LEXINGTON, S.C. (Court TV) — Frustrated by back-and-forth bickering between the attorneys in Alex Murdaugh‘s murder case, a judge declared Friday that neither side would be allowed to file any motions to compel.
“I’ve never filed a motion to compel. Period. This is something that y’all need to work out and talk to each other and communicate and get it done,” Judge Debra McCaslin said. “The court shouldn’t even be involved in this.”
Alex Murdaugh appears at a pretrial hearing on Oct. 16, 2026. (Court TV)
Alex Murdaugh, 58, is facing a second trial on charges that he murdered his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and son, Paul Murdaugh, after the South Carolina Supreme Court struck down his previous convictions because the clerk of court at his trial made inappropriate comments to the jury.
As both sides prepare for the retrial, Alex Murdaugh’s defense filed a series of motions to compel prosecutors to turn over evidence — a practice McCaslin wants to end. Prosecutor Creighton Waters complained that he was being inundated with requests, some for evidence he’d already turned over. “They have over and over again asked for stuff that they have already received, but I have to go back and verify that because I don’t want to say that and be wrong,” Waters said. “I have to go back, and put together emails and communications and everything from us because I’m very careful about that.”
McCaslin noted that the defense was filing motions to compel within days of asking for the evidence and warned the attorneys to stop setting arbitrary deadlines. When Alex Murdaugh’s attorney, Dick Harpootlian, tried to argue that the defense team had received more than 75 gigabytes of evidence just days before the first trial, McCaslin stopped him. “I don’t care what happened in the first trial,” she said. “Quit telling me about stuff that y’all did to each other during the first trial. I don’t care.”
The defense sought DNA samples from under Maggie Murdaugh’s fingernails and swabs of her phone. Phillip Barber, another of Alex Murdaugh’s attorneys, said that investigative reports made clear that there was unidentified male DNA found under Maggie Murdaugh’s nails and on her phone. While Alex Murdaugh’s defense wanted an independent lab to evaluate the unknown DNA to see if any profile could be identified, prosecutors pushed back, arguing that those tests would destroy what was left of the evidence. “This is a really important test,” McCaslin said as she sided with the defense. “They have every right to test it, and I’m going to let them test it. It’s not going to do the defense any good to let it sit.”
The weapons used to kill Maggie and Paul Murdaugh have never been found. A defense motion filed earlier this month cited local news reports that a grand jury had been convened to determine whether a local police chief had helped Alex Murdaugh by disposing of them. The motion, which sought access to investigative reports about other homicides in South Carolina involving .300 blackout ammunition — the same ammunition used in the Murdaugh killings — also alleged that the weapons had been used in other unsolved crimes.
While Harpootlian argued prosecutors could easily compile the data they sought, McCaslin wasn’t convinced. “It just sounds like a fishing expedition to me,” she said. “The defense’s contention that the weapon might be connected to an unsolved crime is speculative and is not supported by a reasonable factual basis beyond the cited news reporting.”
McCaslin warned attorneys from both sides to comply with the orders she’d given, including a requirement for the state to turn over additional evidence by Monday. “This has got to stop. I don’t want this tit-for-tat back between y’all. You’re lawyers, professionals. This is a court. This isn’t a sound bite.”
The next pretrial hearing is scheduled for Nov. 13, when both sides are expected to argue a motion to dismiss the case. The defense has not yet filed that motion.
