Judge allows into evidence casings that match a ‘rifle purchased by Murdaugh.’ Was it a murder weapon?

WALTERBORO, S.C. — Jurors in the murder trial of Alex Murdaugh will hear evidence that the gun that killed Murdaugh’s wife was tied to her husband.

Investigator seized several guns from the Murdaugh family home after Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were killed in June 2021. But, until now, the state has not identified a murder weapon in the mother and son’s deaths. A defense filing Monday revealed for the first time that testing by the State Law Enforcement Division had connected a weapon previously fired at Moselle to cartridges retrieved from the murder scene.

Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters told Judge Clifton Newman on Tuesday that casings were found that matched a “blackout AR-style rifle purchased by Murdaugh that can no longer be accounted for.”