific setting; and assesses what happened in accidents such as with motor vehicles.

He is submitted and accepted as an expert witness in these three areas.

Mr Sutton was hired by Mr Griffin to look into what happened at Moselle.

New Witness: Mike Sutton, forensic engineer

Tuesday 21 February 2023 16:55 , Oliver O'Connell

The defence’s next witness is Mike Sutton, a forensic engineer, who examines accidents to determine or eliminate what happened in an event.

Defence attorney Dick Harpootlian is questioning him.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 16:52 , Oliver O'Connell

After a very brief redirect about how long his mother would stay at the Edisto Beach house, Buster Murdaugh’s testimony concludes.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 16:52 , Oliver O'Connell

Buster testifies he had no knowledge of his father’s financial situation or crimes.

He says that the boat crash and the criminal and civil cases brought against the family were unsettling.

It would annoy him when Paul used his ID.

Buster says he never slept at Edisto again, but acknowledges that his father once asked him if he wanted to hunt out on the property again after the murders.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 16:44 , Oliver O'Connell

Moving on to the Almeda property, Buster explains — as he did in direct examination — about the parking situation and how they would pull up onto the grass.

Meadors asks when he first talked about parking on the grass. Buster days it was a few days ago. He is unsure if it was before or after caretaker Shelly Smith’s testimony. He also cannot remember whether he brought it up or if someone else had.

It is noted there are no tire tracks on the grass which you might expect if it was a regular place to park.

Buster says they would call the house before arrival so the caretakers would not be concerned about a car appearing in the drive at night and would unlock the door for them.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 16:40 , Oliver O'Connell

The jury has been brought back in and cross-examination of Buster Murdaugh begins.

Before state prosecutor John Meadors begins, he offers his condolences to Buster for the loss of his mother, brother, and grandfather — who he recalls from when he was a young solicitor.

His first question regards the two entrances to the Moselle Road property and whether you would be able to see the kennels if the lights were on.

Buster says it depends on which lights were on.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 16:16 , Oliver O'Connell

One of the final questions asked of Buster is how long it takes to clean out a dog kennel with the hose. He says about 10 minutes to wash away the dog excrement.

Court is now on a 15-minute break.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 16:14 , Oliver O'Connell

Buster is shown the 10 June 2021 video of his father being interviewed in which there is a question as to whether he said: “I did him so bad” or “They did him so bad” in reference to Paul.

He says his father says “they” and that he heard him say that repeatedly on the night of the murders.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 16:11 , Oliver O'Connell

Neither Buster nor Alex Murdaugh spent another night at the Moselle Road property after 7 June 2021.

His father was in detox after the roadside shooting.

Buster testifies his father kept clothes at all the different properties they owned and at their relatives’ homes. He is asked about the shirt his father is wearing in the Snapchat video and says it is blue and not sea foam.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 16:07 , Oliver O'Connell

Buster and Alex Murdaugh offered a reward for information that led to Paul and Maggie’s killer or killers. He testifies that they worked on the language together.

There was an expiration date on the reward of 30 September 2021.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 15:58 , Oliver O'Connell

“Nobody really slept,” that night, Buster says.

They returned to Moselle in the morning and testifies that he, his girlfriend, and his father showered there when they got back.

Except while sleeping, he was with his father from then on. At some point, they stopped staying at the Almeda house and moved over to his uncle John Marvin’s hunting lodge.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 15:52 , Oliver O'Connell

Buster is asked when he found out about the murders of Maggie and Paul.

He says he was called by his father later that night and sat in shock while his girlfriend, Brooklyn, got things together for the drive down to Moselle.

Buster says they arrived at the property around 2.00am.

He remembers his uncles were there as well as his father, plus Chris Wilson and various lawyers from the law firm, and his friend Nolan Tute.

They stayed there for several hours to around 4am or 5am and then went to the Almeda house with his father and uncle. Buster helped his father pack some clothes before they left.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 15:46 , Oliver O'Connell

Buster says Paul was bullied online and harassed in the street and at bars after the boating crash that killed Mallory Beach.

He says the stigma surrounding the family’s responsibility for the boat crash consumed his mother and she stopped going to Hampton as she felt people were staring at her. She began shopping in Walterboro instead.

Maggie was anxious about the civil lawsuit against the family and the amount that Mark Tinsley said he was suing the family for — as well as the criminal case against Paul which concerned Murdaugh more.

Buster says that the family didn’t believe Paul was driving the boat when it crashed and they planned on fighting the criminal case.

A picture is shown of the family on Memorial Day weekend — a week before the murders.

Tuesday 21 February 2023 15:42 , Oliver O'Connell

Buster says it was not unusual for his father to shower a lot as it gets very hot at Moselle in the summer and Murdaugh was a lot bigger then at 6’4” and 250 pounds.

Asked about his opioid addiction, Buster says he knew “a little bit” and that he knew Maggie and Paul had found pills and confronted him about it.

Buster says his father went to a detox facility around Christmas 2018 and they thought that would handle it. They found pills on other occasions.

He says all the conversations were civil and there was no violence in the family.

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