Alex Murdaugh trial: Paul Murdaugh's close friend makes critical identification in cellphone video

Two witnesses on Wednesday placed Alex Murdaugh at the crime scene minutes before his wife and son were gunned down in a major blow to the once-powerful attorney's alibi.

Paul Murdaugh's close friend and neighbor, Rogan Gibson, took the stand after the lunch break in the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina.

Alex is charged with fatally shooting his youngest son with a shotgun and his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, with a rifle near the dog kennels of the family's sprawling hunting estate known as Moselle at about 8:50 p.m. June 7, 2021.

Gibson described the Murdaughs as his "second family."

He had left his black lab, Cash, at the Moselle dog kennels. Paul placed a four-minute call to Gibson at 8:40 and they discussed a possible issue with Cash's tail.

Paul told him he'd take a video of Cash's tail and send it to him as soon as the call disconnected – but it never arrived. 

Read more here.

Will Loving testified Wednesday that his friend, Paul Murdaugh, sent him a Snapchat video at 7:56 p.m. about an hour before he was killed.

Alex Murdaugh, is seen wearing a blue shirt and long khaki pants. He and his son, Paul, could be heard laughing in the clip played for jurors.

Two hours later, when Alex called 911 at 10:07 p.m. to report his wife and son "badly shot," he's wearing a white T-shirt and shorts.

At one point during cross-examination, Loving glowingly described the father and son's relationship. "It kind of seemed like he was the apple of his eye,” Loving said.

The day ended with Waters asking Loving a series of questions -- including whether he was aware of Alex's mounting debts, his dwindling bank account balances and the status of the civil litigation in the deadly 2019 boat wreck.

Loving replied no to each question.

"Do you know anything at all about [Alex] being confronted on the morning of June 7, 2021, over $792,000 of missing funds from his law firm?" Waters asked as his final question.

"No, I did not," Loving replied. After the zinger, the trial broke for the day.

A video from 3D imaging company FARO depicts a visual representation of dog kennels on Alex Murdaugh's 1,700-acre hunting estate known as Moselle in Islandton, South Carolina, where his wife and son were murdered on June 7, 2021.

The 3D property representation was presented in court Wednesday to depict the scene of the double murder.

Alex Murdaugh is accused of shooting his son, Paul, ad his wife, Maggie, that evening using two different firearms.  Murdaugh claims he was never at the family's dog kennels that evening and was napping during the time of the murders.

Maggie Murdaugh's body was found near a single dog house on the property and Paul Murdaugh's body was found next to a row of dog kennels nearby, where he had recorded a video of a chocolate lab just minutes before his death, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors argue that the voices of Alex Mudaugh, Maggie Murdaugh and Paul Murdaugh can be heard in a video that Paul took at 8:44 p.m. at the dog kennels on the night of the murders. Prosecutors presented the video in court several times on Wednesday.

Read the full article here.

Another friend of Paul Murdaugh testified Wednesday afternoon that he can "100%" hear Alex Murdaugh's voice in a video Paul took the night he and his mother, Maggie, were murdered.

Paul Murdaugh recorded the video showing a dog in one of the family's kennels around 8:44 p.m. on June 7, 2021 -- just minutes before he was murdered near the kennels on the family's hunting property called Mossell in Islandton, South Carolina.

Will Loving testified that he can "100%" hear Alex's voice in the video, which was played three times in the Colleton County courtroom on Wednesday.

Paul can be seen playing with one of the his friend Gibson's chocolate lab, Cash, inside a kennel on the video he took that evening.

Paul's other friend, Rogan Gibson, also testified Wednesday that he could hear Paul's, Maggie's, and Alex Murdaugh's voices in the video. He described the Murdaughs as his "second family."

Gibson's and Loving's testimonies present a challenge to Alex Murdaugh's claims that he was napping at the time of Paul and Maggie's murders before he drove to his mother's house. He claims he found their bodies later on, around 10 p.m. on June 7, 2021.

A witness in Alex Murdaugh's murder trial testified Wednesday that he can "100%" hear the disgraced South Carolina lawyer's voice in a video presented before the Colleton County courtroom.

Paul Murdaugh recorded the video around 8:44 p.m. on June 7, 2021 -- just minutes before he and his mother, Maggie Murdaugh, were shot dead near their family's dog kennels in Islandton, according to cellphone records presented by prosecutors.

Paul's friends, Rogan Gibson and Will Loving, testified that cthey ould hear Paul's, Maggie's, and Alex Murdaugh's voices in the video. Gibson described the Murdaughs as his "second family."

When Loving was asked if he was "100%" sure that the distant male voice in the background of the video was the elder Murdaugh, he replied, "that's correct."

Paul can be seen playing with one of the his friend Gibson's chocolate lab, Cash, inside a kennel on the video he took that evening.

The video and testimony present a challenge to Alex Murdaugh's claims that he was napping at the time of Paul and Maggie's murders before he drove to his mother's house. He claims he found their bodies later on, around 10 p.m. on June 7, 2021.

A video taken by Alex Murdaugh's deceased son, Paul Murdaugh, on the evening of his 2021 slaying, was presented in court Wednesday during Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial.

Alex Murdaugh is accused of shooting Paul and his wife, Maggie, near dog kennels on their South Carolina property called Moselle on June 7, 2021, though Alex Murdaugh claims he was never at the family's dog kennels that evening and was napping during the time of the murders.

Three different voices — including what appears to be Paul's voice, a female voice and another male voice — can be heard in the video taken at 8:44:47 p.m. on the night of the murders, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Prosecutors argue that the video places Alex Murdaugh at the scene just minutes before Paul and Maggie were shot to death.

Paul can be seen playing with one of the his friend Rogan Gibson's chocolate lab, Cash, inside a kennel on the video he took that evening. Paul told Gibson that something appeared to be wrong with the dog's tail.

Gibson, who was in communication with Paul on the night he was murdered, testified that he heard Paul's, Maggie's, and Alex Murdaugh's voices in the video Paul recorded of Cash.

Colleton County Sgt. Brian Vernadoe on Wednesday testified that he did not see any blood on Alex Murdaugh's hands when he responded to reports of murders at the Murdaugh's property on June 7, 2021.

Alex Murdaugh is accused of fatally shooting his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, that evening using two different firearms near the family's dog kennels, though Alex claims he was napping at the time of the murders before he went to visit his mother.

Vernadoe testified that he administered a gun residue test on Alex Murdaugh's hands after the murders and found that his hands were clean.Murdaugh was cooperative at the time, he said.

The sergeant also said Murdaugh, a former prosecutor, also had no signs of blood on his hands that evening when Vernadoe examined them.

"He was shook up," Vernadoe said of Murdaugh's demeanor that evening.

Attorneys noted Tuesday that Vernadoe previously served as a witness during one of Alex Murdaugh's trials.

Richard "Buster" Murdaugh Jr. and his girlfriend, Brooklyn White, were seen leaving a Colleton County courthouse on Tuesday afternoon during a lunch break in Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial.

Buster, 26, is Alex Murdaugh's only surviving son.

Tuesday's proceedings marked the sixth day of the trial in which Alex Murdaugh is accused of shooting his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, to death on June 7, 2021.

Buster Murdaugh and White, also 26, live in Hilton Head, a quiet South Carolina resort town.

"They’re a really nice couple," a neighbor, who wasn’t aware of Buster’s identity or tragic family circumstances, previously told Fox News Digital. "They always smile and say, hi." 

White attended the University of South Carolina Law School alongside Buster, who was allegedly kicked out in his second semester for plagiarism, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Alex paid an attorney $60,000 to try to get Buster readmitted, according to FitsNews.

Fox News' Rebecca Rosenberg contributed to this report.

Defense lawyer Phillip Barber continued to cross-examine Lt. Britt Dove of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division's computer crimes center on Wednesday afternoon.

Barber noted, based on SLED's findings, that Maggie Murdaugh's phone orientation appeared to change for the last time while Murdaugh's phone indicated that he was still walking toward his vehicle and calling Maggie at 9:06 p.m. on the night of the murders.

"It appears the phones were not together being moved by the same person because they are not recording steps," Dove testified, meaning Maggie's and Alex's phones were "not recording steps at the same time" at 9:06 p.m.

Prosecutors have argued that Alex Murdaugh fatally shot his wife and son at about 8:50 p.m. at the dog kennels on the family's sprawling hunting estate, while Murdaugh's defense team claims he was napping at the time of the murders before leaving home a little after 9 p.m. to visit his mother, who lives about 20 minutes away.

When he returned, he said he found his son and wife's dead bodies near the dog kennels on the family's sprawling hunting estate a little after 10 p.m.

He repeatedly told investigators he didn't visit the dog kennels that night before allegedly making the grisly discovery.

But prosecutors said in opening statements that Paul recorded a cellphone video near the kennels at 8:44 p.m. that captured Alex's voice.

Fox News' Rebecca Rosenberg contributed to this report.

A South Carolina judge earlier this month approved a settlement agreement between a woman killed in a deadly 2019 boat wreck and two members of the Murdaugh family.

19-year-old Mallory Beach died when Paul Murdaugh drunkenly crashed his father’s boat into a bridge. He used his older brother Buster Murdaugh’s ID to buy alcohol for the excursion.

Beach’s family agreed to drop Maggie Murdaugh’s estate and Buster, 26, from the suit in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Buster is the only living son of disgraced South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh.

Alex is accused of murdering his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, in June 2021.

While the Beach family is "pleased" with Judge Daniel Hall's ruling, they do not feel it was the "best decision given the circumstances," Beach family attorney Mark Brandon Tinsley told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

It was, however, "the only decision for all who had any real interest," he said.

Tinsley added: "We also believe the ruling will help give some closure to the people who so desperately deserve it.”

Defense lawyer Phillip Barber cross-examined Lt. Britt Dove of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division's computer crimes center.

Dove processed Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh's phones after the double homicide.

Barber had him read Maggie's earlier texts. She sent a text at 3:55 p.m. but the attorney did not disclose the recipient.

“TY, I’m waiting at doctor. Alex wants me to come home. I have to leave door open at Edisto but trust Mexicans to shut and lock for me. His dad is back in hospital. The last doctor claims no cancer. It’s pneumonia," she wrote.

Maggie usually stayed at the family's beach house in Edisto, while Alex and Paul resided at the family's sprawling hunting estate known as Moselle in Islandton, South Carolina.

"I’m scared for him and Alex and all of us,” she wrote at 4:06 p.m., referring to Randolph Buster Murdaugh III's declining health. He passed away three days after the double murder.

During cross-examination, Dove conceded that texts can be read on an iPhone without the device being unlocked or registering that they were read.

He also acknowledged that the steps recorded on Maggie and Alex's iPhones were not in sync after the murders. If Alex had both iPhones, the movements would be expected to line up.

Prosecutors played for jurors Wednesday a 50-second video recorded on Paul Murdaugh's phone at 8:44:49 p.m.

“It is a video I found on Paul Murdaugh's phone," said Lt. Britt Dove, of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division's computers crime center.

"The video looks like it's inside maybe a kennel area with a fence around it and a dog I believe to be black lab where he’s trying to take a video of the tail of the dog," he said.

Assistant Attorney General John Conrad asked Dove what can be heard in the footage.

“You hear three different voices in the video. You can tell because they’re so different,” Dove told the jury.

As the video played for jurors, Alex Murdaugh appeared to bow his head and sob.

Paul's camera turned on June 7, 2021, at 8:44:49 p.m. for roughly 50 seconds and ended at 8:45:47 p.m.

Dove compared the video to the length of time the iPhone's camera was on and they matched.

“You’re telling this jury today you’re certain that’s when that video was recorded on Paul’s phone?" asked Conrad.

“Yes, sir,” he replied. The GPS data on Paul's phone showed that it was near a red roof close to Moselle Road at the time the video was recorded.

Paul was trying to take a picture of his friend's dog, whose tail was injured, to show it to a vet.

Prosecutors say the video captured Alex and Maggie Murdaugh's voices, placing him at the crime scene minutes before the alleged double murder and contradicting his alibi.

He told investigators that he never went to the dog kennels the evening his son's head was blown off with a shotgun and his wife was executed with a rifle at about 8:50 p.m.

The last text Paul Murdaugh, 22, sent before he was brutally gunned down was a movie recommendation for a friend.

At 8:48:05, he suggested the film "A Star is Born" in a text to his friend.

“Don’t like watching sad movies,” she wrote back at 8:48 p.m. "I need something happy."

Her two texts were read on his phone at 8:48:59 p.m., but he didn't respond.

He recieved another text from his friend, Rogan Gibson, at 8:49:35, but it was never read on his device.

"See if you can get a good picture. Maryann wants to send it to a girl we know that's a vet," Gibson wrote referring to his dog, who was in one of Paul's kennels, and had a problem with his tail. "Tell him to sit and stay and he shouldn't move around too much."

About 45 minutes later, Gibson texted Maggie, "Tell Paul to call me."

Buster Murdaugh, his girlfriend, Brooklynn White and his uncle, John Marvin Murdaugh, arrive at the Colleton County Courthouse before 9:30 a.m.

Alex Murdaugh's family members have been in court everyday since the trial began with opening statements Jan. 25, 2023.

A cellphone expert testified Wednesday that most of Alex's cellphone call log had been deleted.

It didn't show any of the calls the disgraced family patriarch made to his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, on June 7, 2021, the night she was murdered.

Those incoming calls were reflected in Maggie's cellphone data.

Lt. Britt Dove, SLED's forensic digital expert, testified that the only explanation for the missing entries is that they were manually deleted.

The last text messages read on Paul Murdaugh and Maggie phones were at about 8:49 p.m. before their devices went dark.

Prosecutors allege that this is when Alex used a shotgun to blow off Paul's head and a rifle to execute Maggie near the dog kennels at the family's 1,700-acre hunting estate.

Cellphone expert Lt. Britt Dove testified that the last text read on 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh's phone the night of his murder was at 8:48:59 p.m.

“Don’t like watching sad movies,” a friend wrote him on June 7, 2021. "No, I need something happy." Both messages were read at 8:48:59 p.m. -- seconds after they were sent.

Approximately 36 seconds later, Paul's friend Rogan Gibson sent him a text message at 8:49:35 p.m.

“Was this text from Rogan ever read on Paul’s phone?” asked Assistant Attorney General John Conrad.

"No, sir. It shows the status as unread,” replied Dove.

Conrad pointed out that the final text read on Maggie Murdaugh's iPhone was at 8:49:27 -- just 28 seconds after the last text was read on Paul's phone.

Prosecutors have argued that Alex Murdaugh fatally shot his wife and son at about 8:50 p.m. at the dog kennels on the family's sprawling hunting estate.

Lt. Britt Dove testified Wednesday that data extracted from Alex Murdaugh's cellphone showed the movements of the device June 7, 2021.

He said that if the phone is in a person's hand or pocket, it records steps. If the device is on the seat or in the cupholder of a driving car, it would not record steps.

These are the records of Alex's steps the night of June 7, 2021, when prosecutors say Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were fatally shot at about 8:50 p.m.

6:42:12 p.m-6:43:55 p.m. - 57 steps

6:52:28-7:02:05 p.m. - 283 steps

7:03:55-7:11:29 p.m. - 165 steps

7:15:35-7:21:52 p.m. - 200 steps

7:28:36-7:37:11 p.m. - 47 steps

7:55:32-8:05:07 p.m. - 270 steps

7:41:23-7:48:41 p.m. - 29 steps

8:05:35-8:09:52 p.m. - 74 steps

9:02:18-9:06:47 p.m. - 283 steps

"Do you see any steps recorded between 8:09 p.m. to 9:02 p.m.?" asked Assistant Attorney General John Conrad.

"No, sir, I do not," he replied.

Dove said that the iPhone's calculation of the number of steps taken are an estimate, but the time those steps are registered is precise.

Alex has claimed that he ate dinner with Paul and Maggie the night of the murders then took a nap.

It's unclear when he could have squeezed in a nap based on the steps documented by his phone.

He left the house a little after 9 p.m. to visit his mother, who lives about 20 minutes away.

When he returned, he said he found his son and wife's dead bodies near the dog kennels on the family's sprawling hunting estate a little after 10 p.m.

He repeatedly told investigators he didn't visit the dog kennels that night before allegedly making the grisly discovery.

But prosecutors said in opening statements that Paul recorded a cellphone video near the kennels at 8:44 p.m. that captured Alex's voice.

Lt. Britt Dove, with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division's computer crimes center, returned to the witness stand Wednesday for his second day of testimony.

After answering a few additional questions about Maggie Murdaugh's phone, Assistant Attorney General John Conrad shifted to Alex Murdaugh's cellphone.

After receiving the data on Alex's iPhone, Dove processed and extracted it through special software.

Some of the data was removed due to attorney-client privilege, he added.

Conrad began by questioning Dove about Alex's call log.

"Here we see simply a gap in calls from May 2021 then a couple calls on June 4 on 2021, then nothing until 10:25 p.m. the night of the murders, correct?" asked Conrad.

"That's correct," Dove replied. Alex's calls to Maggie's phone the night of the murders don't appear on his call log. his calls to Maggie appear on her call log.

“A gap like that would indicate it was removed from there,” Dove added. 

He said the only explanation for the missing call log history is that the calls were manually removed by swiping right and hitting the red delete button.

The family’s longtime nanny and housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, died after falling down a set of stairs at the family's residence in Islandton, South Carolina, Feb. 26, 2018. 

Nearly 10 months later, her family filed a wrongful death claim at the urging of Alex Murdaugh.

An attorney representing Satterfield’s sons later learned that insurance polices had paid out more than $4 million, which Alex and his cronies allegedly pocketed.

In October 2021, Alex was arrested at a Florida drug rehab center and charged with embezzling millions from her sons.

He has remained in jail since.

He agreed to pay back the stolen $4.3 million in a confession of judgment.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division later announced an investigation into Satterfield’s death and plans to exhume her body.

A spokesperson declined to comment on whether the exhumation ever occurred.

Satterfield is one of five mysterious deaths linked to Alex and his family.

Alex is on trial in Walterboro, South Carolina, accused of the double murder of his wife and son June 7, 2021.

Alex Murdaugh, 54, arrived Wednesday at the Colleton County Courthouse for the sixth day of his double murder trial.

A black van pulled up behind the courthouse a little after 9 a.m., and deputies escorted him through a back door as he held his blazer over his handcuffs.

A line of more than a dozen people waited at the entrance of the courthouse to try to secure a coveted seat in the courtroom.

Lt. Britt Dove, a digital forensics expert with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, is the first witness expected on the stand.

He is the state's 15th witness and spent the afternoon discussing the data extracted from Maggie Murdaugh's cellphone after it was found on the side of the road June 8, 2021.

Murdaugh is accused of gunning down his wife and son, Paul Murdaugh, at the family's 1,700 acre hunting estate in Islandton, South Carolina.

He has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have argued there were likely two shooters.

Maggie was executed with a .300 Blackout rifle, while Paul was struck with a 12-gauge shotgun.

Lt. Britt Dove, of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division's computer crimes center, will be back on the stand for direct examination Wednesday morning.

The digital forensics expert testified Tuesday that he analyzed and extracted data from Maggie Murdaugh’s iPhone.

The device locked at 8:49:31 after she was shot at least four times with an assault rifle near the dog kennels at the family’s hunting estate known as Moselle in Islandton, South Carolina, according to prosecutors.

Maggie's phone recorded 59 steps between 8:53 p.m. and 8:55 p.m., Dove testified.

From 8:53 p.m. to 8:54 p.m. the phone’s orientation switched from portrait to landscape mode then back to portrait, he said.

"It tells me someone was holding this phone and took steps, and it recorded those steps," the cellphone expert told jurors in response to questioning from Assistant Attorney General John Conrad.

At one point, the phone’s camera flashed on for one second as if it was trying to record a person’s face to unlock the device.

But this did not mean it was actually directed at a person’s face, Dove added.

At 9:06:12, the phone changed its orientation from landscape to portrait mode likely because someone was holding it, the cellphone expert told jurors.

Two seconds later, Alex Murdaugh called Maggie's phone -- but she didn't answer.

At 9:06:20 p.m., the iPhone's orientation returned to landscape mode.

At 9:06:51 p.m., Alex called Maggie's phone again. Two minutes, 7 seconds later, Alex texted her phone, “Going to check on M. Be right back."

Alex sent her a final text at 9:47 p.m., "Call me babe."

The next day investigators found the iPhone on the side of Moselle Road about half a mile from the family's property.  

Prosecutors haven't revealed yet the significance of the data that Maggie's phone registered after her murder.