Alex Murdaugh's defense attorney says he was buying $50,000 of drugs a week

Alex Murdaugh's attorney told the jury in his double murder trial that the disgraced legal scion was buying $50,000 of drugs a week from a dealer who owed money to a local 'cowboys gang'.

Defense attorney Jim Griffin grilled SLED Special Agent David Owen during cross-examination Wednesday about why these gang members were not treated as prime suspects. 

Owen testified that Murdaugh was in the investigative circle from the moment he dialed 911 after he found the slain bodies of his wife Maggie and son Paul on the family's Moselle property in South Carolina in June 2021. 

Yet, SLED did not collect DNA from gang members and they were not included in the investigative circle like Murdaugh, Griffin said.

Murdaugh, 54, faces up to life in prison if convicted of killing his 52-year-old wife Maggie and their 22-year-old son Paul, whose bodies were found June 7, 2021, near the kennels on the family's estate. Murdaugh denies the double murder. 

Alex Murdaugh and his attorney Jim Griffin (left) talk during his trial on Wednesday. Griffin said Murdaugh was buying $50,000 of drugs a week from his dealer who owed money to a gang

Griffin grilled SLED Special Agent David Owen during cross-examination at Murdaugh's murder trial on Wednesday on why the gang members weren't treated like prime suspects

On the stand at his murder trial on Wednesday, lead investigator on the case SLED Special Agent David Owen said that Murdaugh had remained in the investigative circle because credible evidence kept him there.

Murdaugh is the fourth generation of a prominent legal family in Hampton County, South Carolina but his professional career began to unravel following the murders - and it later emerged he had a crippling Opioid addiction.

Prosecutors say Murdaugh killed his wife and son to distract from his financial crimes. He was also facing a ruinous civil suit over his son's drunken boat wreck in February 2019 which killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach.

The defense has mentioned the Cowboys gang previously in the trial seemingly to indicate that Murdaugh was potentially a target. 

The jury has also heard damning evidence about his drug habit, with one colleague receiving a text from Murdaugh while he was in rehab apologizing for stealing millions of dollars from his former legal firm. 

'The worst part is, I did the most damage to the ones I love the most,' the alleged killer wrote to his secretary Annette Griswold four months after his wife and son were murdered.

Marian Proctor also testified Tuesday that her sister Maggie called Paul 'her little detective' because he would find out if his father was taking pills.

She said she did not know how long exactly Alex had been abusing opioids but that 'it had been going on for some time.'  

The state argued that Griffin's line of questioning about Murdaugh buying drugs 'opened the door' to testimony about the roadside shooting - which judge Clifton had ruled not admissible just earlier that day as it was 'a bridge too far'. 

The incident refers to when Murdaugh allegedly hired his cousin, Curtis 'Eddie' Smith, also known as Cousin Eddie, to shoot him in September in order to gain a $10 million payout for his surviving son Buster.

But the story quickly unraveled and Murdaugh confessed to police that he had paid Smith to shoot him. 

'It is the state's belief that with those last questions, they opened the door to the roadside shooting.' 

Judge Newman responded: 'He is in the middle of cross-examination. … Now is not the time.' 

But the roadside shooting was mentioned again when Owen testified that Murdaugh had not brought up Cousin Eddie's drug gang until after the September incident. 

This led the judge to reverse his decision. 'The defense opened the door to the roadside shooting testimony by questioning the witness as to the relationship between Mr. Murdaugh and Eddie Smith, payment of money to buy drugs, indebtedness,' he said.

Owen told the court that Cousin Eddie was never brought up by Murdaugh as someone that would hurt Maggie or Paul. 

Alex Murdagh is pictured, main, with his wife Maggie and son Paul (far left) who were shot dead in an unsolved double murder in June

Curtis Edward Smith, 62, is taken back to jail after a judge revoked his bond at a hearing on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022, in the Richland County Courthouse in Columbia, South Carolina. He is accused of participating in a life insurance scam with Murdaugh, shooting him in the head around three months after his wife and son were murdered

Alex Murdaugh and his attorney Jim Griffin (left) talk during his trial on Wednesday 

During his cross examination, Griffin also suggested the grand jury which indicted Murdaugh for the double murders was 'misled' by inaccurate blood splatter and gun evidence.

Owen had said there were shotguns at Moselle - the family property where Maggie and Paul's bodies were found - that were loaded with buckshot and birdshot shells.

'And that was not accurate, right,' Griffin pressed. Owen replied: 'Correct.'

Griffin also brought up the blood spatter supposedly found on Murdaugh's shirt - which forensic experts later testified in the murder trial was not.

'You didn't know then, but you know now that what you told the Colleton County grand jury was not correct?'

'In reference to the shirt, correct,' Owen replied. 

Griffin also suggested that law enforcement was incompetent as officers failed to thoroughly search the Moselle hunting lodge and the Almeda property - where he visited his mother that night. 

In redirect by the state, Meadors offered a theory about Murdaugh using a cooler to hide evidence at Almeda on the night of the killings.

The prosecution argued that Murdaugh transported his bloodied clothes and the guns to his mother's house in Almeda in a cooler and wrapped up the blue raincoat. 

He ends his questioning by shouting: 'Did Alex ever mention anybody else who could have killed his wife and my son on June 7, 2021?' Owen replied 'No.' 

The lead investigator's testimony ended Wednesday afternoon after a bombshell police interview with Murdaugh was played for the court.

Alex Murdaugh is asked point blank by law enforcement in August 2021 if he killed his wife and son just two months after the brutal murders at the South Carolina family's home

The interview from August 2021, which had never been seen before, revealed a host of discrepancies in Murdaugh's story compared to what he told police on the night of the murders and a few days later on June 10. His tale also differed from what other witnesses have told the jury.  

In the video shown in court on Wednesday, Owen told Murdaugh his timeline 'doesn't match up' and established that he knew he'd changed clothes on the night of the murders - and that 'family guns' had been used to execute his wife and son.

One of the most significant revelations in the August 2021 police interview - which was heard today for the first time - was that Murdaugh had repeatedly denied being at the dog kennels with Maggie and Paul shortly before they were shot.

There were inconsistencies with the timeline of when Murdaugh left his law firm that day and the reason Maggie was called home from the family's beach house.

He also told police he was at his mother's house that evening for much longer than her caregiver testified.

Prosecutors claim Murdaugh shot his wife and son to death at the dog kennels on the family's property around 8.50pm on the night of June 7, 2021.

Murdaugh was also asked by investigators if he had killed his wife and son - which he was quick to deny while remaining still with his arms and legs crossed.