Alex Murdaugh defence seeks to dismiss murder indictments, citing investigator's false testimony
Murdaugh's lawyers claim chief investigator David Owen lied to the grand jury. A judge promised a written ruling ahead of an April retrial.
Murdaugh defence: lead investigator misled grand jury before murder indictments
Attorneys for Alex Murdaugh filed a motion on Friday asking a judge to dismiss the original murder indictments against their client, arguing that the chief investigator in the case provided false information to the grand jury, cbsnews.com reports.
The request centres on State Law Enforcement Division agent David Owen, who the defence claims made at least two materially inaccurate statements when prosecutors sought the indictments against Murdaugh for the 2021 killings of his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, on the family's property in South Carolina's Lowcountry.
Defence attorneys allege Owen told the Colleton County grand jury that blood spatter had been found on a T-shirt Murdaugh was wearing the night of the killings. An earlier report from state agents, they said, recorded no such blood stains, and no such evidence was introduced at the original trial. Owen also told grand jurors, according to the defence, that weapons loaded with the same combination of buckshot and large birdshot used to kill Paul Murdaugh were found throughout the family's property — a claim the defence says was likewise inaccurate.
Defence attorney Jim Griffin argued that the blood evidence allegation was the only statement before the grand jury that placed Murdaugh at the scene at the time of the killings. "A phone call doesn't put him there. The video doesn't put him there," Griffin said. "The blood from his murdered son sprang through the air — it's raining back on him — puts him there."
Judge Debra McCaslin did not issue an immediate ruling, promising a written decision the following week. Her closing question to prosecutor Creighton Waters at the hearing, however, suggested the case may press ahead regardless of the outcome. "If you had to go back to the grand jury, could you have it all done and ready to go by April 5th?" she asked. Waters replied: "Your honor, I'm always working ahead."
Even if the indictments are dismissed, prosecutors retain the option of seeking a fresh set of grand jury indictments, and defence attorneys acknowledged they would not oppose that. An April retrial is therefore unlikely to be delayed even in the event McCaslin grants the motion.
Murdaugh, 58, is facing retrial after the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned his convictions and life sentence last year, ruling that a court clerk had improperly influenced jurors during his 2023 trial.
Prosecutors pushed back firmly against the motion, arguing that all issues relating to Owen's statements involved evidence and reports that the defence had access to at the original trial. They wrote in court papers that "a single mistake is not bad faith." Waters pointed to the breadth of additional evidence Owen presented to the grand jury, including the family's mounting debts, weapons missing from the property that matched those potentially used in the killings, and the fact that Murdaugh's large-scale financial crimes were close to being exposed at the time of the deaths. Prosecutors have argued that Murdaugh killed his wife and son calculating that the sympathy the deaths would generate could buy him time to conceal his thefts.
Central to the prosecution's case is a video recorded by Paul Murdaugh at the family's kennels shortly before the killings, in which Alex Murdaugh's voice can be heard — directly contradicting his initial claim that he was not near the kennels at the relevant time. Prosecutors contend they have substantial evidence supporting the murder charges independent of anything Owen told the grand jury.
A ruling against Owen would be the second significant judicial rebuke of the agent. A separate judge last year dismissed a different murder case in which Owen was involved after it emerged he had withheld from both prosecutors and defence attorneys information about a suicide threat made by the victim days before her death. Owen retired abruptly in 2024, shortly after being named State Law Enforcement Officer of the Year.
Murdaugh has admitted in prior court proceedings to being a thief, an insurance fraudster and a long-term opioid addict, but continues to deny any involvement in the killings. No DNA or blood linking him physically to the murders was found on his person or clothing, despite the close-range nature of the attack. The weapons used have never been recovered.
He currently remains imprisoned on separate financial crime sentences. The outcome of the murder retrial will not affect the terms under which he could be released on those convictions.
Griffin summarised the defence's position in straightforward terms: "What we're asking, your honor, is to reboot — go back to square one."
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)