Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - SPECIAL WEEKEND CRIME STORIES UPDATE: Alex Murdaugh Attorney Accuses Prosecutors of Withholding Evidence

Episode Date: September 10, 2022

Alex Murdaugh's attorney accuses prosecutors of “hiding the ball” and not handed over any evidence they have in the deaths of Murdaugh’s wife and son. Attorney Dick Harpootlian and attorney Jim Griffin filed a motion to compel prosecutors to reveal evidence. It's been more than a month since Murdaugh was indicted by a state grand jury of murdering is wife and son. Harpootlian said the motion asked Judge Clifton Newman to order that evidence be turned over to the defense “immediately without delay.”  Part of that evidence, according to FITSNews,  is high-velocity spatter found on a shirt worn by Murdaugh that may show he was present at the time his wife and son were murdered.    In the last days, Judge Clifton Newman ordered the evidence released, along with a temporary protective order in place, that is to ensure only lawyers and people testifying will be able to see the evidence.     Joining Nancy Grace Today: Susan E. Williams, South Carolina Criminal Defense Attorney, Former Prosecutor (Summerville), swilliams-law.net, Instagram: @carolinaladylawyer, Twitter: @ATTYswilliams Dr. Shari Schwartz - Forensic Psychologist (specializing in Capital Mitigation and Victim Advocacy), www.panthermitigation.com, Twitter: https://twitter.com/TrialDoc, Author: "Criminal Behavior" and "Where Law and Psychology Intersect: Issues in Legal Psychology" Bobby Chacon - 27 years former FBI Agent, BobbyChacon.com, Instagram/Twitter: @BobbyChaconFBI, Writer and Co-producer: Audible Original Series, "After the Fall" Joe Scott Morgan - Professor of Forensics: Jacksonville State University, Author, "Blood Beneath My Feet", Host: "Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan", Matt Harris - Morning Show Host of The Matt and Ramona Show on 107.9 WLNK (Charlotte, NC), Podcast Host: "The Murdaugh Family Murders: Impact of Influence" See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Wow, the more he and his attorneys talk, the more I like it. Of course, I'm talking about Alex Murdoch. Why do his attorneys keep talking? Remember, Alex Murdoch is the lawyer out of South Carolina that is now charged in the heinous murder of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, outside their hunting lodge out in the country, in addition to their home. I don't know how many properties they own, but one is definitely a murder scene now. He's also charged with millions of dollars

embezzling and fraud, taking money from clients he represented in the worst way, embezzling money from his law firm. Hey, I also think somebody had to know about all the embezzlement and did nothing. His family had a grip on South Carolina politics forever. The prosecutor's office had been held by a Murdoch for a hundred years. Now talk about an ethical violation. He's a prosecutor in cases, but then would civilly represent, I guess, either the

defendant or the victim in the case. That is a conflict of interest. What a big mess. But I'm more worried about the two dead bodies. Of course, the Murdoch family is connected to a lot of dead bodies. There's Gloria Satterfield, the 50-ish year old housekeeper that was found dead at the Murdoch estate, reportedly by, quote, tripping over the dog. Right. Then there is Mallory Beach, the teen girl that was thrown off the Murdoch boat when one of the sons was drunk and high as a kite, piled into some pilings at a bridge. She flies off and floats in the water for three days before her body is found. Let's see who else. Oh, yes. A young guy in the community was found dead of a seeming hit and run with ties to the Murdoch family,

and many argue it was no such thing as a hit and run. But let's focus on this case. Wife Maggie and son Paul both killed at Murdoch's South Carolina home. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here on Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. The very latest lawyers for Murdoch are now pointing the finger at the prosecutors claiming they're hiding evidence, including blood spatter evidence and phone records, and they're accusing the prosecutors of leaking information about the murders to the press. Take a listen to this. They charged him with murder. What they're telling us today is they're still investigating it.

They're still investigating the murder. They didn't have enough when they charged him. Again, this is some sort of game that's going on. He used the word game. That's not my word. This is not a game. It's his life. It's justice. It's the quality of justice in this courtroom, in this state, and it ain't a game. Hmm. Well, leaks have been around as long as I have been a prosecutor. There's always been leaks. Is that a violation of the law? Is that a crime?

Probably not. And let me tell you something about blood spatter evidence. There is a time period in which the state has to hand over scientific evidence. That can be blood evidence, the analysis of drugs, fiber evidence, ballistics evidence, DNA evidence, not polygraph because you usually don't have that in a criminal trial. All of those are deemed scientific evidence. The state, under the law, has to hand all the scientific evidence. The state under the law has to hand all the scientific evidence over to the defense well in advance of trial, and they should. The reason is so the defense

can prepare their defense based on the evidence the state has, or they may even want to hire their own experts to analyze what the state experts have done or to do their own tests. We see that a lot where defense teams hire their own experts. Take a listen to our friends at GMA. Good morning, America. Alec Murdoch's legal team accusing prosecutors of hiding the ball, allegedly withholding evidence ahead of his looming trial for double murder.

Gotcha prosecution. It's trial by ambush. Give us the stuff. I don't have a shred of paper. I don't have an email. I don't have an exhibit. I don't have any evidence. His attorneys are now accusing investigators of leaking details to the media instead of handing it over to the defense as required. What evidence are they talking about? Blood splatter evidence and phone knackers? Listen, we're not going to trial in the next two weeks. So the state has plenty of time to hand this evidence over. Take a listen to Good Morning America. Murdoch's lawyer seemingly referencing reports about blood splatters and evidence found on phones.

We're ready to work, ready to hire investigators, ready to hire experts. All I know about blood splatter is what I read in some blog. I've never seen any blood splatter evidence. I've never seen any phone downloads. I've never seen any witness statements. 32 days after we make the request, we still don't have anything. The defense has filed a motion asking the judge to compel the state to turn over the evidence immediately and to unseal the details of the grand jury indictment. In a response filing, the state calls the motion a blatant attempt to create drama where formerly there was none. There is a time period in which the state must hand over scientific evidence, a witness list, and much more, including exculpatory evidence.

Exculpatory evidence is evidence that indicates the defendant could be innocent. That comes from a very old case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court, Brady v. Maryland, where Brady claimed the state did not hand over exculpatory evidence. And he won because the state did not hand over the exculpatory evidence. Back to Murdoch. Now, so far, the state has missed no deadlines in handing over evidence that we know of, but the blood spatter evidence I think they're talking about is high impact human matter spatter, which is probably blood found on Alex Murdoch's clothing that he wore the night of the murders, which indicates he was there

when the gunshots occurred. That's the only way you can get that high-velocity, high-impact blood spatter. That's the spatter I think they're talking about. How did the whole thing start? Spatter evidence. Does it directly link the drugged up lawyer, Alex Murdoch, to the double murders of his wife and his own son? All this from a source, Fit News. And I want to go straight out to Matt Harris. Matt, the morning show host of the Matt and Ramona Show 107.9 WLNK podcast, The Murdoch Familydoch family murders matt what is happening well according to fitz news they're the ones who reported this that there's forensic evidence on his clothing and it

could have only have come from uh blood spatter uh they are reporting that there's been multiple tests done and proves that Alex was at least near the bodies when or one of the bodies when they were shot and killed in June. Let's analyze that. Matt Harris joining us from WLNK just said blood spatter. There's a lot of different jar of ketchup in a glass and it spatters. Then there's what we call high velocity blood spatter. Completely different thing. Because high velocity blood spatter, you probably can't even see it with the naked eye.

It's like a mist, but it hits, for instance, in this case, his shirt in a different way than other spatter would hit. So let me understand. Matt Harris, Morning Show host, Matt Ramona, WLNK, you're attributing to Fit News the report that a shirt worn by Alex Murdoch, the drugged upity blood spatter a significant amount of high-velocity blood spatter. Is that what you're telling me? That's what Fitznews is saying, the high-velocity impact spatter was specifically high-velocity. Now, we know that Alec touched the bodies, at least according to him in the 911 call that night. So that would be on his shirt and pants maybe as well. But they're saying

there is the high velocity impact spatter on that shirt, which puts them right in the proximity of either one or both the victims when they were shot. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. In the last hours, Alex Murdoch out of South Carolina's lawyers have piped up claiming prosecutors are hiding evidence and leaking information about the murders of Murdoch's wife and son to the press. What evidence are they talking about? blood spatter evidence high impact human matter spatter which is probably blood found on alex murdoch's clothing that he wore the night of the murders straight out to joe scott morgan professor forensics jacksonville state university author blood beneath my feet host of a hit series body bags with joe scott morgan iHeart. Joe Scott, telling me a lot. He's telling me not only was he about within 36 inches of the bodies of the dead people, his wife and his son, but he was there when they got shot.

Yeah, he was. And that's what's being at least implicated here or implied relative to this finding. When you start to talk about high velocity blood spatter, Nancy, for our listeners at home, just think about this. Right you were when you mentioned that it's very fine,

very difficult to see. If anybody has an aerosol hairspray container at home, go to your mirror and spritz it one time very lightly. And it particulates. And that's generated from a high energy impact. And it's generally associated, and most every single time I've seen it, is always associated with gunfire. That means that it has to reach a certain level of velocity to impact that body, to spray that blood out. If you're anywhere in proximity to that, and you mentioned about 36 inches, that's kind of the standard.

It's going to literally blow out and mystify all over the place. Now, wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You just ran over 36 inches. We standardize 36 inches. What do we mean by that? When you shoot, the spatter will travel

about 36 inches. Past that, it starts to dissolve in the air or drop to the ground, which tells us, and this is after years and years and years of exhaustive experimenting. We know that if you got blood spatter, you are three feet or less to the point of impact bullet to body. Yeah, you're absolutely right.

Blood, unlike a bullet, has horrible, horrible aerodynamic qualities. So a bullet can spin through the air and go for a long, long ways. But the way this liquid, very viscous, thick liquid substance, even when it's mystified like this, it doesn't hold together very well. And so after about 36 inches, it's lost its velocity but it's still particulate like this in other words it goes like this yep yep you're absolutely right just like the hairspray i was referring to so that gives you an indication nancy that if this is true if what they're saying is true they would have had to have tested the shirt looked at it very carefully under you you know, like probably alternative lighting sources like ultraviolet and that sort of thing

to be able to pick this up. It'll kind of luminize. And they'll get an idea of the distribution of this pattern as well. And maybe... What are you saying, the distribution of the pattern? Well, it'll give you an idea. Please talk, regular people talk it will give you an idea perhaps relative to his position to the bodies when this weapon was fired or whoever was wearing this shirt they have a shirt pants whatever the clothing is when they

begin to examine it and they'll also look at the concentration nancy keep in mind as you've said many many times before you always use the analogy, and I love this, of the water hose, where you spray it. The tighter that grouping, the closer the individual is. So if it's tightly concentrated, that means that the proximity of the individual that's on the receiving end of this spatter, okay, and they're saying this, Alec, that it's going to be very tightly concentrated the closer he is to the body. Further away, it'll be spread out.

36 inches is about an arm's length. That's what we're talking about, which makes perfect sense. You're holding the gun, you shoot, and it they're not saying is it on the chest, is it on the sleeve of the shirt? We're talking about timing. Is he caught on video wearing the same shirt

or a different shirt? And when can we identify he was wearing the purported bloody shirt the night his wife and son were killed? You know what? Before I go too deep into blood spatter, we're going to revisit. I want you to

hear that very night. Now, if this is true, what Fit News is reporting, what we are hearing from our friend Matt Harris, WLNK. If it's true, that means he was at the body at the time of the shooting. That particular blood spatter marking cannot be created in any other way. It's not a transfer where he reached out and hugged the bodies or touched the bodies. It's not a drop, for instance

in Travis Alexander, when blood he was aspirating blood up from all the stabs in his chest. His lungs were filling up with blood. Travis Alexander goes to his bathroom mirror and looks at himself as he is dying and blood drips down from the mouth or the nose and we see drop marks.

It's not an orb. It's a spatter. Big difference under a microscope. But wait a minute. If what Fit News is saying, if what Matt Harris is reporting is all correct then alex murdoch managed to call7 Moselle Road. I think the police is passing to me.

My wife and child have been stopped badly. Okay, you said 4147 Moselle Road in Arlington? Sir? You said 4147 Moselle Road in Arlington? Yes, sir. 4147 Moselle Road. Stay on the Yes, sir. 4147 Moselle Road. Stay on the line with me, okay? Yes, sir.

Stay on the line with me, okay? Okay. Conn, accounting communications. Colleton, I have an Alex Murdoch on the line. Call us from 4147 Moselle Road. He's advising that his wife and child was shot. Okay. And, sir, give me the address again.

4147 Moselle Road. I've been up to it now. It's bad. Okay. Okay, and are they breathing? No, ma'am. Okay, and you said it's your wife and your son? My wife and my son. Are they in a vehicle? No, ma'am. They're on the ground out at my kennel. You know what? There's just some things in life you just can't get enough of. And hearing Alex and Murdoch, if Fit News is right, and I have no reason to believe they're not right. Think about this guy making this 911 call when according to the blood and the blood doesn't lie his shirt is covered

in high velocity blood spatter. Take a listen. Here he is again. He just can't talk enough can he? Did you see anyone? Okay. Is he breathing at all? No. Is she? enough canny did you see anyone okay is he breathing at all no nobody is she okay do you see anything do you see anyone in the area no ma'am no ma'am what color is your house on the

outside what color is your house on the outside uh it's. You can't see it from the road. Okay, is it a house or a mobile home? It's a house. Okay, and what is your name? My name is Alex Murdock. Okay, did you hear anything or did you come home and find them? I've been gone. I just came back. Was anyone else supposed to be at your house? No, ma'am. Please hurry. We're getting somebody out there to you. Oh, Bobby Chacon, Bobby Chacon, Bobby Chacon,

Bobby Chacon. Nearly 30 years, former FBI agent at BobbyChacon.com. Bobby, Bobby, Bobby. Oh, how I would love to be a fly on the wall and watch him make that 911 call.

Did you hear all that blubbering and snotting and the tremulous wails? Yeah, but he became suddenly very literate when he had to say that I just got back. I heard that. I even wrote that home. I've been gone. Yeah, he got the things that he needed to get out very clearly and very articulately.

And so so he knew it was almost like a script. He knew what he had to say. He obviously knows those calls are recorded. We all do. And. He knew what he had to say. He obviously knows those calls are recorded. We all do. And so he knew what he had to say. And he walked. You listen to that call. It's almost like a walkthrough of, hey, I didn't do this.

And so it's really interesting to hear that and to hear how he goes from this blubbering guy who's you can hear the snot coming out and he can't even comport himself. And then all of a sudden, he's very clear when he has to make the points that he wants to make murdoch's defense team blasting prosecutors claiming they're hiding evidence including blood spatter and phone records i can't wait to read those phone records and leaking information about the murders to the press why is he so concerned about the press? He better be concerned about putting that case together to go to trial. All that matters is what the jury thinks, not what the press thinks or the general population. They're not rendering a verdict. Take a listen to our friends at GMA. Good morning, America.

The defense has filed a motion asking the judge to compel the state to turn over the evidence immediately and to unseal the details of the grand jury indictment. In a response filing, the state calls the motion a blatant attempt to create drama where formerly there was none, saying the state has no desire to preclude the defense from any discovery, adding they will send it over when the court greenlights it. What do we know about the facts of the Murdoch murders? I'm going to read something. Listen to this. Matt Harris joining me. Morning Show host WLNK. Quote, multiple sources have told Fitt that the, and they keep saying this over and over, high velocity impact spatter. And Joe Scott, put that in your head because i need for you to go over that for me multiple sources multiple sources have told this news outlet that the high velocity impact spatter

has been independently analyzed and confirmed by multiple forensic experts including by at least one out of state-state laboratory. Put that in your head too, Joe Scott, because I'm just wondering, did they send it to Quantico? Because if you're going to send it out-of-state, why go from South Carolina to Alabama or Georgia or North Carolina? If you're going to send it somewhere, make it count, man. Send it to the feds.

I mean, that's what I'm just surmising. Because South Carolina, I mean, South Carolina has their own crime lab, don't they, Matt Harris? Yes, yes, they do. Probably more than one. I mean, in Georgia, we have a major crime lab in Atlanta. But, I mean, I know South Carolina's got to have their own crime lab. Oh, they sure do. I mean, they've been backed up a lot because of COVID and what other things are going on, but they have one for sure, if not multiple. So why would they send it next door to North Carolina or to Tennessee or to Georgia? They wouldn't. Right, right. I mean, I think the the feds have been roaming around down in that area

for a while now. We know that. And I think that also to avoid any influence by the Murdochs, that's my podcast, Impact of Influence. I love your podcast. Thank you. SLED wants to make sure, which is South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, to make sure there's no issues of influence by the Murdochs. So they are going to make sure or ask for the Fed's help, I would assume, and not just

have one of the counties or state work down there because they don't want any impropriety acknowledged or thought about or rumored. So getting the Feds involved makes sense. Yeah. And as a matter of fact, that's what you name your podcast. And at first, I didn't quite get why you had such a long name for your podcast, but now I do. The Murdoch Family Murders Impact of Influence. And I thought that meant just how far-reaching the Murdoch family influence was because they're a legal dynasty.

They've been the prosecutors and they've had a civil law firm which i think is an incredible conflict of interest because you're going to represent people that have been victims or perps in the cases that you're prosecuting i mean wow anyway that has lasted for decades and decades and decades but in this case the title of your podcast goes as well uh impact of influence they are sending sled uh south carolina law enforcement division is sending this evidence out i think to the feds although that's not being reported right where there is no partiality one way or the other and nobody's got an axe to grind so i i think that's why they did that and i want to also point out um that fit is reporting that this is just one piece of evidence of many pieces of evidence that place a murdoch at the scene at the time of the crime. Bobby Chacon, what could they be talking about? Other evidence?

MAV system on his car, GPS satellite on his phone, triangulation. On his phone, if he has a watch that tracks him, if he's got a fitness tracker, there's a lot of different things to... Here's the problem. You may do all that Fitbit, phone, car, all the nav,

all the triangulation, but you got to have the time of death narrowed down. Because you can prove he's there at 8 p.m., but what if you can't prove the deaths occurred at 8 p.m.? What if the deaths occurred at 8 p.m., but what if you can't prove the deaths occurred at 8 p.m.?

What if the deaths occurred at 2 p.m.? That's a problem. Yeah, I thought it was weird. We've been saying from the beginning that it was odd to us that they picked a very short period of time for the possible deaths because they released that, that Alec made the call at 9-11, and they said the time of death was between 9 and 9-30. Well, that's according to the autopsy report of Paul. That's a very short window, and you guys are better at the science things than me, but that seems like that's unusual to pin it down to a 30-minute span.

Is that what they said, Matt Harris? Is Chikung right? And I think he is. Did they state it was between 9 and 9 30 the time of uh yes uh according to the autopsy report of paul 9 and 9 30 and house call was at 1007 okay so the calls at 1007 the deaths between 9 and 9 30 matt harris and bobby chone that is certainly food for thought how did they do it joe scott morgan there may be a way that they're doing not scientifically based on the the body and the autopsy it could be maggie murdoch the wife made a phone call and had a conversation at 8 45 yeah it's coming back to

electronics nancy listen anybody that's worth their salt in forensics particularly medical legal death investigation yeah you don't ever narrow down beyond about a two to three hour window when you're talking about post-mortem interval. That is the moment in time when an individual died until you actually get a chance to examine the body. We are not fine-tuned enough for that. That gives me an indication here that they're getting information from some other source that's going to pin this down.

Extrinsic evidence to show time of death. that they're getting information from some other source that's going to pin this down. Extrinsic evidence to show time of death. And I remember they did find Maggie's phone the next day tossed on the side of the road and some weeds just off the side of the road. Yeah. Yeah. And they've got a really long driveway. And I understand that the phone was not far from the mailbox or is it on down the road, Matt? They had to drive to it in fact

um my co-host was talking with alex's brother and uh he they said that they got the information from buster the the the brother of of paul and how to ping maggie's phone so they started walking around on the property they They couldn't find it. And then John Marvin got in a car with law enforcement and drove to where the phone was and they found it. Wow, that's really valuable information. Hey guys, all of this that we're learning, for those of you just joining us,

according to Fit News, high velocity impact spatter on alex murdoch's shirt the shirt he was wearing the night his wife and son were murdered high velocity impact blood spatter directly ties him to the double homicide and with this backdrop about the blood spatter placing him at the bodies at the time they were shot dead take a listen to him on his 911 call and then we'll give dr sherry schwartz a crack at it take a listen okay what is her name maggie and paul Maggie and Paul. Maggie is her name?

Yes, ma'am. Okay. Ma'am, please hurry. We're getting somebody out there to you. Me asking you these questions, don't slow them down, okay? Okay. Are you sure they're not breathing? Is he moving at all, your son? I know you said that she was shot, but what about your son?

Nobody's... They're not... Neither one of them is moving. What is your telephone number? And does anything look out of place? Ma'am, not particularly, really, no, ma'am. Okay. not not particularly really no ma'am okay straight out to dr sherry schwartz forensic psychologist specializing in capital mitigation at panther mitigation.com dr sherry schwartz what do you make of it well i think you know going back earlier to what you and mr chacon were talking

about the fact that he sounds so upset in between the questions, but when he has to articulate the answers to the questions, he seems to do that just fine. He even is able to collect himself enough to sort of, I'm imagining him looking around to see if anything's out of place before answering that question. And that to me seems very odd. I don't know what his psychopathology is. I've never met this person. But, you know, it's this seems to be a group of people, the Murdoch family that has a high degree of comfort being around death, right? The housekeeper, I believe, was killed at one point or died in their presence. And so they don't seem to have, right,

they don't seem to have a lot of empathy. And yet he seems to do a remarkable job of sounding like he's got this empathy for his apparently deceased loved ones. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. crime stories with nancy grace alex murdoch's lawyers hit the news headlines again accusing the state of withholding evidence and leaking to the press now this brings to mind when one of alex murdoch's lawyers went public and claimed Murdoch had a brain injury, that he had been attacked on the road by an unknown assailant, blah, blah, blah. Well, Murdoch showed up in court with a band-aid, as I recall. That's no brain injury, a band-aid.

He looked fine. So, you can't always believe what a lawyer says when a microphone is in front of his face and uh regarding that unknown assailant yeah that was a lie too turns out according to murdoch of course you know you got to take that with a box of salt according to murdo, he had a longtime friend, many people say drug supplier, shoot him in the head so his living son, the only son left living, could get the proceeds of a life insurance policy. I wonder if he didn't have himself shot in the head to make it appear as if the killer of his wife Maggie and son Paul was after him too, distancing himself from their murders. Well, I guess we'll find that out when this finally goes to trial. The defense team making a big bluster about evidence, deadlines, and leaking to the press. But what are the real facts of the case?

Matt Harris joining us from WLNK. At least one of the murder weapons was owned by the Alex Murdoch family. Well, we know that the Murdochs did own an AR-15 that uses the ammo that was found by the 300 Blackout, according to the Wall Street Journal. But that was not recovered or turned over for inspection is what we're hearing so that that now so that leaves us to believe if you take every report and put all together that maybe the shotgun was uh found but that is still again one of those rumors that's out there and the ar-15 according to journal that's not then the murdoch-owned one was not collected. We're not sure why that was. Again, the time of the deaths has been placed between 9 and 9.30 that evening.

Law enforcement is very clear that that's the window of the murders. Yeah, well, I mean, he was at the hospital at one point with his dad who died a few days later. But he was actually at his mom who suffers from alzheimer's and dementia at her house at from nine to nine in that range 99 30 um watching a game show or something and she has a and the word is that she has a uh caretaker that was there at that time to do the vouching. I don't know if it's true, but it's a very short drive from her mom's house. I've driven it from his mom's house to the hunting area. I mean, 20 minutes, maybe 15.

Straight back to you, Bobby Chacon. How do you make sense of what you're hearing right now from Matt Harris? Well, I think, you know, as Dr. Joe even alluded to earlier, I don't think these time frames can be that exact. I think these are approximations. I think both the time of death and these times of travel and the times he left. I think these are very approximations. I mean, if you ask me of my day yesterday, I could give you approximate times of when I did certain things. But those aren't going to be to the minute. are going to be plus or minus five ten minutes depending on

what i was doing well not really if you use your cell phone and your nav data off of your car it will be down to the minute if that's used surveillance video is time is stamped assuming that it's stamped correctly right which is why which is why his lawyers are snowing by his own statements saying it an airtight alibi when the police are saying, no, he's a suspect in this case. He's a person of interest in this double homicide. Because his statements of when he did certain things may not match up with the electronics that they now have. Lawyer is saying this, Jim Griffin, who is Alex Murdoch's lawyer, is saying, quote, I assure you we have Alex's whereabouts for completely that time. That night he's sitting on the bedside of his mother at her house when the coroner says the murders happened, watching a game show on TV. How many times have people relied on what's on TV at the time a murder or a crime occurred.

That doesn't always pan out the way you think it's going to pan out. Another thing to you, Matt, we also understand that this is now one of the largest and most complex criminal corruption investigations ever in Palmetto State history. This has gone now into corruption how well i mean alec has been i think there's 71 charges against him a little over eight million dollars that he's allegedly taken from clients but the number is estimated by most to be more like 12 or 15 or something um there's a judge that has come under fire because she uh signed off on the settlement with the satterfield kids but it was worded oddly it seemed to be hidden within the the system so no so the beach family was somebody stood by and facilitated all of the embezzlement

oh there's got to be. There has to be plenty of people involved, you would think. I don't think over 10 years you can take like $15 million and do it alone. In the last hours, Alex Murdoch out of South Carolina's lawyers have piped up claiming prosecutors are hiding evidence and leaking information about the murders of Murdoch's wife and son to the press. Every day that passes makes it more difficult for Alec Murdoch and his attorneys to get prepared for trial. It's trial by ambush. Give us the stuff. You went to a grand jury and said you got enough evidence to convict Alec Murdoch, convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.

Where is it? I don't have a shred of paper. I don't have an email. I don't have an exhibit. I don't have any evidence. But right now, I want you to hear this. WCIV ABC4 Charleston reporter Ann Emerson. Evidence delivered in the Alec Murdoch murder case. The defense says it's gotten what it wanted after a tense day in court earlier this week. Our investigative reporter Ann Emerson has been on top of this case from day one. So Ann, do we have any new reaction from Murdoch's lawyers tonight? Well Katie, Alec Murdoch's defense team says as they download the content of the state's case today they are evaluating it in a statement we received they say they look forward to reviewing the state's materials and allegations immediately so they can quote continue to build a defense for our clients so

we're ready for trial in less than six months this is the real moment for the defense to discover what they're up against, whether or not there is enough to convict Alec Murdoch of these double murders. I spoke with South Carolina former Attorney General Charlie Condon. Condon says it will be critical for the defense to decide whether Murdoch takes a stand. Due to the intense media scrutiny as well as the sensitive nature of the murder evidence, the judge put some of the evidence under a temporary protective order, but according to Condon, that should not hinder either side from evaluating it. However, as the state prosecutor Creighton Waters said in court Monday,

this evidence could fetch millions of dollars if it landed in the wrong hands. This protective order will make sure that if the evidence does get out, the responsible parties will be held accountable and could face jail time. We are waiting for this to go to trial, and hopefully a true verdict will be rendered. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend.