ALEX MURDAUGH MURDER TRIAL: Prosecution ridicules animated crime scene created by expert

Forensic engineer Mike Sutton dismissed the prosecutor's suggestion that he had to take in several other variables than just the entry and exit points in the shooting of Paul Murdaugh. 

In the contentious cross-examination, Sutton said he didn't account for the projectiles moving through glass or a human body, how the shooter was holding the weapon, or if the shooter and victim were in motion when calculating the bullets trajectories. 

Sutton ultimately insisted that that the shooter was shorter than Alex Murdaugh, and that his data shows that the shooter would not be kneeling when firing. 

Prosecutor David Fernandez asked Sutton: 'That's your best guess of what went on that night?'

Sutton replied: 'That is not a guess. That is my opinion.' 

The state rested their cross-examination.  

Mike Sutton told prosecutors that, according to his findings, the person who shot Paul Murdaugh had to be about 5-foot, 2 inches. 

He said Alex, who measures at about 6-foot, 4 inches, would be too tall to have fired from any point of the trajectory he calculated. 

He contended that his calculations were based on a range of measurements due to the fact that the quail pen was made of paper product and can deform due to how soft it is. 

Throughout this section of the cross-examination, Prosecutor David Fernandez continued to characterize the supposed 5'2" shooter an '11-year-old with a gun,' a '12-year-old,' and 'grey dudes,' based on Sutton's 3D renderings of the crime scene.   

Prosecutor David Fernandez continues to scrutinized the defense's fourth witness, Mike Sutton. 

Sutton admitted he has no formal training or certification in shotguns and shotgun projectiles testing. 

When pressed by the prosecution, Sutton said he has handled a lot of weapons and done personal testing. 

'What do you know,' Fernandez could be heard asking repeatedly as he questioned Sutton's qualifications and testimony.   

Sutton said he doesn't have to be a pathologist, a person who examines bodies, to testify on how the shotgun pellets traveled through Paul's body.   

Mike Sutton admitted that the ammo used in his sound test was not the same used in the murder of Paul Murdaugh. 

Sutton said he ended up using a similar load for the buckshot, but noted it was not the same length or brand used in the actual shooting. 

The test used 2.75 inch shells as opposed to the 3 inch shells. 

Prosecutor David Fernandez also questioned if Sutton took into account the growing foliage in the estate as he conducted his sound test 18 months after the shooting. 

Sutton said the growing trees would affect the sound, but that not by much.  

Prosecutors are hammering down on Mike Sutton, a forensic engineer hired by the defense to investigate the crime scene. 

Sutton told the court that he wouldn't speculate or assume to arrive at his conclusions or form his opinions, despite the defense asking him to do just that. 

The expert was also unable to identify the timeline of Alex Murdaugh's driving speed on the night of the murder in the report submitted to the court, only when accessing his own files on his laptop. 

Sutton also said he is not an expert in firearms, shooting incident reconstruction, or gunshot wounds.

He's also not certified by any outside trade or academic organizations, and said his reports aren't peer-reviewed. 

Forensic engineer Mike Sutton, the defense's fourth witness, said he earned between $14,000 to $17,500 working to investigate the crime scene where Paul and Maggie were murdered. 

Sutton said he was approached by Murdaugh's defense lawyer Jim Griffin in September 2022, and was retained at $350 per hour. 

Although Sutton said he worked for 'a lot of hours,' he estimated that he worked between 40 to 50 hours for the defense. 

He noted that he also received stipulations for travel, adding that he had made two trips to Moselle 15-months after the murders. 

Sutton also revealed that he was hired by Griffin to investigate the 2019 fatal boat crash in Mallory Beach where Paul was accused of drunk driving. 

The court has entered a short break as the prosecution prepares its cross-examination of forensic engineer Mike Sutton. 

Read all about his testimony so far here: 

Forensic engineer Mike Sutton said Alex Murdaugh would have been able to see his son and wife's body when driving up to the kennels in his Moselle property. 

Although Sutton said he does not know what Alex saw that night, but said it was possible he saw Maggie lying on the ground, as well as Paul. 

Judge Newman has sustained two objections so far, one about Maggies phone possible being tossed out of Alex's car and about the headlights on the disgraced lawyer's Suburban. 

According to Sutton's data, Alex was driving at around 45 mph when he passed the area where Maggie's phone was eventually found. 

Sutton said if the phone was tossed out of the car, it would have tumbled and slid, possibly traveling 115 feet. 

Sutton was asked if someone from the house in Moselle would've been able to hear the gun shots that killed Paul and Maggie Murdaugh. 

The court heard audio of the .300 Blackout rifle fired from the doghouse, more than 1,142 feet from the home.   

The gunshot was inaudible in the recording, with Sutton concluding that anyone inside the house would not be able to hear it if the shots were fired near the quail pen and doghouse. 

He added that the gunshots from a 12 gauge shotgun would also be inaudible.   

As the trial resumes, defense attorney Dick Harpootlian pulled out the .300 Blackout rifle used in the fatal shooting of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh. 

Harpoolitan said he wanted to be careful with the rifle, but did earn a laugh when he pointed the unloaded weapon at the prosecution for a second and remarked it was 'tempting.'

Harpoolitan worked with forensic engineer Mike Sutton to continue to suggest Alex Murdaugh was too tall to properly wield the rifle and make the shots that were fired at the quail pen and doghouse on the night of the murders. 

The court has paused for lunch on Day 21 of Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial. 

The judge has ordered the proceedings to resume at 2:15pm EST. 

After breaking down the trajectories of two bullets fired in Alex Murdaugh's estate on the night of Paul and Maggie's death, forensic engineer Mike Sutton said the shooter would be between 5'2" and 5'4" inches. 

Sutton, who was hired by the defense to investigate the crime scene, said the shooter likely fired from the hip and estimated the height of the killer at 5'2", or possible a 5'4" who may have crouched a bit. 

Alex stands at 6'4", so Sutton said that he would have had to be holding the weapon at or below his kneecaps to make the shots.  

The expert concluded that it was unlikely for Alex or a tall person to be the shooter, he did, however, concede that a tall person could have still made the shots if they adopted an 'unreasonable' position.  

Forensic engineer Mike Sutton laid out where the bullets landed on the night of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh's murders. 

Sutton put together a 3D model showing the bullet holes and trajectories through the doghouse and quail pen near the area where Maggie and Paul were shot. 

The data, Sutton says, shows the evidence shows one of the bullet in the quail pen was fired upward, and the one in the doghouse was fired downward. 

He concluded that the shots came from different directions. 

The defense had previously suggested that Paul and Maggie were killed by two different shooters. 

The defense called in its fourth witness, Mike Sutton, a North Carolina forensic engineer whose expertise is in crime scene reconstruction and bullet trajectories. 

Sutton was hired by the defense and was at the crime scene on October 2022, more than a year after the shootings. 

Although he said the scene had changed since the June 2021 murders, Sutton also looked at photos of the evidence collected by SLED on the day of the killings.  

State prosecutor John Meadors began the cross-examination for Buster Murdaugh in his father's double murder trial. 

The cross-examination was brief, with Meadors asking if Buster was aware of the disgraced legal scion's financial troubles during the time of the murders. 

Buster responded, 'No, sir.' 

The grieving son also noted that he was frustrated at times that his younger brother, Paul, used his ID to buy alcohol when going out on the night of the 2019 fatal boat crash. 

Buster testified that following the murders of his younger brother and mother, the Murdaugh family went on a vacation to Lake Keowee. 

After the family stayed at his grandparents' home, Buster said they moved to his uncle's house, they attended Paul and Maggie's funeral on June 11. 

The family also stayed at Summerville until June 17, and then went on a trip to the Lake Keowee reservoir. 

In attendance were Alex and Buster, Buster's grandparents, uncle, aunt, and cousins and their spouses.  

After Buster moved back with his girlfriend and returned to work in Charlotte, he noted that his father watched him play in a golf tournament in Summerville.  

Despite testifying that this family was close and often called each other multiple times a day, Buster Murdaugh said he did not know when his father's birthday was. 

As the defense played a video of the Murdaugh family celebrating Alex's birthday over the Memorial Day weekend of 2021, Buster was asked when his father's birthday is. 

The living Murdaugh son, however, said he didn't know the exact date. 

As he testified on Tuesday, Buster Murdaugh read aloud a $100,000 reward flyer he and his father, Alex, put out, asking for tips on Paul and Maggie's murder. 

The reward statement read: 'Now is the time to bring justice for Maggie and Paul. Buster and I, along with Maggie’s mother, father and our entire family, ask that anyone with helpful information immediately call the SLED tip line or Crime Stoppers.'

Buster was also shown video of his crying father saying, 'They did him so bad,' following the shootings. 

Buster said he repeated that statement on the night of the murders. 

The court is taking a 15 minute break. 

Buster Murdaugh told the jury his family stuck close to Alex after Paul and Maggie were shot and killed on June 7, 2021. 

The grieving son said he specifically stayed by his father's side as they traveled to his grandparents home in Almeda and later to his uncles hunting lodge known as 'Greenfield.' 

He said he was keeping a close eye on his distraught father, and that the family stayed in Summerville before eventually moving back to work in Charlotte. 

Buster added that he declined security and guards to watch over him following the shootings, something his father proposed. 

Buster said his father didn't appear worried after the family faced backlash and scrutiny after Paul was accused of drunk driving during a fatal boat crash in 2019 

Buster said the crash, which killed a 19-year-old girl, 'consumed' his mother.

At the time of Maggie and Paul's deaths, Alex and Buster were being sued over the 22-year-old's boat wreck in which Mallory Beach was killed.

The boat belonged to his father and he had used his older brother's ID to buy alcohol.

Buster told how his brother was 'bullied' after the wreck, with people harassing him on social media and in public.

'He would go out to a bar and there would be people who would make a scuff about it,' he told jurors.

Referring to his mother, Buster said: 'It kind of consumed her. She's big on reading all of it. It made her feel upset and it eventually caused her to distance herself from Hampton.'

'She just felt that there was a kind of a bad vibe in Hampton,' he told the court.

Buster appeared to choke up as he recounted the moment he learned his brother, Paul, and mother, Maggie, were dead. 

He said he got the call from his father, and was with his girlfriend, Brooklyn, at the time as they were shocked and dumbfounded over the news. 

He said his father appeared 'destroyed and heartbroken' when he met up with him following the murders on June 7, 2021, saying he hugged and tried comforting Alex. 

He said he helped his father pack before leaving for Almeda at around 5am. He said 'nobody really slept,' that day. 

As he testified in his father's double murder trial, Buster said he was fully aware about his father's opioid addiction, and thought he had beaten it. 

Buster said Alex had attended a rehab facility in 2018, but said his father continued to abuse the medication years later. 

He believed his father had gotten over his addition after a round of self-detoxing, but noted that his mother had found pills and confronted him about it. 

Despite the multiple confrontations, Buster said his father always seemed remorseful and apologized, and that there was no violence in the household.  

Buster Murdaugh said his father, Alex, and younger brother, Paul, would often misplace their phones as he said his family often called each other every day. 

On the night of the murders of Paul and mother Maggie, Buster received a call from Alex at 9:10pm. 

Buster said his father told him he was checking on his grandparents in Almeda, noting it was not uncommon for Alex to do so or call him about doing so. 

When the defense asked him if anything 'unusual' happened over the phone calls of that day, Buster answered, 'No, sir.' 

Buster told the court his family spoke over the phone frequently everyday, saying it was normal for the Murdaugh clan. 

Defense attorney Jim Griffin showed the court phone records from the family, showing Buster, Alex, Paul and Maggie calling each other multiple times throughout several days. 

Buster said it was typical for him to receive calls and texts from his family everyday, so the high volume of messages on June 7, when Paul and Maggie were killed, was not abnormal.  

Buster Murdaugh told the court that he never loaded a gun with a buckshot and a waterfowl shot, and that he's never seen a gun on the property loaded in that fashion. 

A gun loaded that way was the weapon investigators said was used to kill Paul. 

SLED investigator David Owen previously admitted he lied to Alex Murdaugh and the grand jury about finding such a loaded weapon at the Moselle property. 

Buster continues to testify about the weapons at his father's hunting estate in Moselle, noting that there were 12 gauge shotguns and 'a lot' of rifles on the property. 

He said both he and his brother, Paul, received .300 Blackout guns, and that Paul had once lost his rifle. 

He commented that Paul was 'not good' with guns and left them all over the hunting lodge, leading to many arguments between the brothers. 

Bust also told the court that it was not uncommon for him and his brother to leave guns down at the shed near the kennels, near the area where Paul and Maggie were found dead.  

Alex Murdaugh could be seen smiling softly as his only living son, Buster, began testifying at the disgraced lawyer's double murder trial. 

Buster began his testimony talking about his childhood, saying that his father and mother, Maggie, would always attend his sporting events when he was a kid. 

Buster also noted that Alex had once coached his little league team.  

Judge Clifton Newman questioned Defense attorney Jim Griffin for tweeting out a Washington Post op-ed piece criticizing investigators.

The article, titled 'Alex Murdaugh trail reveals a sloppy investigation,' criticizes the police work gathering evidence against Murdaugh. 

Griffin defended himself, saying he merely tweeted an article that was already posted online. 

But the judge warned Griffin that it may not have been proper for an attorney in the trial to tweet such an article. 

'It's not a good practice and it could easily lead to modifications of our rules,' Newman warned. 

Judge Clifton Newman opened the 21st day of the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial at 9:30am EST. 

The judge informed the court that one of the juror's called in sick today and is visiting a doctor, the same juror who was called in as an alternate for another juror who fell ill. 

A new juror was called in as a replacement, with the court now down to to remaining alternates. 

Defense attorney Jim Griffin also told the court his team expects to rest their case by Friday. 

Buster Murdaugh, 26, has arrived in court in South Carolina, wearing a black tuxedo and walking beside his girlfriend, Brooklyn White. 

The grieving son and brother appeared tense and maintained a stern face as he was surrounded by family members, including uncle John Marvin, Alex Murdaugh's younger brother. 

Buster will likely be the first witness to testify today in the double homicide trial of his father, who is accused of shooting his wife, Maggie, and son Paul. 

Disgraced legal scion Alex Murdaugh appeared this morning exiting a police vehicle as he entered the courthouse. 

Murdaugh, accused of killing his wife and son, was escorted inside by police, with a jacket placed over his hands hiding his handcuffs. 

Today marks the start of the fifth week in the double homicide case, following a month of testimony where prosecutors laid out their argument. 

Alex Murdaugh’s double homicide trial is set to begin at 9:30am today in Walterboro, South Carolina, with a crowd of people lining up to squeeze into the courthouse.    

Among the witnesses expected to take the stand today include the disgraced lawyer’s only living son, Buster Murdaugh, 26, who will likely be the first to testify. 

It had previously been suggested that he was not supporting his father in the trial, and the grieving son was pictured last week visiting the graves of his mother, Maggie, and brother, Paul. 

Back in November, the HBO documentary Low Country: the Murdaugh Dynasty, aired a series of jail calls between Murdaugh and Buster, where the father asked his son to return to the estate where Maggie and Paul were shot. 

‘I think the dam feeders were full over there at Moselle,’ Murdaugh tells him. ‘If you felt like going back there, I bet with nothing going on, I bet there’s deer all over them things.’

Buster, however, appeared unsettled by his father’s suggestion, replying: ‘I’m not going hunting out there.’