Court is back in session.
We begin today with defense attorney Jim Griffin's cross-examination of SLED forensic scientist Megan Fletcher.
Griffin starts by establishing with Fletcher that gunshot residue can stay on an inanimate surface forever - or until something scrubs or washes it off. No way of knowing when or how it got there.
Griffin establishes with Fletcher that GSR accumulates on guns as well and will stay there until cleaned. Fletcher: “If you touch a gun that had been fired at any point, then you have the potential to transfer it to your hands.”
Griffin establishes with Fletcher that the seat she’s sitting in could have GSR on it, given all the guns that have been presented to and by witnesses already in this trial.
Griffin asks if the small amount of GSR particles found on Murdaugh's hands and clothes is consistent with a transfer from the shotgun he retrieved from Moselle's main house for his protection. Fletcher agrees.
“That would be consistent with somebody that had a firearm in his hand prior to collection," Fletcher testifies. She told SLED investigator David Owen that as well.
Griffin establishes that investigators found no GSR particles on the Chevy Suburban seat belt itself. None on the latch plate. Just one particle on the buckle. “I could not tell you when that particle was deposited,” she said. Griffin supposes it could be some 2 years old.
Fletcher agrees with Griffin that she can’t tell when or how GSR got onto the blue rain jacket. It could have been years old.
Griffin supposes that the GSR on the rain jacket could have come from Randolph Murdaugh III tossing his jacket onto his shotgun as he entered his truck. Fletcher says that could explain it.
Griffin establishes again that investigators did *not* test the blue tarp they recovered from Murdaugh's parents' home. Just the rain coat. Fletcher says that's because the jacket was balled up haphazardly in a closet and the tarp was folded in a storage container.
Fletcher says the rain jacket was slated for further DNA analysis, but she does not know the results of that testing. She says the rain jacket was a large. So we finally know the size.
Griffin finishes his cross-examination. Prosecutor John Meadors is up on redirect.
Fletcher clarifies that she found 38 GSR particles on the inside (and stopped counting because there were so many) and 14 on the outside.
