Murdaugh trial: Alex Murdaugh brought tarp to mother's home night of double murders, witness says

SLED forensic technician Jamie Hall displays Alex Murdaugh's tennis shoes, which she prepared for GSR testing after the double homicide. (Fox News)

Former SLED technician Jamie Hall, who prepared evidence for gun residue analysis after the double murder, described Alex Murdaugh's shirt as "freshly laundered" in her notes.

Alex's green cargo shorts, tennis shoes and a white Hanes T-shirt were collected after Paul Murdaugh, 22, had his head blown off with a shotgun and Maggie Murdaugh, 52, was executed with a rifle June 7, 2021.

“It smelled freshly laundered which is not typical of the clothing in the lab, which usually smells slightly musky when we get it,” Hall told jurors in the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina.

She noted "small, reddish-brown stains" on the T-shirt but couldn't identify what these were from. Hall also prepared the poncho-style blue raincoat recovered from the home of Alex's parents on Sept. 16, 2021.

In opening statements, Assistant Attorney General Creighton Waters said the inside of the raincoat was coated in gun residue -- but prosecutors have had trouble linking the jacket directly to Alex.

Hall was the 32nd witness called by the state since the trial began.

Brooklynn White, Buster Murdaugh and Lynn Murdaugh arrive at the Colleton County Courthouse after a lunch break on Monday, February 6, 2023 in Walterboro, South Carolina.(Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)

Buster Murdaugh and his girlfriend, Brooklynn White, along with Alex Murdaugh's sister, Lynn Murdaugh, on Monday afternoon returned to Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial in Colleton County after a lunch break.

Alex Murdaugh is charged with gunning down his wife Maggie Murdaugh and youngest son Paul Murdaugh on June 7, 2021 at the family's Islandton hunting estate, Moselle.

Alex Murdaugh's family members have been in court everyday since the trial began with opening statements Jan. 25, 2023.

The former attorney faces a total of 99 financial criminal charges stemming from 19 indictments.

South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) special agent Kristin Moore, who is with the crime scene unit, testified Monday that she executed a search warrant at Alex's parents' home in Almeda in September 16, 2021, and located a blue, tarp-like raincoat on the third floor of the house.

The search for the blue tarp was triggered by a caregiver to Alex's mom, Shelley Smith, who said that Alex came by one week after the double slaying with a balled up blue tarp that appeared to have something inside it.

Mallory Beach's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Murdaughs in 2019 after she died aboard their boat. (Beaufort County Sheriff)

WALTERBORO, S.C. – After Paul Murdaugh drunkenly crashed his boat into a bridge, killing 19-year-old passenger Mallory Beach in 2019, the Murdaugh family was given special treatment at the crime scene, a lawyer testified Monday. 

The victim's distraught mother, Renee Beach, wanted to go down to the Archer Creek Bridge in Beaufort, South Carolina, where the boat crash had occurred, but the scene was cordoned off, the family's attorney Mark Tinsley said.

"[Renee Beach] is told she can’t go down there and just a few minutes later Alex’s father and his wife pulled up in a car and are waved under the tape, and they go down to the bridge, and she was very upset by that," said Tinsley, who represents the Beach family in their wrongful death lawsuit against the Murdaughs.

Alex's father, Randolph Murdaugh III, was the top prosecutor overseeing South Carolina's Lowcountry until 2005 – including Beaufort County where the accident occurred. The family wielded enormous influence in the region.

After witnessing the favoritism shown to the powerful Murdaugh family, Renee Beach called Tinsley – setting in motion an unthinkable spiral of destruction. 

Read the full story on Tinsley's testimony on boat crash litigation.

Split of Randolph 'Randy' Murdaugh IV and Curtis 'Cousin Eddie' Smith who are both expected to testify this week.(Mark Sims for Fox News Digital/ Colleton County Sheriff's Office)

Prosecutors are expected to call Curtis “Cousin Eddie” Smith to the stand this week to testify against Alex Murdaugh, according to a source.

The disgraced family patriarch is accused of hiring Smith in September 2021 to kill him in order for Murdaugh’s eldest son, Buster, to collect a $10 million life-insurance payout.

The source also said that Alex's brother Randolph "Randy" Murdaugh IV will testify this week for the prosecution. He is a partner at Parker Law Group, and Alex is charged with embezzling funds from the family firm.

The defense has listed several Murdaugh family members as possible witnesses, including Buster Murdaugh; Liz Murdaugh, Alex’s sister-in-law; and John Marvin Murdaugh, Alex’s brother; and  Maggie’s parents, Terry and Kennedy Branstetter.

More than 250  names are on the witness list for the murder trial of disgraced South Carolina attorney – but not all of them are expected to testify. 

Alex is accused of shooting Maggie and Paul Murdaugh to death June 7, 2021, on the family’s 1,700-acre hunting estate called Moselle in Islandton. 

The defense also listed as a potential witness former Palmetto State Bank CEO Russell Laffitte, who was convicted in federal court of helping Alex allegedly embezzle money from his law firm.

Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.

Paul Murdaugh's friend William McElveen says he was a 'great guy' Jan. 27, 2023, at Alex Murdaugh's murder trial. (Fox news)

Prosecutors called their 30th witness, William McElveen, a close friend of Paul Murdaugh.

McElveen was asked to describe Paul, who was shot to death June 7, 2021.

"Paul’s just really fun guy," McElveen testified. "The life of the party kind of guy. Everybody that really knew him loved him. Just a great guy."

The testimony upset Alex Murdaugh, who began to weep at the defense table, as he rocked back and forth.

McElveen called Paul a "very loyal friend" and "the kind of guy that was there when you needed him."

Alex and Maggie Murdaugh were welcoming to Paul's friend and treated them like family, he added. He referred to Alex as a "dad figure" to Paul's friends.

Prosecutors asked McElveen to describe the Murdaugh family's dogs: Bubba, a yellow lab,; Bourbon, a brown lab; and Grady, a black lab. They stayed in the dog kennels on the hunting estate in Islandton, South Carolina, he said.

McElveen last saw Paul two days before the slayings. They hung out a Charleston bar. After the double murder, McElveen went to Moselle June 8, 2021, to pay his respects to the family.

On cross-examination, McElveen described Paul's relationship with his father as close. "They were kind of best friends in a way," he said.

SLED agent Kristin Moore displaying a rain coat to jurors that prosecutors say was coated in gun residue. (Fox News)

Prosecutors called their 29th witness, SLED special agent Kristin Moore, who is with the crime scene unit.

Moore said she executed a search warrant at Alex's parents' home in Almeda in September 16, 2021.

"We were advised we were looking for a blue tarp like material," she said.

On the second floor, investigators found a blue tarp in a storage container and a blue raincoat in a closet.

The search for the blue tarp was triggered by a caregiver to Alex's mom, Shelley Smith, who said that Alex came by one week after the double slaying with a balled up blue tarp that appeared to have something inside it.

SLED testified they tested the rain jacket for blood and it tested negative. On cross-examination, Alex's attorney Jim Griffin asked Moore to hold up the poncho-style rain jacket.

Griffin objected to any further testimony on the raincoat after Smith insisted she witnessed Alex carrying a tarp inside the house that morning, not a raincoat.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters said in opening statements, the inside of the rain jacket was coated with gun residue.

From left to right, Buster, Maggie, Paul and Alex Murdaugh in an undated photo. (Facebook)

It is unclear if Alex Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie Murdaugh, had life insurance at the time of her death.

Prosecutors allege that Alex murdered Maggie and their youngest son, Paul Murdaugh, to prevent his alleged decade-long financial schemes from coming to light.

John Marvin Murdaugh, Alex’s brother, indicated that Maggie did not have a life insurance policy in probate filings obtained by FITS News.

But Maggie’s estate was worth close to $5 million at the time of her death – more than most insurance policies, according to Mandy Matney of the “Murdaugh Murders” podcast.

Alex appears to have had a life insurance policy. He allegedly staged a suicide attempt in September 2021 so that his eldest surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, would get a $10 million payout.

The Murdaugh family started the personal injury law firm Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick, P.A., or PMPED, in the early 20th century. 

Alex was an attorney at the firm, which made millions by suing insurance companies.

Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian greets fans while leaving the Colleton County Courthouse for a lunch break on Friday, February 3, 2023 in Walterboro, South Carolina. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)

Richard “Dick” Harpootlian and Jim Griffin are Alex Murdaugh’s lead defense attorneys in his double murder trial.

Both Harpootlian and Griffin have been practicing law for decades and have tried hundreds of cases.

Harpootlian is a South Carolina Democratic state senator, representing District 20, and a friend of President Joe Biden. His wife is the Biden-appointed U.S. Ambassador to Slovenia. 

He also served as chair of the South Carolina Democratic party between 1998 and 2003, and again between 2011 and 2013.

Before switching sides and becoming a defense attorney, Harpootlian tried a number of high-profile cases as a state prosecutor, including serial killer Donald “Pee Wee” Gaskins and a former USC President Jim Holderman for corruption.

Harpootlian, Griffin and Murdaugh all attended the University of South Carolina School of Law.

Griffin started his career as a federal prosecutor in the District of South Carolina before focusing on health care litigation. 

Griffin has “obtained multi-million-dollar verdicts and settlements for clients in civil cases,” according to his biography.

Alex has maintained his  innocence since the June 2021 murders of his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and son, Paul Murdaugh.

Alex Murdaugh speaks with attorney Dick Harpootlian during Murdaugh’s double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2023

The Murdaugh family rose to prominence in South Carolina in the early 20th century, when Alex’s great-grandfather  founded a personal injury law firm that later beared the name Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick, P.A., or PMPED.

The firm is now known as The Parker Law Group, which has offices in South Carolina’s Hampton, Colleton and Jasper counties and touts itself as “a progressive firm” dedicated to helping clients and the community.

PMPED filed a complaint against Alex Murdaugh in 2021, alleging that the lawyer was embezzling money from the firm’s clients and using those funds for personal enrichment through a fraudulent Bank of America account titled “Alexander Murdaugh d/b/a Forge.”

The firm became aware of Murdaugh’s illegal activity in September 2021, when personnel discovered a PMPED check on Murdaugh’s desk with the former lawyer’s name on it rather than the firm’s, according to court filings. 

But weeks later, the firm did a full accounting that revealed Alex's decade-long scheme to embezzle from the firm and his clients. 

The bad press from Alex’s alleged crimes led to the firm changing its name to the Parker Law Group in December 2021. His brother, Randolph “Randy” Murdaugh IV, remains a partner.

Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

Alex Murdaugh in court Jan. 31, 2023, at his double murder trial. (Andrew J. Whitaker/ The Post and Courier/ pool)

Jim Griffin grilled Shelley Smith, who looked anxious and uncomfortable on the stand, at Alex Murdaugh's South Carolina murder trial.

On cross-examination, Smith was confronted with a report that she initially told investigators that Alex visited his mother's house the night of the murders for 30 to 35 minutes.

On direct, she said Alex had tried to pressure her into saying his visit was 30 to 40 minutes when it was only 20 minutes. Smith denied ever saying Alex visited longer than 20 minutes.

The timeline is critical to Alex's alibi.

Smith also conceded that Alex's behavior wasn't unusual that night. "Is his normal behavior kind of fidgety?" asked Griffin.

"Yes, she replied.

"He's just kind of a fidgety person, right?"

"Yes," she answered.

Griffin also established that Smith didn't mention the blue tarp in her first interview with SLED after Alex's wife, Maggie Murdaugh, was shot to death with a rifle, and son, Paul Murdaugh, was executed with a shotgun.

Prosecutors have argued that the blue tarp was actually a raincoat that was coated on the inside with gunshot residue. But Griffin repeatedly asked Smith if what she saw that morning was a blue tarp, and she replied yes.

Alex Murdaugh's defense lawyer Jim Griffin unfurls a large blue tarp in front of a witness Feb. 6, 2023. (Fox News)

One week after the double murders , Alex Murdaugh showed up at his mother's home at 6:30 a.m., Shelley Smith testified.

He knocked on a window and asked her to let him in.

"Had he ever been there at 6:30 in the morning before that?" asked prosecutor John Meadors.

"No, sir, never," she replied. She said he arrived in a white truck and his mom, Libby Murdaugh, was sleeping.

"He had a blue something in his hand," she said, at one point referring to it as a tarp. He went upstairs and stashed the blue item.

He left the home then returned in a white truck that she thought was his father's. Then he left again in a black truck. He also had a bruise on his forehead, she said.

In opening statements, Creighton Waters said that investigators later retrieved a blue raincoat that was covered in gunshot residue from a closet in his mother's room at her Almeda home in South Carolina.

After Meadors ended his direct examination, Jim Griffin stepped in front of Smith and unfurled an enormous blue tarp. He asked if this is what she saw.

"Is there anyway to confuse this with a raincoat?"

"It was balled up," she replied.

Shelley Smith, the caretaker of Alex Murdaugh's mom, says he was 'fidgety' night of murders. (Fox News)

Alex Murdaugh visited his mother, who suffers from Alzheimer's, the night of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh's murders at about 9:30 p.m.

Prosecutors say his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22, were fatally shot at about 8:50 p.m. June 7, 2021, at Moselle, the family's sprawling hunting property in Islandton, South Carolina.

Alex left the house at 9:06 p.m. to visit his mother, Libby Murdaugh. Her caretaker, Shelley Smith, who worked from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., said Alex came by for 20 minutes and it was unusual for him to visit at that hour. His father had just been admitted to the hospital.

He was “fidgety with his fingers. Like he was fidgeting," she said. A few days after the slayings, Alex spoke to Smith in his mother's room. They had just had his father, Randolph Murdaugh's funeral, and were at his mother's house after the service.

"He just said he was at the house for 30 to 40 minutes," she recalled.

"Was he there 30 to 40 minutes?" asked prosecutor John Meadors.

"Not to my knowledge," she said before breaking down in tears. The conversation made her so uncomfortable, she called her brother and spoke to him about it.

The prosecutor asked her why she was crying.

"They were a good family, and I loved working there, and I’m sorry all this happened," she said.

Judge Clifton Newman, who is presiding over Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial. (Grace Beahm Alford/ The Post and Courier/ pool)

Judge Clifton Newman ruled Monday that prosecutors can present evidence of Alex Murdaugh's alleged financial crimes.

"The state argues that the logical nexus between the murders and other crimes is that the looming exposure of financial crimes provided motive for the murders and is evidence of malice, an essential element of the crime of murder," Newman said.

The judge pointed out that on the afternoon of June 7, 2021, hours before the murders, Alex was working on motions related to a hearing in the boat crash litigation scheduled for three days later. The hearing threatened to expose his decade-long financial schemes.

"I find the jury is entitled to hear whether the apparent desperation of Mr. Murdaugh because of his dire financial situation, threat of being exposed for committing the crimes, which he was later charged with, resulted in the commission of the alleged crimes," Newman said.

The jury was excused as eight financial witnesses testified last week and Monday morning to determine whether the damning evidence of Alex's alleged financial crimes could be presented at the double murder trial to prove motive.

Alex's defense lawyer Jim Griffin objected to the ruling and asked that the judge limit the scope of the financial crimes testimony. Clifton will rule on those limits before the witnesses testify before the jury.

Ronnie Crosby, Alex Murdaugh's former law partner, watches his double murder trial Feb. 2, 2023, in the Colleton County Courthouse. (Andrew J. Whitaker/ The Post and Courier/ pool)

Alex Murdaugh's former law partner at what was once known as Peters, Murdaugh, Parker Eltzroth & Detrick, testified Monday at Murdaugh’s double murder trial.

Law firm partners Ronnie Crosby, Mark Ball, Lee Cope, Danny Henderson and Randy Murdaugh met with Alex at his brother John Marvin Murdaugh's hunting lodge June 10, 2021.

Attorneys Cory Fleming and Jim Griffin were present, as well as Buster Murdaugh and John Marvin Murdaugh.

They discussed what Alex had done after returning home from work June 7, 2021 -- the night Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were gunned down.

The group met because agents with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) were set to interview each of the family members that day.

"We were there as friends to provide support and listen," Crosby testified at a hearing outside the presence of the jury. The group had been with Alex since the double murder.

After Crosby's testimony wrapped up, Judge Clifton Newman said he'd rule on whether he'll allow prosecutors to present evidence from the boat crash litigation and Alex's alleged financial crimes at the double murder trial.

Alex Murdaugh's only living son, 26-year-old Buster Murdaugh, on Monday arrived at Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, with his girlfriend, Brooklynn White, for the third week of hearings in his father's double-murder trial.

Alex Murdaugh is charged with gunning down his wife Maggie Murdaugh and youngest son Paul Murdaugh on June 7, 2021 at the family's Islandton hunting estate, Moselle.

Alex Murdaugh's family members have been in court everyday since the trial began with opening statements Jan. 25, 2023.

Ballistics expert Paul Greer testified Friday that older shell casings found on Moselle were ejected from the same rifle that discharged the shell casings found around Maggie Murdaugh's body.

“[The shell casings] were loaded into, extracted and ejected from the same firearm as those at the crime scene around Margaret Murdaugh's body,” Greer testified.

He stopped short of saying the cartridges were fired by the same weapon.

Investigators collected .300 Blackout shell casings near Moselle's main residence, at the property's firing range and around Maggie's body near the dog kennels.

Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters has focused on three .300 Blackout rifles owned by the Murdaugh family, two of which are unaccounted for.

Nearly 30 guns were seized from Alex's gunroom and tested after the murders -- including Buster Murdaugh's .300 Blackout rifle. But Paul's was not among them.

Fox News' Rebecca Rosenberg contributed to this report.

Clockwise from left: Anthony Cook, Connor Cook, Miley Altman and Mallory Beach. The friends were in boat with a drunken Paul Murdaugh when it crashed into a bridge killing Beach and injuring the other three. (Facebook)

Alex Murdaugh's defense lawyer cross-examined an attorney for Mallory Beach's estate Monday in an at-times hostile exchange.

Three days before the double slaying, there was a hearing scheduled in the Beach family's wrongful death suit over whether a judge would force Alex to turn over his books.

But defense lawyer Phillip Barber suggested in questioning of Mark Tinsley that it was unlikely Judge Daniel Hall would have compelled Alex to turn over the extensive records he was requesting. It was part of a tactic to pressure Alex to settle the case.

Barber and Tinsley sparred over whether the judge had already indicated he'd forced Alex to disclose his accounts.

"Maybe you've never tried a civil case," Tinsley shot back in the Colleton County Courthouse.

Barber grilled Tinsley on whether he actually believed the judge was going to grant him a full-scale forensic audit of Alex's finances.

"I don’t think you needed a full scale forensic audit for something a 5-year-old could see," Tinsley said of the embezzlement of funds from his law firm and clients. "There were a lot of threads being pulled and it was unravelling at any moment."

Tinsley testified outside the earshot of jurors at a hearing to determine whether the boat crash litigation and evidence of Alex's financial crimes can be admitted at the trial.

The boat Paul Murdaugh was driving when he drunkenly crashed into a bridge in Beaufort, South Carolina, killing Mallory Beach and injuring four others. (Beaufort County Sheriff's Office)

Mark Tinsley, who represented Mallory Beach's estate, testified Monday that if Alex Murdaugh had been the victim of some vigilante who murdered his wife and son, he would have settled the lawsuit against him for a small sum.

"There was the shock and horror of what had happened and no one really thought about anything other than that," Tinsley said immediately after the June 7, 2021, slayings. "But pretty quickly I recognized the case against Alex, if he were the victim of some vigilante, it would, in fact, be over."

Tinsley said when you're asking for a money judgement before a jury, people have to be motivated by sympathy.

"If you represent Attila the Hun versus some sweet old grandmother, no one is going to give Attila the Hun money," Tinsley said.

The tragedy Alex had just endured meant no jury would have returned a verdict against him.

Three days before the murder, a hearing was scheduled in the boat crash case. Alex had claimed he was broke and couldn't cobble together more than $1 million. Tinsley didn't believe him and had asked a judge to force Alex to turn over his books.

The jury was excused for Tinsley's testimony. A judge will later determine if the boat crash litigation and evidence of Alex's financial crimes will be presented to the jury.

“I wanted the accounts because I knew the only way he could be broke is if money had been hidden," Tinsley said.

Paul Murdaugh drunkenly crashed his father's boat into a bridge in 2019, killing Mallory Beach and injuring four other friends.

The Beach family sued Alex and numerous other parties in a $25 million wrongful death suit.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Phillip Barber suggested that the civil trial wasn't imminent and wouldn't have exerted the pressure on Alex that the prosecution is arguing motivated the murders.

Mark Tinsley testifies Feb. 6, 2023, at Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial as first witness Monday morning. (Fox News)

Paul Murdaugh drunkenly crashed his father's boat into a bridge in Beaufort, South Carolina killing 19-year-old Mallory Beach in February 2019 and injuring four other friends.

Beach was ejected into the frigid water and her body was found eight days later.

A day or so after the accident, the victim's mother, Renee Beach, wanted to go down to the Archer Creek Bridge where the boat crash had occurred but the scene was cordoned off, attorney Mark Tinsley testified Monday at a hearing in the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina.

"[Renee Beach] is told she can’t go down there and just a few minutes later Alex’s father and his wife pulled up in a car and are waved under the tape, and they go down to the bridge and she was very upset by that," Tinsley said.

Alex's father, Randolph Murdaugh III, was the 14th Circuit solicitor until 2005, which oversaw prosecutions in the county where the boat crash occurred.

The jury was not present for Tinsley's testimony. The hearing is to determine whether the panel can hear evidence of the boat crash litigation and Alex's prior financial crimes to prove motive in the double murder trial.

Tinsley ultimately sued Alex, Paul, Buster and Maggie Murdaugh and a number of other parties for $25 million.

A lot of people criticized the Beach family for the amount sought.

“The beach family stood on a causeway for eight days while their daughter’s body was in the water," Tinsley said. "I don’t think there’s any amount of money someone would be willing to take to go through what they’ve gone through.”

Alex later told Tinsley he was broke and might be able to cobble together $1 million. But Tinsley didn't believe him and filed a motion to force him to share his books and prove it in October of 2020.

Prosecutors have argued that the boat crash litigation threatened to expose Alex's decade-long financial schemes. He was later charged in 18 indictments with stealing nearly $9 million from his law firm and his client's settlements.

Buster has since settled with Mallory Beach's estate.

Clockwise from left: Anthony Cook, Connor Cook, Miley Altman and Mallory Beach. The friends were in boat with a drunken Paul Murdaugh when it crashed into a bridge killing Beach and injuring the other three. (Facebook)

Attorney Mark Brandon Tinsley is expected to take the witness stand Monday at a hearing in Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial.

The hearing will determine whether jurors will hear evidence of Alex’s alleged financial crimes or the boat crash litigation. The panel has been excused for the hearing.

Tinsley represents the family of deceased 19-year-old Mallory Beach, who was killed in an accident on the Murdaugh family boat in 2019.

He helped the family reach a settlement in late January between the Beach family and Buster and Maggie Murdaugh’s estates. 

"The Beach family feels very strongly that whatever their faults were, Paul and Maggie didn’t deserve what happened to them," Tinsley previously told Fox News Digital about the settlement agreement. "They also feel Buster has suffered enough, so it was important to them to try and get him out of the case."

The tragedy unfolded when Paul Murdaugh drunkenly crashed his father’s boat into a bridge in Beaufort, South Carolina, ejecting Beach into the frigid water and injuring four other friends onboard. Beach’s body was found about a week later.

The Beach family filed a lawsuit against the Murdaugh family and Parker's Kitchen, a convenience store chain where Paul used Buster’s ID to buy alcohol for the excursion. 

The lawsuit alleged that Maggie knew Paul was drinking when he decided to take his friends out on the boat.

Alex has been accused of confronting the injured teen passengers at the hospital after the wreck and pressuring them not to speak to law enforcement. 

He allegedly later launched a "whisper campaign" to make it seem like passenger Connor Cook had crashed the boat, not his own son. 

Paul and Maggie were murder three days before a hearing was scheduled in the civil case.

South Carolina criminal defense attorney Cindy Crick joined "Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy" to weigh in on the murder trial involving Alex Murdaugh, saying "I don't envy [Murdaugh's] defense attorneys."

Murdaugh is charged with fatally shooting his wife Maggie Murdaugh and youngest son Paul Murdaugh near the dog kennels of the family's Islandton hunting estate called Moselle on June 7, 2021.

Prosecutors allege Murdaugh's financial difficulties, including 99 counts of financial crimes totaling an estimated $9 million, may have been motive for creating a diversion as a grieving husband and father.

"The state is doing exactly what the state is supposed to be doing, which is very methodically laying foundation for each and every piece of evidence they need to get in during the course of this trial," Crick said. "The one interesting little tidbit where the state has weighed in is this issue of motive and I do think that could be one of the more pivotal issues in this case. You have to remember, although– the state doesn't have to prove motive, it's not an element; but a jury of 12 normal people are going to have a hard time wrapping their minds around the idea that this local prominent attorney, who used to be a prosecutor, decided one day to get up off of his sofa and go down to the kennels and put a bullet through the heads of his wife and son."

Read the full report on Cindy Crick's interview on "Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy."

Spectators line up outside the Colleton County Courthouse to secure a seat in the courtroom. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)

Visitors arrived before 8 a.m. Monday to try to secure a seat in the courtroom to watch Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial.

It is the third week of the sensational trail that has attracted spectators from Florida and Virginia.

Alex Murdaugh at his trial Jan. 31, 2023, in Walterboro, South Carolina. (Joshua Boucher/ The State/ pool)

While Alex Murdaugh’s net worth may have at one point been in the millions, the disgraced South Carolina lawyer’s current ledger is unknown.

Alex is charged with 99 financial crimes alleging he stole more than $9 million going back more than a decade.

Palmetto State Bank CEO and President Jan Malinowski testified Friday that Murdaugh owed the bank $4.2 million as of August 2021.

Prosecutors have argued that Alex was "burning through cash like crazy" and "extremely leveraged,” which they allege was part of his motive in the murders of his son, Paul, and wife, Maggie.

In the financial crimes indictments, Alex Murdaugh allegedly embezzled funds from multiple clients who employed the services of his personal injury law firm and using those funds for personal use.

Alex was once a  successful attorney and one of the biggest producers at the law firm founded by his great-grandfather then known as Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick, P.A. , according to trial testimony.

He and his wife owned a home in Edisto Beach, South Carolina — an island south of Charleston in Colleton County — that went up for sale in 2022 and received an all-cash offer of $955,000 in April, according to The Island Packet.

The family’s primary residence, a 1,700-acre hunting property known as Moselle in Islandton, South Carolina, was owned by Maggie. The estate was listed for $3.9 million in 2022.

Other than property, Murdaugh’s assets reportedly include three bank accounts totaling about $10,000, a retirement account worth about $2.1 million, an IRA fund worth between $350,000 and $400,000 and more real estate, according to the Greenville News, citing South Carolina attorneys John Thomas Lay and Peter McCoy, who control the former lawyer’s assets.

Alex Murdaugh puts his hand over his face Jan. 27, 2023, in the Colleton County Courthouse, in Walterboro, South Carolina, at his double murder trial. (Joshua Boucher/ The State/ pool)

Alex Murdaugh, 54, the once powerful scion of a South Carolina legal dynasty, is on trial for the slayings of his wife and son.

Prosecutors say Alex gunned down 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh and their troubled 22-year-old son, Paul, on June 7, 2021.

The Murdaughs, prominent Democrats, wielded enormous judicial and political power for nearly a century.

But the family’s dominance began to wane after Paul was criminally charged for a deadly 2019 boat wreck that triggered a series of lawsuits and threatened to expose his father’s financial schemes.

The accident set in motion a spiral of destruction that has stained the family’s legacy.

Testimony is expected to continue Friday on the eighth day of the disbarred lawyer's trial. He's represented by high-powered South Carolina attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin.

Creighton Waters is the lead prosecutor for the South Carolina Attorney General's Office.

Here's a timeline of Alex Murdaugh's shocking fall from grace and the progress of his double murder trial.

Evidence shown in Alex Murdaugh’s trial for murder at the Colleton County Courthouse on Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post and Courier/Pool)

South Carolina investigators found Maggie Murdaugh’s iPhone about half-a-mile from where they discovered her body on June 7, 2021.

Maggie and her youngest son, Paul Murdaugh, were shot to death that evening on the Murdaugh's hunting estate called Moselle in Islandton.

Dylan Hightower, an investigator with the 14th Circuit Court, testified Thursday that he visited the hunting estate on June 8, 2021, and used Find My iPhone to locate Maggie’s phone on Moselle Road. The road is about half a mile from where investigators located her body and Paul’s body near the family’s dog kennels on the 1,700-acre property.

Hightower also downloaded the data on Alex Murdaugh's phone a few days after the slayings. He reviewed Alex Murdaugh's Verizon call records and compared them with data from his cellphone.

On Alex Murdaugh’s physical iPhone, Hightower saw two calls on the day of the double murder, but the Verizon record showed there were 73 calls.

Lt. Britt Dove previously testified that Alex deleted entries in his call log.

Fox News' Rebecca Rosenberg contributed to this report.

Evidence photo showing a shotgun shell in the grass near the dog kennels. (Grace Beahm Alford/The Post and Courier/Pool)

Click here to view a gallery of crime scene evidence photos from Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial for the slayings of his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and his son, Paul Murdaugh.

Alex Murdaugh is accused of blowing off his son's head with a shotgun and executing his wife with a .300 Blackout rifle near the dog kennels on the family's sprawling hunting estate in Islandton, South Carolina.

Nearly 30 guns were seized from Alex's gunroom and tested after the murders. Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters has focused on three .300 Blackout rifles once owned by the Murdaugh family.

Two of those weapons are unaccounted for. The trial broke for lunch at about 1:30 p.m. Friday. Greer, a critical witness for the prosecution, is expected back on the stand in the afternoon.

The .300 Blackout rifles that Alex Murdaugh bought his sons, Paul and Buster for Christmas in 2016. (South Carolina Attorney General's Office/pool)

Ballistics expert Paul Greer testified Friday that older shell casings found on the Moselle property were ejected from the same rifle that discharged the shell casings found around Maggie Murdaugh's body.

“[The shell casings] were loaded into, extracted and ejected from the same firearm as those at the crime scene around Margaret Murdaugh's body,” Greer testified. He stopped short of saying the cartridges were fired by the same weapon.

Investigators collected .300 Blackout shell casings near Moselle's main residence, at the property's firing range and around Maggie's body near the dog kennels.

Greer explained that when a gun is fired it leaves microscopic markings on cartridges and bullets. These markings can be compared to see whether they were cycled through the same weapon.

Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters has focused on three .300 Blackout rifles owned by the Murdaugh family, two of which are unaccounted for.

He bought his sons a pair of .300 Blackout rifles with thermal scopes for more than $9,000 as Christmas gifts in 2016. But Paul Murdaugh's was either lost or stolen.

Alex Murdaugh replaced Paul's missing .300 Blackout rifle with a stripped-down version in 2018 for $875.

Nearly 30 guns were seized from Murdaugh's gunroom and tested after the murders -- including Buster Murdaugh's .300 Blackout rifle. But Paul's was not among them.

Paul's friend, Will Loving, testified Thursday that he saw the replacement .300 Blackout rifle as recently as late March 2021 at Moselle.

Paul Murdaugh was killed with a shotgun.

Aerial photo of the dog kennel area where Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were fatally shot June 7, 2023. (Andrew J. Whitaker/ The Post and Courier/ pool)

Four South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) agents were called to the stand Friday in quick succession to testify that they had taken buccal swabs to collect DNA from a list of various people tied to Alex Murdaugh.

Samples were taken from Paul Murdaugh's ex-girlfriend, Morgan Doughty in addition to Miley Altman and Anthony Cook -- all survivors of the 2019 boat crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach.

Paul Murdaugh crashed his father's boat into a bridge in Beaufort, ejecting Beach into the frigid water. He was criminally charged for the incident.

The family was also facing a wrongful death suit over the collision that threatened to expose Alex's decade-long corruption schemes, according to prosecutors.

Swabs were taken from Alex's brother Randolph "Randy" Murdaugh IV, the Murdaugh groundskeeper CB Rowe and others.

Before the SLED agents testified, SLED agent Thomas Darnell, a fingerprint expert took the stand.

He testified that he swabbed the shotgun that Alex retrieved after finding his slain wife and son's bodies and .300 Blackout rounds found on the property.

The expert said he was unable to find any detailed prints.

Ballistics expert Paul Greer testifies Friday at Alex Murdaugh's trial in Walterboro, South Carolina. (Pool)

On cross examination in Alex Murdaugh's murder trial Friday, ballistics expert Paul Greer conceded that he can't conclude that any of the weapons seized from the Murdaugh family's property killed Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.

Defense lawyer Jim Griffin challenged Greer, an agent with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, on the reliability of the firearm examinations.

He asked whether it was Greer's opinion that "every .300 Blackout manufactured in the world makes unique tool marks when it cycles a bullet and ejects it."

Griffin specifically requested a yes or no answer, but Greer was evasive. "It's hard to say," he said at one point.

The attorney reworded the question at least three times.

"It is my opinion that they had all been cycled by the same weapon," Greer replied after a long pause.

Many spectators described the ballistics testimony as confusing and convoluted.

It would be a major victory for prosecutors if they can persuade the jury that Maggie Murdaugh was murdered with one of the family's weapons.