Alex Murdaugh trial wraps Tuesday with testimony about Maggie Murdaugh's final phone calls

Alex Murdaugh exited the Colleton County Courthouse Tuesday after 5:30 p.m. on the fifth day of his double murder trial.

Lt. Britt Dove testified Tuesday that Maggie Murdaugh's phone locked for good at 8:49:31 but still recorded data.

Prosecutors previously said in opening statements that she and her son, Paul Murdaugh, were likely already dead at this time.

Maggie's phone recorded 59 final steps at 8:53 p.m. after the phone had locked for good.

"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 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 change ended.

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."

No more steps were recorded until the next day when investigators found Maggie's iPhone on the side of Moselle Road about half a mile from the family's hunting estate.  

"Call me babe," Alex texted his wife at 9:47:23 p.m.

Maggie Murdaugh received a group text message from her brother-in-law, John Marvin Murdaugh, at 8:31:00 p.m.

“I plan to go over to visit dad tomorrow afternoon. Does anyone else plan to go?” he asked, referring to he and Alex Murdaugh's father, Randolph Murdaugh III.

The family patriarch and former 14th Circuit solicitor was in the hospital and died three days later on June 10, 2021. The message was read on Maggies phone at 8:31:16 p.m.

Alex's sister responded to the exchange. "I'm in court all next week," she wrote. Maggie's phone records show the text was read at 8:49:27 p.m.

“A text message was received on the phone and the phone was unlocked to read the text message,” Lt. Britt Dove, a cellphone forensics expert, testified. The text was received at 8:31:47 p.m.

It was the last text that was read on her phone. Prosecutor Creighton Waters told jurors in opening statements that Paul and Maggie's devices went dark at about 8:50 p.m.

The text history also shows that Alex sent Maggie a message at 9:08:58 p.m. -- but it was never read.

Lt. Britt Dove, of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division's computer crimes center, said her last phone call was placed at 7:50 p.m. to a contact named Barbara.

The call lasted 2 minutes, 46 seconds. After prosecutors say she was shot to death just 30 feet from son, Paul Murdaugh, Alex Murdaugh called her five times, Dove testified.

He called Maggie at 9:04:23 p.m., 9:06:14 p.m., 9:06:51 p.m. , 9:45:32 and 10:03:58.

Alex called 911 at 10:06 p.m., hysterical and sobbing, after allegedly finding his son and wife riddled with gunshots.

The disbarred attorney told investigators he had dinner with his family then awoke from a nap and drove to his mom's house in Almeda a little after 9 p.m.

But prosecutors say Paul recorded a video near the dog kennels at 8:44 p.m. that captured Alex's voice contradicting his claim he last saw his son and wife at dinner at the main house.

The Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, was filled with spectators Tuesday watching the state's much-anticipated trial.

At least a dozen people waited in line to secure a coveted seat in the courtroom at 8 a.m.

Lt. Britt Dove, of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division's computer crimes center, analyzed and extracted data from Alex, Maggie and Paul Murdaugh's cellphones.

Dove, an expert in cellphone forensics, spent a significant amount of time explaining to jurors how cellphones store data and how this data is extracted and interpreted.

He testified that a screenshot of Maggie's call log showed five missed calls from Alex, two missed calls from John Marvin Murdaugh and one from Buster Murdaugh.

This particular photo did not indicate the time or calendar day, but Dove suggested that the image captured her most recent call log after her murder.

He said he processed and downloaded the entire contents of her iPhone using Cellebrite software, which provides the data in an easily digestible format.

“It will pull thousands of pages of information," he said. "It will also give you the configuration of apps and the databases.”

If the entire report from Maggie's phone were printed out, he said it could be as many as 9,000 pages.

Paul and Maggie were gunned down June 7, 2021, near the dog kennels on the family's sprawling hunting estate in Islandton, South Carolina.

Nancy Grace reports live on the trial of Alex Murdaugh outside the Colleton County Courthouse on Tuesday Walterboro, South Carolina.

The true crime maven has been spotted inside and outside the courtroom this week covering the sensational double murder trial.

Dozens of media organizations have been stationed at the courthouse since jury selection began last Monday.

John Bedingfield, the state's 14th witness, testified Tuesday at the Colleton County Courthouse that he sold Alex Murdaugh a pair of .300 Blackout rifles that were gifts for his sons.

"He was excited about getting these for the boys," Bedingfield later said.

Alex purchased a black and tan rifle as Christmas gifts for Buster and Paul Murdaugh for hog hunting Dec. 23, 2016.

The rifles, which cost $9,188, included thermal scopes, so the brothers could hunt at night.

Alex also paid for suppressors to reduce sound, but these were never attached to the weapons, Bedingfield said.

A little over a year later in April 2018, Bedingfield sold a third .300 Blackout rifle for $875 to Alex to replace the tan one Paul had lost.

Alex told him not to add a thermal optic, which costs 1,500 to $1,800 since, Paul couldn't be trusted not to lose it.

Hogs in South Carolina are a tremendous nuisance and do significant damage to property and crops, Bedingfield said.

Bedingfield added that Alex is his cousin. "Our grandmothers were sisters," he said.

Prosecutors have suggested that the weapon Alex allegedly used to kill Maggie is a .300 Blackout rifle.

Investigators could only account for one of the three rifles after the killings.

On cross-examination, Bedingfield said he'd sold a lot of .300 Blackout rifles.

An evidence photo showing the hangar and dog kennels on the Moselle hunting estate where Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22, were fatally shot June 7, 2021.

Alex Murdaugh's brother, John Marvin Murdaugh, his sister Lynn Murdaugh Goette, his son, Buster Murdaugh, and his girlfriend, Brooklynn White, are shown leaving the Colleton County Courthouse Tuesday for the lunch break.

Alex's family members have been in court everyday since the trial began last week to support the fallen patriarch.

The fallen patriarch is being held without bond at the Colleton County Jail for the duration of the trial.

During breaks in the proceeding, he's placed in a holding cell under the courthouse behind a gate of white bars.

The fifth day of the trial resumed Tuesday a little after 2:20 p.m. Alex is accused of gunning down his son, Paul Murdaugh, 22, with a shotgun, and his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, with a rifle near the dog kennels on the family's hunting estate.

There has been extensive testimony about the victims' horrific injuries -- including that Paul's brain exploded from his head and was found near his feet.

Maggie was shot at least four times including once in the back of her head.

Alex Murdaugh, hysterical and sobbing, called 911 shortly after 10 p.m. June 7, 2021, to report that he found his wife and son shot to death near the dog kennels on the family’s sprawling 1,700-acre hunting estate in Islandton.

"I need the police and an ambulance immediately," he told the dispatcher. "My wife and child have been shot badly." The first round struck Paul Murdaugh's chest, the second entered his left shoulder, traveling into his neck and brain, which was severed from his body.

"I need the police and an ambulance immediately," he told the dispatcher.

Maggie Murdaugh was lying facedown in the mud about 30 feet away. She had been shot with a rifle at least four times — once execution-style in the back of the head.

The property at 4147 Moselle Road straddles Colleton and Hampton counties and served as Alex’s primary residence.

In Alex’s first statement to a deputy on the scene, he suggested that the boat crash litigation was behind the grisly killings.

"This is a long story. My son was in a boat wreck. He’s been getting threats," Murdaugh can be heard saying in body camera footage to Sgt. Daniel Greene. "I know that’s what it is."

SLED immediately took over the investigation.

U.S. Secret Service Agent John VanHouten said he received Paul Murdaugh's locked cell phone March 21, 2022, from local investigators after they were unable to open it.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division didn't have the Cellebrite software required to break into a locked iPhone.

“If we don’t have the code, we will attack the device, attack the data on the device to get to the passcode,” he said of the software.

VanHouten first generated a series of numbers associated with the births, deaths and anniversaries of Paul and and his loved ones.

It turned out Paul's four-digit passcode was associated with his date of birth and was relatively easy to crack.

But if VanHouten hadn't been so lucky, it could have taken as many as 68 days to access the phone.

iPhones allow a maximum of 146 unlock attempts per day and a four-digit passcode has 10,000 numeric possibilities, he told jurors.

If the phone had a six-digit passcode, there are 1 million numeric possibilities and it could take the Cellebrite software up to 19 years to unlock the device, he said.

After his brief testimony, the courtroom broke for lunch until 2:15 p.m.

Verizon senior analyst Anthony Knecht testified Tuesday about the call logs of Alex, Paul and Maggie Murdaugh and others from June 7, 2021.

The logs should help establish Paul and Maggie's time of death but the testimony was difficult to follow.

Knecht used the last four digits of the phone numbers to describe the calls rather than the names associated with the numbers.

The expert had to convert the time of the calls from UTC to EST on the spot -- a difficult feat, which elicited sympathetic laughter from the courtroom.

On cross-examination, Dick Harpootlian struggled to follow Knecht's explanations.

"Are you losing me, or am I losing you?" Harpootlian asked.

Later in the questioning, Knecht didn't understand Harpootlian's question and asked for clarification.

"It's complicated, I know, even for you," Harpootlian playfully noted.

After a brief break, prosecutors called their 11th witness to the stand, Anthony Knecht, a Verizon senior analyst.

He's the custodian of records and will likely testify about call logs for the Murdaughs, Paul Murdaugh's friend Rogan Gibson and groundskeeper C.B. Rowe.

We already learned in earlier testimony that Paul called Gibson at 8:44 p.m. the night of his murder.

Gibson's dog was in the Murdaugh dog kennels, and they were discussing a possible problem with his tail.

Gibson sent Paul a text at 8:49 p.m. “See if you can get a good picture of it," he wrote. "Maryan wants to send it to a girl we know that’s a vet. Tell him to sit and stay and he shouldn’t move around too much.”

But Paul didn't respond.

Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters argued in opening statements that he was likely already dead. Gibson called Paul at 9:10 p.m., 9:29 p.m., 9:42 p.m. and 10:08 p.m.

At 9:58 p.m., he texted Paul, "Yo."

He also sent Maggie a text at 9:34 p.m., "Tell Paul to call me."

The family’s longtime nanny and housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, died after falling down a set of stairs at the Moselle home Feb. 26, 2018. 

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

An attorney representing Satterfield’s sons later learned that insurance policies had paid out more than $4 million, which Alex and his cronies had 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. SLED later announced an investigation into Satterfield’s death and plans to exhume her body.

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

On redirect, prosecutor Creighton Waters questioned SLED special agent Jeff Croft about the murder probe.

"Was the investigation just focused on Alex Murdaugh?" Waters asked.

"It was absolutely not just focused on Alex Murdaugh,” he replied.

Croft added that he wasn't aggressive in his questioning of Alex on June 10, 2021, because at that stage it was an "information gathering type interview" and not an "interrogation."

Waters also challenged the defense's argument that there were two shooters because of the distance between Paul and Maggie Murdaugh's bodies and the use of a rifle and shotgun to carry out the killings.

"Can people move?” Waters asked.

“People can move, yessir,” Croft replied, suggesting that the shooter simply switched his position.

In earlier testimony, Jim Griffin asked Croft during cross-examination whether investigators searched the home of Alex's mother soon after the murders.

Alex told them he was visiting her when his wife and son were shot.

"I did not," Croft answered. Investigators didn't search Alex's mother's home until September 2021.

On cross-examination, defense lawyer Jim Griffin challenged SLED special agent Jeffrey Croft on whether Alex Murdaugh actually said "I did him so bad!" in a videotaped interview three days after the double murder.

"Are you 100% confident Alex said 'I did him so bad' rather than 'they did him so bad'?" asked Griffin.

"I am 100% confident in what I heard and I interpreted him as saying," Croft doubled down.

When asked what Croft did in response to the seemingly incriminating statement, he said, "I made a mental note on it."

Griffin pressed Croft on why he didn't follow up with any questions related to the comment in that interview or a subsequent one on Aug. 11. He said they weren't ready to confront him yet.

The agent conceded he never asked Alex to clarify the supposed admission and didn't write it down -- although he was taking written notes during the interview.

Griffin then played the clip from the interview at normal speed then at one-third the normal speed, and Croft said he still heard "I did him so bad!" The slowed down version of the clip was barely audible.

The interview was conducted on June 10 after at least four SLED patrol cars showed up at John Marvin Murdaugh's hunting lodge in Barnwell.

Investigators interviewed Alex Murdaugh, his son, Buster Murdaugh, and his brothers John Marvin and Randy Murdaugh simultaneously.

Croft said Alex was SLED's prime suspect the day after the murders. "We were looking at Alex," he said.

Defense lawyer Jim Griffin grilled SLED special agent Jeff Croft on why Maggie Murdaugh's cellphone wasn't put in a faraday bag.

Normal procedure is to secure a phone in a special bag that prevents tampering with the evidence.

Investigators used Find My iPhone to locate Maggie's cellphone on June 8, 2021, about half a mile from Moselle, the sprawling hunting estate that was Alex Murdaugh's primary residence.

The phone was found in a grassy area on the side of the road and located with the help of Alex's brother John Marvin Murdaugh. Griffin said it was Alex who provided Maggie's passcode to investigators.

"Was Maggie’s phone put in a faraday bag?" asked Griffin.

"No, it was not," Croft replied.

"Did anyone ask or bring up the fact that maybe we should get a faraday bag before we move this phone?" Griffin pressed.

"I did not ask," he answered. Defense lawyers have seized on the handling of the phone to bolster their argument that the murder investigation was often sloppy and shoddy.

Jeff Croft, a gun and ammunition expert, returned to the stand Tuesday at Alex Murdaugh's murder trial for cross-examination by defense lawyer Jim Griffin.

Croft testified on direct that he searched the gunroom of Alex's house June 8, 2021 -- one day after Paul Murdaugh, 22, and his mom, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, were shot to death.

"This search was a consent search, this was not a search warrant," Griffin said. "Were there any limitations you're aware of on the scope of the search?"

"No," Croft replied. Although investigators had obtained a search warrant, Alex gave them full permission to search the property.

Croft said he was looking for rifles and shotguns that could fire the rounds located at the scene.

On direct, Croft displayed numerous rifles and shotguns retrieved from Alex's gunroom -- although prosecutors did not identify any of them as the murder weapon.

"Have you ever found the murder weapons to your knowledge?" asked Griffin.

"Not that I'm aware of," he replied.

Alex Murdaugh stepped out of a black van a little after 9 a.m. Tuesday, a blazer covering his handcuffs, for the fifth day of his murder trial in Walterboro, South Carolina.

Minutes later, Alex's son Buster Murdaugh, brother John Marvin Murdaugh, sister Lynn Murdaugh Goette and Buster's girlfriend Brooklynn White entered the Colleton County Courthouse. They have been present everyday of the trial.

Alex is accused of gunning down his son, Paul Murdaugh, with a shotgun, and his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, with a rifle June 7, 2021.

SLED special agent Jeff Croft is expected to return to the stand Tuesday morning for cross-examination.

On direct testimony, Croft said that Alex blurted out "I did him so bad!" in an interview recorded three days after the killings.

But there's some disagreement over whether Alex can be heard saying "they" or "I" in the videotaped interview with Croft and SLED special agent David Owens.

The trial is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m.