2 Murdaugh murder trial jurors out with COVID; attorneys worry about disruption to trial

Judge Clifton Newman announced Monday that two jurors in the Alex Murdaugh double-murder trial have been excused after they tested positive for COVID-19. They were replaced with two alternate jurors who have heard the previous three weeks of testimony, as chosen by the court’s clerk.

Attorneys raised concerns about the effect the virus could have on the trial if more jurors get sick. Murdaugh’s guilt or innocence must be determined by a unanimous verdict from 12 jurors at the Colleton County Courthouse, all of whom have sat in close proximity to each other in the jury box for the last three weeks.

Earlier, an alternate juror was dismissed when they missed court due to an emergency room visit. The trial started Jan. 25 with six alternates, which has now been cut to three.

Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian suggested Monday morning the court delay proceedings in case more jurors develop symptoms. Newman said jurors were tested for COVID-19 Monday and would be tested again Wednesday. He said many of the remaining jurors had agreed to wear masks in the courthouse for the rest of the trial, and encouraged others in the large public crowd in the courtroom Monday to do the same, although he stopped short of issuing a court order requiring masks.

“Aren’t we all exposing ourselves in the courtroom here?” Harpootlian asked at one point.

“Probably so,” Newman said.

“We could do a little thermometer thing at the door,” lead prosecutor Creighton Waters suggested.

Blood analysis offered

The trial moved forward Monday with testimony from a S.C. Law Enforcement Division agent about DNA collection in the case.

Agent Rachel Nguyen testified that two blood stains were identified on the shirt Murdaugh was wearing the night of the murders, June 7, 2021, as well as on the steering wheel of his car. Blood was also found on an interior pocket of the shorts Murdaugh was wearing.

The defense has challenged the state’s testing of Murdaugh’s shirt, disputing the analysis and arguing the process left them unable to perform their own tests on the piece of evidence. Nguyen said further analysis was done after first responders to the scene of the crime conducted a positive field test, which Nguyen said could lead to a false positive.

Nguyen did not indicate if the blood was identified as belonging to Murdaugh or either of the murder victims, but she forwarded them on for further analysis. Several guns confiscated from Murdaugh’s house were also tested for blood, one of which tested positive, Nguyen testified, but she couldn’t say whether it was human or animal blood.

She also testified to a raincoat found at Murdaugh’s mother’s house, which was tested for blood but none was found.

The defense has disputed whether the raincoat, which prosecutors say did test positive for gunshot residue, was tied to Murdaugh as the witness who saw him carrying an item into his mother’s house could not say whether it was the raincoat or a blue tarp that was also found in the house.

An earlier witness, SLED agent Ryan Kelly, testified that investigators had collected DNA cheek swabs from members of the family of 2019 boat crash victim Mallory Beach as well as Curtis Smith, the distant cousin accused of participating in the Labor Day 2021 weekend shooting of Murdaugh in what has been reported as a botched suicide attempt to collect on a $10 million life insurance policy. Smith has denied that he shot Murdaugh.

The fourth week of the Murdaugh trial could be the last for the prosecution to make its case.

Waters has said he expects to wrap his case by the middle of this week, turning the trial over to Murdaugh’s defense team of Harpootlian and Jim Griffin to present their witnesses to the jury.

By the end of last week, the state had presented 45 witnesses to the jury who testified to everything from cellphone data to Murdaugh’s behavior before, during and after his wife and son were killed at the family’s rural Colleton County estate on the night of June 7, 2021.

Many have veered away from the murders themselves to talk about alleged financial crimes Murdaugh is also charged with — thefts of millions of dollars from his law partners and clients whose money he held in trust, many of them children seriously injured in car accidents.

Prosecutors allege the looming revelation of those thefts motivated Murdaugh to kill in order to distract from his financial dealings. The disbarred Lowcountry attorney has yet to be tried on those charges, and the defense has called them irrelevant to the question of who killed Maggie and Paul.

This is a developing story. It will be updated.

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