Alex Murdaugh case as random man’s Facebook rant lands at centre of bid for new murder trial

19/09/2023

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Alex Murdaugh case as random man’s Facebook rant lands at centre of bid for new murder trial
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Transcript

00:00 New twist in Alex Murdaugh case

00:01 as random man's Facebook rant lands

00:03 at center of bid for new murder trial.

00:06 The saga surrounding Alex Murdaugh

00:07 has taken yet another dramatic twist

00:09 after a random Georgia man was thrust into the center

00:12 of the convicted killer's bid for a new murder trial

00:14 thanks to his now deleted Facebook rant

00:16 about his wife's aunt.

00:18 Back on 15 February, Timothy Stone took to his Facebook page

00:21 to fume that the family member

00:23 had been sticking her nose in my business,

00:25 according to court documents.

00:26 Mr. Stone said he made the post in response

00:28 to a private argument between the pair

00:30 and then later felt terrible about it

00:32 and deleted it the next day.

00:34 He then posted an apology on his account the next day,

00:37 saying that he was driven by Satan.

00:38 Little did Mr. Stone know that this brief family spat

00:41 would become central to the so-called trial of the century

00:44 going on in Colleton County Courthouse

00:46 and efforts by convicted killer Murdaugh

00:48 to be granted a new trial

00:49 for the murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul.

00:52 Earlier this month, Murdaugh filed a motion

00:54 requesting a new trial on the basis

00:56 that Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill

00:58 allegedly pressured jurors on the case

01:00 to return a guilty verdict against him.

01:02 Central to the bombshell motion

01:04 was the circumstances surrounding juror number 785,

01:07 who became infamous as the egg juror

01:09 when she prompted some lighthearted relief

01:11 by asking to pick up her dozen eggs from the jury room

01:14 as she was dismissed from the case

01:15 hours before deliberations began.

01:17 Murdaugh's attorneys claimed the juror was dismissed

01:20 from the case after Enns Hill told Judge Clifton Newman

01:22 about the post from Ms. Stone,

01:24 claiming that they were made by juror's ex-husband

01:26 as evidence that she was speaking about the case

01:29 outside of the courtroom.

01:30 Now, in a new court document

01:32 filed by Murdaugh's attorneys on Monday,

01:34 Murdaugh's attorneys Dick Harputlian and Jim Griffin state

01:37 that this was a case of mistaken identity.

01:39 They say that the Ms. Stone behind the post

01:41 is simply someone with a similar name

01:43 to the juror's ex-husband

01:44 and that the post had nothing to do

01:46 with anyone associated with this case.

01:48 The Mr. Stone behind the Facebook post

01:50 has given a sworn affidavit to Murdaugh's legal team.

01:53 Mr. Stone is a resident of Georgia

01:55 who has a name similar to the name

01:57 of juror number 785's ex-husband.

02:00 Mr. Stone was the author of the apology Facebook post

02:03 previously submitted as Exhibit E to Exhibit 1,

02:06 which Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill

02:08 represented was evidence juror number 785

02:12 had discussed the evidence presented at trial

02:14 with her ex-husband before deliberations began.

02:17 The document states, "In his affidavit,

02:19 "Mr. Stone offers that he has never been married

02:21 "to juror number 785

02:24 "and that he has never posted anything

02:26 "to the Facebook group, Walterborough Word of Mouth."

02:28 He did post what Ms. Hill identified

02:30 as the apology post by juror number 785's ex-husband,

02:34 but it was posted to his personal Facebook page

02:37 and not the Walterborough Word of Mouth group.

02:39 According to the motion filed earlier this month,

02:42 Ms. Hill had gone to Judge Newman on 27 February,

02:45 the day after Murdaugh testified at his trial,

02:48 claiming that she had seen a post

02:49 in the local Facebook group, Walterborough Word of Mouth

02:52 from juror 785's former husband, Tim Stone.

02:56 The post purportedly claimed that the juror

02:58 was drinking with her ex-husband,

02:59 and when she became drunk, she expressed her views

03:02 on whether Murdaugh was innocent or guilty.

03:04 A follow-up post from an account called Timothy Stone

03:07 apologizes for the post saying that he was driven by Satan.

03:10 When Ms. Hill confronted the juror about the post,

03:12 the juror said she hadn't seen her ex-husband in 10 years.

03:16 The motion states, "Ms. Hill allegedly told the juror

03:19 "that Selly D. and Colleton County Sheriff's

03:21 "Office personnel had gone to Mr. Stone's house

03:23 "and that he had confirmed he made the post."

03:25 She then allegedly asked juror 785

03:28 whether she was inclined to vote guilty or not guilty,

03:31 to which she said she had not made up her mind.

03:33 Murdaugh's attorneys claimed that the original post

03:35 was fictitious and that a download of Mr. Stone's Facebook

03:38 shows he did not make either post.

03:40 After the prosecution's closing argument

03:42 on the morning of 1 March, juror 785 said

03:46 that the court clerk asked her again

03:48 about what her verdict would be.

03:49 When the juror said she thought prosecutor Creighton Waters'

03:52 closing statement was good, but that she had questions

03:54 because the murder weapons have never been found,

03:57 Ms. Hill allegedly told her that everything

03:59 Ms. Murdaugh has said has been lies

04:01 and that I should forget about the guns.

04:03 They will never be seen again.

04:04 The juror said that around 10 minutes later,

04:06 she was dismissed from the jury,

04:08 just hours before jury deliberations began.

04:10 During her dismissal, she was accused of having spoken

04:13 to at least three people about the case.

04:15 Outside of the Facebook post and her ex-husband,

04:17 the court was contacted by a coworker of the juror's tenant

04:20 who said that the tenant said her landlord was a juror

04:23 and had expressed an opinion when delivering a fridge

04:25 to the property.

04:26 The motion from Murdaugh's attorneys included affidavits

04:29 from juror 785 and her former husband, Tim Stone,

04:32 who denied ever making the post.

04:34 Disgraced legal shy Murdaugh made several other

04:37 Danny accusations against Ms. Hill as he accused her

04:40 of tampering with the jury at his high-profile

04:42 double murder trial because she was driven by fame

04:44 and a desire to secure a book deal.

04:46 In the motion, Murdaugh's attorneys claimed

04:48 that Ms. Hill tampered with the jury by advising them

04:51 not to believe Murdaugh's testimony and other evidence

04:54 presented by the defense, pressuring them to reach

04:56 a quick guilty verdict and even misrepresenting critical

04:59 and material information to the trial judge in her campaign

05:02 to remove a juror she believed to be favorable

05:04 to the defense.

05:05 Specifically, they claimed that the clerk instructed jurors

05:08 not to be misled by evidence presented by the defense

05:11 and told jurors not to be fooled by Murdaugh's testimony

05:14 when he took the stand.

05:15 She allegedly instructed the jury to watch him closely,

05:18 to look at his actions, and to look at his movements

05:21 on the stand, something at least one juror said

05:23 they understood to mean that Murdaugh was guilty.

05:25 South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson's office

05:28 responded to the allegations on Friday,

05:30 saying that investigators probing the accusations

05:33 had already found significant factual disputes

05:35 with the claims.

05:36 The prosecutors did not outline what the factual disputes

05:39 may be but pointed to the number of media interviews

05:42 made by Mr. Griffin and Mr. Harputlian about the motion.

05:45 The latest twist comes the same day that Murdaugh

05:48 reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors

05:50 on a string of financial fraud charges

05:52 after he stole millions of dollars from law firm clients.

05:55 In the agreement signed on Monday,

05:56 the double murderer will plead guilty to 22 federal charges,

06:00 including wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering,

06:03 and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud.

06:06 Murdaugh is facing more than 100 state and federal charges

06:09 over the multimillion dollar fraud scheme.

06:12 While he has reached a deal on the federal charges,

06:14 he is heading to trial on the state charges in November.

06:17 Murdaugh appeared in court last week

06:18 for a hearing on the state charges,

06:20 which includes stealing more than $4 million

06:22 from the family of his dead housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield,

06:25 who died in a mystery trip

06:27 and fall at the family estate in 2018.

06:29 It marked the first time that he was seen in court

06:31 since his sentencing at his murder trial.

06:33 Former friend and alleged co-conspirator, Corey Fleming,

06:36 was sentenced to 10 years in prison

06:38 after pleading guilty to the charges.

06:40 Meanwhile, former friend and Palmetto State Bank CEO,

06:43 Russell Laffitt, is also awaiting trial.

06:45 Murdaugh is also facing charges over botched Hitman plot,

06:49 where he claims he paid an accomplice to shoot him dead

06:51 two months after Maggie and Paul's murders.

06:53 For now, though, Murdaugh is behind bars

06:55 at the McCormick Correctional Institution in South Carolina,

06:59 where he is serving two life sentences

07:00 for his wife and son's murders.

07:02 Maggie and Paul were found shot dead

07:04 on the family's 1,700-acre Mozelle estate

07:07 back on 7 June 2021.

07:09 Alex Murdaugh had called 911

07:12 claiming to have found their bodies.

07:13 During his high-profile murder trial,

07:15 jurors heard how Paul was shot twice with a 12-gauge shotgun

07:19 while he stood in the feed room of the dog kennels

07:21 on the affluent family's 1,700-acre Mozelle estate.

07:25 The second shot to his head blew his brain

07:27 almost entirely out of his skull.

07:29 After killing Paul, prosecutors said Murdaugh

07:31 then grabbed a .300 blackout semi-automatic rifle

07:34 and opened fire on Maggie

07:35 as she tried to flee from her husband.

07:37 During the dramatic six-week trial,

07:39 Murdaugh confessed to lying about his alibi

07:41 on the night of the murders

07:42 but continued to claim his innocence of the killings.

07:45 The jury didn't agree, and the disgraced legal sain

07:48 was convicted in March of the brutal murders.

07:50 A Georgia man who blasted his wife's aunt on Facebook

07:53 for sticking her nose in his business

07:55 has improbably been dragged

07:56 into the Alex Murdaugh murder saga

07:58 because of an identity mix-up.

08:00 Earlier this month, Murdaugh's defense team

08:02 filed a 65-page motion for a new trial,

08:05 arguing that Colleton County Court Clerk Rebecca Hill

08:08 pressured the jury to convict the disgraced ex-lawyer

08:11 accused of killing his wife and son.

08:13 The defense also claimed that Hill campaigned

08:15 to remove a particular juror from the trial

08:17 because she believed the juror

08:18 was on the fence about a conviction.

08:20 The motion claimed Hill flagged for the judge

08:22 a Facebook post by the ex-husband of that juror.

08:24 On the Walter Gurro Word of Mouth page,

08:26 it supposedly showed she had spoken about the case.

08:29 Judge Clifton Newman removed the juror from the trial.

Alex Murdaugh case as random man’s Facebook rant lands at centre of bid for new murder trial

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