Alex Murdaugh's Brother Testifies, Jury To Visit Moselle Property
Our coverage of the Alec Murdoch murder trial tonight and today the defense rest their case but not before the former lawyer was hit with a new charge. When we first brought you this story on Friday night, the state law enforcement division issued a misdemeanor charge against Murdoch. While we're still working to get things fully confirmed at this time, our trial analyst attorney Lori Murray tells us the charge is for possession of jailhouse contraband, which was a book given to Murdoch by his sister. We're told there was nothing in the book, but it was still not allowed. Meanwhile, as the trial continues, we now know the jury will visit Murdoch's hunting property known as Moselle and Colton County. At this time, we do not know when the jury will be taken to the site, but media coverage of that trip will not be allowed. Now the property is where Alec Murdoch's wife Maggie and some Paul were found brutally shot to death in June of 2021.
A Murdoch is charged in their deaths but maintains his innocence. Now the final witness brought in by the defense today was Murdoch's brother, John Marvin. Fox journalist Grace Runkel has been inside the courtroom this entire time in Walterboro. She breaks down what happened inside court today. The defense called their last witness, John Marvin Murdoch, and he worked to poke holes in Sludge's investigation. It's been the strategy of the defense throughout the entire trial. And today we heard John Marvin share a story of how he returned to Moselle the day after the murders with Buster's phone.
He says on it, using one of the apps, they were able to locate where Maggie's phone was on the side of the road. He says he took that information to Sludge agents and got this response. And he said, no need. We have technology coming later today that we should be able to find it. And it just, it blew me away that I'm sitting here showing them where Maggie's phone is, but they won't take the time to walk with me or take this phone itself. I mean, I'd give them the phone to go find it. John Marvin also testified Sludge gave him false information, saying they found blood spatter on Alex's t-shirt, putting him at the scene of the crime.
A big part of John Marvin's testimony and the defense's story has been how cooperative the family has been with investigators after the murders. John Marvin testifying he essentially became a liaison between law enforcement and the family. But the state called that claim into question, bringing up last week's big revelation that Alec lied about not being at the kennels and didn't come clean until he took the stand. Would you agree that that is not full cooperation? By him not telling Sludge that he was at the kennel? Correct. I would say that yes, he lied. The defense called a total of 14 witnesses. The testimony took about one week.
Tomorrow the state will begin calling their rebuttal witnesses. In Walterboro, Grace Runkle, Fox Carolina News. Now don't forget you can stay connected because this trial is still ongoing now in the sixth week, so make sure you stay connected to Fox Carolina News. The best way to do so here on air, also online at FoxCarolina.com. You can stream us anytime on Roku, Apple or Fire TV.