Judge weighs Murdaugh motion to dismiss murder indictments

A South Carolina judge took Alex Murdaugh’s motion to dismiss his murder indictments under advisement after a hearing Friday, with a written ruling expected by November 20. Judge Debra McCaslin’s decision will address whether disputed testimony presented to the grand jury warrants throwing out the charges in the killings of Murdaugh’s wife and son. She has not ruled, and her question about whether prosecutors could obtain new indictments was not a decision to dismiss the existing ones.

Murdaugh’s lawyers argued that State Law Enforcement Division agent David Owen misled the Colleton County grand jury about blood evidence on a shirt Murdaugh wore the night of the killings and ammunition found at the family property. The defense said testing did not establish human blood spatter on the shirt and challenged Owen’s account that other weapons were loaded with ammunition similar to that used to kill Paul Murdaugh.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters disputed the defense’s characterization. He said early tests on the shirt were presumptively positive for blood and that the bloodstain expert stood by his conclusions after further review. Waters also said investigators found mixed ammunition...