Judge expected to rule next week on request to dismiss Alex Murdaugh murder charges

LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. (WTOC) - A judge is expected to decide next week whether to dismiss the murder charges against Alex Murdaugh after his attorneys argued Friday that a state investigator misled the grand jury that indicted him.

Murdaugh’s defense team alleged that the lead South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agent lied in grand jury testimony and presented fabricated evidence. Prosecutors denied those allegations, saying investigators presented what they reasonably believed to be accurate at the time and that other evidence supported the indictment.

No ruling was made at Friday’s hearing. If the judge dismisses the charges, prosecutors could seek new indictments from a grand jury.

Murdaugh was convicted in 2023 of killing his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, in Colleton County in 2021. The South Carolina Supreme Court later granted him a new trial, which is scheduled for April 5 of next year.

Evidence challenged

The defense presented its arguments in a courtroom presentation focused in part on shell casings and guns found on the property where Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were killed, as well as a T-shirt Murdaugh wore that night.

Murdaugh’s attorneys argued that no gun found on the property was loaded in the way used to kill Paul. They also said initial testing did not find blood on Murdaugh’s shirt, but that the agent testified to the grand jury that blood was present.

“It’s false, it’s fabricated, it was made from whole cloth from the jump. From the word jump, it was made up,” defense attorney Jim Griffin said.

Griffin argued that the disputed testimony could have influenced the grand jury’s decision to indict Murdaugh.

Prosecutors said the agent presented information he understood to be true at the time and argued that any inaccuracies were not significant enough to warrant dismissing the indictment. They said their expert stands by the shirt evidence and that evidence supports the account of mixed gunshot loads at the scene.

“This was not overtly false. This was what the agent, uh, um, understood at the time. And it’s ultimately not something, uh, that would cause a substantial effect, uh, on the grand jury or cast grave doubt when we look at all the other evidence that was presented during this presentation,” lead prosecutor Creighton Waters said.

Waters also pointed to evidence prosecutors say placed Murdaugh at the scene with the victims shortly before their deaths.

What happens next

The judge has continued preparing for the retrial, asking both sides to provide potential jury questions by January.

She also asked whether the state could be ready to seek a new indictment if she grants the dismissal.

A dismissal would not prevent prosecutors from bringing the case back before a grand jury.