Start of Week 5 in Alex Murdaugh double-murder trial: Defense to call witnesses to stand

Well, today marks the start of week 5 in the double murder trial of Alec Murdoch. It's the first time the defense will be able to spend all day calling witnesses to the stand. I'll to break all this down. Our Sean Mahoney joins us live in the newsroom. Sean, what should we expect to hear out of the defense today? Well, Malalisa, after weeks, the ball is officially in the defense's court. We expect to see major witnesses try to poke holes in the state's story and their image of Alec Murdoch. Now, defense attorneys have tried to push the narrative of Murdoch as a loving man who wouldn't go to such extremes to hide financial crimes the 99 he's been accused of, which is the prosecution's alleged motive for Murdoch.

The defense has also pushed evidence of a possible third-party killer in the mix, and we expect more evidence to be revealed over the next week in that. Now, in the short time that they had on Friday, the defense called up the corner and a rep from the Colleton County Sheriff's Office. Circling back to the initial press releases from law enforcement, claiming investigators only looked at Alec as a suspect and didn't do a thorough job questioning other people. Take a listen to an expert. Did Sled and the Sheriff's Department change its position and put out a statement saying, well, now there's something to worry about, or did they just not mention this again? When we did the updated release, that same information was also in the body that was sent over to Sled for their approval. Tommy Crosby had taken a moment to look at the release, and later, I guess, decided that we took that out of the release, and that it was what was published. Now, some of the rumored witnesses for the defense in their case include Murdoch's son, Buster, or Alec's brother, John Marvin Murdoch.

But the biggest question remains, will Alec testify himself as he could be the only person to clear up some contradictions the state made in his version of events? And that's sure to be one of the biggest storylines heading into this weekend for the rest of the trial for that matter. And coming up in a half hour, we'll take a look back at the prosecution's case and how the defense could use that in their turn at the stand this week. But for now, my name is Melissa Sanamac-Dia. Sean, thank you. You can get cut off on everything about this trial by listening to our daily Unsolved South Carolina podcast. You'll hear how we got to this point, along with exclusive analysis from former state attorney general Charlie Condon. Charleston County plans to make West Ashley safer by improving intersections along Savannah Highway.

A proposed realignment would connect Nicholson Street with Avondale Avenue. Our Conley Grayson spoke with neighbors who live near the improvement zones. People who live here are worried their neighborhood would just become a cut through, creating more congestion and safety issues closer to home. They've created a petition and they're asking Charleston County to stop this project before Avondale becomes a cut through community. The Savannah Highway Capacity and Intersection Improvement Project, led by Charleston County, has the purpose to improve safety, traffic flow and pedestrian access at key intersections along the corridor. The project is funded by the 2016 half-cent sales tax. But some people think it'll bring more problems to their neighborhoods.

I think that you need to listen more to the residents that are directly impacted that own property that have lived here for numerous years about how the quality of their lives are going to change as a result of this. The project team performs an analysis of the Savannah Highway corridor. Every intersection was evaluated from Savage Road to Nicholson Street for possible improvements. Some of the plans include real lining Avondale Avenue to connect with Nicholson Street and adding a right turn lane along Nicholson Street. Their main focus was Savannah Highway. I do not believe they adequately looked at how this may impact these neighborhoods with these smaller roads that already have cars parking on both sides of them. Emergency vehicles can rarely get down them.

With Catherine Anderson lives in the area, she agrees changes are needed. But not the ones county leaders are proposing. There has been many times that we've almost been T-boned in the car because the Magnolia light has already turned green and the Avondale light is still red so that those cars can lead the neighborhoods. The neighborhood has schools and churches which Anderson says create congestion. Neighbors also worry about a lack of traffic signals. We're still a neighborhood and we need to be remembered that we are a neighborhood and that you should drive the speed limit. The realignment would call for the building that hosts DB's cheese steaks and other businesses to be torn down.

The city of Charleston is coordinating with property owners affected by the proposed Avondale Road realignment. Charleston County offices were closed for president's day so we reached out to county councilman Kylan Middleton who represents the area. We're still waiting on a response. As of now there's no timeline for when work could begin. Rown against a brick wall in Ladsen and it was all captured on a doorbell camera. Our Natalie Spal has spoke with local pet rescues who want to see those responsible held accountable. The good news is that CAT has been found and is currently being examined by the vet.

It even has a foster family ready to pick it up. The Dorchester County Sheriff's Office is investigating and animal rescues like pet helpers and low country animal rescue are thanking the community for stepping in. It's just not actions that you would anticipate seeing from another human being. It's a case Joy Davis with low country animal rescue has seen far too often. The thing is is the public is tired of it. The public is wanting people to know and people like this. We are done letting this be acceptable behavior.

The video from a Ladsen porch that's now circulating on social media shows two teenagers picking up a stray cat before one of them throws the animal against the concrete and brick wall. We've opted to freeze the video here to save you from the worst part. After hitting the concrete the cat runs away and both individuals appear to fall to the ground and laugh. Community really came together searching for this cat as soon as they caught wind of the story. The cat was found Sunday morning and taken to pet helpers Monday to be examined before it heads to a foster family. JJ steel with pet helpers says on the outside the cat appears to be in decent shape but x-rays will be taken. We did however just find out the cat is microchip so it may have a home and a homeowner who's desperately looking for their cat as well.

The animal rescues are offering a combined $2,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and prosecution of the people responsible. If we can even solve one case not happening in the future that's our goal. And especially with kids no it's not kids will be kids. We want there to be consequences and people have to pay for their actions when they commit these kinds of acts. I did attempt to reach the original owner of that video and have not yet heard back.

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