Alex Murdaugh’s defense team is seeking to throw out the murder indictments against him, accusing the lead investigator in the case of misleading the grand jury and relying on what they describe as “fabricated” evidence.
In an Aug. 7 motion to dismiss, Murdaugh’s attorneys alleged that David Owen, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agent who led the investigation, gave “perjurious testimony and fabricated evidence” to a grand jury. The filing frames those claims as prosecutorial misconduct.
The defense said it plans to provide additional details about the alleged misconduct in a forthcoming memorandum supporting the motion.
“The grounds for this motion, as will be more fully set forth in a supporting memorandum, are that the lead case agent for the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division in this case, David Owen, testified that he presented physical evidence directly inculpating the Defendant to the Colleton County Grand Jury that he admitted was false and which Defendant has proven was fabricated by law enforcement,” Murdaugh’s lawyers wrote.
Disbarred South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh was found guilty in March of killing his wife, Maggie, and their youngest son, Paul, at the family’s hunting property in June 2021. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool, File)
Murdaugh’s attorneys also asked the court to move his new murder trial to Charleston County, contending that the intense attention surrounding the case makes it impossible to seat a fair jury in Colleton County. In the filing, they argued that “this prosecution has generated publicity without precedent in the history of this State.”
The defense said relocating the proceedings to nearby Charleston County would “preserve the values of a local trial while curing the local prejudice.”
Alex Murdaugh appears at a judicial hearing on Monday, June 29, 2026, at the Marc H. Westbrook Judicial Center in Lexington, South Carolina. Murdaugh is set to be retried in the June 7, 2021, shooting deaths of his wife and son after his original conviction was overturned because of jury tampering. (Tracy Glantz/The State via Pool)
The motions come ahead of a pretrial hearing scheduled for Friday.
Murdaugh, formerly a prominent Lowcountry attorney from an influential legal dynasty, was convicted in March 2023 of fatally shooting his wife and son, Maggie and Paul.
Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian, listens to prosecuting attorney Creighton Waters on Monday, June 29, 2026, at a status hearing at the Marc H. Westbrook Judicial Center in Lexington, South Carolina. Alex Murdaugh will be retried in the June 7, 2021, shooting deaths of his wife and son, after his original conviction was overturned due to jury tampering. (Tracy Glantz/The State via Pool)
The murder case descended into chaos when allegations that court clerk Rebecca Hill made inappropriate comments to jurors while the trial was ongoing.
While prosecutors believe Murdaugh got a fair trial, the South Carolina Supreme Court reversed the convictions and ordered a new trial.
