Let's see what surprises happened over the weekend, if any. This is a grudge match between the attorneys as there is no love lost between them and the judge is losing patience. The entire trial was supposed to be done by last Friday but we are still on prosecution's case in chief. State AG has told the judge they expect to be done by midweek, Wednesday.

Defense counsel has been frustrated because they have fix or six expert witnesses, many of them who need to made arrangements to fly in to testify and expect their case in chief will take a week. No telling how long the state's rebuttall may be.

Emily's stream


Nick's rumble

Interesting article.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/01/23/the-corrupt-world-behind-the-murdaugh-murders

Uncivil Law is reviewing a comprehensive spreadsheet of the timeline. It is very, very tight. How in the world could have have cleaned up, disposed of phone, gone to mom's, and driven back? The cleanup is the biggest issue IMO. It's still a reasonable doubt case.

I think it's very possible if he did it he had help. If someone else fires the shots there's no need for GSR or blood cleanup. Someone else disposes of phone as he drives to mom's house.

Shots were fired within minutes of AM being on scene. Someone else could have been lurking in a closet or other hiding spot and waited for AM to drive away to take out Paul and got Maggie as she was trying to get away.

As for the judge allowing the hearsay evidence by Blanca on Friday, Rob of Law and Lumber reviewed that portion of the trial Friday night and agrees with the judge. The testimony about Maggie expressing worry over finances should have been disallowed under hearsay but Harpootlian changed his objection from hearsay to relevance after the proffer. Rob says this is a common hearsay attempt in family court (kid is scared of xyz or worries about xyz) and he has to argue it all the time.

Case law precedent would have supported Blanca saying "Maggie looked worried" or even "Maggie was worried" but she could not go beyond that because it would have been speculation or hearsay. Harpootlian changed his objection to relevance which wasn't the appropriate objection, so the judge allowed it. The judge even gave Harpootlian an extra shot at getting the "hearsay" words back out after the proffer and he didn't.

Not meant to derail, but if this looks more and more like it may not have been AM, then what's the thought on who did it and why.

Hired or otherwise coerced by AM to kill his wife and younger son? Or revenge against AM or Paul(?) for the boat accident or other business dealing?

Was there also some scuttle at some point that AM had a drug issue. Could that have played a role?

Or did AM just do a real good job at killing them to the point he could skate on the charges?

I have no idea what happened, not even a solid guess.

I don't think he fired the shots. Too hard to clean up, not get any trace evidence in his truck or have any on him.

Jurors have covid? Two have been released. An alternate was released last week.

Oh jeez. Covid.

Two sick jurors.

Defense trying to delay case due to "exposure" of jurors.

Judge brought in a doctor to test the jury today and Wednesday.

Judge wants people to wear masks as if masks will do anything.

State wants to delay.

Now someone is handing out masks. Holy *****

Can anyone clarify whether the alternate jurors know if they are alternates in this case?

South Carolina has an odd procedure wherein at the time the jury was seated, the alternates are told they are alternates. So now that the regular jurors have been released, the clerk has to draw jury numbers by lot from the alternates to replace them.

Now talking about the gallery wherein trial witnesses are seated.

And now we go to mask pseudoscience and the attorneys want the gallery out.

Social distancing. Crowd is packed.

That is so dumb. Common sense indicates the alternates aren't going to pay as close attention when they know they likely won't be deliberating.

Not a Bot said:

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And now we go to mask pseudoscience and the attorneys want the gallery out.

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They should have invoked the rule and half of them would be gone anyway.

Surprise surprise.

GM and the FBI got in contact Friday night and "found" the missing GPS data.

For heaven's sake! Now GM says they have the OnStar GPS data?

Defense thinks it helps them. Shows car speed, exact location, time, etc. Defense needs time for their expert to look at it so they can cross the state on it.

Not a Bot said:

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Surprise surprise.

GM and the FBI got in contact Friday night and "found" the missing GPS data.

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I was being flippant when I started this thread about what "surprises" may have happened over the weekend.

Not a Bot said:

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That is so dumb. Common sense indicates the alternates aren't going to pay as close attention when they know they likely won't be deliberating.

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Fully agree.

The other thing I have noticed in thsi trial is that the judge never asked about whether any winesses were released or subject to recall and admonished the witness accordingly. That made a huge difference with the caretaker's gofundme and Tinsley's 1K donation.

Not a Bot said:

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Surprise surprise.

GM and the FBI got in contact Friday night and "found" the missing GPS data.

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Wow. Unreal.

This trial is so screwed.

Ryan Kelley from SLED. He's identifying buccal swabs.

I don't recall the defense making a big deal out of the witnesses being in the room other than Tinsley. They may have had some sort of agreement with the state or for whatever reason aren't requesting sequestration.

And he's gone. Just for identification and foundation.

This new witness is forensic DNA analyst with SLED.

Not a Bot said:

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I don't recall the defense making a big deal out of the witnesses being in the room other than Tinsley. They may have had some sort of agreement with the state or for whatever reason aren't requesting sequestration.

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Then they are dumb or this judge doesn't think it is necessary. He's pretty permissive with stuff like that.

This DNA witness has a memorized script. So cringe.

Not a Bot said:

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This DNA witness has a memorized script. So cringe.

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And she only collected the DNA and forwarded it to yet another analyst, so still need another witness to say if they found any trace DNA on the shell casings.

Wait, we had testimony earlier that they didn't swab the doorknob on the feed room.

Plus the voice.

MsDoubleD81 said:

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Plus the voice.

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Talks through her nose.

And the upswing inflection.

She's going to be on the stand for two hours explaining how she didn't find anything.