Murdaugh Murders Podcast - TSP #104 - How Alan Wilson’s Office Failed Sara Lynn Moore Colucci And Paved The Way For Her Husband’s Murder Case To Get Dismissed

Episode Date: June 19, 2025

Investigative journalists Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell have spent the past year preparing for Charleston-area good ole boy Michael Colucci to be tried again for the 2015 murder of his wife, Sara-Lynn Moore Colucci.  Twice a retrial was scheduled. And twice it didn’t happen. On Tuesday, after the jury had been seated, South Carolina Judge Roger M. Young quashed the indictment of Colucci and dismissed what was to be a two-week trial and the end of what had become the oldest open murder case in the state. For 10 years, Sara-Lynn’s family, including her mother and her only daughter, Bishop, who was a child at the time her mother died, have had to sit silently time and time again as the justice system continued to fail them. What didn’t help matters? Original prosecutor and current public official Megan (Burchstead) Burleson’s surly and defensive behavior on the stand on Tuesday… 😡The judge’s decision, though fair, was utterly disappointing and has Mandy and Liz fired up and ready to fight hard for justice to be served.  Let’s dive in! 🥽🦈Episode References Liz Farrell’s FB Post Recapping Colucci Trial Day 2 🌐 Watch Tuesday’s entire hearing with press conference on YouTube LUNASHARK’s TikTok on Megan Burchstead’s Testimony 🌐 The Colucci Case Spotify Playlist 🎧 Alan Wilson & the AG’s Office Press Release on Colucci Ruling 🗣️ Contact Alan Wilson at the AG’s Office 📱📧 Premium Resources Stay Tuned, Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight...☀️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Premium Members ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠also get access to ad-free listening, searchable case files, written articles with documents, case photos, episode videos and exclusive live experiences with our hosts on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lunasharkmedia.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ all in one place. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠CLICK HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn more: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3BdUtOE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Here's a link to some of our favorite things: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/4cJ0eVn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ *** ALERT: If you ever notice audio errors in the pod, email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[e-mail]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and we'll send fun merch to the first listener that finds something that needs to be adjusted! *** For current & accurate updates: lunashark.supercast.com Instagram.com/mandy_matney   |   Instagram.com/elizfarrell   ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠bsky.app/profile/mandy-matney.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠bsky.app/profile/elizfarrell.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TrueSunlight.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠facebook.com/TrueSunlightPodcast/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram.com/TrueSunlightPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/@LunaSharkMedia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tiktok.com/@lunasharkmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When I look back at my younger self, I remember the feeling of being bullied and disrespected. I remember hating that feeling, and I remember the day that I resolved to never let it happen again. When I founded Bland Richter with my partner Ronnie Richter, we committed to build a firm that demanded respect and that would fight the powerful on behalf of clients who felt powerless. We stand tall against the largest law firms in the state, the country, and the entire world, and we've remained true to the commitment not to be pushed around. Tenacious representation, proven results. We are Bland-Richter. Learn more about what we do and who we are by visiting blandrichter.com. That's B-L-A-N-D-R-I-C-H-T-E richter.com that's B L A N D R I C H T E R.com.

Hey there, EB here, your faithful Cup of Justice co-host. I am so excited to tell you about my new book, Anything But Bland. In this memoir, I share stories about my childhood, marked by bullying, my father's job loss, and the indomitable spirit that propelled me into the law and ultimately international recognition during the Alex Murdoch murder trial. I believe in certain life principles that have helped me and helped others achieve success, from the power of organization and a sense of urgency to the importance of truth leadership and resilience With vivid recollection from challenges and triumphs framing each chapter Success isn't about luck. It's earned through skill and hard work Please visit the Eric Bland comm to learn more about the book anything

But Bland is the manifesto for those seeking triumph over adversity and a guide for anyone aspiring to reach their full potential. I don't know if there will ever be justice for Sarah Lynn Colucci, who represents so many other women in this state who have been pushed aside by the justice system. But I know there is one person who can still try to get justice and one person who could right the many wrongs that his office made throughout this case that led to Michael Colucci's murder indictment being quashed by a judge on Tuesday.

That person is Attorney General Alan Wilson, and he needs to hear from every single one of us that he needs to re-indict Michael Kaluci in the 2015 death of his wife, Sarah Lynn Moore Kaluci. My name is Mandi Matney. This is True Sunlight, a podcast exposing crime and corruption previously known as the Murdoch Murders podcast. True Sunlight is a Lunar Shark production written with journalist Liz Farrell. So what an absolutely terrible week in South Carolina's justice system.

Especially for women in this state who do not need any more evidence that we do not matter in the eyes of the law. I am sorry for breaking the news so abruptly, but I am ready to get into this. I am in fight mode." On Tuesday afternoon, Judge Roger Young dismissed Michael Colucci's murder charge. It was dismissed without prejudice, meaning South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson can choose to indict Michael again. But for now, Michael Colucci is a free man.

He can travel wherever he wants, and he can do whatever he wants. Why did this happen? Well, we could go on for days about that. But after a late night of both Liz and I going over testimony, relistening to the arguments and the judge's explanation for his decision and talking to our legal sources, it seems to us that it boils down to one person, in our opinion, former Assistant Attorney General, prosecutor Megan Birchdead. Now, before we get into this, I would like to fully disclose the fact that Liz and I

have both been concerned about Megan's lack of lawyering skills since 2019 when she flubbed not one, but two boat crash hearings in the case against Paul Murdoch." She flubbed them so badly to the point where Liz and I wondered if Alan Wilson purposely selected his worst attorney to prosecute Paul Murdoch in that case. But anyways, it's important for you to know that the conclusions we reached about Meghan's alleged misconduct in this case are completely separate from our personal feelings about her. The facts led us here, and we will walk you through the evidence and testimony so you

can decide for yourself what happened and who's to blame. For the past few weeks, we have been giving you recaps about the facts of the Carlucci case, so I'm not gonna go too deep into them today. Click on the link in the description to listen to previous episodes of our Carlucci coverage. It is worth it. This case is nuts.

Here are the basics. Sarah Lynn Moore Carlucci was married to Michael Carlucci, a man she described to others as her Michael Corleone, a reference to the son and the godfather. Michael Colucci was the stepson of Ivo Colucci, who was a very well-respected and well-known jeweler in the Charleston area. Ivo never adopted Michael, but according to sources,

Michael wanted to follow in Ivo's footsteps, so when Michael turned 18, he changed, Michael wanted to follow in Evo's footsteps. So when Michael turned 18, he changed his last name to Kaluchi. Since then, Michael was seen as a thorn in Evo's side at times according to sources familiar with the family. And over the years, Michael found himself in financial trouble again and again,

according to court records. At the time of Sarah Lynn's death, the couple seemed to be deep in debt and their house was going into foreclosure. According to friends, family, and text messages, they were constantly fighting and caught in sort of a love, hate roller coaster. But by May 20th, 2015,

Sarah Lynn was talking about her plans to leave Michael, according to text messages and testimony. And according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Sarah Lynn's estate, Sarah Lynn feared for her life at times in her marriage with Michael and had called 911 twice during fights of theirs. Sarah Lynn was known for her big personality

and for speaking her mind. She was quick-witted, funny, and sharp-tongued. And friends have told us that this often made for a combustible situation with Michael. Sarah Lynn also had addiction and mental health issues, specifically depression. Before her death, her mother had noticed that both Sarah Lynn and Michael appeared

to be drinking heavily based on beer cans she had seen at their house. On the day of her death, Sarah Lynn and Michael went to the grave site of her previous husband and the father of her only daughter, Bishop, to pay their respects. Michael Vieira died in May 2007, eight years earlier, after stabbing himself 26 times in a tragic psychedelic drug-related incident, according to police reports. The evening of May 20, 2015, police were called to the scene of Michael's jewelry warehouse in Somerville,

where they found Sarah Lynn's body on the ground. It was later determined she had died of asphyxiation to the neck. Sarah Lynn was missing a fake nail that was found in the couple's car. Her sandal heel was hanging off one foot, and she had what appeared to be scrapes on the tops of her feet, which were seen as indicators that her body had been dragged during the

2018 trial. Michael, who had injuries, cuts on his arm, and a bloody and swollen lip that he told police he had gotten from giving her CPR, was about 20 feet away from Sarah Lynn when this allegedly happened, facing her in their car. Michael told police this was a suicide and that Sarah Lynn had wrapped an industrial hose around her neck. Police found a blonde hair on the hose at the scene.

And due to Michael's purported influence with local law enforcement, that was that, despite calls from Sarah Lynn's family for this to be investigated as a murder. After her family fought to get the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office to recuse itself, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, SLED, took over the case. And in 2016, Michael was charged with murdering Sarah Lynn. Shortly after his arrest, Michael was able to hire high profile, well-respected attorney Andy Savage using Evo's money. Soon after that, Evo filed a lien in Berkeley County Court, alerting the court that Michael owed him $750,000.

Now, Evo was elderly at the time and beginning to experience signs of dementia according to a doctor's note that Michael had procured. According to sources, Evo was sick of Michael and Michael's mother Doris wasting his assets and even potentially hiding them from him and his family. He felt set up by Michael who routinely called police to say that Evo was being aggressive

because he was in the throes of dementia. In 2017, as a result of the financial pressure, according to sources, Evo shot and killed Michael's mother in front of Michael's young daughter in the family jewelry store. Michael, who was awaiting trial at the time, then sued his stepfather for wrongful death

on behalf of his daughter. In 2018, Michael was tried for Sarah Lynn's murder and the trial ended with a hung jury. Since then, it's been a long slog trying to get this trial back on the docket. In 2024, we began covering the case in the lead-up to a trial that had been scheduled for May 2024. That trial got postponed again because the AG's office had only requested one week of trial time instead of the two weeks that were necessary the first time around.

In the meantime, Michael's open murder case became the oldest in the state of South Carolina. The retrial was scheduled to start this week and even though it seemed like most people, including us, were adopting a we'll believe it when we see it attitude about it. Even though we were leery of Andy Savage's influence in being able to postpone this into eternity, we were hopeful that this time would be for real, that justice would prevail and there would be some sort of definitive ending to what has been 10 years of hell for Sara Lynn's family. Whether that came in the form of a guilty or not guilty verdict, at least there would

be no more limbo. Everything seemed like it was on track until Friday of last week when the defense filed a motion to dismiss the case altogether, accusing Sled in the South Carolina Attorney General's Office of prosecutorial misconduct. According to the filing and testimony, in August 2015, Sarah Lynn's mother, Barbara Moore, had told now former sled agent David Owen, who you might remember as the lead investigator in the Murdoch murder trial, that two weeks before Sarah Lynn's death,

Barbara found her daughter crying and distraught in her garage. Barbara said that Sarah Lynn told her, I would have hung myself today if it not for the girls coming home. In that same conversation though, she assured Barbara that she would never actually do something like that. But that is how bad she felt on that day.

Alarmed like any mom, Barbara went to Sarah's husband Michael and told him what Sarah said. Barbara said that she told Michael that she wanted to take Sarah Lynn to a mental health facility and that she would pay for it. But Michael told her no. After the trial, one of Michael's attorneys told the Post and Courier newspaper

that Michael denies that this conversation, that we'll call the garage conversation, between him and Sarah Lynn's mom never happened. Which I'm not calling him a liar, but it's interesting that Barbara Moore's memory is good enough for the defense to rely on when it comes to the timeline of what she told Sled agent Owen about the garage conversation. She says it was August 2015 and David Owen says that it was later than that. The timeline is important to the defense because Michael was not charged with murder until

May 2016, a whole year after Sarah Lynn's death, and he wasn't indicted by the grand jury until November 2016. The defense wanted that timeline to be according to Barbara's memory and not David's because it supported their argument that this information, that Sarah Lynn used the words hanging and suicide two weeks before her death, that should have been passed on to the defense, to the judges, to the forensic investigators, to the prosecution, and not to mention the grand jury. So according to the defense, Barbara is right about this conversation with Sarah Lynn happening. She's right about passing it on to Sled, and she's right about it being told to Sled from

the start. But according to them, she's wrong about Michael the murder defendant being told that Sarah Lynn had mentioned the words hanging and suicide two weeks before she was allegedly killed by strangulation and her death was allegedly staged to look like suicide by hanging. I will say there's a good argument to be made that if Michael knew about this conversation between Sarah Lynn and her mother, he would've brought that up in his first trial. So maybe it really didn't happen, or he didn't remember. But also, it's a double-edged sword, because when it comes to suicide being used as a cover-up

for spousal murder, it helps when the spouse is open about their mental illness. So another argument could be made that Michael admitting to knowing about this was him getting the idea for the alleged cover-up of her murder. But let's not dwell on that because the fact remains, in our opinions and in the judge's opinion, that there was prosecutorial misconduct here. And we need to get into that. prosecutorial misconduct here, and we need to get into that. Obviously, separate and apart from this conversation between Sarah Lynn and her mother, Michael and his team knew about Sarah Lynn's struggles with depression and that she had thrown around threats about suicide over text messages leading up to her death. I say obviously because this was Michael's whole defense, that Sarah Lynn was

suicidal and therefore she did this to herself. It was pretty much the running theme for 2018. The defense says that on the day of her death, Sarah Lynn called her therapist twice. Sarah Lynn's mother says that three and a half hours before her death, Sarah Lynn called her and they spoke for 30 minutes about how Sarah Lynn was done with Michael. So the big questions going into Tuesday were why and how. Why would this so-called new information matter when everyone already knew there was plenty

of evidence showing that Sarah Lynn had made threats of suicide to Michael prior to her death. And how did not knowing this particular detail infringe on Michael's rights to a fair trial? Soon after the hearing started though, it was clear that the bigger question, like we said, was when? The timeline. And I have to say the defense, Bill McGuire, who handles capital offense cases and was a member of church shooter Dylan Roof's defense team, and Scott Bischoff. When about this artfully? And you guys know that we get called out a lot for our criticism of defense attorneys, Dick and Jim. And no

matter how many times we've said it, it's not about the defense itself. It's about the game playing. It seems like our point continues to get missed. So we have repeatedly criticized Andy Savage, especially when it comes to his involvement in the Stephen Smith case in 2021. But we also heaped praise on him for his abilities in the courtroom during Michael's first trial. And we have to do the same here.

McGuire and Bischoff did some really smart work here and they didn't resort to theatrics or trickery. There were no lawyer legislators getting tag teamed in. There were no false narratives being put out to the media, though we do take issue with their misleading phrasing in the courtroom at times, but that's defense attorneys for you. McGuire and Bischoff stuck to the facts and made great legal arguments. So while yesterday felt like a punch in the gut and we plan on out pesky ourselves when it comes to getting the AG's office to represent the evidence against Michael to a grand jury

and hopefully get a second indictment for murder, we're not so blinded by our own righteousness that we can't praise good work. So instead, we'll reserve that outrage energy for the attorney general's office, specifically Attorney General Alan Wilson, who we will get to later, and Megan Burch said who we will get to now

because boy does she deserve it. In 2018, Megan, whose name you might recognize as the prosecutor who never mentioned Mallory Beach's name during Paul Murdoch's arraignment in the boat crash case and who waved off the handcuffs when a corrections officer went to cuff Paul was the lead prosecutor in the Kaluci case. In 2022, Megan left the attorney general's office amid an investigation into media leaks about the Murdoch case. According to her LinkedIn profile, she then went to the office of Todd Rutherford, you

know, the lawyer legislator who helps pick judges and who sees no problem with that and who struck up that shady closed-door deal to release murderer Gerard Price back onto the streets. After then, it looks like Meghan worked as a public defender for the Sixth Circuit. Then it appears she was assistant solicitor for Sumter County. And now she appears to be chief of the Chester County Public Defender's Office. Which thank you for your service, Meghan. You might remember from our coverage of the Calucci case in 2024 that we were appalled

at the game that Meghan brought to the trial. Which is to say, none. She brought no game. She came off impatient and arrogant and bored, and she failed to tell Sarah Lynn's story to the jury. She didn't even try to make Sarah Lynn come alive or help the jury feel that sense of loss that Sarah Lynn's family felt. She even referred to Sarah Lynn as a mean girl in her closing arguments. So many times Mandy and

I were like, which side of the table is this woman working for? Let's just say that thought has come full circle, as have our thoughts about Megan in 2019 at Paul Murdoch's hearings. Okay, let's start with what we knew going into the hearing Tuesday. In February 2023, during a meeting with the prosecutorial team, Barbara brought up the conversation she had with Sarah Lynn two weeks before her death. Prosecutor Joel Kozak, who assisted Megan in Michael's first trial, was now the lead prosecutor in the case. Prosecutor Kenley Abbey was assisting him. And this was the first time, according to them, either of them were hearing about this part

of this specific conversation. They did the right thing and they immediately told the defense about it, according to their memo. Meaning the defense had more than two years to prep their case with knowledge of this information, something that the judge brought up before making his decision. We'll talk more about that at the end of this episode.

Okay, and that brings us to May 27th, when the defense filed a motion for admonishment against David Owen. Here is David with what that said. The defendant, by and through undersigned counsel, moves this court to admonish the lead investigator, Special Agent David Owen, of his duty to alert the court if a witness gives false testimony during the course of this trial. A state's witness, Barbara Moore, testified falsely during the 2018 trial regarding a statement she gave to Special Agent David Owen in 2015. Special Agent Owen took no corrective measures despite being present in the court when the false testimony was presented.

Such admonishment is necessary to protect Michael Colucci's right to a fair trial. And that's it. No reference to an exhibit, no other documents or transcripts attached to it. So, we had no idea what that was referring to until this week. Before we tried to figure it out, because this is about a timeline and it wasn't until June 11th, about two weeks after this filing, that the prosecution and defense learned that David Owen knew about the conversation between Sarah Lynn and her mother, so we knew it couldn't be that. Honestly, we thought that the defense had used it to smoke out David Owen and Megan

Birchhead, because according to Scott Bischoff yesterday, the only reason that they learned about David Owen's knowledge of the garage conversation is because of this motion for admonishment. On June 11th, the prosecution interviewed David Owen in preparation for their arguments against the motion for admonishment. And this is when David told them that he knew about the garage conversation that Barbara Moore had with her daughter. The conversation Joel and Kenley learned about in February 2023 and passed on to the defense. David Owen was unable to find anywhere where he had documented this, and again, he disputed Barbara's timeline and said that she did not tell him

this in August 2015. He said instead he remembers her telling him this later in a phone call while he was driving. So stick a pin in that for a moment. David Owen was on the phone with Barbara sometime before Michael was indicted by the grand jury. That's what he says, okay?" But the admonishment was about something else. After charges were dismissed on Tuesday, Scott Bischoff spoke to reporters outside of the courthouse. He said the motion to admonish was for another statement that Barbara Moore had made on the stand in 2018. He said that she revealed for the first time at trial that Sarah Lynn had told her, on

the phone, on the day of her death, that she was specifically planning to leave Michael that week. He said that the defense felt that Owen should have corrected her statement by telling the judge that she had never told him that before. I don't know if that's a stretch or not. It feels like one. But I will say this, that's a lucky get for the defense team, to have their motion for admonishment turned into something big. More on that after a quick commercial. We'll be right back.

And that, after a quick commercial, will be right back. No Frills delivers! Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC Optimum Points on your first five orders. Shop now at NoFrils.ca. Okay, now let's talk about last Friday when the defense filed its motion to dismiss the case accusing the prosecution of misconduct. Beth Braden learned about the filing when checking the public index on Friday

and immediately asked for the paperwork. On Monday, we got the motion. So a quick word about public information and criminal trials. South Carolina, thanks to former Chief Supreme Court Justice Jeanne Toll, has a robust public database that contains information about most every civil and criminal filing in the state. For civil cases, the filings are typically accessible by just downloading the PDFs directly. For criminal cases, the filings are typically accessible by just downloading the PDFs directly. For criminal cases, they mostly show just the actions and the filings themselves are only accessible through contacting the clerk of court's office or knowing the attorney on the case. On Monday, we had the defense's motion, but the attorney general's office would not give us the memos that were referenced in the motion,

citing pretrial publicity rules. And because the prosecution planned to make oral arguments against this motion, there was no written response from them. Also on Monday, by the way, a 12-person jury with four alternates was seated. It took all day and Lunashark Media had Eric Allen there in case the trial started that afternoon. Eric graciously took notes for us. The jury ended up being composed of eight women and four men with four women alternates.

Which could have been bad for the defense if the trial ever happened, right? Things were looking pretty good going into Tuesday morning and we were only moderately concerned about the motion to dismiss because it's not unusual for a defense team to take one more stab at things with the judge. And frankly, we're so used to defense attorney antics that we thought there would be nothing to this accusation. So on Tuesday, the defense started with Barbara Moore's testimony.

She admitted her memory about the timeline was hard to pinpoint, but said that this is what she told David Owen August 2015. You know, I can't remember verbatim what I did, but I left school that day. I was teaching, still teaching, but I was only working a half a day. I went from school straight to Sarah Lynn's house. I just wanted to see her and she was there by herself and the front door was open. So I went in and I went into their, they had turned their garage into a den. So she was in the den and she was crying. She was crying a lot and I put my arms around and I pulled in my stomach and I said honey what's the matter? And she said to me, mama you

wouldn't understand and I said honey and she pulled away and she said if it had not been for my children coming home today I would have hung myself in this garage and I pushed her back and I said Sarah and she said mom I wouldn't do that I wouldn't do that to you but I sure wouldn't do it to Bishop and that's that's exactly what I remember her saying. Then Michael came in. Okay. And you told Michael that y'all should take her to the hospital. Before I left, I asked Michael to come to the foyer with me. And I told Michael exactly what had taken place and that I wanted to take her to the hospital. And I think you even offered to pay for it.

I would have. I would have paid it. Because you didn't want the cost of care getting in the way of getting the help that Sarah needed. Exactly. When you told David Owen that he must have had questions for you, follow-up questions, do you remember what he said? No, I don't. OK, but you just saw him write it down. So there are a few important things to note here because the defense referred

to this as evidence of Sarah Lynn planning to kill herself. They repeatedly use the word plan and they repeatedly refer to this conversation as evidence of Sarah Lynn wanting to actually kill herself. And because of that, the judge and some people in the media repeated it back that same way. Sarah Lynn wanting to hang herself. But did you hear what Barbara was really saying here? Sarah Lynn was having a rough time and she was open enough to share with her mother that she had these thoughts today, in that day, which is important. She wasn't talking about generally wanting to kill herself.

She was referencing in that conversation how she felt about that day. But more importantly, Sarah Lynn did not hang herself in the garage. She said this was because of her children, her daughter Bishop and stepdaughter Milan. This is a conversation for another day, but Sarah Lynn's open expression of how she felt and her threats to Michael in texts, including that she was going to shoot herself in the woods, could be seen as signs of a cry for help and attention rather than actual premonitions about how she would die. And I'm sure people in the mental health field

would have some statistics or thoughts to share on the number of people who say the things Sarah Lynn was saying who do not go on to actually kill themselves versus the number of people who say nothing and then do. Anyway, another big point here is Barbara's recollection was ultimately that her daughter took back what she said about suicide in an emotional state. Attorney Bill McGuire kept asking Barbara if David Owen had written anything down

during the interview and Barbara, like anyone would 10 years later, had a hard time recalling such details. She mentioned her husband, Sarah Lynn's sweet father, was at this meeting with David Owen. Tragically, he died waiting for justice for his daughter. McGuire also asked Barbara a series

of somewhat strange questions about the beverage they drank during that meeting, which turned out to be Kool-Aid. And then he launched his attack. He played a clip from the 2018 trial in which prosecutor Megan Birchstedt was questioning Barbara, which he later played again for Megan. In this clip, Barbara begins to share what sounds like the story of the conversation

that she had that day with Sarah Lynn. And Megan repeatedly stops her from saying what Sarah Lynn told her. You'll hear those clips in a second, but what's interesting is from our perspective in 2024, it really did sound like this part of the testimony was about Sarah Lynn's alcohol use because Megan asked Barbara, you wanna get her help, right, for drinking. really did sound like this part of the testimony was about Sarah Lynn's alcohol use because

Megan asked Barbara, you want to get her help, right? For drinking. When we both listened to this testimony again in preparation for the retrial, it stood out to both of us that Megan kept interrupting Barbara. And we both knew that this can happen when an attorney is trying to prevent a hearsay issue. and we both knew that Andy Savage had submitted enough pretrial motions before the first trial to wrap an entire courthouse in them, asking the judge to limit what the prosecution could say during questioning. But it still stuck out because it seemed like Menken was being a bit harsh with Barbara back in 2018 and almost treating her like she was about to do something wrong. Now we know the reason this stood out.

Here is what Barbara said when Bill McGuire questioned her further on why this interruption for Meghan kept happening. So when the prosecutor is saying don't say what she said, don't say what she said, it seems to me like the only thing that Sarah said to you was if it wasn't for the girls coming home, I would have hung myself in this garage. Is that what the prosecutor is referencing when she says don't say what she said? She didn't want you to say that, right? I don't know.

I think I wasn't supposed to say, I don't know. That's all I can tell you is I don't know. I don't know what somebody was thinking. I mean, I know what I answered. And I don't think that I was supposed to do anything that I said, any questioning. I couldn't say what she said. It had to be things that I witnessed. I don't know. I'm sorry, I don't know. So for the record, we have to say that our hearts hurt for Barbara today. This is not her fault. The state failed her family time and time again and further punished her by putting her in the middle of yesterday's tragic turn of events. But what Barbara seems to be referring to is hearsay, which we'll talk about more

in a minute. On cross, prosecutor Kenley Abbey asked Barbara to remember the times she met with prosecutor Megan Birchstedt before the 2018 trial and asked her if she remembered telling Megan about the garage conversation. Barbara said that she didn't remember doing that. And a quick word about Kenley Abbey, by the way. It is a shame that Kenley didn't get to prosecute this case. Because from what we saw yesterday, it looked like this could have been her big Creighton

energy moment. She was gentle when she needed to be, she was confident, and clearly informed. More importantly, she seemed to want to be there. She seemed prepared. But the opportunity to show the state of South Carolina what she was made of was ripped from her because of another prosecutor in her office and, frankly, because of her boss, Alan Wilson's, lack of concern for justice in this case for the past 10 years. Kenley could have won this case.

We all saw that in her eyes yesterday." Again, Barbara did not remember a specific incident of telling Megan Burchett about the garage conversation. She remembered telling David Owen, who on June 11th, admitted to knowing this and said he couldn't find it anywhere that he had written this down. A quick note about David Owen. He is now retired from SLED, and Elick Murdoch accused him of lying to the grand jury in his murder case. During David Owen's testimony, the defense's theory seemed to be that David was working in the same office as Special Agent Ryan Kelly, whose wife was friends with Sarah Lynn Kaluci during

high school and lived with the Moors her senior year, and that David did not document the conversation out of loyalty to Ryan. David, however, denied knowing this about Ryan's wife. At this point in the hearing, the questions for us were these. Did David Owen purposely not write down this information? He says no. Is it reasonable for us to believe that? Sure.

Happens to us all the time, though this is incredibly irritating that an investigator in a murder case would be sloppy like this. Is it reasonable to believe that David Owen, who at the time procured phone records and mental health records of Sarah Lins, considered the information about the conversation to be redundant to what was already known? That Sarah Lynn was depressed, dealing with addiction issues, and made threats of suicide around the time of her death, and maybe that's why he forgot to document it. Because to him, maybe it wasn't new information, despite the mention of hanging being very

relevant to the case. Maybe. In his final question, Joel Kozak asked David Owen point blank if he let the prosecution know about the suicide statement from the garage conversation. David said no. Now it is time to talk about Megan Burchdead, because when she was called to the stand on Tuesday, everything changed. According to sources at the courthouse on Tuesday, Megan did not view this situation as her fault whatsoever, and she was giving off Hornet's Nest energy before she was even called to the stand.

Now, like we said, we've been unimpressed with Megan's courtroom abilities and attitudes since we first saw her in Paul Murdoch's hearings in 2019. We expected very little from Megan after that and after seeing how she handled the first Calucci trial. But we did not expect this. Listen to the energy this woman brought into the courtroom. Good morning, Ms. Barlison. Good morning, Ms. Barleson. Hi. I'm sorry that we had to subpoena you on such short notice. Could you start by telling me your name, please? No.

Okay. And I don't think you're sorry, but thank you for that. Go ahead. I need to ask you questions. You don't get to ask questions. You are an attorney, right? I'm aware, yeah. I think it's polite to tell me who you are but go ahead. Okay well I

started with an apology and I was getting to that before you interrupted me so I am sorry that we had to subpoena you on short notice. Actually you didn't have to on short notice I think you knew and you could have done a little bit better but thank you again go ahead. Can you tell me what you mean by that? I think you probably knew for quite some time you needed my testimony. Ma'am, let me stop you. Yes, sir. Answer the question.

Do not go where you think you're going on with this or you will find yourself in contemptive court. Do you understand that? I do, Your Honor. Stop the editorializing. Answer the question. Yes, sir. That's your warning.

Don't do it again. I understand, Judge. So, yikes. I promise you, if Judge Young said this thing to either of us, we would both melt into the floor of the courtroom in shame. But not Megan. Megan forged ahead with her defensive and combative attitude with the vibes of a fierce mosquito. It was hard to watch as a woman who typically thoroughly enjoys other women being sassy

to men. But girl, this was not the time. This is a 10-year murder case. Be serious! Bill McGuire took complete advantage of Meghan coming off as unhinged. It's almost like he predicted it. Here's Bill questioning Meghan about her time on the Colucci case. So you prosecuted the case against Michael Colucci in 2018?

Correct. Okay. And David Owen was the lead investigator? For SLED, yes. For SLED, yes. For SLED. And have you learned that David Owen was in possession of information that he got through an interview of Barbara Moore, where Barbara Moore told him that Sarah made the statement two weeks before she passed that if it wasn't for the girls coming home I would hang myself in this garage. I don't know

what you mean by learned I've received a phone call from the prosecutor Joel Kozak asking me something along those lines and I was shocked so I don't know what you mean by learned I have not been given detail and I've certainly not talked to anybody at length about it. Okay. So the first time you heard this information was from Joel? Correct. Okay.

That specific statement, yes, and I would not say he gave all those details. I don't remember the full extent of our conversation. Okay. Well, so you're not aware that David Owen in 2015 knew that Sarah said two weeks before she died that she would hang herself in her own garage. I don't know what he knew but I certainly never talked to David Owen about that. Okay, he never told you that? No. If he had told me that, I would have been shocked and that's something we would have turned over. Okay, so in preparation for trial in 2018, you would have met with Miss Moore. Sure, I'm sure we met more than

once. Of course. And she told you about a day, about two weeks before Sarah's death, that she went over to Sarah's house. Do you remember that?" I do not remember that. Notice she says that she does not remember that? Well, the defense was prepared for her to say that, so they replayed the same clip from Barbara's 2019 testimony, where Meghan seemed to cut Barbara off. We'll be back to that after a quick commercial,

and we'll be right back. Okay, so as mean old Meghan was on the stand, positioning herself exactly how the defense wanted her, Bill McBride played the same clip for the court, showing the 2018 testimony exchange between Barbara and Meghan. Gosh, honey, what's the matter? She's sitting in the chair. That's not saying anything that she said. Okay. It's all right. Take a minute. Just describe how she was acting. Did she appear upset or happy? She was very upset. She was crying.

Her face was all swollen. Did you get an understanding in that interaction with her of what was upsetting her? I did not. What I said, honey, what in the world does it matter? And she just said, okay. Don't say anything that she said. Okay.

So following this interaction with her, did you? How did you feel? I was very concerned. I felt like that Sarah Lynn needed to go. She needed some help because and I felt it was her drinking. I really did. There was an open beer can on the table of cider and so you want to get her help? I wanted to take her to the hospital because I felt like she needed help for drinking. She needed alcoholic help. And it wasn't,

did you send, is this the Wednesday prior to her death or two Wednesdays prior? This is what this is two Wednesdays prior. So approximately two weeks before her death. So did you see Michael that evening? I did. He came home. Really I had not been there very long but he came home and she was you know I mean he saw how upset she was and crying she was. and did you tell him that you wanted to get her somehow I did and what was his response he asked me to he said if you just pick the girls up from school worried Barbara and take them home let me spend the night with you tonight he said I can call her down she's upset because Camilla which was his first wife had called and I don't know what that was

about but the reason she was upset was because of this interaction. And he said, I can calm her down. I went and did exactly what he asked me to. I picked up the girls from school. I took them home. I spent the night with me. I called him and she was gone. And I spoke with her the next day she was fine. So like we said this testimony is from 2018 and it seems like the same conversation that Barbara said she had with Sarah Lynn where Sarah Lynn brought up hanging and suicide and when Barbara wanted to take Sarah Lynn to a mental health facility and yet

somehow Megan's questioning and her interruptions and the timing of them created this illusion that what they were actually talking about was substance abuse and rehab. Huh. And I say huh because now that we know what that conversation in the garage was about, it's kind of hard not to see it. That Megan seems to have known about this conversation in 2018. So when was she told and why didn't she pass that on to the defense? Now this is the part when we began to appreciate just how smart and crafty Michael Colucci's attorneys were and also like we said lucky because Megan played right into their trap.

Not only was she surly and defensive from the very start, she gave them the answer they clearly predicted she would give that she stopped Barbara more from saying what Sarah Lynn said that day because it would be hearsay. Again, we'll talk about hearsay in a minute. First let's listen to what Megan says about it. So when you asked her those questions, and you're very careful, don't say what she said, don't say what she said. Are you aware of the fact that really the only thing Sarah said to Barbara on that day

is that if it wasn't for the girls, I would hang myself in this garage? No, I do not recall that. What I recall is trying to be careful because I do follow the rules. I'm trying to be careful not to mistry a case by having hearsay and as I recall, there was some discussion that we shouldn't get into drug usage and things like that which I think is why she was talking about alcohol. That's all I remember. I wouldn't ever get into what someone said outside of court. Beyond that I don't recall. So obviously you had a conversation with Barbara Moore about that day that she described Sarah being upset, crying, right?

Must have, yeah. I mean, of course, you're an attorney. Prepared for trial. Right. You're going to prep for trial. Sure. And you're going to ask her questions about, well, what did Sarah say?

What was going on? Give me all the information you have about that day. You would have asked those questions. I would assume, yeah. And she would have told you what she said was, if it wasn't for the girls coming home, I'd hate, I would have hung myself in this garage. She would have told you that. I do not recall that.

The first time I heard that was when Joel Kozak called me last week. And I don't even remember all the details, but I was floored when he called me last week and said that. Hang on just one second. Why did she say floored when he called me last week and said that. Hang on just one second. Why did she say floored? Floored by what? Megan was a prosecutor on this case for over five years. She knew that Sarah had expressed suicidal thoughts.

She knew Sarah had a problem with drugs and alcohol. She knew Sarah was in the middle of a volatile marriage that she was desperately trying to get out of. Meghan knew, heck everyone listening to this podcast knew, that Sarah said things that she didn't mean in the weeks leading up to her death. Why would Meghan be floored at all by that comment? When she says the words like floored and shocked, Meghan elevated the meaning of the evidence at stake. She gave it weight, like it was something incredibly important that was hidden from

her by sled throughout the case. But this statement would have been considered null all along by the prosecution and the defense. She said she would have hanged herself that day if she didn't have kids. And she even said, Mom, I wouldn't do that to you. These were not generalized expressions of suicide, at least not the examples that we have seen so far. But rather, they were specific in-the-moment comments or threats that she didn't follow through on.

So why is Meghan saying that she was floored and shocked to learn about this conversation? A conversation that she knew a lot of other details about, like Sarah's puffy eyes from crying, and a conversation that she kept telling Barbara not to elaborate on during that 2018 trial. Now obviously, Meghan could have been saying that she was floored to find out that evidence existed that wasn't passed on to the defense, but she clearly knew about the conversation when you analyzed her 2018 direct questioning of Barbara, which Michael's defense team clearly did. Meghan is a product of the good old girls system in South Carolina, who tend to have

the same wonky moral compass but less power than their male counterparts. Something I've learned about the good old girls. They are always about self-preservation." So was Meghan protecting herself when she claimed that she was floored by this information? Because if she knew all along and made it a point to hide it from the defense, she could get her law license revoked. But who are we kidding? This is South Carolina. I'm not even sure we have a bar that does that anymore." Anyway, the trap was set. Bill McGuire then played a second clip of Meghan questioning Barbara Moore.

Okay. I'm going to get you to watch a little bit more of the director, Barbara Moore, and then we'll do the second clip. Do you know if she was working nights at the time of her death? or a few weeks after that. Do you know if she was working much at the time of her death? She was not. Why do you think that? The understanding that I have is that she and Michael had some kind of an altercation or argument

at the jewelry store. And she said she was never going back there. She would never go back to work. So that would be a hearsay statement, right? Well, I'm only half paying attention to what she's saying there because I'm confused about where this line of questions is even going, but that would be more of an action that they

would go someplace. I think that was her actions that she went to the jewelry store. Well, she said she was not going to go to the jewelry store. Okay, that's an action. So that is a hearsay statement, no? No, that's not up for further truth necessarily. It's an action. What she was physically going to do is state of mind.

Okay. Sure. necessarily it's an action what she was physically going to do a state of mind okay so sure I so when you were prepping Barbara Moore you were okay with her saying something Sarah said but not the part about the hanging I don't recall anything about a hanging sir why didn't you admonish her don't say what Sarah said in that exchange well probably in that, I kind of gave up and or it wasn't necessary in that moment. I don't know. We all know they went to the jewelry store. That wasn't something secret.

I don't know. I can't tell you what I was thinking six years ago. You have the transcript. Presumably you know more about it than I do at this point. And in fact, I would assume you have everything that the attorney general's office has needed to turn over to you, which would have been my nose. To the extent necessary. So that put Megan in a real tight spot

because even though the prosecution on cross-examination showed that Megan also stopped Barbara from saying things when recounting moments that were not related to the conversation with Sarah Lynn, Megan's reasoning here just doesn't ring true. First, she denied it was hearsay and tried to say it was an action, which is, I don't get that. Because hearsay is essentially like this.

I saw Dick Harpullian crying and whining the other day. Now that is not hearsay if you did in fact see that. And then Dick said that he is better looking than Jerry from Parks and Recreation, who is playing him in the Hulu show. Now see, in a court of law, that could be hearsay if Dick is not there to testify as to whether he said that or not. Again, that is a very oversimplified example. But what Barbara says Sarah Lynn said to her in that conversation, that is hearsay, but because it speaks to Sarah Lynn's state of mind in proximity to her death, which her husband, the defendant, says was a suicide by hanging, it's relevant and therefore likely admissible. And Megan would know that. But also maybe Megan

was told about this conversation and the hanging and suicide part were left out when she was told it. That's a benefit of the doubt I'm throwing out there for her. But even still, by cutting Barbara off at the times that she did, she clearly knew something big had happened in that conversation involving something that Sarah Lynn said. Now, the way to prove that Meghan knew about the conversation, just not the parts about hanging and suicide and mental health hospital, is for someone to look through the case file and see if Meghan memorialized that. If that exists, certainly I would think the prosecution would have had that at the ready yesterday to show that Meghan was given bad information back in the day, but they didn't do that.

And given Barbara's clear efforts to answer questions as honestly as she could, even when the answer wasn't flattering to Sarah Lynn or necessarily helpful to the state's case, it's sort of hard to imagine Barbara telling Meghan the same story she told David, but changing the details so it seemed more about rehab. Which brings us back to did Megan know about the conversation? Who told her? And when did they tell her? Okay, so there were other sort of telling moments for Megan on the stand.

She was very much the, I don't recall, I don't remember, how dare you ask me these questions, girl. And she told the court that she never met with Barbara alone, that she always had someone there with her to help memorialize what was said. So that's weird because again, if a conversation like the one Megan questioned Barbara about on the stand in 2018, one that Megan says was not about Sarah Lynn saying she would have hanged herself that day. If that existed, then surely that would have been memorialized, right? And surely we would have seen evidence of it Tuesday. Also, not for

nothing, Joel Kozak and Kinley Abe looked mortified by Megan's behavior, and I think that says a lot. Anyway, when Megan got off the stand and stormed her way out of the courtroom, seemingly giving Joel Kozak a dirty look, it became instantly clear that the defense was not done with her. Here is where the defense went for the kill shot in making Megan look as shady as humanly possible. And just like that, things went from bad to worse for Megan and the prosecution. They called a man named Ed Langford to the stand to testify about when he recently served Megan Birchstedt for this case.

While we were watching this live on YouTube, we were all like, why is a process server testifying? This is so irrelevant and stupid and a waste of time. But hindsight is 20-20 and man, did this help their narrative to make Megan look mischievous and malicious. Essentially, the Process Server said it was hard to serve Megan. She dodged him for several minutes when he visited her home in Columbia. Here is a clip for you to get the picture.

What was her demeanor? She was very, very angry. About being served? I believe so. You were able to effect service on her? I was. And before being a private investigator, I mean, you have experienced

criminal investigations, obviously. I do. And you own your own company Tracker Investigations? For the past 29 years, yes. Okay. And in your experience in working on criminal cases, did all facts point to Ms. Burleson trying to evade service? That would be... That's speculation. Nothing further. Thank you, Judge. Just a minute. Do you have any questions? I've got one more question. Sorry, George.

It'll be a second. I asked you, did she say the thing to you, and we established what her demeanor was. What did she say? So, yeah, that was not good for the prosecution. And listen, I am all about women who curse and stand up for themselves, and that reaction would have been more appropriate if she wasn't a public servant and an attorney who knew exactly how a defense team would use evidence of evading service. At this point, it became even more clear that Meghan's attitude played right into the hand of Team Kaluci. She lost her credibility on the stand, and the defense team picked it up off the floor

and hurled it out the window with the P.I.'s testimony. It was not a smoking gun, but it played well for the defense, as Judge Young appeared to be taking the matter more seriously with every witness. I admit, and those who were watching with us on the premium stream saw, I did not expect him to make the decision that he made. More on that in a minute, and we'll be right back. After testimony was over, Judge Young heard final arguments from both sides, starting with Michael's attorney, Scott Bischoff. After making his first set of points, Judge Young told him that he had a strong case for

a Brady violation, but that the remedy for a Brady violation would be a new trial. And essentially, that's what this retrial was, a new trial. The judge wanted to know exactly how Michael's rights were irretrievably violated. Scott told him that by not disclosing that Sarah Lynn had used the word hanging when describing her purported desire to kill herself just two weeks before she died by what his client maintains was a hanging by suicide, his client, Michael, was deprived

of having everyone make their decisions and findings along the way, knowing that this specific thing was set. Now again, we keep saying it. It was well known to everyone that Sarah Lynn had thoughts of suicide right before her death. But this is the only piece of evidence

where the method of hanging was mentioned. And Team Kaluchi argued that the judge who signed the warrant, the judge who put a GPS monitor on Michael, the forensic investigators and pathologists who re-examined the crime scene and measured the hose, the grand jury and all the expert witnesses should have had this information along the way with everything else that was known at the time. And that David Owen's admission of knowing this sometime after taking over the case is

a huge violation. Which again, Judge Young seemed to agree with, but it seemed like he needed to hear more about why the defense thought it warranted a dismissal. And that's where I think intent comes into play. Like I said, it's not a hard stretch to believe that David Owen made a mistake, but not on purpose. And given the rest of the evidence, an argument could definitely be made that the new trial solved that problem, especially because this new legal team had two years to prepare knowing about this conversation. But Megan, that is a hard hurdle to get over. Here is Scott talking to Judge Young again.

We've got all this other information out there to support that David Elman's plan to bury this information was strategic and intentional. You've seen the clip, Judge, from the last trial where the lead prosecutor is conducting direct examination of Barbara Moore. And at one point, she proactively and explicitly says, don't say anything she said, despite not stopping Barbara Moore from giving hearsay testimony on why Sarah doesn't go to the jewelry store anymore because she told me that it was because of the fight she helped Michael. That was just prior to the statement that you saw in that video clip where Megan Birkstead,

now Burleson who just testified, stopped Barbara Moore from talking about what Sarah said on May 20th, I'm sorry, on May, she believes, 6th, 2015, or 2015, when she's in the garage crying, upset, and she testified. She stops her from saying that in a way that it's illogical to think that she wasn't aware of what she was going to say during that direct examination. You don't stop your witness on direct from making a hearsay statement. That's what the defense does. You stop it because you know it's going to hurt your case. That's the whole point of objecting to evidence. You're trying to stop evidence from coming in. It's big you believe it's going to hurt your case. That's the whole point of objective to evidence or trying to stop evidence from coming in is that you believe it's going to hurt your case. It is impossible to think that Megan Bergstead prepped for trial was told about that

situation in the garage, the bar and Sarah, and that why I would never mention to her that Sarah said, I'm going to hang myself if it works for the girls coming home. crying, face swelling, drinking by herself. It really is unconscionable thing that Barbara did not tell Megan Birchdad about the specifics of that conversation. And we know she had to know something, despite getting on the stand and consistently saying, I don't recall.

I don't recall. Over and over again. Perhaps that's code language to avoid a perjury statement. She recalls what happened, but yet now they're in the bind of having to explain that they knew about it. And we believe that the reliability of the way that exchange happens on direct examination is clear proof that she was aware of it, and she did nothing to tell the defense about it because it would hurt their case. Judge, it's worth mentioning that this is not something that just involves a witness statement that may be able to be used as impeachment or a witness statement that got shuffled, lost in the mix with numerous other witnesses.

This is a statement from the mother of the deceased who testified at trial that she was told by her daughter she had a plan to hang herself and she did it in the coming days. That's the statement that we're dealing with. I believe it's imperative for the court to consider how significant that statement is, how it's really created this cancer that's going to drive the entire case. Everybody's been affected by confirmation bias from that information. But the court has the ability to do that your honor is to exercise its power, its inherent supervisory power. It's inherent supervisory power.

And to dismiss the indictment, either with prejudice or without prejudice, we believe that misconduct rises to the level of egregiousness. He made a good point. It is impossible to think of a scenario where Megan knew all of these vivid details about the garage conversation, but no one ever mentioned to her the big part about Sarah Lynn saying that she would hang

herself if it wasn't for the kids. And then, when Barbara Moore was so close to revealing that tidbit on the stand, Megan unknowingly blocked her from revealing the most important part of the garage conversation. The part that she never knew about? It is tough to imagine. And again, what I hate the most about this is that the defense was able to mischaracterize the garage conversation in their final plea, and no one argued against it. What Sarah Lynn said that day was not a suicide plan, and it certainly was not one that she followed through with.

It was a comment that she made and immediately walked back. It was a cry for help in a bad moment. It was a comment she never imagined would be used against her in court to free the man accused of murdering her. And yet, here we are. Scott Bischoff continued with his argument as to why this misconduct warranted more

than just a new trial. In this next segment, he claimed that the whole case was poisoned because the indictment was presented to the grand jury without this information. And Judge, I'll just tell you that's just one of the reasons we believe that the Brady violation has violated Michael Kloosch's constitutional rights. There are others that specifically address the forensic pathologist. We know confirmation bias exists.

We know that. There's been studies about it. What he did is he facilitated that confirmation bias in the forensic pathologist. So he could never get the information directly from them at the time prior to a warrant being issued, prior to a grand jury presentment, that perhaps that would change someone's opinion.

But it's just not that. It's also the fact that he presents the warrant to a judge for consideration for arresting Michael. He presents that information, or does not present that information, to a judge presiding over a preliminary hearing in which there's a close call of whether or not he's thought to be bound over. And he didn't present it to the grand jury.

Again, the case law on the state is very clear. They had a preliminary hearing after he was invited? That's prior to. Okay. Prior to indictment. There was a preliminary hearing on October 14th. Who presented that? Was it the state?

Megan, but that was the prosecutor. Okay. At the preliminary hearing? Yes, sir. Okay. And that is when it became clear that the judge was picking up what Scott was putting down. And I think that's totally because Megan did not show herself to be a professional.

And she came off hella defensive and like she was hiding something. Because despite David knowing about this conversation early on, it could still be seen as a mistake when you compare it to the rest of the evidence. Not an intentional action, but a mistake. Meghan's actions, there just doesn't seem to be an explanation that fully adds up in her favor right now.

And believe me, Mandy and I stayed up late Tuesday night trying to map out the paths here. And Megan's always dead-ended on Shady Pants Lane. When Joel Kozak gave his final arguments, he focused on pretty much everything we've talked about today, which is that regardless of David's blunder, the defense and the forensic examiners and pathologists all knew about Sarah Lynn's state of mind at the time of her death, that there was depressed doesn't mean she killed herself by hanging the night of May 20, 2015. I do wish he would have said that everything the defense maintains about Sarah Lynn's state of mind could also speak to Michael's guilt. Because did he become enraged at her behavior that night? Was he sick of caretaking a mentally ill wife? There are so many questions to ask. Anyway, maybe it wasn't the time or place for Joel to say that, but he did mention this and it is important.

Your Honor, he keeps bringing up the fact that the pathologist needed this stuff to rely on, ignoring the fact that the majority of the pathologist's work is the autopsy in diagnosing those internal injuries. He's free to ask her if knowing that she had made this statement prior to her report being filed, that would have changed her opinion. He's happy to ask that and accept the answer that she gives. After hearing from Joel, Judge Young ordered court at recess, saying he would return in a little bit with the decision. He did not return in a little bit, rather took quite some time. While we were waiting for almost two hours

for the judge to return, we thought about how he would rule. We thought for sure he would allow the trial to move forward while also admonishing the state. And then he finally came back to the courtroom and he read a handwritten statement from his legal pad. All right. Well, I've considered this matter and I want to make clear that when I speak of prosecutorial

misconduct, I want to make certain that you understand that I'm not speaking of members of the prosecuting attorneys per se, but because of state actors for whom the state is responsible. Under the case of Kyle versus Whitley, this case alleges that the husband of the deceased murdered her. And the defense claims that the deceased committed suicide in part because she was still emotionally distraught by the suicide of a previous husband. The date of this incident was right around the anniversary date of that suicide. This was a very unusual and dramatic suicide, and it was known to family

members that the deceased never got over it and had a very difficult time emotionally around the anniversary of that suicide. A critical issue in this case was that the deceased mother A critical issue in this case was that the deceased mother went to the deceased's home several days before this incident and found the deceased in a very emotional state. And she told her mother that she wanted to kill herself by hanging. But she did not want to do that to her children. And the mother was so upset that she wanted to have her hospitalized. And after the deceased died in this case, the mother has now testified that she told the lead investigator about that incident within a few days.

The lead investigator denies that she told him at that time and he buttresses his story by pointing out the mother hand wrote out her statement and she did not mention this prior statement or this prior incident in the written statement. The defendant was indicted at the first trial ending in the mistrial. The mother did not mention the prior incident at that trial because she was cut off by the prosecutor when she started to talk about what the deceased said. Prosecutors testified that she cut her off because of hearsay concerns. I note there was never any attempt by anyone to allow the mother to testify about the deceased

statement under 8033 under our rules of evidence so the court never ruled on it. But while it was known to all that the deceased suffered from severe drug and alcohol abuse and was being treated by a psychiatrist at the time of her death, evidence was presented at trial of the same. It's very troubling that the evidence that the deceased made specific threats of wanting to kill herself just days before she died. This information was kept from the jury. By state action or inaction, had the defendant been convicted, this court has no doubt it would have been considered a Brady violation and the defendant would have been granted

a new trial. The beginning of a new trial is exactly where we find ourselves today. The state argues with some authority and precedent that basically this court should treat it as the equivalent of no harm, no foul, and that now that this information is known, it can be presented to the jury who can evaluate it and give it whatever way it determines it deserves

in arriving at a verdict. Indeed, this court believes that it is a choice among several that would no doubt be upheld on appeal if this trial were to go forward and the defendant was convicted. However, this court believes that our courts should demand better from the state and to simply allow this trial to go forward with so many witnesses such as pathologists having been denied the opportunity to have this critical knowledge available to them when that material was fresh amounts to a foul with a harm. Therefore this court is quashing this indictment without prejudice and ordering that if the

state wants to retry the defendant, it is to do so only after the case has been resubmitted to a grand jury who shall have the benefit of the full measure of evidence this matter deserves. This court recognizes this is an unusual remedy. However, this is an unusual case. This court urges the attorney general to present a fuller case to the grand jury than is usually done in state court in South Carolina. The goal is to do justice and this case deserves a fresh restart in order that the citizens of South Carolina can have full confidence in whatever the jury's verdict may be.

It is so moral. So that was surreal. And it was very surprising to us and seemingly to everyone, including the defense. I could tell you what Michael did right after it was announced, but who cares? Now there are two big things I want to say here. One is that I fully put the blame of this decision on Megan Birchstedt's shoulders. If this was just an oversight, the result of a mistake, and if she cared one bit about this case being tried, she would have come to

the courtroom correct. She would have been professional and open and not hostile. Even though Scott's point is unavoidable, that it's really hard to imagine a scenario in which Meghan did not know about that conversation and still had that line of questioning in 2018 and still did what she did during Barbara's testimony with the interrupting, it made it even harder to imagine this when considering Meghan's attitude Tuesday. The second point is this. Here is what Attorney General Alan Wilson said Wednesday about the Calucci case. Yesterday in a court hearing regarding the case against Michael Calucci, Judge Roger Young quashed the indictment without prejudice, which means the state can reevaluate

the case and remedy any issues addressed by the court's order before another trial. We respect the decision of the court and note that Judge Young did not find intentional misconduct by prosecutors from the Attorney General's office. Uh, excuse me, Alan. Judge Young did not find intentional misconduct. What? All misconduct would have some sort of intention attached to it, I would imagine. But where did he say that?

Oh, right, he didn't. He said that he wanted to make it clear that he wasn't talking about the prosecuting attorneys per se, meaning perhaps the ones at the table who did the right thing both times, they were presented with information about this conversation. I believe the per se part was for them, not Megan. Read between the lines. And sure, we understand that the judge's decision is explicitly based on the idea that Michael was deprived of the right to have this information available to everyone from the start.

But given the things he said in the courtroom and his line of questioning before going into chambers to decide, it seems to us that perception weighed into his decision here and that's the perception that this information was willfully kept from the defense. And because of that willful decision, it means the state willfully trampled on Michael's rights. And if they willfully trampled on Michael's rights, that is an acknowledgement that the prosecution believed the information from that conversation in the garage would hold weight in the decisions being made along the way. Without Meghan's villainous performance on Tuesday, the defense, who again were surprised at the decision, would have had something different. Hypothetically, if the truth was

that Meghan was told about the conversation and it didn't have any of those details attached to it and that David Owen never gave her that information, we wouldn't be here. On the other hand, if Meghan knew and didn't pass it on to the defense, then that is prosecutorial misconduct. And it would be intentional, right? And if that is the case, shame on her.

And I hope the Office of Disciplinary Counsel is paying attention because there is real damage here. All Michael Colucci's case has proven to us so far is exactly what we have said all along. There are two systems of justice in South Carolina. If you throw enough money or diamonds and attorneys to comb through every detail of your case, chances are they will find something that sticks, and you can in fact purchase your freedom in this state. It is designed that way, and I hope that Alan Wilson, who is running for governor, understands the message that he is sending in this case. Same old, same old in South Carolina.

Elick Murdoch was all a show. The system was built to protect men like him, and it will stay that way, as long as people like Alan Wilson are in charge. That said, now is the time to speak up and be pesky. Go to the link in the description and we will also be sharing this on social media and make sure that Attorney General Alan Wilson hears your voices. Make those voices loud. Demand justice.

Demand that he present this case to the grand jury again. Tell him he owes it to Sarah Lynn, Barbara Moore, and Sarah Lynn's daughter, Bishop. After Court Tuesday, Scott Bischoff spoke with reporters outside the courthouse and was emotional about the decision and the work that it took to get there. He was earnest and used the opportunity to speak about prosecutorial misconduct and how important this decision was for other cases moving forward. He said he believed in Michael, which agreed to disagree there, and if they have to try the case in the future, he believes there's enough evidence to prove that

Sarah Lynn killed herself that night. We believe the opposite. We believe that there is an abundance of evidence showing that she did not. Because no matter what Sarah Lynn thought, said, or felt in the moments leading up to her death, it does not mean that she killed herself. And the evidence, in our opinion, seems to clearly show that something else happened. And if we're right about that, only one person knows what that was." So let the jury decide. Let Joel Kozak and Kenley Abbey show what the Attorney General's office is made of. Show the public that the AG's office is not corrupt. Show the public that Megan Birchdead is not what the AG's office stands for.

Allen Wilson, it is time for you to take a minute off of your campaign for governor and from your shiny shoe-licking nationally and show the state of South Carolina that you can be a tireless leader. Because right now you've seem kind of wimpy. Again, our thoughts are with Sarah Lynn's family and we hope that they will one day get justice. Stay tuned, stay pesky, and stay in the sunlight. True Sunlight is a Lunashark production created by me, Mandy Matney. Co-hosted and reported by journalist Liz Farrell. Research support provided by Beth Braden. Audio production support provided by Jamie Hoffman.

Case file management provided by Kate Thomas. Learn more about our mission and membership at lunasharkmedia.com. Interruptions provided by Luna and Joe Pesci.