ALEX MURDAUGH MURDER TRIAL AS IT HAPPENED: Alex Murdaugh's second cousin reveals legal scion paid him $10,000 for blackout rifles to give to 'his boys' for Christmas in 2016 - the same type of weapon used to murder their mother Maggie

Dailymail.com's coverage of the Alex Murdaugh's trial has ended for the day.

Court will resume at 9.30am on Wednesday with Lt Dove back on the stand.

A text from Alex Murdaugh to his wife Maggie that reads 'Call me, babe' is the last activity on her phone the night she was murdered, Lt. Dove testified. 

That text came in at 9:47pm. It was never read. 

Shortly before that, there was a missed call from Alex at 9:45.

Before that, Rogan Gibson’s unread text came in.

Lt. Dove also reviewed the report on the health data from Maggie's phone.

It was pointed out that the 'steps' are recoded based on the body's motion and it not 100% accurate.

At 8:17 - right after Maggie's phone was unplugged, there were 38 steps recorded.

Another 59 steps were recorded between 8:53pm at 8:55pm.

During this time, the orientation changes and the camera is activated for one second but the phone did not unlock, the expert testified.

There were no further steps taken until the next day when the phone was discovered and collected.

Lt. Dove testified on the stand that there was a one-second activation of the camera on Maggie's phone.

He said that data shows Maggie's phone orientation changed (portrait to landscape) minutes after her phone locked for the night.

The phone is most likely being moved and camera is activating in background attempting to find a face for biometric unlock, Dove said.

The phone was locked at 8:49:31 p.m. and remained locked until the following day at 1:10 p.m.

There is no record of what the camera shows, but Dove said that if it were Maggie’s face it would have unlocked. He pointed out that it could have been pointed at anything, like the ground or a wall.

Maggie's text messages are being reviewed by Lt. Dove for the court.

The last text read on her phone was at 8.49pm.

Alex Murdaugh texted his wife at 9.04pm. She never read it.

Call data reviewed with Dove on the stand included findings that her phone was unplugged from a power source at 8:17pm. 

The next time it was opened the phone was when a group text from the family came in. 

There is a group text between John Marvin, Maggie, Alex, and other family members that was received at 8.31pm. It was read about 16 seconds after it was sent.

The text was John Marvin talking about his plans to visit his sick father.

Another text reviewed was from Alex's sister Lynn G. It was read at 8.49pm and read that she was in court all week.

The next text came in from Rogan Gibson at 9.34pm. It was unread.

Lt Dove reviewed the call log from Maggie's phone and told the court that Alex Murdaugh called her three times in the span of just a few minutes.

Around the same time he left the property.

He also called her twice on the way back to the property. None of the five calls were answered.

First call was at 9:04:23 pm

Second call was at 9:06:14 pm

And the third call was at 9:06:51 pm

On the way back to the property, he reportedly called Maggie back.

At 9:45:32 pm and again at 10:03:58 pm

Direct examination of Lt Dove continues as he reviews the call log for Maggie Murdaugh's phone on the night of her murder.

He said Maggie's last outgoing call was to a 'Barbara' at 7:50 p.m. on June 7, 2021.

The call lasted 2 minutes, 46 seconds.

Maggie Murdaugh's cell phone was on but in airplane mode when a cell phone expert received as part of evidence in the murders.

Lt Britt Dove, who assessed cell phones belonging to Alex, Maggie and Paul, is on the stand now. He ran a full Cellebrite physical extraction of files and report on her phone. 

He said Maggie had five missed calls from Alex, a missed call from Buster and two from John Marvin. 

Images were taken of her home screen as well as notification and location settings.

There are also several unread text messages, he said.  

A full copy of Maggie’s phone hard drive has been submitted into evidence. 

If the entire report from Maggie's phone were printed out, it could be as many as 9,000 pages, Dove said. 

Alex Murdaugh's cousin John Bedingfield took the witness stand on Tuesday and said the legal scion's relationship with his sons 'was always good.'

Murdaugh had gone to Bedingfield - who is also a firearms dealer - for guns for his sons for Christmas in 2016.

He is on trial for the murders of his son Paul and wife Maggie. His other son Buster was in the courtroom on Tuesday.

An overhead view of the kennels where Alex Murdaugh's wife Maggie and son Paul were found shot to death in 2021 was seen in photo evidence released by the court on Tuesday. 

The kennels are on the family's Moselle, South Carolina property.

Murdaugh earlier told 911 he had checked his wife and son's pulses - but when cops arrived they saw no blood on him.

The disgraced attorney is accused of shooting his wife and son at the 1,700-acre hunting lodge in Islandton on June 7, 2021.

John Bedingfield, who is Murdaugh's cousin, is now on the stand following a lunch break.

The SCDNR officer has a side business as a firearms dealer.

He suggested the .300 Blackout AR-15 style rifles mentioned in the case for Murdaugh to buy for his sons when he was looking for firearms for shooting hogs.

Murdaugh went to his cousin for the guns before Christmas 2016. Bedingfield recommended the Blackout which can be used with a suppressor (silencer).

The silencers are used for night hunting and legal in South Carolina. 

While Murdaugh wanted suppressors for both guns and paid for them, Bedingfield was not able to sell them to him because Murdaugh failed to complete the necessary paperwork.

Murdaugh went to his cousin again in April 2018 about a third .300 Blackout rifle because Paul had lost his.

The rifle had no scope because of the high price tag - $1,500 to $1,800 each.

Murdaugh paid $9,188 for the first two .300 Blackout rifles in 2016 and the third one at a later time was $875, because it did not have the thermal scope or suppressor.

It was Paul's mother Maggie who picked up the guns when they were ready.

More photos of the evidence in the Alex Murdaugh murder trial was released by the court on Tuesday as testimony continued.

Previous testimony by SLED Agent Jeff Croft revealed Paul and Maggie's last texts and calls from the night of the murders.

He interviewed Rogan Gibson, Paul Murdaugh's friend, who had phone conversations with Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh the night of the murders.

Screenshots of the calls and texts with the Murdaughs from Gibson's phone were entered into evidence.

June 7 - 8.40pm: Gibson has an incoming call from Paul which lasted for four minutes.

8.44pm: Another call from Paul

8.49pm : Gibson texted Paul but there was no response.

The text read:

'See if you can get a good picture of it. Marion wants to send it to a vet. Get him to sit and stay. He shouldn't move around too much.'

Between 9.10pm and 10.08pm, Gibson tried to call Paul multiple times.

9.34pm: Gibson texted Maggie: 'Tell Paul to call me.'

9.58pm: Gibson texted Paul again with simply the word: 'Yo.'

There were missed calls from Alex Murdaugh to Gibson at 10.21pm, 10.24pm, 10.25pm, and 10.30pm.

More photos from the crime scene where Alex Murdaugh's wife Maggie and son Paul were killed, that were shown in court this week, were released along with exhibits that were not able to be viewed in real time.

1. SLED agents retrieve shell casings from Moselle

2. Bullet trajectory analysis

3. Alex's 6/10/21 interview with SLED

4. Moselle gun room

5. SLED picking up .300 Blackout shell casings outside gun room

6. An outdoor shooting room on the Moselle firing range

7. Agents recovered .300 Blackout shells from inside

Paul Murdaugh, 22, was accused of driving a boat recklessly while drunk when it smashed into Archer's Creek Bridge in Beaufort County in February 2019. 

There were six friends on board, including Mallory Beach, 19, who died when she was thrown from the vessel. Her body was found on in the water by a fisherman a week later.

Murdaugh was later charged with three felony counts, including causing Beach's death.

He was awaiting trial when he and his mother, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, were found gunned down on their hunting estate in June 2021. 

VanHouten was asked about Faraday Bags while on the stand Tuesday.

Faraday bags block signals received to an electronic device such as a mobile phone, car key or laptop.

VanHouten says Faraday bags aren't the only way to accomplish this remote wiping protection. 

He said that there are other ways to do this including turning the phone off, removing SIM card or putting it in airplane mode.

Next witness called to the stand is Jonathan VanHouten, a former South Carolina law enforcement officer now working as a civilian digital forensic examiner for the U.S. Secret Service.

He was tasked with reviewing Paul Murdaugh's phone after SLED asked for help unlocking the phone.

Paul's phone had not been wiped when investigators broke into it, VanHouten testifies.

VanHouten said he used Cellebrite Premium, software that can use digital 'brute force' to unlock phones.

He testified that he was able to break into the phone a maximum of about 145 times a day.

A 4-digit phone code could take 10,000 attempts and some 68 days. While a 6-digit code, it could take 1 million tries and 19 years.

VanHouten unlocked the phone and returned it to SLED only a few days later.

He added that the password was a variation of Paul’s birthdate.

The next witness called to the stand is Sgt. David McManigal, Charleston County Sheriff's Office, who is assigned to U.S. Secret Service on Cyber Fraud Task Force.

He was given Alex Murdaugh's cell phone and was tasked with redacting data down to certain time frame of interest in order to protect attorney-client confidentiality.

He did not alter any data on Paul's phone because he could not unlock it.

Cell phone data collected from Alex Murdaugh and his wife Maggie and son Paul, along with others, should help pinpoint the timeline of the murders.

But questioning of Verizon analyst Anthony Knecht left the court and others confused instead.

In testimony, Knecht used the phone numbers and codes to describe the calls and whether they were sent to voicemail or just not answered.

Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian appeared to struggle with his explanations and continued to ask him to clarify and repeat the codes.

'Are you losing me, or am I losing you?' Harpootlian asked. 

Previous testimony and records show that Maggie and Paul both stopped answering their cell phones - and did not make calls - after a certain point on night of murders. However, Murdaugh tried to call Maggie several times. 

Prosecution has called a new witness to the stand following a short break. 

Anthony Knecht is an analyst and custodian of records for Verizon Wireless. 

Cell phone data collected from Alex, Paul and Maggie Murdaugh's phones has been entered into evidence. Data was also collected from the phone of Alex's other son Buster.

Data from Moselle groundskeeper Claude 'CB' Rowe and Paul's friend Rogan Gibson were also collected and placed into evidence. 

Connor Cook and his father Marty Cook's phone data was collected as well. Connor was one of the passengers in the 2019 boat crash that killed Mallory Beach. Paul was accused of crashing that boat while drinking with his friends.

Knecht on the stand Tuesday explains what a rough log of cell phone data will show. 

Date and time of call

Network switch router (hub)

Cell ID (specific cell tower)

Incoming vs. outgoing

Phone number

Data / Network type

SLED agent Croft testified on the stand Tuesday that Murdaugh was not the only person the investigation focused on.

'It was absolutely not just focused on Alex Murdaugh,' he said in response to a queston by the prosecution.

He said he wasn't aggressive in the questioning on june 10, 2021. The audio was played in court.

Croft said that the interview was not an 'interrogation, but an 'information gathering type interview.'

Prosecutor Creighton Waters has started his redirect questioning.

He slammed down the defense's notion that there could have been two shooters because the of distance between Paul and Maggie's bodies and the shell casings around Maggie's body.

'Can people move?' Waters asked.

He repeated himself.

Croft replied: 'People can move, yes sir.'

Did Murdaugh say 'I' or 'They'?

Croft said he stands by his testimony that he heard Murdaugh say 'I did him so bad.'

The recorded audio from the interview with Murdaugh from June 10 - three days after his wife and son were killed was played again and again at a slower speed in court. 

Croft said that he will still testify that he heard 'I did him so bad.'

Croft admitted on the stand Tuesday that he did not follow up with Murdaugh about him allegedly saying 'I did him so bad' in a previous police interview.

The defense asked him again what he heard Murdaugh say during the interview three days after the murders.

'I am 100 percent confident in what I heard and what I interpret him saying,' he said.

Croft said he had heard Murdaugh utter the words 'I did him so bad' between sobs during a recorded interview on June 10. 

But to some inside and outside the courtroom, it sounded like Murdaugh said, 'They did him so bad.'

The defense asked Croft why he didn't challenge Murdaugh on the comments.

Griffin: 'What was going through your mind in making that mental note when you heard or misheard 'I did him so bad?' I wasn't a good dad? I spoiled him? Or I killed him?

Croft said it was the plan to follow up with Murdaugh and they had an interview with him again in August 2021, but Croft says they never got to it.

Croft also said he doesn't recall if he made a physical note on paper in his notes of the 'I did him so bad' comment. 

Defense showed a diagram of the scene and points out how the casings from the automatic rifle used to kill Alex Murdaugh's wife Maggie would have fallen.

He points out markers 5, 6 & 7 to explain the path of the rifle. And said the casing would have falled to the right and just behind the shooting.

Croft said: 'It's likely the shooter would be to the upper side of those rounds.'

SLED agent Croft testified that he did not find any ammo at Alex Murdaugh's property at Moselle matching the shotgun rounds that killed his son Paul.

'And you didn't find any similar ammunition at Moselle on June 8 or any time after that?' Griffin asked

'I did not,' he responded.

Griffin contends that the shot that took Paul’s head off was a steel shot. No steel ammo was found at the property. 

Croft identified a number of shotguns and ammunition found at the Moselle Road property after the murders.

All were entered into evidence. However, the defense claims none were the murder weapon, which they say have never been found. 

SLED Jeff Croft returned to the stand where he is being cross-examined by defense attorney Jim Griffin.

'Have you ever found the murder weapons to your knowledge?' Griffin asked.

'Not that I'm aware of,' Croft answered.

Croft is a gun and ammunition expert who searched the gunroom on June 8, 2021 - a day after Alex Murdaugh's wife Maggie and son Paul were murdered at their South Carolina home.

Croft was looking for rifles and shotguns that could fire the rounds that were located at the scene, he said. 

On Monday, prosecutors had Croft display a number of rifles and shotguns that were seized from the gun room.

A live stream of the Alex Murdaugh murder trial will be streamed on the Dailymail.com homepage.

You can watch it on this page when the trial begins at 9.30am ET.

Alex Murdaugh has arrived at court in South Carolina for his double murder trial.

The disgraced legal scion hid his handcuffed hands under his coat as he was led into the Colleton County Courthouse for the fourth full day of testimony in the high-profile case.

Murdaugh's family, including surviving son Buster, brother John Marvin Murdaugh and sister Lynn Murdaugh Goettee arrived at the courthouse a short time later. 

Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial will resume at 9.30am ET.

The legal scion has arrived at the courthouse and entered the building hiding his handcuffed hands under his coat.

SLED agent Jeff Croft returns to the witness stand where he'll be cross-examined by defense attorney Jim Griffin.

'I did him so bad.'

That's what a SLED Agent Jeff Crofton Monday testified that Alex Murdaugh had uttered between sobs during a recorded interview three days after Murdaugh's wife and son were killed.

But to others inside and outside the courtroom, it sounded like Murdaugh said, 'They did him so bad.'

Prosecutors paused the video several times to give Croft a chance to emphasize some of Murdaugh's comments.

At one point, Murdaugh said his wife was home hours before the killings when he and his son returned from riding around the property.

Later in the interview, Murdaugh could be heard saying 'It´s just so bad,' before the unclear comment that Croft said sounded like Murdaugh was implying he had killed his son.

In court, Murdaugh appeared to shake his head no when Croft said what he heard. Court ended Monday before the defense could cross-examine the agent

Murdaugh, 54, is standing trial on two counts of murder in the shootings of his wife and son at their Colleton County home and hunting lodge on June 7, 2021.

Maggie, 52, was shot several times with a rifle and Paul, 22, was shot twice with a shotgun near kennels on the property. Murdaugh faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted.

On Monday, SLED agent Jeff Croft testified that Murdaugh uttered the words: 'I did him so bad' in a recorded interview three days after the murders. The audio was played for the court.

But to others inside and outside the courtroom, it sounded like Murdaugh said, 'They did him so bad.'

In court, Murdaugh appeared to shake his head no when Croft said what he heard. Court ended before the defense could cross-examine the agent.

Also on Monday, the defense continued to question the way state authorities collected and analyzed evidence in the murders.

Murdaugh breaks down into sobs in 2021 police interview

Murdaugh broke into sobs on the 2021 recording after mentioning a small disagreement he had with his wife over visiting her family.

'She was a wonderful girl and a wonderful wife. And she was a great mother,' he said.

When talking about his son to Croft, he said that he was unfocused and would stay with family and friends across the state, leaving his possessions behind instead of bringing them home.

'He did that with clothes, he did that with guns he did that with my boats,' Murdaugh said.

Defense suggests there could be two shooters

In Monday's cross-examination of SLED Melinda Worley, defense attorney Dick Harpootlian honed in on identifying footprints, one of Worley's specialties.

She told him one of the footprints in blood near where Murdaugh's son was shot came from a deputy.

'Is that the preservation of the scene that your standards require?' Harpootlian asked.

'Not exactly, no,' Worley responded.

Harpootlian also had Worley work on a rough diagram of the angles of the shots fired at Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, pointing out a significant disparity between the directions the shots at each victim came from.

Worley said that can happen when a shooter is moving.

'One explanation would be movement. One explanation would be two shooters,' Harpootlian said.

SLED Worley questioned about crime scene as Murdaugh sobs in court

Worley was questioned Monday about photographs of the bodies, shotgun pellets, from the scene as well as clothes and fingernail clippings from the autopsies.

Alex Murdaugh continued to rock and dab his eyes during more graphic testimony, including when Harpootlian showed a photo of his wife's body to ask Worley if there could have been a shoeprint on his wife's calf that was not formally documented as the scene was examined.

Worley said she couldn't be certain.

The trial of embattled legal scion Alex Murdaugh is set to resume at 9.30am local time on Tuesday morning in Walterboro, South Carolina.

Jurors will return to Colleton County Courthouse for the fourth full day of testimony in the high-profile case.

Up first, the defense will begin cross-examining SLED agent Jeff Croft.

The trial is expected to last around three weeks.