Day 25: Defense rests after Alex’s brother, John Marvin Murdaugh, called as last witness

Editor’s note: This article contains graphic descriptions from autopsy reports and witness testimony.

Alex Murdaugh, a once prominent Hampton-based attorney from a well-known politically connected family, is on trial in the deaths of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul.

Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty. He faces life in prison without parole if found guilty. The trial started Jan. 23 with jury selection, opening arguments and the initial round of witness testimony.

How to watch the Murdaugh double murder trial, who to follow from The State, Island Packet

4:59 p.m. — Defense rests cast, court adjourned

Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian formally rested the defense’s case after John Marvin Murdaugh.

During the state’s brief cross-examination of John Marvin, Alex Murdaugh’s brother, prosecutor John Conrad asked John Marvin if there was any “hope” for the health of their father.

John Marvin agreed. The family had been told their father, Randolph, was in the hospital, but that it could be pneumonia, and not a complication of his cancer.

“So if your brother had told Jeanne Seckinger during that day that your dad was taking a major turn for the worst, that would not be truthful, correct?” Conrad asked.

“That would be correct, but the testimony I heard was that he didn’t say that (it was terminal),” John Marvin replied, referencing Murdaugh’s testimony.

Parker Law Group CFO Jeanne Seckinger previously on the witness stand recounted the conversation she’d had with Murdaugh on June 7, 2021. Seckinger said she went to Murdaugh’s office to confront him about missing fees owed to the firm she suspected he was taking for personal use, but the conversation was cut short after Murdaugh received a phone call with bad news about his father’s health.

On Tuesday, the state will begin questioning four or five response witnesses.

Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters suggested they may be able to finish with all response witnesses tomorrow.

“I’ll be happy. I’ll be ecstatic if it happens,” Harpootlian said, but added he was “skeptical” of Waters’ time frame.

After the state’s response witnesses are called, Judge Clifton Newman said the jury will visit the crime scene. The defense requested the trip Monday morning.

Court was adjourned and will resume at 9:30 Tuesday morning.

4:45 p.m. —John Marvin: Alex lied to SLED

During his testimony, John Marvin Murdaugh confirmed for prosecutors that his brother, Alex Murdaugh, lied to law enforcement investigating Paul and Maggie Murdaugh’s deaths.

The defense’s questioning highlighted that the Murdaugh family provided complete cooperation with investigators, which prosecutor John Conrad quickly struck back at.

Conrad asked John Marvin whether he would agree that since Alex did not mention the kennel video to SLED, he did not cooperate fully with investigators.

“Would you agree that (Alex lying) was not full cooperation?” Conrad asked.

John Marvin agreed. “He lied,” John Marvin said.

Alex Murdaugh admitted to lying about his whereabouts the night of the murders when he testified in his own defense last week. He said “paranoid thoughts” brought on by his opiate addiction caused him to repeatedly tell investigators he wasn’t at the Moselle kennels the night his wife and son died.

4:36 p.m. — State cross-examines John Marvin Murdaugh

Prosecutors have started their cross-examination of Alex Murdaugh’s brother, John Marvin Murdaugh. John Conrad is conducting the questioning.

Before defense attorney Jim Griffin ended his questioning, he asked whether John Marvin remembered “making a promise” the day after Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were killed.

“In my mind and out loud I told Paul I loved him, I told him I’d find out who did this to him,” John Marvin Murdaugh recalled.

“And have you found out?” Griffin asked.

“I have not,” Murdaugh said.

4:23 p.m. — SLED told John Marvin about bloody T-shirt

John Marvin Murdaugh testified that SLED agents told him “they knew” Alex Murdaugh was involved in Maggie and Paul Murdaugh’s deaths because of blood on the T-shirt investigators seized from him the night of the killings.

“They told me Alex had taken the bottom of it and wiped the blood off his face,” John Marvin Murdaugh said without jurors present.

The shirt ultimately tested negative for human blood, jurors learned earlier in the trial, although the state grand jury was told those tests were positive.

Judge Clifton Newman excused the jury briefly while defense and prosecution argued over the testimony. Prosecutor John Conrad objected to whether the statement was relevant, and Newman overruled the objection.

3:34 p.m. — John Marvin cleaned crime scene the day after murders

After Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were killed, John Marvin Murdaugh testified that he visited the Moselle kennels the day after the murders.

John Marvin and several other family members, included Alex and Buster Murdaugh, were gathered at the house the following day.

At that time, John Marvin testified, he wasn’t sure why he felt the need to visit the kennels other than to gain “some kind of understanding.”

He was unsure whether the crime scene was still active, so he said he called a friend in law enforcement.

John Marvin testified his friend told him the crime scene was cleared, and he decided to visit.

The feed room hadn’t been cleaned of the blood and gore left from Paul Murdaugh’s murder. John Marvin said he felt the urge to take care of the rest of Paul Murdaugh’s remains, and start cleaning the room.

“For some reason, it felt like something I needed to do — for Paul,” John Marvin said. “I felt like it was the right thing to do. I felt like I owed him, and I started cleaning, and I can promise you no mother, father, aunt or uncle should ever have to see or do what I did that day. ... It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever been through in my life.”

Later that day, knowing that Maggie Murdaugh’s phone wasn’t found at the crime scene, John Marvin said Buster Murdaugh, Alex Murdaugh’s surviving son, showed him the Find My iPhone app on his phone.

Buster used it to locate his mother’s phone. John Marvin said he showed the location to nearby SLED investigators, but they turned him away, noting they had their own technology coming later that day to help locate Maggie Murdaugh’s cellphone.

John Marvin found and spoke with 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone at the scene, he said, who agreed to track down Maggie’s cellphone. After they recovered it about a half mile down the road, they informed SLED investigators, who arrived and recovered it.

3:08 p.m. — John Marvin describes ‘special’ family relationship

John Marvin Murdaugh, Alex Murdaugh’s brother, spent his first minutes on the stand testifying about the Murdaughs’ family dynamics.

“You’ll have to excuse me,” John Marvin said, stuttering through tears when defense attorney Jim Griffin asked about Paul Murdaugh. “I’m going to have a hard time talking about Paul. We had a special relationship.”

Despite his emotions, John Marvin chuckled when Griffin asked whether Paul had a nickname.

“They called him little rooster,” John Marvin said, smiling.

When describing Alex and Maggie Murduagh’s relationship before the murders, John Marvin said he never saw any issues in their marriage, sharing an anecdote from a Darius Rucker concert John Marvin and his wife attended with Alex and Maggie Murdaugh.

“I had just bought a $15 beer,” John Marvin remembered. “When I came back to my seat my wife tapped me, and Alex and Maggie were over there holding hands and swaying, and she said, ‘Well why aren’t you doing that?’ So, my $15 beer got put down.”

2:55 p.m. — John Marvin Murdaugh testifies

The defense has called Alex Murdaugh’s brother, John Marvin Murdaugh, to testify.

John Marvin has been present in the courtroom for the length of the trial. John Marvin owns a business renting construction and agricultural equipment. He is the only one of his siblings who did not attend law school, he testified.

“Yes sir, and proud of it,” he said.

In a 2021 interview with the Hilton Head Island Packet, John Marvin said he was “embarrassed” by his brother’s financial schemes, which Alex Murdaugh admitted to in his own testimony.

1:28 p.m. — Court breaks for lunch

Prosecutor Savanna Goude has ended cross-examination of defense witness and forensic scientist Timothy Palmbach.

Palmbach testified earlier the killer was likely inside the feed room for both of the shots that killed Paul Murdaugh, firing downward through the top of Murdaugh’s skull and consequently being covered in blood.

Goude asked how that would be possible without the shooter also leaving their own bloody footprints inside the feed room. SLED investigators only identified Paul Murdaugh’s footprints in the room.

Palmbach testified he’d never seen the SLED reports that identified the footprints as Paul’s in his study of the case.

“You only saw the reports the defense wanted you to see,” Goude said.

“I only got the reports that were suppplied to me, yes,” Palmbach confirmed.

Palmbach has left the witness stand, and Judge Clifton Newman sent court into recess until 2:45 p.m.

Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian told Newman his team has one more witness to call before resting their case.

The prosecution will then bring their response witnesses before closing arguments later this week. Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters said this morning the state has around four witnesses they plan to bring to the stand.

1:15 p.m. — Witness: Two shooters killed Maggie, Paul

Forensic scientist Timothy Palmbach, who reconstructs crime scenes, said he believes two different shooters killed Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.

“The totality of the evidence is more suggestive of a two-shooter scenario,” Palmbach testified.

Palmbach based his opinion on the fact two different weapons were used, and what he believes the shooter who killed Paul would have been exposed to. That shooter would have had “a lot” of biological matter on them, potentially “in their eyes,” and some pellets from their gunfire could even have come back to stun them, he said.

“That particular shooter, for a brief period of time, is kind of out of this,” Palmbach said.

It would have been difficult for a single person to carry two larger weapons, such as a shotgun and .300 Blackout rifle used in the killings, Palmbach said. That led him to conclude the murders weren’t carried out by one person, he said.

12:33 p.m. — ‘A lot’ of blood, brain matter would cover shooter

Timothy Palmbach, a Connecticut forensic scientist and blood spatter analyst, said he believes Paul Murdaugh was killed by a downward-facing, contact shotgun wound.

Palmbach is the second defense witness to contradict the findings of state witness Dr. Ellen Riemer, who conducted Paul and Maggie Murdaugh’s autopsies.

Defense attorney Jim Griffin asked Palmbach how much blood one would expect the shooter to have on them after the execution-style shot.

“A lot,” Palmbach responded simply. “A lot.”

The defense is again drawing jurors’ attention to the fact Alex Murdaugh’s clothes, seized by SLED investigators, ultimately tested negative for blood despite the state grand jury being told his T-shirt had traces of high-velocity blood spatter.

No blood was found on any of Murdaugh’s other clothes, or on his skin.

Prosecutors have hinted Murdaugh could have rinsed himself after the killings and disposed of the clothes he’d worn.

12:05 p.m. — Defense calls 13th witness

The defense has called Timothy Palmbach, a forensic scientist and instructor at Connecticut’s University of New Haven.

Palmbach said he has a background in crime scene reconstruction and blood spatter analysis.

Prosecutor Savanna Goude ended her brief cross-examination of the defense’s previous witness, pathologist Dr. Jonathan Eisenstat, by asking about the trajectory of the shotgun blast that killed Paul Murdaugh.

Eisenstat had earlier testified he believed the fatal shot came from the top of Paul’s head and traveled downward, contradicting the state expert’s findings that the shot traveled up and through the head.

Goude presented earlier photos of the crime scene, which show biological material at the top of the doorway Paul was shot near. She also showed jurors photos of blood coating a series of elevated shelves in the Moselle kennels feed room.

Goude suggested the blood spatter would not have been in such elevated areas if the shot traveled downward. Eisenstat testified the fluids could have traveled that way due to blow back from the gunfire.

11:53 a.m. — State cross-examines defense pathologist

Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian has ended his examination of Dr. Jonathan Eisenstat, a forensic pathologist called to testify as a defense witness.

Eisenstat’s primary disagreement with earlier testimony from the state’s forensic pathology expert, Dr. Ellen Riemer, was that he found Paul Murdaugh was likely killed with a contact shotgun blast, meaning the gun barrel was pressed against the head.

Eisenstat also said he believes the gunshot traveled through the top of Murdaugh’s head and downward, while Riemer’s report indicated the shot traveled up Murdaugh’s shoulder and out the top of the skull.

Early in cross-examination, prosecutor Savanna Goude moved to undercut the authority of Eisenstat’s testimony.

Goude asked if Eisenstat had visited the crime scene, conducted an independent autopsy of Maggie or Paul, or created a report on his findings if he had.

Eisenstat confirmed he had not conducted his own autopsy or visited the crime scene.

10:47 a.m. — Defense pathologist says Paul killed by ‘contact’ blast

Forensic pathologist Dr. Jonathan Eisenstat said he believes Paul Murdaugh was killed by a “contact” shotgun wound to the head.

“(The gun barrel) would’ve been pressed against the head,” Eisenstat testified.

Eisenstat’s findings dispute those of the state’s own forensic pathology witness, Dr. Ellen Riemer.

Riemer found that the shotgun blast traveled up through Paul’s head from about 3 feet away. Eisenstat said he finds it likely the gun was fired from extremely close range at the top of the skull and traveled down.

10:20 a.m. — Coroner’s time of death estimate ‘a guess,’ witness says

Forensic pathologist Dr. Jonathan Eisenstat said the techniques used to determine the temperature of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh’s bodies at the crime scene gave little to no information about their times of death.

Determining a body’s temperature accurately, Eisenstat testified, usually requires use of a rectal thermometer to gauge the bodies’ core temperature and other thermometers to determine temperature around the bodies.

Colleton County Coroner Richard Harvey testified early last week for the defense that he did not use a rectal thermometer to make his time of death estimate when he arrived at Moselle. He tucked his hand under the bodies’ armpits, Harvey said, and estimated the time of death for each to be about 9 p.m., though it could have varied by about an hour earlier or later.

Eisenstat said a coroner would learn “nothing” from that method, since the temperature would be affected by their own body heat and the environmental temperature.

“It would be a guess,” Eisenstat testified.

9:54 a.m. — Defense calls forensic pathologist to testify

The defense has called Dr. Jonathan Eisenstat, a Georgia-based forensic pathologist and physician, to the stand.

Eisenstat is the second forensic pathologist to take the stand in the trial, following Dr. Ellen Riemer, the forensic pathologist who testified on the state’s behalf. Riemer also conducted Maggie and Paul Murdaugh’s autopsies.

9:44 a.m. — Judge will allow jury visit to Moselle

Without the jury present, Alex Murdaugh’s defense attorney Dick Harpootlian asked Judge Clifton Newman if the jury might be allowed to visit the Murdaughs’ former property at Moselle, where the murders of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh occurred.

Harpootlian said the jury should be given the choice, if they wish, to get a better view of the murder scene. He suggested a jury vote. Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters argued against the visit, arguing the property has changed since the murders.

Newman said he’ll allow a visit.

Harpootlian asked for enhanced security. He mentioned that John Marvin, Murdaugh’s brother, had to call the sheriff’s office after people trespassed on the property to take photos on the property, calling it a “carnival attitude.”

9:30 a.m. — Week 6 in Alex Murdaugh trial resumes

Judge Clifton Newman will gavel court back in Monday morning, after the 12-member jury listened to the former Lowcountry attorney testify in his own double-murder trial for hours Thursday and Friday.

Murdaugh, 54, denied killing his wife and son but repeatedly admitted to a trove of financial fraud crimes that he’s been charged with but has not yet been convicted of. He also admitted to years of opioid abuse and to lying to investigators about whether he was at the dog kennels with his wife, Maggie, and youngest son, Paul, before they were murdered.

Defense attorneys said last week they’ll have four more witnesses before resting their case, followed by at least two prosecution reply witnesses. Then, attorneys will give closing arguments before the judge reads the charges to the jury to start deliberations.