Judge sets new Lexington hearing as lawyers wrangle over evidence in Murdaugh murders

Though the court has moved Alex Murdaugh’s new murder trial to Sumter County, the pretrial hearings continue to be held in Lexington, including a new one on Oct. 16.

Presiding Judge Debra McCaslin has ordered that the status conference be held but did not indicate the reason, according to the court clerks of Colleton County, where Murdaugh’s twin murder and weapons charges are filed. 

Murdaugh, 58, was found guilty in 2023 of fatally shooting his wife, Maggie, and younger son Paul at the family’s “Moselle” estate two years earlier. 

But the S.C. Supreme Court overturned his convictions in May, ruling that jury interference by the former Colleton County clerk of court prevented Murdaugh from receiving a fair and impartial trial.

Judge McCaslin’s call for an October hearing came a week after Murdaugh’s attorneys asked her on Sept. 18 to intervene in their requests for case evidence from the state. The defense attorneys said state prosecutors have not yet shared some crucial information even as the April 2027 trial date nears. 

The defense team’s list includes fingernail clippings from Maggie Murdaugh’s body that would be re-examined for DNA material, as well as information about shootings in the Lowcountry that involve .300-caliber Blackout ammunition, similar to those used in killing Murdaugh’s wife. 

Murdaugh’s attorneys are also asking for raw data from state police’s three-dimensional laser scan of the murder scene, the dog kennels at Moselle. 

“Every week the State withholds this material is a week taken from the preparation of the defense,” Murdaugh’s lead defense attorney, Dick Harpootlian, said in the Sept. 18 court filings. “If the delay continues the defense may be forced to seek a continuance that Mr. Murdaugh does not want and that the Court has said it will not grant.”

Harpootlian added that “the State should not be permitted, through inaction, the very delay it would then oppose.” 

The S.C. attorney general’s office, which is prosecuting Murdaugh on the double-murder case for the second time around, declined to comment when asked what the Oct. 16 hearing is expected to take up. 

“We will make our arguments and positions known in court,” office spokesman Robert Kittle told the Chronicle. 

Judge McCaslin has transferred Murdaugh’s new trial to Sumter County. She agreed with his assertion that he cannot get a fair and impartial trial in the judicial circuit that encompasses Colleton County, partly due to the local community’s prejudice against the Murdaugh family and information saturation about the case.

Murdaugh, a former attorney, maintains his innocence of the homicide charges. But he remains in S.C. prison after pleading guilty to state and federal financial crimes, admitting to having stolen millions of dollars from the legal settlements of his vulnerable clients.

Former Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill, who resigned from the position in 2024, pleaded guilty last year to showing a reporter sealed court exhibits in the Murdaugh murders and then lying about it. She was sentenced to probation.

Tiffany Tan has been a journalist in the U.S. and abroad for more than 20 years. Contact her on Facebook at Reporter Tiffany Tanor 839-223-4652 on mobile/Signal/WhatsApp.