|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
by WILL FOLKS
***
The first substantive hearing ahead of confessed fraudster/accused killer Alex Murdaugh‘s April 2027 retrial was held in Lexington County, South Carolina this week, with presiding judge Debra McCaslin moving quickly through a host of motions raised by prosecutors and defense attorneys. In keeping with her efficient, no-nonsense handling of this high-profile case, McCaslin expeditiously assessed arguments addressing venue for the upcoming proceedings, DNA evidence, polygraph admissibility and whether Murdaugh’s testimony in his internationally watched first trial could be used against him in the second.
She also navigated some unexpected bombshells that detonated during the hearing…
Murdaugh is once again facing two counts of murder and two weapons charges tied to the graphic slayings of his wife, 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh, and their younger son – 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh. Those murders took place on the evening of June 7, 2021 at the family’s Moselle hunting property in Colleton County, South Carolina.
Murdaugh was convicted of both murders in March of 2023, but those convictions were unanimously overturned by the South Carolina supreme court in May after the justices concluded former Colleton County clerk of court Rebecca “Becky” Hill improperly inserted herself into the jury’s deliberative process.
***
FITSNews provided team coverage of the recent retrial hearing, and our founding editor Will Folks and research director Jenn Wood subsequently hosted a special edition of the Week in Review focused on what transpired.
To recap: McCaslin ordered Murdaugh’s retrial moved not only from Colleton County (where the first trial was held) but also from the entire fourteenth judicial circuit – which is comprised of Allendale, Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties.
McCaslin said her venue ruling was influenced heavily by a recent decision from S.C. circuit court judge Keith Kelly in a Murdaugh-adjacent civil case.
Because prosecutors and defense attorneys failed to agree on a location for the upcoming trial, McCaslin indicated she would issue an order in the coming weeks settling the question – although her remarks hinted that the defense’s preferred location of Charleston County was an unlikely outcome. Potential venues include Florence, Laurens, Lexington, Newberry and Richland counties.
The defense did score a significant victory when McCaslin determined testing related to unknown male DNA found under the fingernails of Maggie Murdaugh could move forward at an independent laboratory – although she cautioned defense attorneys as to their obligation to inform the court at each step of the process and receive expressed permission regarding specific future tests.
As for Murdaugh’s prior testimony, McCaslin ruled it admissible – subject to limitations on other evidence and testimony allowed into the retrial. She also ruled there would be no discussion of polygraph results – including the polygraph examination failed by Murdaugh’s accused drug dealer/check casher Curtis “Eddie” Smith.
***
THE BOMBSHELL…
This week’s proceedings were thrown for a loop when Murdaugh attorney Jim Griffin made reference in his opening remarks to an April 2026 murder in Allendale, S.C. rumored to have ties to the Murdaugh saga.
While Griffin’s courtroom revelation referenced reporting from our media outlet, we were actually in the middle of our inquiries when he made the comments…
***
???? #Murdaugh
— FITSNews (@fitsnews) August 15, 2026
Regarding the "Allendale murder" referenced during today's Alex Murdaugh status conference, there is no "FITSNews reporting" on this crime because our inquiries are ongoing.
Our @TheWillFolks and @IndyJenn_ will share more details on tomorrow's 'Week in Review,'… pic.twitter.com/DF1xYc7n5x
***
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters said Griffin’s courtroom revelation was “the first I’m hearing” of a potential Allendale connection – although he later indicated the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) had essentially ruled out any connection.
“From what I was just told by SLED, there are no leads or hits on the Blackout that was used in the Allendale shooting,” Waters said.
SLED subsequently issued a statement claiming that .300 Blackout caliber cartridge cases from the Allendale homicide were “triaged” and entered into the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) on August 13, 2026 – a day after our inquiries (and less than 24 hours prior to the Murdaugh hearing).
“As a result of these actions, no investigative leads were developed to any previously entered evidence,” SLED’s statement concluded.
SLED confirmed to FITSNews late Friday (August 14, 2026) that the cartridge cases from the Murdaugh crime scene had also previously been entered into NIBIN, although it is unclear exactly when that upload took place.
***
***
Lead Murdaugh attorney Dick Harpootlian was skeptical of SLED’s conclusions – reminding the court that David Owen, the lead agent on the murder investigation into his client, admitted under oath to misleading grand jurors on the initial probable cause affidavits leading to his indictment.
“We were lied to – the grand jury was lied to by SLED,” Harpootlian said, adding that Waters was also “lied to” by the law enforcement agency.
The dismissal of the original indictments against Murdaugh is the focus of another pending motion in this retrial – as are proposed sanctions tied to the alleged fabrication of the blood spatter “evidence” used to obtain them (and used to convict Murdaugh in the court of public opinion). McCaslin has yet to rule on either of these motions – but is expected to hear them at the next status conference.
McCaslin will reconvene the Murdaugh matter on November 13, 2026. Motions for that hearing must be submitted by October 30, 2026, with responses due on November 6, 2026.
In the meantime, FITSNews is continuing its investigation into the Allendale murder and its rumored connection to the broader Murdaugh saga. Stay tuned for additional reporting from our media outlet on that subject.
Thanks again to everyone who watches our show – and especially all of you who support us by subscribing to our media outlet. Your subscriptions drive everything we do at FITSNews. The lights, the camera, the accountability… all of it. So, if you appreciate our work – please subscribe today! And if you’re already a subscriber, please consider gifting a subscription to a friend… or grabbing some of our cool merch!
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
***
SOUND OFF…
Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.
13 comments
If the discussion of the .300 blackout was a “bombshell”, the bomb was a dud.
Now that, thank God, there is more rejection of the falsehood that Alex was the shooter, I do not want it replaced with another falsehood that he was there.
Here is what I posted on your YouTube video:
? @jackmack1670 , while I agree Richard Alexander Murdaugh (“RAM”) did not pull the trigger but MIGHT HAVE a good idea “who and why. He can’t talk because it puts [others] in danger,” I CANNOT agree RAM “was there when it happened.”
RAM would have defended Paull and Maggie with his own life; or, at least, the three Murdaughs present might have put up a successful defense against the REAL would-be-shooter(s).
This idea that RAM “was there when it happened” is based SOLELY on the WRONG time of the end of Paul and Maggie’s lives, which time is again WRONGLY and SOLELY based on the end of their cell phone batteries’ FUNCTIONAL charge.
Once you eliminate the misconception about the REAL time of the shootings, everything supposedly incriminating RAM becomes actually exonerating of him.
I notice a new dimple at the upper left corner of RAM’s lips.
Otherwise, here is another reply of mine to a comment on your YouTube show today:
? @msmp23 , while I get righteously indignant at people who are obsessed with twisting even the exculpatory evidence into FALSE evidence of RAM’s guilt, I sense that you are either toying with me in what you think is good humor OR have been genuinely mislead by the saturation CONTINUING prejudicial publicity against RAM.
Though nothing is fun or funny about framing the innocent, and of two horrible takings of human lives at that, I will humor you.
What can be more stupid than hiring “cleaners” in the plural for a muder?
“Hello, so-and-so, I plan to shoot my wife and younger son at 8:49 pm on 7 June 2021, then high-tail to my parents’ home in Almeda and be right back. Be there on the dot to clean after me but be gone by the time I call 911 and fake cry over them!”
I shall say no more but instead leave you to, God willing, think for yourself and disabuse yourself of a total fabrication by the latest arrival on the market of those who want to sell books and profit from the blood of Maggie and Paul and the past wrongful conviction of RAM.
How many books and movies on the matter so far?
At least one author is now a convicted perjurer and her book withdrawn.
And at least one pod-caster is found in contempt of court.
What should that tell you about the Murdaugh haters?
Another inexactitude is that RAM “stole” from his “disabled clients.”
Here is my explanation to another commenter who thought I was “kidding” in insisting that RAM’s sentence is grossly disproportioned to his financial misdeeds:
? @marciawellman8668 , no! I am VERY serious. If you analyze those cases closely, it is NOT as if that money was in someone’s pocket (literally or figuratively) and Alex reached out and pick-pocketed it. In EVERY case of the so-called financial crimes, those settlements or court verdicts would have been MUCH LESS or ZERO if another lawyer had represented those clients.
Why?
Because, and I am NOT defending any of that, Alex had inherited and built-over a network of connections to, even bribes and entrapments of, defense lawyers and judges. That takes money and even trading drugs. Alex must have justified it to himself by saying to himself that he is entitled to the difference between the case’s real worth and the huge amount he extorted out of the insurance company with the bought acquiescence of the insurance defense lawyers.
Have you any idea how many more horrible accidents the insurance companies fight and win? And have you any idea how many small insurance claims the insurance companies fight to the hilt and prefer to pay the defense lawyers ten times what the plaintiff would have accepted?
It is a dirty system through and through with BOTH plaintiffs’ lawyers and insurance defense lawyers being best frenemies; and we, the honest and careful-driving policy holders are the real victims who see our insurance premiums rise continuously and disproportionately to inflation to feed a system of collusion among insurance adjustors and lawyers.
Another inexactitude is that RAM “stole” from his “disabled clients.”
Here is my explanation to another commenter who thought I was “kidding” in insisting that RAM’s sentence is grossly disproportioned to his financial misdeeds:
? @marciawellman8668 , no! I am VERY serious. If you analyze those cases closely, it is NOT as if that money was in someone’s pocket (literally or figuratively) and Alex reached out and pick-pocketed it. In EVERY case of the so-called financial crimes, those settlements or court verdicts would have been MUCH LESS or ZERO if another lawyer had represented those clients.
Why?
Because, and I am NOT defending any of that, Alex had inherited and built-over a network of connections to, even bribes and entrapments of, defense lawyers and judges. That takes money and even trading drugs. Alex must have justified it to himself by saying to himself that he is entitled to the difference between the case’s real worth and the huge amount he extorted out of the insurance company with the bought acquiescence of the insurance defense lawyers.
Have you any idea how many more horrible accidents the insurance companies fight and win? And have you any idea how many small insurance claims the insurance companies fight to the hilt and prefer to pay the defense lawyers ten times what the plaintiff would have accepted?
It is a dirty system through and through with BOTH plaintiffs’ lawyers and insurance defense lawyers being best frenemies; and we, the honest and careful-driving policy holders are the real victims who see our insurance premiums rise continuously and disproportionately to inflation to feed a system of collusion among insurance adjustors and lawyers.
Think, people, think!
Hotels in Charleston expensive? So, let the Attorney General rent a furnished apartment or two or three for a month or two or three to accommodate the prosecution team and witnesses he wants to send for the retrial.
That certainly would be an infinitesimal fraction of the $75 million Alan Wilson gave two private law firms.
Suddenly want to save public money? Don’t obsessively pursue a new conviction right or wrong.
On Maggie’s phone, this is how I replied to a comment on your yesterday’s show:
?@ritaeichler2066 , Maggie never responded because she could not reach the phone because the unknown male whose DNA is under her left hand fingernails had wrestled it away from her and ran away with it, leaving it on the grass nearby.
Look at the photo of Maggie’s phone when and where found the next morning.
Does that look thrown from the height of a moving car or placed there by hand?
Think about it!
Had Alex been the real shooter, he would have taken Paul’s phone too.
I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me. But it would be nice if someone could join me in AT LEAST questioning the Prosecution’s time of the shootings, which I explained many times is too early.
Here is my most recent effort:
? @ritaeichler2066 , First, middle, and last, if you understand that the shootings did NOT happen, and could NOT have happened, as early as the Prosecution pretends, which is only 22 minutes after the victims’ KNOWN large, and relatively fatty, last meal, EVERYTHING ELSE falls into place.
I have no personal connection to Murdaugh or any one in his family or former businesses. I do, however, know most members of that prosecution team because they tried as hard, but thank God failed, to frame ME.
Otherwise, the video of Cash the dog is NOT “inside the feed room.”
I have no idea if those who cling to the WRONG time of death are paid Murdaugh haters or ones who cannot admit they were wrong; but Judge McCaslin, who takes the initiative of calling the prison warden about facilitating Alex Murdaugh’s viewing of the discovery, should take the initiative in laying at least two issues to rest:
(1) Would the contents of Paul’s and Maggie’s stomachs at autopsy have been so little and so digested had they been killed only 22 minutes after their KNOWN large, and relatively fatty, last meal?
(2) Would the thin twigs above Maggie’s phone, seen in the photo of where and when it was found the next morning, have stayed rooted and unbroken if that phone had been thrown from above from a moving vehicle? Or does the intact vegetation ABOVE the phone indicate it was placed there by hand?
NOTHING, but nothing, prevents a trial court from calling its own experts on its own initiative. That would remedy and rectify the public perception that justice can be bought. It could also save a lot of public funds.
I who, thank God and WITHOUT A LAWYER, did for myself what Richard Alexander Murdaugh’s (“RAM”) entire defense team could not do for him: prevent a jury from returning a wrongful conviction in the court of none other than Judge Clifton Newman (and later, always thank God and WITHOUT A LAWYER, got the false criminal charges against me dismissed WITH PREJUDICE by another jurist) am branded “c wild” and told to “calm down.”
Here are my responses to those comments:
?
@ipsosmaati0730
, I don’t know what “wild c theories” are according to you. But I do know two of the most stupid “theories” I have ever heard are: (1) When the charge on your cell phone battery dies, you do, too; and (2) a man, whose father was terminal, dying, and did die three days later, would shoot his beloved wife and younger son for added sympathy.
@ipsosmaati0730
, the evidence is in the photo of Maggie’s phone where and when found the morning that followed the shootings.
It was most likely place there by hand, not thrown from above from a moving car. Look at the vegetation in that photo.
Otherwise, why should I calm down about framing the innocent? I know it gets done. I know it was attempted, but thank God failed, against me. And I know that the framers, failed or successful, NEVER forgive the innocent for defending his/her innocence. THAT gets done to me TO THIS DAY even though my innocence was iron-clad proven and I also presented objective proof intentional falsehoods used against me. But no one else cares.
I who, thank God and WITHOUT A LAWYER, did for myself what Richard Alexander Murdaugh’s (“RAM”) entire defense team could not do for him: prevent a jury from returning a wrongful conviction in the court of none other than Judge Clifton Newman (and later, always thank God and WITHOUT A LAWYER, got the false criminal charges against me dismissed WITH PREJUDICE by another jurist) am branded “c wild” and told to “calm down.”
Here are my responses to those comments:
?
@ipsosmaati0730
, I don’t know what “wild c theories” are according to you. But I do know two of the most stupid “theories” I have ever heard are: (1) When the charge on your cell phone battery dies, you do, too; and (2) a man, whose father was terminal, dying, and did die three days later, would shoot his beloved wife and younger son for added sympathy.
@ipsosmaati0730
, the evidence is in the photo of Maggie’s phone where and when found the morning that followed the shootings.
It was most likely place there by hand, not thrown from above from a moving car. Look at the vegetation in that photo.
Otherwise, why should I calm down about framing the innocent? I know it gets done. I know it was attempted, but thank God failed, against me. And I know that the framers, failed or successful, NEVER forgive the innocent for defending his/her innocence. THAT gets done to me TO THIS DAY even though my innocence was iron-clad proven and I also presented objective proof intentional falsehoods used against me. But no one else cares.
And on CrimeFix, people are judging Alex guilty based on what THEY think THEY would have acted.
Here is my response to one of them.
? @CatherineKlerowski , you don’t know what you would actually remember or forget if, God forbid, your husband were murdered, UNLESS you ACTUALLY went through it.
The one “natural experiment” we have is Jackie’s reaction when JFK was shot before the whole world. Self-preservation instinct and/or security training kicks in and takes over.
Don’t take my word for it. Look at the Zapruder film.
Malicious Mandy Matney (“MMM”) reports that Mr. Harpootlian (and again, his name is as related to the Armenian Genocide as it would have been had been Jewish and his name had been Auschwitzer, for example. So, please respect the name, if not the man) wrote to Judge McCaslin that Richard Alexander Murdaugh’s (“RAM”) defense team now suggests Richland County instead of Charleston County.
Surprised that, if true, MMM would have scooped YOU, FITS, on something RAM-defense related, Mr. Harpootlian is making it hard for those of us who believe in RAM’s actual innocence to defend him if he leaks to MMM.
Or does MMM have a line to Judge McCaslin’s office?
This world of supposed journalism is so (let me spare the adjectives) to me that I give up on it.
What I will not give up on is Science. I had Botany in high school and my pre-med year. But I would abide by what a botanist says about what the vegetation in the photo of Maggie’s phone when and where found the morning after the shootings.
Was that phone thrown from above or placed by hand at the vegetation level?
Botany is increasingly used in forensic investigations. And an authoritative answer to this question, by a court expert called on the court’s own motion, will solve the case, increase public confidence in the judiciary, and save public funds, not to mention stimulate young people to study Botany and other Natural Sciences.
I call on Judge McCaslin to do so.
The purpose of SC’s Judicial Branch cannot, and should not, be to discredit Dr. Marie Faltas even when she is clearly correct.
Two unforced errors by Mr. Harpootlian in one week alone make it necessarily for anyone who wants the truth to read this comment of mine on Nick Reagan’s show:I hope you’re not one of those journalists already invested in Richard Alexander Murdaugh’s (“RAM”) being wrongfully convicted again; and I hope you have the same access as Anne Emmerson to the photo of Maggie’s phone where and when found the morning after the shootings.
I have no personal connections whatsoever to RAM himself and never knowingly met him or any member of his immediate or extended family. And I have no representation or any other business or personal relationship with any members of RAM’s defense team.
But I am a medical doctor who had Botany pre-med, a year-long course of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology in medical school (from which I graduated WITH HONORS) and later had specialized training in Pathology. I am also an Epidemiologist and Biostatistician, having my MPH from UNC-Chapel Hill. I speak four languages and am highly educated in the literatures of three of them.
Also and more crucially, thank God, WITHOUT A LAWYER, and in the court of none other than Judge Clifton Newman, did for myself what RAM’s entire defense team failed to do for him: prevent a jury from returning a wrongful conviction at the end of a 5-day trial by jury.
Later, again thank God and WITHOUT A LAWYER, I got another jurist to dismiss the false criminal charges against me (which, God forbade, could have gotten me 36 years) WITH PREJUDICE.
So, not only do I know what it is like to be falsely accused, I know most of the prosecutors who are falsely accusing RAM because they, their supervisors, and/or subordinates were the ones falsely accusing me and trying to frame me.
I also know their tactics, their motives, and their lack of remorse.
Having said all that, just take a look at the photo of Maggie’s phone: could a phone have threaded itself between the twigs above it and below it had it been thrown from above from a fast-moving car, or any car?
If you fair-mindedly assess my observation of that photo, you would AT LEAST give serious consideration to my inference: the DNA under Maggie’s left-hand fingernails is that of member of the shooting cabal which descended on Moselle as sun was setting at 8:30 pm on 7 June 2021, lay in waiting until RAM left in his car, then wrestled Maggie’s phone from her left hand to prevent her from using it to call for help, ran with it on foot far enough from Maggie’s reach but hid it by hand in the vegetation close enough for that member of the shooting cabal to return on foot and finish cleaning the scene after the shooting had been done.
Most other so-called journalists are making fools of themselves parroting prosecution theories and excuses.
Bluntly, the field of fools is so crowded there is no more room for one more RAM-hating book or forecast.
Will you be the one journalist who takes a fair and fresh look at everything and allow me to further explain my inferences of RAM’s innocence?
On a second look, what I thought was a dimple on the left upper corner of Alex Murdaugh’s lips looks like a scar from a surgical instrument used to remove a skin lesion.
I cannot find another earlier photo with the same high resolution for comparison and do not have the time to look for one.
But redheads are at higher risk of certain skin conditions. Daoes anyone know what the story is here?
Having taken the Hippocratic Oath, I am not trying to invade Alex’s medical privacy; but he does have a surviving red-headed son and the new baby may be a red head, too. So, as usual, Prevention, people, Prevention! Learn the particular risks of your ethnicity and your skin type.