Alex Murdaugh’s high-profile double murder trial has been disrupted yet again as two jurors were released after testing positive for Covid-19.
Judge Clifton Newman made the bombshell announcement on Monday morning in what marks the latest drama for the high-profile case.
One of the two jurors is asymptomatic while the other has a cough and sore throat, he said.
Following the revelation, the defence raised concerns that others could be infected but may not be testing positive yet – something which could threaten to derail the trial altogether if more jurors test positive in the coming days.
Defence attorney Dick Harpootlian asked Judge Newman for a delay to the trial, saying that – while it would be costly to the defence – it could prevent a bigger problem down the line.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters agreed with the defence in asking for a delay for a few days, saying that neither side wants to see a mistrial declared because they are suddenly left without 12 jurors.
This could well be a real possibility as now only three out of the original six juror alternates remain.
Despite the concerns raised, Judge Newman declined to postpone the trial.
Instead, he recommended that jurors – and others in court – wear masks going forwards and said that the remaining jurors will be tested again on Wednesday.
Jurors 441 and 326 were then selected from the alternates and seated to replace the two jurors who tested positive.
This latest saga comes after a bomb threat, controversial GoFundMe account and the Murdaugh family’s bad behaviour sparked issues in the trial last week.
Last week, Mr Murdaugh’s family members have been warned that they will be thrown out of his murder trial after his surviving son Buster appeared to “flip the bird” at a witness.
Judge Newman has reportedly issued multiple warnings to several members of the disgraced attorney’s family about their behaviour in court, where they have put on a united front since the start of his trial.
The family members have already been moved to the back of the courtroom – and are now only one wrong move away from being booted out altogether.
Maggie and Mr Murdaugh’s surviving son Buster was caught appearing to make a rude gesture to Mark Tinsley as he took the witness stand on Thursday about a lawsuit he brought against the accused killer.
Footage from the courtroom shows Buster apparently flipping the bird as he stared down the witness.
Sources also told FITS News that when Buster was asked to move to the back of the courtroom, he allegedly kicked over a water bottle in anger.
Among some of the other bad behaviour from the powerful family which has reigned over the Hampton County justice system for the last century, Mr Murdaugh’s sister Lynn allegedly passed the disgraced attorney an undisclosed item.
When she was told to stop, Lynn – like Buster – allegedly didn’t take it well, becoming “demonstrative” with court staff.
It also prompted the court to order a drug test for Mr Murdaugh, who has previously revealed he has been addicted to opioids for the last two decades. The results of that drugs test remain unclear.
The refusal of some of the Murdaugh family members to abide by court rules in the high-profile trial is perhaps most intriguing given that the Murdaughs are notoriously familiar with the court system – coming from a long line of local prosecutors.
But, while some of the family members have sparked the ire of the judge, sources said that Mr Murdaugh’s brothers Randy and John Marvin Murdaugh had been nothing but compliant with the court and told court officials they were happy to sit anywhere in the room.
Since the start of Mr Murdaugh’s trial, the family has put on a show of support, sitting in the row directly behind the man accused of killing two of their their loved ones.
However, notably, in the hours where testimony was heard in the absence of the jury, the Murdaughs were nowhere to be seen.
They would then enter the courtroom before the jury was seated.
The ruckus around the Murdaugh family’s courtroom antics is just the latest in a growing list of sagas disrupting the high-profile trial in a week that has included a bomb threat and controversy around the GoFundMe launch for a witness who delivered damning testimony against Mr Murdaugh.
In another dramatic moment in court on Thursday, the defence moved to strike the testimony of attorney Mr Tinsley after it emerged he had donated $1,000 to a GoFundMe set up for Mr Murdaugh’s mother’s caregiver “for her bravery” in testifying at his murder trial.
Mushell “Shelly” Smith gave emotional testimony on Monday, where she cast doubts on part of Mr Murdaugh’s alibi on the night of the murders – revealing he lied about how long he had spent at his sick mother’s house.
Breaking down in tears at points, she described how a “fidgety” Mr Murdaugh showed up at the house for a brief 20-minute visit on 7 June 2021 but later asked her to tell authorities he had been there double the length of time.
In the aftermath of the killings, he then offered to help Ms Smith both financially and with her other job and brought a mystery blue item to leave at his parents’ home, she told jurors.
On Wednesday, Ms Smith’s daughter Rachelle Buckner launched a GoFundMe campaign to “reward her for her bravery and her honesty as it was one of the hardest things she had to do”.
As of Friday morning, the GoFundMe had raised more than $24,000 for Ms Smith – with Mr Tinsley making a $1,000 donation.
Mr Tinsley filed a lawsuit against the Murdaughs on behalf of the family of Mallory Beach, the 19-year-old killed in a boat crash where Paul was allegedly drunk behind the wheel in 2019. He testified how the lawsuit was putting Mr Murdaugh’s finances under increased scrutiny at the time of the murders.
Separate from the murder trial, Mr Murdaugh is now facing around 100 charges from multiple indictments for stealing almost $8.5m from clients dating back to 2011.
The attorney, who has since been disbarred, represented the clients in wrongful death lawsuits before allegedly pocketing the settlement money for himself.
On 3 September 2021 – three months on from the double murders on 7 June – he was confronted by PMPED partners about the stolen money and forced to resign. He was slapped with a string of charges soon after.
Defence attorney Phil Barber asked to strike Mr Tinsley’s testimony due to the fact that he “made a financial payment to a witness in the middle of a trial ... as a reward for her honesty”.
Judge Clifton Newman denied the motion.
The controversy around the GoFundMe came after another dramatic day in the double-murder trial on Wednesday when the courthouse was suddenly evacuated due to a bomb threat.
The bomb threat came in to staff at Colleton County Courthouse just before 12.30pm ET, prompting a sudden evacuation of the entire building.
Multiple sources told FITS News that the threat was called in from Ridgeland, South Carolina, and came from a prison inmate.
By 2.30pm the threat was marked all-clear and testimony resumed at around 3.10pm.
Prosecutors are expected to wrap up their case around mid-week – paving the way for Mr Murdaugh’s defence.
Mr Murdaugh, 54, is facing life in prison for the murders of his wife and son. He has pleaded not guilty.
The murders of Maggie and Paul – who were shot dead on the family’s sprawling 1,700-acre estate in Islandton back on 7 June 2021 – catapulted the Murdaugh name to notoriety across the US, bringing to light a series of scandals ncluding unexplained deaths, a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme and a botched hitman plot.
At the time of the murders, Paul was awaiting trial over the death of Mallory Beach – a 19-year-old woman who died in a 2019 crash in the Murdaugh family boat.
Paul was allegedly drunk driving the boat at the time and crashed it, throwing Beach overboard. Her body washed ashore a week later. Paul was charged with multiple felonies over the boat wreck and was facing 25 years in prison at the time of his murder.
The Beach family sued Mr Murdaugh and a lawsuit hearing was scheduled for the week of the murders. It was postponed following Maggie and Paul’s murders.
Days on from the shootings, an investigtion was then reopened into the 2015 death of Stephen Smith, who was found dead in the middle of the road in Hampton County.
The openly gay teenager, 19, had suffered blunt force trauma to the head and his death was officially ruled a hit-and-run. But the victim’s family have long doubted this version of events, with the Murdaugh name cropping up in several police tips and community rumours.
In September 2021 – three months on from the murders – Mr Murdaugh was shot in the head in what turned out to be a botched hitman plot which he had orchestrated with alleged accomplice, distant cousin and drug dealer Curtis Eddie Smith.
He checked into rehab for a 20-year opioid addiction days later.
It then emerged that he had been ousted from his law firm PMPED for stealing millions of dollars from law firm clients.
Separate to the murder trial, Mr Murdaugh is charged with a slew of around 100 charges from multiple indictments for embezzling almost $8.5m from clients in fraud schemes dating back around a decade to 2011.
The attorney, who has since been disbarred, represented the clients in wrongful death lawsuits before allegedly pocketing the settlement money for himself.
An investigation was also reopened into another mystery death connected to the Murdaugh family – that of the Murdaugh’s longtime housekeeper Gloria Satterfield.
She died in 2018 in a mystery trip and fall accident at the family home. Mr Murdaugh then allegedly stole around $4m in a wrongful death settlement from her sons.
