by WILL FOLKS
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Attorneys for accused killer Alex Murdaugh were finally provided with raw data from investigators’ three-dimensional scan of the crime scene where the disgraced attorney allegedly murdered his wife and younger son on a warm, spring evening more than five years ago.
Murdaugh’s attorneys confirmed the receipt of the raw, digital crime scene data to FITSNews on Wednesday (October 21, 2026).
Presumed to be the least contentious unresolved discovery item in an ongoing pissing match between prosecutors and Murdaugh’s lawyers ahead of his April 2027 retrial, the handoff of this raw data proved to be quite the exercise in pedantry.
And amateur videography…
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To recap: Murdaugh was convicted of the June 7, 2021 murders of his wife, 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh, and younger son, 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh, and sentenced to life in prison following a six-week trial in Walterboro, S.C. in early 2023. Those convictions were reversed, however, after the S.C. supreme court found numerous issues with the conduct of the trial – including allegations of jury tampering and potential jury rigging. Murdaugh is scheduled to be tried a second time in Sumter, S.C. beginning on April 5, 2027.
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters – who has repeatedly accused Murdaugh’s lawyers of trying to manufacture discovery violations against his team – was apparently dead serious when he told S.C. circuit court judge Debra McCaslin last week that enhanced protocols would be in place for the handoff of any discovery materials.
These “enhanced protocols” were reportedly in full effect this week when defense attorney Jim Griffin received the FARO scan of the crime scene at Moselle – a sprawling hunting property near Islandton, S.C. owned by Murdaugh’s family. Paul Murdaugh was killed exiting a feed room next to the dog kennels on this property – while his mother was gunned down next to an old airplane hangar. Both structures have since been torn down by the property’s new owners.
Waters has steadfastly insisted his team has provided key discovery information to the defense repeatedly – up to four times in some cases – only to be accused in subsequent filings of having failed to provide it at all. Defense attorneys maintain prosecutors have failed to fully comply with their requests – especially as it relates to critical cell phone extractions.
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The back-and-forth between the two sides over these discovery issues drew a sharp rebuke from McCaslin during an emergency pre-trial motions hearing last week.
“I don’t want this tit for tat between y’all,” she told Waters and defense attorney Dick Harpootlian. “Y’all are lawyers. Y’all are professionals. This is court. This is not for soundbites.”
Waters confirmed last week that the state would have the FARO scan ready by the end of the day on Monday (October 19, 2026), but insisted the defense would have to agree to his “new procedures” in order to take possession of it.
“If they want all the proprietary stuff, we’ll give it to them… once processes are put in place,” Waters told the court.
Those processes were apparently in full effect this week. According to our sources, Griffin not only had to sign for the FARO scan – but was recorded on video taking possession of it.
The FARO scan request, in fairness to the defense, is a first-time ask. Murdaugh’s attorneys say their experts require the underlying data in order to independently examine the state’s reconstruction of the scene. Waters acknowledged the defense previously received scans with viewing software, not the ability to reconstruct the scene.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys are scheduled to appear before McCaslin again on November 13, 2026 to hear what’s expected to be a detailed motion to dismiss the murder indictments against Murdaugh. There’s also expected to be additional discussion of a secret grand jury convened by Waters which, at least in part, is reportedly investigating a local law enforcement cover-up of the crime.
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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.
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6 comments
Finally?!?
Poorly Poot and Jimbo have been provided multiple copies of almost everything they allege that the state has not provided. Waters should have made them.sign for all! from the beginning, knowing that Pooty is a grand stander. I used to own a copy shop that specialized in copying discovery files, we always had to sign for the files and then made the recipients sign for all the copies.
Pooty Poot (and Jimbo) will continue his “shuck and jive” until Judge McCaslin calls them on it like she did his lying.
First, this particular FARO file was NEVER sought before the first trial because Moselle itself had not yet been sold with parts torn down.
Next, what you wrote is interesting; and I assume it only applied to discovery in civil cases because discovery in criminal cases should not be farmed out of the solicitor’s office for copying. But did you sign for EVERY page and make the recipient sign for EVERY page? That is where problems occur when discovery runs into the 100s or 1000s of pages. An ill-willed producing party can strategically withhold crucial pages and hope the receiving party does not notice. That apparently happened in the Murdaugh SLED DNA reports where nothing was apparently initially said about nail clippings from Maggie’s right hand.
Having said that, though, Mr. Harpootlian’s mind wanders often and he often does not finish the thought in opening arguments, in examination of witnesses, and in responses to the court. Alex’s defense team will do well to make more room for the younger members, specially those untainted by “service” as prosecutors.
And of course, no response of mine can be complete without reference to what Hatchet-for-Hire Heather (Sarah Heather Savitz Weiss) did to me when she tried but, thank God, failed to frame me on FALSE harassment charges with intent to, God forbade, incarcerate me for 36 years. Yes, thirty-six.
Hatchet-for-Hire Heather had me FALSELY arrested on 2 December 2009, the very morning AFTER I had appeared for a 1 December 2009 day-long evidentiary injunction hearing before non-retired SC Circuit Judge Lee and told her that there is a conspiracy afoot among my opponents in the civil litigation to get me falsely arrested but Judge Lee looked at me as if I were one those deranged conspiracy theorists and took the matter under advisement, one of those very opponents in the civil litigation led a team of 10, yes TEN, Columbia Police Department (“CPD”) officers to arrest me and rob my apartment and car of evidence, NOT of any crime they pretended I committed, but of evidence I had in the pending civil litigation against private people AND against the City of Columbia ITSELF. Hatchet-for-Hire Heather was then being paid $70K/year IN ADDITION TO her 5th-circuit assistant solicitor salary, to be the City’s prosecutor in the circuit solicitor’s office. She also applied for the warrants against me, which is a no-no for a prosecutor: only a sworn law enforcement officer is allowed to seek a warrant from a neutral magistrate.
But “neutral” is foreign language in the City of Columbia where the ministerial recorder serves at the pleasure of the municipal court’s chief judge who in turn serves at the pleasure of the city council, which in turn approves Hatchet-for-Hire’s annual $70K “bonus” to be the City’s prosecutor in the solicitor’s office. That arrangement is not only unethical but also violates South Carolina’s prohibition on dual office holding.
But again, laws and ethics never mattered for the City of Columbia and its “special” prosecutor.
And to show something for her $70K/year bonus, Hatchet-for-Hire Heather had me FALSELY arrested AGAIN on 12 December 2009, after I had bonded out of the FALSE 2 December 2009 arrest, in order to, God forbade, revoke my bond. Thank God and without a lawyer, I later got all the criminal charges underlying both arrests dismissed WITH PREJUDICE.
Back to discovery, though, because after Hatchet-for-Hire Heather’s initial plan to keep me in permanent pre-trial detention failed, and she knew she had NO TRUE evidence to try me on, she planned to never try me and keep me permanently under horrendous bond conditions. To counter that, I appeared on 11 January 2010 before now-retired SC Circuit Judge Gafford Thomas Cooper, Jr. and told him I wanted to challenge the constitutionality of South Carolina’s statute which gives complete control of the criminal docket to the circuit solicitor.
Again, I was ahead of the law; and that statute was later held unconstitutional in State v. Langford. In reality, though, prosecutors still control the criminal docket; but details of that are for another day.
On that 11 January 2010, I told Judge Cooper I still have no discovery AT ALL. Hatchet-for-Hire Heather responded that there is discovery sitting at the front desk of the solicitor’s office waiting for me pick it up.
So, I went and was asked to sign for it. I responded that I cannot sign before I review it. In the middle of my review of the documents, Hatchet-for-Hire Heather appeared with a scowl on her face and a member of the public defender’s office also appeared and advised me to leave before Heather goes “overboard” and gets me arrested AGAIN for reviewing discovery before signing for it.
As always, I do not write or say anything related to these serious matters without documentary support.
It turns out that the discovery I was given before my 22-26 February 2010 jury trial (presided over by none other that Judge Clifton Newman) was missing key documents which I saw only in preparation for the retrial which never happened after Judge Newman had to declare a mistrial shortly before midnight on Friday, 26 February 2010, after the jury TWICE returned hopelessly deadlocked.
To THIS DAY, I do not have a copy of those documents and have been threatened with contempt of court if I sought them.
And TO THIS DAY no one, including Hatchet-for-Hire’s colleagues and bosses in SCAG’s office have seen fit to look into Hatchet-for-Hire’s DOCUMENTED subornation of perjury against me and her LYING to Judge Clifton Newman and me about the criminal records of the Prosecution’s witnesses.
So, Creighton Waters’ theatrics about Mr. Harpootlian’s supposed lie about Alex’s lie detector ring hollow to me.
Alan Wilson, Creighton Waters, Donald Zelenka, remove the logs from your own eyes before seeking to remove the splinters from your brethren’s eyes!
First, this particular FARO file was NEVER sought before the first trial because Moselle itself had not yet been sold with parts torn down.
Next, what you wrote is interesting; and I assume it only applied to discovery in civil cases because discovery in criminal cases should not be farmed out of the solicitor’s office for copying. But did you sign for EVERY page and make the recipient sign for EVERY page? That is where problems occur when discovery runs into the 100s or 1000s of pages. An ill-willed producing party can strategically withhold crucial pages and hope the receiving party does not notice. That apparently happened in the Murdaugh SLED DNA reports where nothing was apparently initially said about nail clippings from Maggie’s right hand.
Having said that, though, Mr. Harpootlian’s mind wanders often and he often does not finish the thought in opening arguments, in examination of witnesses, and in responses to the court. Alex’s defense team will do well to make more room for the younger members, specially those untainted by “service” as prosecutors.
And of course, no response of mine can be complete without reference to what Hatchet-for-Hire Heather (Sarah Heather Savitz Weiss) did to me when she tried but, thank God, failed to frame me on FALSE harassment charges with intent to, God forbade, incarcerate me for 36 years. Yes, thirty-six.
Hatchet-for-Hire Heather had me FALSELY arrested on 2 December 2009, the very morning AFTER I had appeared for a 1 December 2009 day-long evidentiary injunction hearing before non-retired SC Circuit Judge Lee and told her that there is a conspiracy afoot among my opponents in the civil litigation to get me falsely arrested but Judge Lee looked at me as if I were one those deranged conspiracy theorists and took the matter under advisement, one of those very opponents in the civil litigation led a team of 10, yes TEN, Columbia Police Department (“CPD”) officers to arrest me and rob my apartment and car of evidence, NOT of any crime they pretended I committed, but of evidence I had in the pending civil litigation against private people AND against the City of Columbia ITSELF. Hatchet-for-Hire Heather was then being paid $70K/year IN ADDITION TO her 5th-circuit assistant solicitor salary, to be the City’s prosecutor in the circuit solicitor’s office. She also applied for the warrants against me, which is a no-no for a prosecutor: only a sworn law enforcement officer is allowed to seek a warrant from a neutral magistrate.
But “neutral” is foreign language in the City of Columbia where the ministerial recorder serves at the pleasure of the municipal court’s chief judge who in turn serves at the pleasure of the city council, which in turn approves Hatchet-for-Hire’s annual $70K “bonus” to be the City’s prosecutor in the solicitor’s office. That arrangement is not only unethical but also violates South Carolina’s prohibition on dual office holding.
But again, laws and ethics never mattered for the City of Columbia and its “special” prosecutor.
And to show something for her $70K/year bonus, Hatchet-for-Hire Heather had me FALSELY arrested AGAIN on 12 December 2009, after I had bonded out of the FALSE 2 December 2009 arrest, in order to, God forbade, revoke my bond. Thank God and without a lawyer, I later got all the criminal charges underlying both arrests dismissed WITH PREJUDICE.
Back to discovery, though, because after Hatchet-for-Hire Heather’s initial plan to keep me in permanent pre-trial detention failed, and she knew she had NO TRUE evidence to try me on, she planned to never try me and keep me permanently under horrendous bond conditions. To counter that, I appeared on 11 January 2010 before now-retired SC Circuit Judge Gafford Thomas Cooper, Jr. and told him I wanted to challenge the constitutionality of South Carolina’s statute which gives complete control of the criminal docket to the circuit solicitor.
Again, I was ahead of the law; and that statute was later held unconstitutional in State v. Langford. In reality, though, prosecutors still control the criminal docket; but details of that are for another day.
On that 11 January 2010, I told Judge Cooper I still have no discovery AT ALL. Hatchet-for-Hire Heather responded that there is discovery sitting at the front desk of the solicitor’s office waiting for me pick it up.
So, I went and was asked to sign for it. I responded that I cannot sign before I review it. In the middle of my review of the documents, Hatchet-for-Hire Heather appeared with a scowl on her face and a member of the public defender’s office also appeared and advised me to leave before Heather goes “overboard” and gets me arrested AGAIN for reviewing discovery before signing for it.
As always, I do not write or say anything related to these serious matters without documentary support.
It turns out that the discovery I was given before my 22-26 February 2010 jury trial (presided over by none other that Judge Clifton Newman) was missing key documents which I saw only in preparation for the retrial which never happened after Judge Newman had to declare a mistrial shortly before midnight on Friday, 26 February 2010, after the jury TWICE returned hopelessly deadlocked.
To THIS DAY, I do not have a copy of those documents and have been threatened with contempt of court if I sought them.
And TO THIS DAY no one, including Hatchet-for-Hire’s colleagues and bosses in SCAG’s office have seen fit to look into Hatchet-for-Hire’s DOCUMENTED subornation of perjury against me and her LYING to Judge Clifton Newman and me about the criminal records of the Prosecution’s witnesses.
So, Creighton Waters’ theatrics about Mr. Harpootlian’s supposed lie about Alex’s lie detector ring hollow to me.
Alan Wilson, Creighton Waters, Donald Zelenka, remove the logs from your own eyes before seeking to remove the splinters from your brethren’s eyes!
Correction for Will, who wrote that both the kennels and the old airplane hanger were torn down by the new owner. Only the kennels and feed room were removed. The hanger with its attached shed roof overhang is still there. The hanger and shed roof were painted and a new metal roof was installed on them. The new owner obviously removed the kennels to try and remove the stigma of the murders– he’s trying to sell the property to horse owners.
The FARO images are important because they show how little space there was between the kennels and feed room and the shed roof’s edge. There was room enough for only one vehicle to drive between them. In the dark it was impossible to back out to return to the road. To leave, the killer drove his truck around the hanger and its far side to get back to the road. The body cam video of Alex clearly showed the truck tire tracks going around the hanger. Alex was even asked in the video about the tracks, and he said he didn’t drive his Suburban SUV there. All the first responders saw the tracks and told SLED agents to take photos and make records of the tracks, but SLED folks didn’t do it.
The GM OnStar data revealed that Alex’s Suburban SUV was never at the kennels that evening until after 10 pm when he discovered the bodies. The murders actually happened between 9 and 9:30, closer to 9:30, just as was originally thought. Paul had many enemies, including among those he thought were friends, and who had been to Moselle many times over the years.
I wonder if Will and Jenn have ever actually been to Moselle.
Finally, someone agrees with me publicly about the more realistic time of the shootings.
I pray there would be outright dismissal instead of retrial.
But for that to be accepted by the prejudicial-publicity-tainted public to accept that, a FORMAL process must be instituted to dispel all the misinformation and misconceptions out there.
It’s a real tragedy that a man widowed and bereft of his younger son stands falsely accused of shooting them and guilty in the majority of the public’s mind even though constitutionally presumed innocent.
Those of us who want this injustice corrected need to work harder, smarter, and together.
God speed and God bless.
I also a connection between the feeble-minded acceptance of the stupidity of the Prosecution’s “motive” theory and the feeble-minded acceptance of what is posthumously said about Lindsey Graham.
I do not claim to know Lindsey Graham personally; but I find the facile pretense that every unmarried non-dating male or female must be gay reprehensible and feeble-minded.
I’ll say it at the beginning, middle, and end of this comment and hope it sinks in: celibacy is an ennobling practice which played, and hopefully will continue to play, a crucial role in the advancement of human civilization and protects it from the ruins of extreme promiscuity.
And extreme promiscuity IS ruinous on both the personal and societal levels. And I think there can be no personal pleasure or fun in it.
The author of Ecclesiastes 2, the author says he tested himself with every kind of pleasure, wealth, and possession—including acquiring male/female slaves, singers, and “many concubines”—only to conclude that it was all “vanity and a chasing after the wind.” He concludes the Book with man should be content with the one wife God gave him.
And Song of Solomon 6:8 lists “60 queens, 80 concubines, and an uncounted number of young maidens” yet returns to the ONE perfect beloved.
These Books lasted thousands of years and shall, God willing, last as long as humanity does. Why? Because they speak of eternal truths about human nature.
Celibacy is known in Nature in the lone wolf which wanders away from its pack of males and females.
And monogamy is known among species on various rungs of the animal kingdom.
I also find this story feeble-minded and proof of how far supposed journalism degenerated out of common sense. So, a male sex worker was so hyper-masculine as to “top Linsey Graham down” then so feminine as to transition to a woman? Try to sell me another story!
And those other “men” found it safe to claim Lindsey Graham “alternated” so their stories do not clash between Lindsey Graham being a “donor” or a “receptor” as I am politely putting it.
A most-informative piece about Lindsey Graham’s character is his decades-ago interview in which he tells that his father had to make up and tell jokes to keep mill workers returning to his saloon to drink after their shifts. Experiences like that get ingrained in a child and he grows up wanting to please everyone. THAT IS ALL. No gayness or bisexuality or rubbish. In a hot-mic moment, Graham was caught asking then-former Senator and Secretary of State-candidate John Kelly how Graham could help Kelly’s confirmation. No traitor to his party, no secret Democrat masquerading as Republican, no rubbish. Just a childhood-ingrained compulsion to please every one around. So, if “gay” Lindsey Graham was, it was only in the original meaning of the word: the opposite of morose.
So, I end with the same thought with which I began: celibacy is an ennobling practice which played, and hopefully will continue to play, a crucial role in the advancement of human civilization and protects it from the ruins of extreme promiscuity.