Afternoon tweets from 2:15 pm ET 0 3:30 pm ET
We're back in session.
Judge Newman indicates we won't return to the financial/motive piece of this case until tomorrow. So that won't get cleared up this afternoon, as some might have hoped.
The jury is back. The state calls its 20th witness, 14th Circuit investigator Dylan Hightower. He downloaded the contents of Alex Murdaugh's phone a few days after the slayings. (Technically, Seckinger is no longer the 20th witness since the jury didn't hear her).
Hightower was at Moselle on 6/8/21, the day after the slayings. He took drone footage of the property. He says there were some pine trees between the main house and the dog kennels, but they were short, about 6-8 feet tall. They have since grown quite a bit, obstructing the view.
But in June 2021, Hightower testifies, “you did get a clear channel, a clear view, between the kennels and the residence.” Prosecutor John Conrad trying to establish that Murdaugh should have been able to see the kennels before he left Moselle that night after 9 p.m.
Conrad isn't saying that out loud, obviously. Prosecutors aren't doing a whole lot of "explaining their point" in this trial. But that's the implication, especially as Harpootlian has said you can't see the kennels from the house and has said he wants to take jury to see Moselle.
Hightower testifies about using Find My iPhone to find Maggie’s iPhone. He took photos of it but didn’t touch it himself once he found it. Maggie’s phone has not been touched since he took the photos, Hightower said.
Hightower testifies about reviewing Alex Murdaugh’s call records from Verizon and comparing them with the data from his cell phone. On Murdaugh’s phone, he found two calls on the date of the slayings - 6/7/21. On the Verizon record, there were 73 more calls. They had been deleted
Conrad finishes questioning Hightower. Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian rises for the first time today (after barely being involved yesterday) to cross-examine Hightower.
Harpootlian establishes with Hightower that in the day after the shooting, police put up no roadblocks, put out no PSAs warning people there was an active shooter on the loose, didn’t search the woods and fields of Moselle for another shooter.
Harpootlian is trying to show investigators zeroed in on Murdaugh as their suspect from Day 1. He also asks Hightower if he knew about a Colleton County Sheriff's Office statement issued the next day saying there was no danger to the public.
Hightower says he was not aware of that. He's now the third law enforcement witness in this trial, including two from CCSO, to claim no knowledge of that statement - which many outlets reported, and which law enforcement never tried to correct (if it was untrue)
The jury knows that Alex Murdaugh had Maggie’s passcode. He provided it so investigators could unlock her phone. Now Harpootlian establishes with Hightower that someone with Maggie’s passcode could have deleted anything on her phone before chucking it onto the side of the road.
We have heard of no evidence of deletions on Maggie's phone.
