Judge Debra McCaslin put both the prosecution and defense on notice Friday that she will not tolerate theatrics as she prepares Alex Murdaugh’s double-murder retrial for court.
“I will not allow these proceedings to become a circus,” McCaslin warned during a tense hearing in Lexington, South Carolina, according to courtroom accounts.
The judge, 65, handed Murdaugh’s team a significant victory by granting their request for new DNA testing on swabs taken from Maggie Murdaugh’s phone. Prosecutors had objected, noting the analysis will likely consume the last remaining testable samples. McCaslin cited due process and the right to a “full and complete defense” in her ruling. Murdaugh’s attorneys estimated the testing will take roughly 90 days.
McCaslin also determined that defense attorneys are not obligated to share DNA test results with prosecutors unless they intend to use them at trial.
But the judge rejected the defense’s broader push for ballistic data, denying Harpootlian’s request for a comprehensive list of every crime since 2021 in the 2nd and 14th judicial circuits involving.300 Blackout ammunition, every firearm of that caliber recovered, and casings from other shootings. She found the theory linking the murder weapon to an unsolved crime speculative and based solely on news reports, noting that the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division does not maintain such a list. A manual review, she added, would impose too much work and could interfere with ongoing investigations.
While McCaslin blocked Harpootlian’s expert from physically testing shell casings from the crime scene, she ordered the state to turn over all raw ballistic data to the defense.
The judge further ruled that prosecutors must provide 3D crime scene scan data by Monday, though she made clear she will not force the state to produce materials repeatedly and directed defense staff to sign for discovery. She issued a parallel warning regarding cellphone extraction data from Maggie and Paul Murdaugh’s phones, stating the state’s latest handover would be the final one.
McCaslin also corrected the record on a polygraph claim that has hung over the case since summer. Murdaugh attorney Dick Harpootlian asserted at an August 14 hearing that his client had passed a polygraph “with flying colors.” The judge said Friday that Murdaugh actually failed the test, which concerned whether he concealed additional assets in his sprawling financial crimes case—not the murders of his wife and son.
McCaslin noted that Harpootlian had submitted a letter apologizing for any confusion, then delivered a sharp message to both sides. “Candor with the court is not optional,” she cautioned.
The judge ruled in prosecutors’ favor on a defense motion seeking evidence about the disposal of the murder weapons, which have never been recovered. She said the state must hand over such material only if it proves favorable to Murdaugh’s defense.
Murdaugh’s team had sought information “concerning the handling, transport, concealment, or disposal of the alleged weapons used to kill Maggie Murdaugh and Paul Murdaugh,” including a 2023 witness statement to South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agents alleging that Yemassee Police Chief Greg Alexander spoke of arriving early at the scene and providing Murdaugh a change of clothes.
The September motion cited press reports that a state grand jury received testimony placing Alexander in possession of the murder weapons shortly after the June 7, 2021 killings at the family’s Moselle property in Colleton County. “According to those reports, witnesses have testified that the Chief of Police of the Town of Yemassee, Greg Alexander, was seen with the murder weapons in the immediate aftermath of the June 7, 2021, killings,” the filing states.
Alexander, through attorney Joe McCulloch, denied the accusations. “The same explanation has been provided to SLED,” McCulloch said. “That truth will outlive any ridiculous rumors and gossip.”
Former prosecutor Joshua Ritter dismissed the Alexander allegation as a “wild goose chase” in comments to Fox News Digital. “This is one of those cases that, you know, a lot of reporting was done early on, a lot of conspiracy theories swirling around this case,” Ritter said. “I don’t see any reason for the judge to allow for this essentially wild goose chase in regards to an uncorroborated report about law enforcement perhaps being in possession of the murder weapon.”
“Obviously, the defense would love to pursue this to its absolute limit because they think that there’s a snowball’s chance that it might yield something, but I think that the judge is probably going to give very little leeway on something like this,” Ritter added.
Murdaugh, 56, was convicted in 2023 of murdering Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, but the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned the verdicts after finding former Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill improperly influenced the jury. His retrial is scheduled to begin April 5, 2027, and he has maintained his innocence in the killings.
The next hearing in the case is set for Thursday in Lexington.