1 February 2023
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COLLETON COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) – Witness testimony on cell phone data is expected to resume Wednesday in the Alex Murdaugh murder trial.
Murdaugh is accused of killing his wife Margaret and youngest son Paul at their family property in June of 2021.
ALEX MURDAUGH MURDER TRIAL: DAY 7 RECAP
Get caught up on the Alex Murdaugh investigations
On Tuesday, several witnesses testified on topics such as a controversial video, guns, and cell phone data.
During the cross-examination of SLED special agent Jeff Croft, Murdaugh’s attorneys addressed what has become a flashpoint — video in which prosecutors claim Murdaugh may have admitted to murdering Paul.
Murdaugh’s cousin who sold him three 300-blackout rifles, one of which prosecutors claim could have been used in the slayings, also testified.
Several witnesses gave lengthy and technical testimony on cell phone data, with SLED’s Lt. Britt Dove providing the most digestible information. He gave a timeline of activity on Maggie’s cell phone the night of the murders which showed that the last text read on her phone was at 8:49 p.m. and the phone locked shortly after, but activity such as orientation changes and steps was recorded on the phone after the time at which she was presumed dead.
Britt is expected to pick up testimony at 9:30 a.m.
ALEX MURDAUGH MURDER TRIAL LIVE BLOG:
11:51 a.m. – Cross-examination begins. Defense asks if it is possible to see the contents of a text message without opening the message. Dove says yet.
Defense asks if Paul may have curtailed use of his phone since his battery was at 2%. Dove says it is possible.
They ask about orientation changes and where Maggie’s phone was found.
One orientation change started at 9:06:22 p.m. During the period of that orientation change, a call came in from Murdaugh.
11:17 a.m. – Court resumes. Prosecution again questions Dove about Paul’s conversation with Megan.
At 8:29:06 p.m., Megan said “you didn’t send me any movie recommendations.” It was read at 8:29:17 pm.
A text was sent to Megan at 8:29:36 p.m. saying “haha, I didn’t have a good one.” He followed up at 8:29:48 p.m. saying “Wills might.”
Megan responded at 8:30:10 p.m. saying “omg.” It was read at 8:30:13 p.m.
Paul responded saying “haha kidding.” At 8:48:05 p.m. he sent a message saying “star was born is the move.” That was the last outgoing message from his phone.
At 8:48:29 Megan responds “no, I need something happy.” She follows up with “don’t like watching sad movies.” Those texts were read at 8:48:59 p.m.
At 8:49:35 p.m., he received a text from Rogan. The text was never read.
They move on to activity information:
Information stops at 10:34 p.m. because the phone died.
Dove says there is pretty continuous usage over about a four-hour period on Paul’s phone, using apps like Messages, Snapchat, etc.
From 8:44:49 p.m. to 8:45:47 p.m. there is activity from the camera. Location data puts Paul near a red-roofed building on the Moselle property, according to Dove.
Dove is asked if he sees anything in the activity report after the last text was read “that would indicate the phone is being actively used by a human being.” Dove says no.
The state presents the health report for Paul’s phone, which contains the steps.
105 steps recorded between 6:54 p.m. and 7:03 p.m.
208 steps recorded between 7:14 p.m. and 7:22 p.m.
139 steps recorded between 7:25 p.m. and 7:34 p.m.
121 steps recorded between 7:35 p.m. and 7:41 p.m.
89 steps recorded between 7:45 p.m. and 7:55 p.m.
(unknown) steps recorded between 7:55 p.m. and 8:05 p.m.
(unknown) steps recorded between 8:05 p.m. and 8:15 p.m.
140 steps recorded between 8:15 p.m. and 8:21 p.m.
283 steps recorded between 8:32 p.m. and 8:42 p.m.
Phone did not record any other steps on Paul’s phone after 8:42 p.m. Dove testified that the phone may have moved a short distance and those steps may not have been recorded.
They move back to Maggie’s phone, discussing an orientation change that occurred between 9:06:12 p.m. and 9:06:20 p.m., which Dove believed could have been someone picking up the phone or the phone falling and tumbling end over end.
Dove is asked if the phone being thrown could cause an orientation change. He says it would be hard but is possible. A phone could be thrown a short distance without recording an orientation change.
Dove is asked about photos and videos on Maggie and Alex’s phone. He is asked if anything relevant to the investigation was found. He says no.
On Paul’s phone, Dove said he found relevant information: A video taken at 8:44 p.m. The video is what caused the camera to activate. The video is introduced as evidence.
Dove says it looks like they are in a kennel area and Paul appears to be trying to take a video of a dog.
In the video, Dove says three distinctly different voices can be heard.
The video is played in court. Alex Murdaugh sobs as the video is played.
A voice sounds like it is playing catch with a dog, saying “good catch.” Another person says what sounds like “he has blood in his mouth!” Two people argue about whether something is a guinea or a chicken. A third voice can be heard as well. A spraying sound is heard throughout the video.
10:59 a.m. – Court is taking a 10-minute break.
9:36 a.m. – Prosecutors resumed questioning SLED Lt. Britt Dove, a cell phone forensic expert, about Maggie’s cell phone data.
At 10:05:13 p.m., Dove says activity on the phone indicates Find my iPhone was running. Importantly, he noted that he can’t tell if that meant someone was trying to locate the phone via Find my iPhone, or if it was running in the background of an app opened earlier in the day.
Dove says there was no significant GPS data recorded on Maggie’s phone that night.
Murdaugh’s phone is admitted into evidence. Dove says the phone was given to him in September of 2021. A hard drive containing data extracted from Murdaugh’s phone is admitted as well.
Dove notes that the hard drive does omit attorney-client privilege information found on Murdaugh’s phone.
None of the calls in Murdaugh’s call logs were removed. The call log is sealed to protect phone numbers in the log.
Dove goes through the call log. He placed several FaceTime calls to Maggie in the days leading up to the murders, as well as at 10:25 p.m. on June 7, the night of the murders. There is a gap from June 4, 2021 to June 7, 2021 at 10:25 p.m. Dove testifies that the gap likely indicates information was removed from the call log. A user can easily delete select calls from their recent call log.
Additionally, calls Maggie received from Murdaugh that night did not appear in his log. Dove is asked if anything done in his analysis would’ve deleted those specific datapoints. He says no.
They move on to reviewing text message data extracted from Murdaugh’s phone.
Murdaugh was part of the same group text that Maggie was in, so he also received the message from John Marvin Murdaugh at 8:31 p.m. asking if anyone wanted to go visit their sick father the next day, and the text from Lynn at 8:31 p.m. saying she was in court all day.
The texts were not read on Murdaugh’s phone until after 1:00 p.m. the next day.
They review texts sent earlier in the day and establish that Murdaugh read each of them about 20 minutes after they came in. Dove said in general, Murdaugh read texts within around an hour of receiving them, with some exceptions.
At 9:08 p.m., Murdaugh texted Maggie “going to check on M, be right back.”
At 9:47 p.m., Murdaugh texted Maggie “call me, babe.”
He texted Rogan Gibson at 10:24 p.m. saying “call me.”
They move on to the activity report from Murdaugh’s phone.
Dove goes through steps recorded on the phone:
49 steps recorded between 6:02 p.m. and 6:07 p.m.
173 recorded between 6:14 p.m. and 6:23 p.m.
57 steps recorded between 6:42 p.m. and 6:43 p.m.
283 steps recorded between 6:52 p.m. and 7:02 p.m.
165 steps recorded between 7:03 p.m. and 7:11 p.m.
200 steps recorded between 7:15 p.m. and 7:21 p.m.
47 steps recorded between 7:28 p.m. and 7:37 p.m.
29 steps recorded between 7:41 p.m. and 7:48 p.m.
270 steps recorded between 7:55 p.m. and 8:05 p.m.
74 steps recorded between 8:05 p.m. and 8:09 p.m.
283 steps recorded between 9:02 p.m. to 9:06 p.m.
Dove again testified that the steps are not 100% accurate and do not indicate location. It just registers motion such as walking or running. The phone is able to distinguish between that type of movement and movement such as driving.
Prosecutors hone in on the gap between 8:05 p.m. and 9:02 p.m., asking Dove if he believes the phone was being walked around within the roughly one hour between 8:09 p.m. and 9:02 p.m. Dove says no.
Regarding device events such as orientation changes, Dove said there was data from earlier in the evening on Alex’s phone but there was a gap with no activity the night of the murders. Dove acknowledged that he got the phone months after the murders and the data he extracted from the night of the murders would not be as detailed simply because some of the data had likely been automatically deleted.
They go back to review the group texts that came in at 8:31 p.m. Prosecution points out that they came in during the gap in time steps were recorded, but were not read even after Murdaugh started moving again.
Paul Murdaugh’s phone is introduced into evidence. Dove received the phone August 13, 2021. They had to send it to the U.S. Secret Service to unlock it.
Paul Murdaugh’s call log is entered into evidence under seal to protect phone numbers.
They focus on calls the night of June 7, 2021.
A call was declined at 8:32 p.m.
The phone had an outgoing call to Rogan Gibson at 8:40:20 p.m. The call was answered and lasted just over four minutes.
An outgoing FaceTime to Rogan Gibson occurred at 8:44:34 p.m. It was answered and lasted 11 seconds.
That was the last outgoing call made and no other incoming calls were answered on Paul’s phone.
They move on to discussing texts from Paul’s phone.
He received multiple from someone named Megan texts at 8:48 p.m. The texts said, “no, need something happy” and “don’t like watching sad movies.” The texts were read at 8:48:59 p.m.
At 8:49:35 p.m., he received a text from Rogan. The text was never read. There were approximately 36 seconds between the texts from Megan being read and Rogan’s text being received.
At 9:58 p.m., Rogan texted again saying “yo.” That text also went unread.
Prosecution brings up that Maggie’s last read text was at 8:49:27 p.m.
Of note, Paul’s phone was on 2% battery when the texts were coming in. However, Dove says that if he read Megan’s texts, the battery wouldn’t have prevented him from reading Rogan’s text 36 seconds later.
Dove estimated that a phone on 2% would die in a matter of minutes if it was being used heavily. He emphasized that he wasn’t sure and would need to do testing, but he approximated 10-15 minutes. Prosecution points out that the phone didn’t die for over an hour.
The battery died at approximately 10:34 p.m.
They move on to an activity log for Paul’s phone, which includes location data.
9:35 a.m. – Court is in session.
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