Jury finally hears financial crime evidence & more on raincoat on day 12 of Murdaugh trial

COLLETON COUNTY, S.C. (WCIV) — Tuesday marked "Day 12" in the Murdaugh double murder trial.

Court resumed at 9:30 a.m.

Live blog authored by Drew Tripp with edits by Bailey Wright.

Read More:

• LIVE BLOG: Murdaugh Murder Trial, Day 11: Judge says financial crime evidence admissible
• PODCAST: Murdaugh Day 12 Recap I Unsolved South Carolina
  
• Former law partner and friend testifies Murdaugh's voice was in son's video
  
• 'I knew he was stealing money': CFO testifies on Alex Murdaugh's mishandling of firm funds
  
  

Judge Clifton Newman makes ruling

Judge Newman is once again rehashing the admissibility of the rain jacket/blue tarp with the state and prosecution.

Both state and defense have made their case once again for and against allowing the jacket specifically into evidence.

Judge Newman rules the jacket is admissible and not prejudicial due to the circumstantial nature of the case.

Jim Griffin for the defense says their objection is not about what Shelly Smith testified yesterday, but to bar testimony by SLED's next gunshot residue analyst about the GSR found on the jacket.

Newman says it's the jury's job to make findings of facts, not his. The jacket is already in evidence, and it will be up to the jury to decide based on the state and defense's presentations whether or not the jacket is significantly valuable as evidence. State's motion denied.

Judge Newman says juror who raised yesterday the issue of length of trial has made arrangements with their job and no longer has an issue with continuing.

However, Judge Newman notes an alternate juror has been excused from the panel after needing to miss today's proceedings due to an emergency hospital visit.

First Witness: Jeanne Seckinger

Seckinger is the chief financial officer for Murdaugh's former law firm, known at that time as PMPED. She previously testified without the jury present, before the judge decided financial crime evidence would be admissible.

We learned outside the jury's presence last week (and in the Russell Laffitte trial in November) Seckinger confronted Murdaugh about missing money the day of the murders.

Seckinger is currently giving the jury background we have heard and reported on multiple times.

Seckinger: Murdaugh was always in a rush, frenetic, gift of gab, constantly on his cell phone. Chaotic.

Read More: Door opened to testimony on Alex Murdaugh's deep financial troubles

Seckinger: "Alex was gifted in the "art of bullshit.

Seckinger says Alex was more reliant on his personality and his ability to read people to win big results as an attorney than he did his technical skill. She can't deny he often got good, very lucrative results on clients' behalf.

Seckinger says in hindsight, she thinks Murdaugh's forgetful, inattentive, nature was an act. He had a really strong memory but pretended to not care about small details or to have simply forgotten things, when in reality he was well aware and capable of juggling several stories at once with several different people.

More from Seckinger. Successful not from his work ethic, but from ability to establish relationships and manipulate people into liking him.

Seckinger notes how several years ago (2015), Alex through a clerical error was issued a refund check intended for his brother Randy for a loan Randy had made into the firm's operating account at the beginning of the year. Seckinger noted Alex NEVER made loans into that operating account in her 20+ years working with him.

Seckinger says Murdaugh came to the finance office and told them he'd lost his refund check and asked them to cut him a new one. (Remember, this was never his check to begin with.) Murdaugh got the new check, went and cashed it, and held onto the original one. He then cashed the original one a year later. So he cashed the same $121K check (that wasn't his) twice.

Seckinger says the firm discovered the issue when Murdaugh cashed the check a year later. Danny Henderson at the firm confronted Alex, and he explained it away as a simple mistake and misunderstanding. Seckinger says Henderson accepted this explanation, Alex was allowed to simply pay back the money, and the whole thing was "swept under the rug."

Seckinger acknowledges her awareness of the boat crash involving Paul Murdaugh, and the lawsuit against Alex.

Seckinger brings up how in early 2021, she became aware of an improper check for attorney fees in a case Alex worked.

Seckinger says Alex had sent the proceeds from his attorney fees on the "Hershberger case" directly to a business called Forge Consulting (or so she thought). Attorney fees are never supposed to be directly paid to an attorney or any other entity at Murdaugh's law firm. She explained earlier if an attorney were to take fees directly instead of sending them to the firm to hold and distribute, it would be stealing.

In the Hersberger case, Seckinger says she learned Murdaugh was attempting to "structure' his fees so that he wouldn't get a lump sum, but instead several payments. Seckinger noted Alex had gone about doing that improperly by sending the money directly to what she thought was Forge Consulting (which is legitimate business).

Seckinger said she had a conversation with Alex saying that for him to structure fees properly, the fees have to be part of the disbursement agreement from the settlement, and should go straight from the insurance company to the structuring firm (Forge Consulting) and that the law firm also has to be notified first.

Seckinger says she also discussed with Alex how this method of structuring fees wasn't a tax benefit to him. Seckinger says Murdaugh in response said he wasn't worried about tax benefits or ramifications, but instead, he was trying to put money aside in Maggie's name because of the boat wreck lawsuit. Seckinger says Alex also brought up how he was trying to structure some of his own fees through Forge as a favor to Forge Consulting principal Michael Gunn in exchange for Gunn helping him get money put into Maggie's name.

Seckinger says Murdaugh's admission about the "Forge" plan was highly concerning to her because it was amounting to hiding assets, and the firm didn't want anything to do with it.

Seckinger said she advised Murdaugh of the right and wrong way to do things, but kept a mental note about what Alex had said he was trying to do with the money. This was in May of 2021. Seckinger said she planned to go talk to other law firms about what they were going to do as far as figuring out how to properly get things on the books for the firm, and also making sure Alex's opposing attorneys in the boat crash case were properly informed of Alex's income. It wasn't immediately pressing to her, however, because she didn't have to balance the books until December. Fair to say the issue was put on the backburner for the time being.

But then later in the same month (May 2021), Seckinger says she got a request to meet privately with Alex Murdaugh's paralegal, Annette Griswald. Griswald says she discovered the check for Alex's fees was missing in a case he'd recently settled ("Faris vs. Mack Trucks case"). Alex had worked on the case with Chris Wilson, his longtime friend and fellow attorney at another law firm.

Seckinger says Griswald told her she hadn't received a check from Chris Wilson's firm for Alex's attorney fees, and when she contacted Wilson's firm about that, Wilson's staff told Griswald the fees had already been paid. That's all secondhand according to Seckinger. (Griswald is also listed as a possible witness).

Seckinger says her concern was immediately that Alex had been paid the fees himself when the Faris case fees were missing.

Seckinger says she requested full documentation of disbursements, etc in the Faris case from Wilson's law firm. This was on May 27.

Meantime, Seckinger says she met with law firm partners Lee Cope and Mark Ball about the issue and came up with the plan to question Alex and Chris Wilson's firm without bringing backlash on Griswald.

A day after the inquiries into the records, Seckinger says Alex came into her office wanting to know why she was requesting that info, and assured her the money was in Chris Wilson's account and they could get it anytime.

Seckinger says she told Alex they either needed the money or proof it was there. She didn't tell him she thought it was missing, and she just needed documentation.

Seckinger says the Issue came back to a head on June 7, 2021. Chris Wilson had not responded ton inquiries. She goes upstairs to Alex's office. He gives her a dirty look unlike anything he'd ever given her, clearly very frustrated, "What do you need now?" They went in Alex's office, closed the door, told him she had reason to believe he received the money himself, and she needed proof he hadn't.

Seckinger says Murdaugh assured her the money was with Chris Wilson and they could get it. Conversation got interrupted when Alex took a call. Alex took a call saying his father was going to die soon. They stopped talking about business and started talking as friends. She left his office soon after under the impression he was going home for the day.

Seckinger says she was surprised late in the afternoon on June 7 to get a call on her office phone from Alex saying he was working on financials for a hearing in the boat crash case later in the week, and wanted information on his 401(K) balances.

Later the night of June 7, Seckinger says she started hearing rumors of a shooting involving Maggie and Paul.

Seckinger says it was very shocking, very scary. Nobody knew what was going on. Law firm was a like a brotherhood and family. Everybody rallied to Alex's aid, no work done. Everybody spent time with Alex and family, bringing family meals, attending funerals. The fees issue got put on the backburner.

Seckinger says Alex was erratic, taking pills, everybody was worried about his mental state, and they didn't want to press him on the missing fees issue.

Meantime, weeks pass. It's now July. PMPED partner Lee Cope takes over communicating with Chris Wilson in the background. Murdaugh continues to assure them money is there. July 19, Wilson finally responds that he has $792K in fees from Faris case in his trust account. Seckinger says she was hesitant to accept this, still seemed shaky, but says she had to believe what was in front of her.

September 2021, Griswald comes into Seckinger's office with a check dated March 10, 2021, for $225K made out directly to Alex Murdaugh personally for "Faris fees." Again, attorney fees were supposed to go to the law firm directly. Seckinger said she immediately knew Alex had been stealing and had lied about it for months.

Griswald had found the check on Alex's desk while going through files looking for something. Seckinger says she began looking into other cases of Murdaugh's based on the check.

Seckinger says she printed a ledger of all disbursements by the firm to "Forge." Then started printing off all documents and copies of checks from those disbursements. Seckinger says she started feeling sick like she was about to throw up when she saw every check she printed out was signed by Alex Murdaugh.

The bank on the checks was listed as Bank of America. The account was listed as "Forge." Seckinger brought in firm partners William Barnes and Mark Ball to get second opinions, and they agree it' Alex's signature. Ball also recognized one of the checks was obvious fraud because it was from a case where disbursements hadn't been approved yet.

They then brought in Lee Cope, who called Michael Gunn at Forge Consulting to find out if their company banked at Bank of America. Gunn confirmed they hadn't used Bank of America in several years. Cope sent Gunn a sample list of clients whose names were on the checks they'd discovered. Gunn confirmed they had no records of any of the clients.

On Sept. 3, 2021, a majority of the law partners met to discuss the findings of Alex's apparent thefts. After all agreeing, they brought in Alex's brother Randy to show him, and Randy agreed Alex appeared to be stealing, and something had to be done. So Randy and Danny Henderson went to confront Alex and demanded his resignation.

Court was in recess for a few minutes as the state prepares to go blow-by-blow with Seckinger on all the money Murdaugh stole from the firm between 2015 and 2021 using the fake "Forge" account.

Editor's note: We will not be going through these fraudulent disbursements line-by-line, dollar-for-dollar.

Seckinger notes on one of the cases she's reviewing, Murdaugh created not only a fraudulent bank account and illegally diverted funds from the law firm and his clients using it, but he was also charging bogus fees. "Phantom fees" as Seckinger described it.

Seckinger is noting how the law firm had to pay back every single one of the people Alex stole from using the law firm's own funds.

Seckinger keeps repeating the refrain "Because Alex stole it" as the state inventories all the funds taken from the firm.

Seckinger says they found airline and limousine service fees billed to a client by Alex after the case had already concluded, meaning there's no way the fees were applicable. They again had to refund.

Seckinger now establishing the collusion between Alex Murdaugh and her brother-in-law Russell Laffitte at Palmetto State Bank to steal money from clients and manipulate the law firm.

Seckinger now going over "loans" Alex took out of the conservatorships of Hannah Plyler, and how he stole money from other clients accounts to pay it back after using the funds to pay personal debts and send money to his family and friends.

Creighton Waters brings up how Murdaugh had on several occasions used his law firm credit card to pay for personal expenses in the past (before all the thieving was discovered.) Each time it happened, the balance was deducted from his bonus at the end of the year and was forgotten.

Waters circles back to Seckinger's point about the law firm operating on trust. Says the irregular checks cut by the law firm at Murdaugh's direction (allowing the thefts) were made possible by the law firm staff's trust in and respect for Alex.

Seckinger knew Alex Murdaugh for 40 years (since she was 16), worked with him for 22 years.

Creighton Waters: "Did you really know Alex Murdaugh?

Seckinger: "I don't think I ever really knew him. I don't think anybody knows him.

One of the last points Waters had Seckinger make was the fact Alex was taking legitimate attorney fees in addition to everything he was stealing. Substantial sums of money.

Defense now in cross examination. Jim Griffin starts by asking for renewed jury limiting instruction on the fact the evidence of financial crimes is only to prove the state's theory of motive for murder, not to be considered under any other light.

In other words, the financial crimes can't be used to assess Murdaugh's character or to infer he had the propensity to commit crimes even to the extent of murder.

Griffin begins by noting Murdaugh's former law firm has had to pay out north of $4 million to cover for Alex's thefts, and the law firm itself is therefore a victim of Alex. Seckinger agrees.

Griffin notes how the thefts had been going on for 10 years before they were discovered. Says Seckinger has the right to be hurt and angry.

Seckinger: "(Alex) managed to fool a lot of people, myself included ... I take it very personally. It haunts me that I let this, or that this happened.

Griffin: "And you feel like you let it happen on your watch?

Seckinger: "I think anybody would feel like that. It's a big betrayal of trust.

Seckinger says there were fears of unknowns about the murders because of rumors. They didn't think Alex had killed Maggie and Paul because of the confrontation.

Griffin and Seckinger establish there wasn't a great rush to collect the missing money from Alex and Chris Wilson after the murders.

Seckinger says there were issues in her personal life and other professional obligations that prevented her from doing a more thorough background on Alex's disbursements for many months after initially discovering the Hersberger matter, and the murders were part of that.

Griffin makes the point the records of Murdaugh's stealing were there in the system all along, dating back 10 years.

"I had no reason to suspect anything was going on. We had no clients complaining about money missing. We trusted him. We had reason to look."

Griffin seizes on that point. No clients complaining about missing money around June 7?

"No and shamefully when we did talk to clients, they talked about how that they were shocked and confused by the fact he had manipulated and confused them all those years," said Seckinger.

Griffin: "So around June 7, Alex wasn't in a pressure cooker over missing money and how he was handling his business?

Seckinger: "I don't know about anybody else's pressure cooker. I know I was putting pressure on him about the Faris fees.

Seckigner says she believes Murdaugh was going to other partners in the law firm complaining about her hassling him about the missing fees and improperly structured fees.

Griffin offers Alex had no life insurance policies on Maggie and Paul.

Jim Griffin has no further questions.

Creighton Waters back in redirect. Has Seckinger restate how Murdaugh was specifically trying to shield assets in the boat crash case in their original conversation months before the murders.

Waters asks: "Once the murders happened, did it seem right to pressure Murdaugh about the money?

Seckinger says it didn't. They were concerned about Alex's well-being, and wanted to be sure he was mentally OK before bringing it back up.

Seckinger says she still had suspicions in July when she got the email from Chris Wilson saying the Faris fees were accounted for because the email didn't include the accounting documents and ledgers proving the money was there.

Waters concludes the inevitable outcome of the discovery of all Murdaugh's misspending and thefts would be that he'd damage his respected family name, lose his law license and job and go to jail if any of it as discovered. Seckinger affirms.

Second witness: Ronnie Crosby

Crosby is a former law firm partner of Alex Murdaugh when Alex was at PMPED. He previously testified in the trial, but not in front of the jury.

Crosby restating a lot of what we heard from Seckinger we heard earlier about the way the law firm worked with compensation, bonuses, how many cases Alex had, etc.

Crosby says Murdaugh never really developed a technical expertise as a lawyer. More of a general practitioner. The firm was often amazed, however, at some of the large settlements he was able to win.

Crosby says around the mid-late 2000s, Murdaugh and his friend Barrett Boulware along with some others were doing some real estate speculation. In 2008, the Great Recession hit. Some of his partners in the deals weren't able to pay into the loans, and Alex was having to carry a lot of the burden financially.

Crosby says he thought Murdaugh was able to rectify his financial strains in 2010, 2011 after winning very, very large settlements in several cases: Plyler sisters, Badger, Pinckney and Thomas. The judgments were very, very large, and Mr. Murdaugh would've earned good income off those cases, Crosby said.

Crosby is aware of the boat crash case in 2019 involving Paul Murdaugh and the death of Mallory Beach. Crosby says he knew Mallory personally, as she worked for his wife. Says he also knew Paul, and the other two girls (Miley Altman, Morgan Doughty) on the boat. He was also aware of the lawsuit that followed by Mallory's family.

Crosby says he had a conversation with Alex and other lawyers over the years about structuring fees. Sometime in the spring in 2021, he and Alex spoke about it. At that time, Crosby says he thinks he's the only one at the firm who was doing it at the time.

Crosby says he advised Murdaugh structuring would be of no real benefit to him because of low interest rates at the time.

Crosby says he knew of Gloria Satterfield. Knew her for many years, both through her relationship with Alex, and his own family. Says Gloria helped his wife out with laundry and stuff when their children were first born. Crosby says he heard Satterfield died after Alex's dogs knocked her down the steps.

Crosby says Alex told him he would be going after his own insurance company in a "friendly" suit to try to get Satterfield's sons money to help them out. Doesn't recall any other conversations about it.

Crosby detailing his involvement in the Faris vs. Mack Trucks case from a products liability standpoint. He assisted Murdaugh on the case, but didn't help him try the case in court. Crosby explaining how a lawyer in Columbia was working on the case first before getting Chris Wilson (Alex's friend) involved, then Alex. Not unusual. Alex and Chris worked on cases together a lot.

Soon after the Faris case was settled, Crosby says he heard from partners and Jeanne Seckinger about missing fees in the Faris case Alex was supposed to have gotten.

Crosby gives context, saying the May 2021 discovery of the missing Faris case fees happened in close proximity to Alex talking to him about structuring fees

Crosby says Seckinger mentioned to him Alex had told her he wanted to hide money in relation to boating case.

Crosby: "I said, 'Oh f*** no we are not!,' To do that under any circumstance was illegal, unethical, and he would be putting us at risk, and we absolutely were not going to participate that was illegal, unethical or subjected us to liability or created issues with the South Carolina bar."

Crosby says Jeanne told them she was being told the money was held in trust with Chris Wilson:

"I had no reason to doubt that. I thought he was trying to just take the money out in some other way so it didn't go through our system, which would've also been tax fraud on our part not to have that accounted for. There was myriad reasons why that wasn't ever going to happen, but I thought if they were saying the money was there, I just said Jeanne get the money, take care of it. I didn't think any more of it. I didn't think he was stealing. I thought, OK he's got this boat case, and maybe he thought if he did it through Chris's trust account, maybe it wouldn't be accounted for. But it had to be accounted for."

Crosby: "There was just no damn way we were going to do that.

Crosby knew Paul Murdaugh since he was born. Crosby is very emotional as he recalls this. Both Paul and Buster referred to him as Uncle Ronnie. They lived close to each other. Paul and Buster hunted a lot on Ronnie's property.

Crosby choked up. "I didn't think this would be that hard."

"Paul was really good with kids. He took a liking to my son who was younger," he says. Describes they spent a lot of time together, hunted with his son all the time.

"He had a great personality, just a kid I really loved."

As his son got older, he would go over to Moselle to hunt with Paul.

Alex is weeping and rocking back and forth as Crosby testifies about Paul.

Crosby says he doesn't recall seeing Murdaugh the day of the murders. He found out what had happened late that night, sometime after 11 p.m.

Ronnie left home and drove to Moselle. Drove to the scene. Arrived sometime around 11. Stayed there until around 3:30 a.m. Everybody left around that time. Returned to Moselle the next day. Had multiple conversations with Alex the night of and day after.

Crosby says Alex told him and others from the firm he worked up until around 5:30-6, went home, rode around the property with Paul, went home and had dinner. Maggie was there at the house. Maggie and Paul went to the kennels after dinner. Alex said he sat on the couch and fell asleep sometime after 8 and woke up around 9. Drove to his mother's house. Sat on the bed with her. Came back to Moselle. Realized Maggie and Paul weren't at the house, drove to the kennels and discovered Maggie and Paul's body.

Crosby says Murdaugh specifically said in one of the conversations they had Alex specifically said he didn't go down to the kennels with Maggie and Paul.

State plays for Crosby the video from Paul's phone at the dog kennels on June 7, 2021 at 8:44 p.m. Crosby says the voices heard in the video are Paul Murdaugh, Maggie Murdaugh and Alex Murdaugh. He's 100% confident.

Crosby says the law firm is very close knit. Sent shock waves through the law firm. Horror and disbelief. Firm took extra security measures. Insecurity and fear because they didn't understand what might be happening. Paul, Maggie and Buster had come to the law firm many times over the years. They all knew them.

Crosby says everyone needed to be together to support each other, especially Alex after the murders. Recalls a conversation where the partners decided not to bring up the money again immediately after the murders.

Crosby gave the eulogy for Paul at the funeral. Was around him all the time. He pretty much had free reign over Crosby's property to hunt and fish. Very polite. Killed his first deer on Ronnie's property. He got to watch him grow up.

Crosby recalls how Paul often used a camo Benelli Super Black Eagle shotgun and a .300 Blackout rifle.

Crosby remembers noting at the murder scene what he thought were .223 rifle cartridges, but then was surprised to learn the next day they were .300 BLK shells.

Crosby says he was much later called by a partner to come to a meeting at Danny Henderson's house. He was told he was going to need a drink. Says he ultimately needed more than one. He was handed the files showing Alex's theft, and quickly determined they had to fire Alex. They launched an internal investigation and reported it to authorities.

Had he known earlier, he would've moved to fire Alex and turn evidence over to authorities. Conduct would've been also reported to the bar.

Jim Griffin in cross examination for the Defense.

Crosby says he and other law partners were asking a lot of questions and theorizing about who could've committed the murders.

Crosby recounts that he in the aftermath of murders he went to a local mechanic shop and checked to see if Paul had removed his guns from his truck before dropping the truck off the Friday before the murders. Crosby said he observed some loose ammo and a pistol in Paul's truck, but no long guns.

Crosby says he also reviewed surveillance video at the mechanic shop, and it wasn't apparent from the video if Paul had removed any guns from the truck when he left. Picked up by Moselle caretaker Claude Rowe.

Crosby describes going to the murder scene the day after the killings with law partner Mark Ball. Bodies had been removed but there was still blood and body tissue everywhere.

Jim Griffin asks Crosby if he tried to collect any evidence when he went to the feed room where Paul was killed after the murders.

Crosby: "Jim -- I mean, Mr. Griffin -- We know each other, I apologize. That area in that room ... it was so bad. We thought we were going to at some point clean it up, but it overwhelmed both my partner Mark and I. We could see the (shotgun shell pellets) and all the other aftermath. We were getting biological material on our -- I mean, we just couldn't be there. It was bad, and it was overwhelming us. So no, I didn't try to collect evidence.

Griffin: "And the scene inside that feed room I take it is something that still is etched inside your mind's eye, your memory?

Crosby: "Yes.

Crosby says he isn't qualified to say if crime scene was being handled correctly. Doesn't recall any comments by anyone else about the same.

Crosby says when the law partners were all sent away from the crime scene the night of the murders and went to the house, it was his perception hadn't been searched yet.

Crosby says he recalls Alex being brought up to the house to change clothes and SLED seizing his clothes.

Griffin asking Crosby how Alex had an annoying quirk of taking phone calls at any time, during depositions, partner meetings, etc. Crosby acknowledges.

Crosby notes for Griffin that Alex was having trouble sleeping and didn't come to the office much. Taking medicine from anxiety -- the pills Seckinger mentioned earlier. Was losing weight, wasn't eating. Falling asleep at work.

Crosby recalls how Alex in the aftermath of the murders told him how much Paul loved him, and it was emotional every time.

Griffin asks Crosby about seeing Alex over the 4th of July weekend after the murders. He came over to Crosby's beach house with Randy by boat. Noted Alex was carrying a gun. He hadn't known Alex to carry a gun for protection before that.

In re-direct, Creighton Waters again asks the question he asked of Jeanne Seckinger earlier, and of Will Loving before that: Did you really know Alex Murdaugh. This time, Jim Griffin objects citing the state attacking the character of the witness. Judge Newman sustains the objection. Crosby allowed to step down.

After brief recess, the state intends to call its gunshot residue analyst to testify.

Third witness: Megan Fletcher

Fletcher is a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agent in the forensics division. She began training on gunshot residue analysis in 2007 when she started.

Fletcher says at SLED they specifically test for gunshot PRIMER residue. Primer has a dual meaning within ammunition. Primer is both the chemical compound substance that is ignited to initiate the combustion of gunpowder inside ammunition, and primer is also the name of the small component on the ammo itself where the primer compound itself is housed.

Primers produce a specific three-part trace evidence cocktail, and gunshot primer residue analysts are required to find all three parts on a test to be able to declare gunshot residue for evidentiary value is present.

Fletcher notes the circumstances for collecting GSR are very narrow when it comes to being able to collect usable samples. GSR is easily washed away or wiped away. It's also highly transferable. Fletcher notes it's very difficult to determine if GSR is transferred from another person or object, was carried along with the bullet, or was directly deposited on the person by firing a firearm.

Fletcher, who has been qualified as an expert witness, says the best place to collect GSR is from the hands of a person, but also some key places on the body, like a shirt sleeve, shoulder, center of chest, pants legs or shoes.

Fletcher notes its now SLED policy (recommended prior to 2022, now policy) not to test gunshot victims for GSR because there's essentially no value to that evidence. Bullets and other discharged materials from fired ammo carries gunshot residue with it, so you'll expect to find GSR on a gunshot victim. No real way to tell if that GSR would've come from shooting or being shot.

Fletcher now reviewing Alex Murdaugh's white t-shirt from the night of June 7. Notes how she immediately noticed smell of fresh laundry detergent like her technician described yesterday.

Fletcher notes light staining on the shirt. Cargo shorts were clean.

Fletcher notes Alex's shirt had gunshot primer residue on it, which can come from vicinity of firearm discharge or transfer from other object.

Fletcher notes three GSR particles combined were found on right sleeve / chest and left sleeve / chest.

Fletcher notes 3 particles combined from right and left groin area of Alex's shorts.

One GSR particle found on Alex's left hand.

Fletcher repeatedly notes how the GSR particles on Alex's hand, shirts and shoes could've come from transfer or proximity, not necessarily from firing.

Fletcher notes no GSR was found on Alex's shoes.

One GSR particle was found on the assembly near the buckle. Transfer is most likely source.

Now moving to blue rain jacket.

Fletcher notes they were asked to check the inside and outside of the jacket, so they did. That resulted in the 38 particles noted from the interior.

Fletcher says 13 lifts were collected from the sleeves, chest, outside hood, pocket interiors, chest and back of the jacket. She found GSR particles on the outside (doesn't clarify how many).

Fletcher says they collected anything and everything from the rain jacket- collections from the exterior of the hood, left chest, middle pockets, sleeves, shoulders, etc.

Fletcher says there were a total of 25 particle lifts from the entire jacket, interior and exterior.

She's describing all the different parts of the jacket they collected from. The particle lifts on the outside of the jacket were 13 total.

She says she did find particles characteristic of gunshot residue on the outside of the jacket.

This means the jacket could have been in the vicinity of a gunshot or something that had gunshot residue on it transferred to that jacket.

Inside the pockets, there was no particles consistent with gunshot residue.

A "significant" amount of gunshot residue particles were found on the inside of the coat, at least 38 particles. She says she stopped taking samples as an executive decision because there were so many.

In addition, she found more than 20 more candidates for GSR particles. She says if she'd tested all that she found, it would've taken her a week. She says she only ended up testing about 10% of the particles she found.

If someone was wearing this coat inside out, she says they could have been near a gunshot.

Given the large amount of particles on the inside, an object or objects with a high amount of gunshot residue would have had to be transferred to it.

Fletcher says with the number of GSR particles she found, if they were transferred from other clothes or objects, those other clothes would've been covered in a significant number of particles as well.

Fletcher notes that because the jacket is an inanimate object, she'd expect the GSR particles to stay on it potentially forever until washed off or brushed off.

She emphasizes that it was a significant amount of gunshot residue particles found on the inside of the coat.

John Meadors for the State concludes by asking Fletcher if a firearm had been wrapped up inside that jacket, could it have transferred the high amount of GSR particles to the jacket? Fletcher says that's a possibility.

Court adjourned just after 5:30 p.m. Wednesday's session will begin with cross-examination of the witness.

-----------------------

Alex Murdaugh stands trial accused of killing his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and son, Paul Murdaugh, 22, at the family's Colleton County property in June of 2021.

He's charged with two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Read More:

• LIVE BLOG: Murdaugh Murder Trial, Day 11: Judge says financial crime evidence admissible
• Alex Murdaugh's alibi may no longer be 'ironclad' after caretaker's testimony Monday
• PODCAST: Murdaugh Day 11 Recap I Unsolved South Carolina
• Before financial crimes made admissible in Murdaugh trial, Beach attorney testifies
• Condon: Murdaugh focus group tests in defense's favor, will be central to defense's case
  
• More than 250 potential witnesses listed in Murdaugh murder trial
• TIMELINE: Alex Murdaugh and 5 years of death investigations, fraud & murder
• WATCH: Murdaugh trial evidence includes Alex's first police interview on night of murders