Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - MURDAUGH RETRIAL: April Trial Contingent on "Red Herring" DNA | Crime Alert 06.30.26

Episode Date: June 30, 2026

Tentative Murdaugh trial date contingent on time to complete advanced DNA testing. Parents indicted in death of their 255 pound non-verbal 7-year-old. 'Scorned' husband gets 40 years for setting his wife's married "affair partner" on fire. Sydney Silvagni reports. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Crime alert, hourly update. Breaking crime news now. I'm Sidney. Alex Murdoch returned to a South Carolina courtroom Monday for a status hearing shadowed by the clerk of court scandal that unraveled his initial convictions.

Dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit and shackles, Murdaugh listened as South Carolina Circuit Court judge Deborah McCaslin proposed an April 5th trial date. She warned that the timing depends on pending DNA testing and that she will not grant continuances without exceptionally strong reasons. This marked Murdaugh's first court appearance since his financial crime sentencings, bypassing the details of the 2021 murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul to focus entirely on procedural scheduling and discovery.

Tempers flared as lead prosecutor Creighton Waters and the defense team sparred. Waters dismissed requested DNA testing as a red herring. stating there is no evidence Maggie suffered defensive wounds from an attacker. Murdo's lead defense attorney Dick Harputlian countered that his team has eight experts lined up and a retrial by year's end would be impossible. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson previously told Fox News Digital his aspirational goal is to try the case before January 27. Debate also erupted over Murdo's prison conditions. Waters argued Murdoch should be denied a cell laptop due to fraud convictions and prior contraband violations. Harputley encountered that denying

technology access prejudices the defense. Judge McCasland ruled prison security prevents a laptop in his cell, but allowed the defense to bring a supervised laptop into a conference room. Additionally, defense attorney Jim Griffin requested advanced DNA analysis through the Houston base lab, Othrum. Griffin noted that previous testing by SLED on DNA from Maggie's left fingernail revealed an unknown male's profile, not Alex's, which warrants deeper exploration alongside a shell casing found under her body. Finally, the defense pushed for a venue change due to the intensive media coverage. The next pretrial hearing is set for August 14th. More crime and justice news after this. Listen and you're there for heart-wrenching knockouts.

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Stream it all live on TSN Radio. Available on IHeart Radio. Next, a heartbreaking case of extreme neglect near Flint, Michigan, has resulted in murder charges against two parents. 7-year-old Casper O'Brien was non-verbal, bedridden, and weighed 255 pounds when first responders found him inside a home filled with filth. Genesee County prosecutor David Layton described the horrific scene encountered by emergency personnel, noting the Township Police report said officers couldn't even enter due to the lack of room. Paramedics went into the house to try to revive the child and the Township Police wrote in their police report. they couldn't even go in the house because there wasn't any additional room.

Casper's parents, Damien and Jessica O'Brien, called 911 after the boy stopped breathing. Medical examiners determined he died from heart muscle disease compounded by morbid obesity. When police arrived, they also rescued Casper's five-year-old sister, who prosecutor Layton described to Fox 2 Detroit as running around naked like a feral child. When the police arrived, the five-year-old little girl was running around naked. And for lack of a better term, she was like a feral child. The O'Brien's now face charges of second-degree murder, torture, and child abuse. Investigators revealed that both parents were employed and had family health insurance,

yet neither child received medical care. Layton highlighted a disturbing detail regarding the parents' priorities, pointing out they called a veterinarian for a sick dog that very morning. They knew enough to call the veterinarian the very morning that the child went into arrest, because the dog was sick, but yet they don't take the kids to the doctor. It doesn't make any sense to me. The surviving five-year-old girl was immediately removed by children's protective services and remains in temporary foster care. Finally, a Virginia man who admitted to setting a city council member on fire over an unproven affair has been sentenced to 40 years in prison. Shotsie Buck Hayes pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder and aggravated malicious wounding for his brutal assault on

Danville City Council member Lee Vogler. On July 30th, 20205, Buck Hayes stormed Vogler's office, doused him with gasoline, and set him ablaze outside the building. Commonwealth's attorney Michael Newman reported that Buck Hayes offered what he claimed to be an apology during sentencing while still blaming his actions on an alleged affair between Vogler and his wife, Mary Alice, who had filed for divorce two weeks prior. Sergeant Garrett Clay testified that Buck Hayes fully intended to kill the married father of two. Vogler's wife, Blair, delivered emotional testimony, describing how the attack left her husband with second and third degree burns across 60% of his body. He was airlifted to the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill burn unit, where doctors had to harvest an additional

35% of his skin for grafts, leaving him 95% open. This led to severe infections, burn shock, septic shock, and pneumonia from lung burns. Circuit Judge James Reynolds, handled down a life sentence but suspended portions to net a 40-year term. Buck Hayes, a United Kingdom citizen, plans to appeal. Vogler was discharged from the hospital three months early and has remarkably returned to council meetings, though he faces a long recovery to regain the use of his left hand due to nerve damage. Vogler, elected in 2012 at age 24, remains the youngest person to hold office in Danville.

For more Crime and Justice News, be sure to join us for Crime and Justice. stories with Nancy Grace on Fox 1, YouTube, SiriusXM, and now streaming on 2B. With this crime alert, I'm Sidney. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human.