It took less than a minute for a Monday hearing into allegations that Alex Murdaugh murdered his wife and child to descend into chaos after the former South Carolina lawyer’s attorney interrupted a prosecutor to accuse him of trying to “hijack” the proceeding and hide evidence.
“I don’t trust the state to honor the rules! They haven’t so far at this point,” Murdaugh defense lawyer Richard Harpootlian said in Colleton County court, accusing prosecutors of “hiding the ball.”
Last month, Murdaugh—a former legal power player whose family name was synonymous with the law for decades—was indicted on two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. His alleged victims were his 52-year-old wife, Margaret, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, who were shot and killed in June 2021.
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Authorities say the mother and son were found fatally shot near the hunting dog kennels at the family’s 1,700-acre estate in Hampton County. Murdaugh was the one who called 911. While details into the prosecution’s case remain scant, an indictment alleges Maggie was killed with an assault rifle while apparently attempting to flee the scene. Paul was fatally struck by a shotgun at close range.
Murdaugh’s legal team claims that since his arrest, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office has engaged in a campaign to leak information about the tight-lipped investigation into the 54-year-old former lawyer. Last week, Harpootlian and his co-counsel Jim Griffin filed a “motion to compel” in an attempt to force the state to turn over all information they have on the Murdaugh investigation, claiming they were missing “100 percent” of the evidence.
During the Monday hearing, Harpootlian even attempted to call a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) agent as a witness. Judge Clifton Newman denied the request. Harpootlian then asked for a special master, or a third party observer, to manage the flow of discovery in the case.
“This is some sort of a game…. This is not a game, this is his [Murdaugh’s] life,” Harpootlian added, before arguing that the prosecution’s actions make it seem like they are “still investigating” his client, rather than preparing to go to trial.
Prosecutors slammed the accusations as baseless in their own motion, requesting an order to unseal search warrants but also seeking a protective order that would seal all other evidence from the public prior to trial.
“I don’t play fast and loose!” Deputy State Attorney General Creighton Waters yelled. The prosecutor claimed to Newman that secret information in the case was “probably worth over a million dollars” and that he wanted to protect it in the interest of a fair trial.
“Your honor, I have not leaked a thing,” Waters added, before indicating he planned to call a witness during Monday’s hearing to support his office’s request for a motion to compel a gag order.
Ultimately, Newman sided with state prosecutors and agreed to issue a protective order that would restrict what discovery information gets released to the public. However, the judge also ordered the state to provide evidence to Murdaugh's attorneys, including search warrants that may finally provide some details into the case against the former scion.
Since his wife and son’s deaths, Murdaugh has been implicated in a bevy of twisted crimes and misdeeds. Among them: orchestrating his own murder in a $10 million insurance plot to benefit his surviving son, drug trafficking, and dozens of financial crimes.
Murdaugh has also been implicated in several lawsuits, including that he allegedly stole millions from a wrongful death payout for his former housekeeper—and that he conspired to influence the probe into a boat crash involving his late son Paul. Murdaugh has not been charged in either incident.
