South Carolina prosecutors clash with Alex Murdaugh defense over cellphone evidence in retrial fight
The state says Murdaugh’s attorneys received the complete cellphone extraction files multiple times before his 2023 murder trial.
South Carolina prosecutors clash with Alex Murdaugh defense over cellphone evidence in retrial fight
The state says Murdaugh’s attorneys received the complete cellphone extraction files multiple times before his 2023 murder trial.
Above file video: South Carolina judge moves Alex Murdaugh’s double murder retrial to Sumter County
The dispute over evidence ahead of Alex Murdaugh’s double murder retrial is continuing to unfold in court, with South Carolina prosecutors responding to one of several pending requests from the defense.
In a filing Tuesday, the state disputed the defense’s claim that it had not received certain underlying cellphone extraction files needed to prepare for the retrial. Prosecutors said the files were provided multiple times before Murdaugh’s first trial in 2023 and asked the judge to deny the defense’s motion to compel.
The response addresses the cellphone portion of a broader discovery dispute. Murdaugh’s attorneys are also seeking DNA and firearms records, raw laser-scan data from the crime scene, jail calls and information about the alleged disposal of the murder weapons.
Murdaugh’s retrial is scheduled to begin April 5, 2027. His attorneys have said they do not want a postponement, but could be forced to request one if evidence is produced too close to trial.
Defense sought underlying cellphone files
According to the state’s filing, Murdaugh’s attorneys sent a letter Sept. 21 requesting raw extraction files from several devices seized during the murder investigation.
The devices included phones belonging to Murdaugh and to his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, who were killed in 2021.
The defense said it had received reports generated from the devices but lacked some of the underlying extraction archives, keychain files and logs needed for an independent forensic examination.
Prosecutors disputed that claim.
According to the state, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division provided a hard drive to defense expert Chip Johnson on Oct. 25, 2022. Prosecutors said it contained all raw data in the state’s possession from several devices, including phones belonging to Alex, Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.
The filing said it appeared Johnson opened some of the files incorrectly and corrupted them, prompting the defense to request another copy. Prosecutors said they accommodated the request and made the files available again in October and November 2022.
The state also said it provided the defense with a complete, unredacted advanced logical extraction of Murdaugh’s phone on Dec. 22, 2022.
State challenges claim about midtrial production of evidence
A central dispute involves an approximately 81-gigabyte extraction of Murdaugh’s iPhone 11.
The defense previously said the state delivered the extraction Jan. 30, 2023, during the first trial and one day before the SLED examiner who handled the cellphone evidence testified.
“An eighty-one-gigabyte forensic archive delivered on the sixth day of trial, the day before the examiner who made it testified, is not a production that permits examination,” the defense wrote in its motion.
Prosecutors said the extraction was not produced for the first time during the trial. The state said it had provided the same data months earlier and copied it again on Jan. 20, 2023, after the defense reported it could not locate its copy.
The response includes a Jan. 19, 2023, email from defense attorney Jim Griffin acknowledging that the extraction might have been misplaced.
“It appears that this extraction was either misplaced by us or the extraction was for another device, as a result of an unintentional mistake,” Griffin wrote.
Griffin also said prosecutors and SLED had been cooperative in providing cellphone evidence.
“The timing of our request, coming just days before trial, is of our making, not yours,” he wrote.
The filing also includes a Jan. 20, 2023, email from defense attorney Richard Harpootlian acknowledging that prosecutors had previously provided the extraction but that the defense could not locate it.
Prosecutors said those emails contradict the defense’s current claim that the extraction was first provided after the trial began.
The state also argued that the defense did not raise an objection during the first trial over an allegedly late production of the cellphone evidence.
Prosecutors offer to provide files again
Although prosecutors asked the court to deny the defense's motion, they said they are willing to provide another copy of the cellphone evidence.
The state recommended that the defense provide a hard drive with at least 2 terabytes of storage. Prosecutors said they would then coordinate another transfer with SLED’s computer crimes unit.
The cellphone records are among several categories of evidence being sought by Murdaugh’s attorneys as they prepare for his retrial.
Harpootlian has asked Judge Debra McCaslin to establish deadlines for the state to respond to the outstanding motions and discovery requests.
The judge had not ruled on the cellphone motion as of Tuesday.