In a motion, the defense seeks to exclude all blood spatter testimony by a potential expert who changed his opinion after being visited by law enforcement.
lawandcrime.com
1/18/23
In the
63-page motion for sanctions provided to Law&Crime by Murdaugh’s legal team, the defense is asking a judge to prohibit the state from offering testimony regarding blood spatter by
Tom Bevel, a former Oklahoma police officer who owns and operates a self-described forensic education and consulting company.
[..]
The motion claims that Bevel’s opinion in this regard was based on an “at-home ‘science fair’ experiment” that was conducted in the former police officer’s “garage or kitchen or wherever.”
The motion also suggests that when the state’s lead attorney in the case,
Creighton Waters, learned of Bevel’s alleged non-laboratory tests, he was “embarrassed.”
Those alleged at-home tests, the defense motion says, would not stand up to scientific scrutiny and would likely result in Bevel being eliminated as an expert witness. Hearings on potential experts are typically mandatory so that both sides can establish and challenge credentials.
“Bevel is a retired Oklahoma City police officer with no credentials in any scientific discipline,” the filing says.
The filing also argues that Waters is aware the state’s first blood spatter witness is unlikely to be able to testify and that the prosecutor is now trying to “sneak” Bevel’s report in through a member of law enforcement “as a back door.”
“The court should not allow this,” the motion says.
Waters did not immediately respond to a request for comment.