Alex Murdaugh trial live: Legal scion back in court after bombshell cell phone evidence

The chief financial officer of the law firm Alex Murdaugh used to work for testified on Thursday that she went to Murdaugh in June about $792,000 in missing legal fees.

The fees were from a case he had worked on with his friend and attorney Chris Wilson.

She said the firm received a check for the expenses, but not the attorneys fees.

On the day of the murders, Seckinger went to Murdaugh's office and confronted him about the missing money and demanded proof. 

But Alex then got a phone call about his dad being in the hospital with a terminal diagnosis and things changed. 

'That changed the mood of that conversation,' Seckinger said. 'We quit talking about business.' 

An investigation was conducted and after a meeting in September 3, 2021, where the partners determined Alex had stolen. His brother Randy, who is also a law partner, agree and they confronted Alex.

He confessed and Seckinger said they made Alex resign.

They decided to wait until after the Labor Day holiday weekend to take further action. 

But that Saturday, Seckinger told the court that's when she found out Murdaugh had been shot in the head on the side of the road. 

The jury has been sent out while the state calls witnesses so Judge Newman can determine the admissibility of the financial crimes testimony.

First up is Jeanne Seckinger, the Chief Financial Officer at Murdaugh’s former law firm: Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick (PMPED).

Seckinger, who said she has known Alex for 40 years, testifies she didn't think Alex was trying to steal money - just hide it. 

'That would be wrong, and we did not want any part of that.'

Seckinger testifies that Murdaugh told her in May 2021 that he was 'trying to put some money in Maggie's name' in an attempt to hide it from the 2019 boat crash lawsuit.

'At that point, it had been done, and I was trying to figure out how we were going to account for it on our books,' Seckinger said.

Alex's son Paul was charged after Mallory Beach was killed in the boat crash. 

Seckinger also testified that the partners at the firm were were paid $125K base salaries, paid biweekly. 

But their legal fees went into a shared pot that was split up at the end of the year in bonuses based on the ratio of fees each brought in. 

She added that the PMPED lawyers were required to send all their fees to the law firm. They could not be paid directly. 'That would be stealing.'

Snapchat representative Heidi Galore is now on the witness stand testifying in the Alex Murdaugh trial. 

Galore works in Law Enforcement operations for Snap Inc. 

Two Snapchat videos taken by Paul Murdaugh before his murder were show in court this week. 

She describes snap video of Alex Murdaugh by a tree.

Galore testified that the video had been uploaded to Memories - which she described as a bucket where you save your data - videos and photos - on the app. 'So that it's always there.'

The video was uploaded to Memories on June 7, 2021 at 7:39pm ET, she said. 

It was sent out through the app at 7:56pm ET, she confirmed. 

The prosecutions alleges Paul and his mother Maggie were shot dead around 8:50 p.m. ET

Defense attorney Phillip Barber is cross-examining Galore.

He notes that the metadata shows the video was actually recorded 7:38 p.m.

'I know that seems picky, but every  minute and every second can matter,' he said.

Galore confirmed that SLED did not ask Snapchat for a list of Paul's friends. And that they did not request his geolocation data.

As court began on Thursday, Judge Newman explained his ruling on why he allowed the state to ask the final witness yesterday about the financial issues.

He says Murdaugh's defense team opened that door to character evidence by questioning Paul's friends on the witness stand about Paul's father's 'good character' and saying this is why he could not have committed the murders.

The defense asked the friends yesterday if they could imagine any scenario in which Murdaugh would commit the murders of which he is accused. They said no.

The defense then introduced the argument that the boating case might be reason for the killings. The judge said that opened the door to the state responding to that issue.

The state then questioned Will Loving - one of Paul's friends - about Murdaugh's financial issues. Loving said he could not speak to that.

Now, Newman explains why he overruled the objection, when defense attorney Griffin stood up and said 'totally inappropriate.'

'Totally inappropriate' is not a legal basis for an objection. It's not an objection at all.

The judge allowed the evidence yesterday to come in under rule 403. But the door has not YET been opened to financial crimes. 

He will hold a separate, private hearing on the 404 evidence to determine what, if anything, will be allowed. 

Court is on a break and will resume with a Snapchat witness.

Judge: Defense introduced, including from the defendant himself that the boating case might be reason for the killings. Judge said that opened the door to the state responding to that issue. pic.twitter.com/CtnKA4ppQ2

For the latest updates and full coverage of the Alex Murdaugh trial, following our live blog and stream live on the blog and the Dailymail.com homepage.

The live stream will be available to watch when court resumes on Thursday at 9:30am ET.

Court is back in session for the Alex Murdaugh murder trial.

Judge Newman is on the bench and is explaining why he allowed the prosecution to ask the final witness yesterday about Murdaugh's financial issues.

Alex Murdaugh 's defense attempts to portray their client as a family man may have backfired as it 'opened the door' for prosecutors to ventilate the financial crimes they say motivated the murders of his wife and son.

The defense Wednesday showed footage of the 54-year-old surrounded by friends and family at his birthday, in an effort to cast him as a 'loving' father and husband who could never have brutally murdered Paul and Maggie.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters told the judge that asking witnesses about Murdaugh's affection for his family meant he could introduce evidence of the financial crimes which the state say drove him to murder.

Waters asked Will Loving, a friend of Paul's, a series of questions about Murdaugh's spending habits - most pointedly whether he knew that on the morning of the murders on June 7, 2021, the defendant had been confronted about some $792,000 in missing fees from his law firm.

The prosecutor asked Loving if he had these facts. 'No sir, I do not,' Loving replied.

Murdaugh's defense attorney Dick Harpootlian furiously threw his cell phone on the table and shaking his head as Waters laid out the allegations before the jury.

The prosecution say Murdaugh had embezzled from his law firm and attempted to garner sympathy or distract from his corruption by killing his wife and child.

The defense say that this is simply 'not believable', that Murdaugh could have enjoyed family time with Paul and Maggie before callously 'butchering' the pair.

Murdaugh's legal team objected to Prosecutor Waters' line of questioning arguing that the evidence of his financial crimes should be inadmissible.

Judge Clifton Newman said he would rule Thursday morning on its admissibility, however jurors have now heard at least some of that evidence.

Alex Murdaugh, 54, is accused of shooting his wife, Maggie, 52, and younger son Paul, 22, at the family's hunting estate in Islandton, South Carolina, on the night of June 7, 2021. 

Here are the key events in the timeline laid out by prosecutors:

At 7.56pm, Paul sent a Snapchat video to friends showing the 22-year-old riding around the estate with his father.

At 8.15pm, Murdaugh's wife Maggie arrived home and the trio ate dinner together. Autopsies showed similar stomach contents in Maggie and Paul.

About 8.30pm, Paul's phone starts moving towards the kennels. 

Then at 8.44pm, a second video taken by Paul at the kennels - soon to become a murder scene - allegedly proves that Maggie, Paul and Alex were together.

At 8.49pm the prosecution say Paul's phone locked and went silent forever, never to send another text or make another call.

Between 9pm and 9.30pm, Paul and Maggie were killed - according to the coroner.

At 9.06pm, Murdaugh's car is fired up.

The alleged killer said he went to go visit his mother, who is in the late stages of Alzheimer's disease, in Almeda - around a 15-minute drive. 

At 10.07pm, Murdaugh called 911 claiming he had arrived home a to find his wife and son shot dead.

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.

Today, the judge will rule on whether prosecutors will be able to disclose to the jury that Alex was drowning in debt and stealing from his law firm.

He has been charged with embezzling millions from the firm.

The jury has not yet heard of those crimes, which the prosecution claims paints a picture of a desperate man trying to hold on to whatever he had left.

Jurors heard dramatic testimony on Wednesday in the murder trial of Alex Murdaugh who is accused of killing his wife Maggie and son Paul on June 7, 2021. 

The trial is expected to last at least three weeks. Here's a recap from Wednesday: 

Friend is 100% sure he heard Alex Murdaugh in video minutes before murders

In court on Wednesday, jurors were shown a cell phone video of the dog kennels on the Moselle Road estate in Islandton, South Carolina where Alex Murdaugh's wife Maggie and son Paul were shot dead.

In the video taken by Paul, three voices could be heard: Paul, Maggie and who prosecutors say is Alex.

Video was taken just minutes before Maggie and Paul were shot dead - at a time when Alex had previously said that he was sleeping.

Two of Paul's friends testified that they are 100 percent sure that the voice on the video belongs to Alex.

Calls to Maggie from Alex's phone were deleted

A cell phone expert testified that Alex made five calls to his wife Magggie on the night of the murders, but the calls were later deleted from his call log.

The calls were made between 9.04pm and 10.03pm. None were answered.

Lt Britt Dove testified that the only explanation is that they were manually and intentionally deleted by someone.

In court on Wednesday, the jury in the Alex Murdaugh murder trial was shown a Snapchat video of the legal heir.

The video was recorded an hour before his wife and son's murders and he was wearing a different outfit to the clean white t-shirt cops found him in after he called 911 claiming to have just found their bloodied bodies.

Murdaugh is on trial in South Carolina for the murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul, who were shot dead at the family's hunting lodge in June 2021.

The video shows Alex trying to plant a tree on the property. It was taken at 7.56pm, and shows him wearing a light blue shirt and khaki pants.

At 8.44pm, Paul filmed a video of a dog he was looking after, in which prosecutors say Alex's voice can be heard.

All activity on Maggie and Paul's cell phones stopped suddenly after that video was filmed.

At 10.07pm, Alex Murdaugh called 911, claiming he had just come home from his mother's house to find his wife and son dead

Bodycam footage and dashboard footage shows him wearing a pristine, white t-shirt and shorts.

Murdaugh's attorneys have not yet offered an explanation for the outfit change.

Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial will resume today at the Colleton County Courthouse in South Carolina.

The prosecution will continue to call witnesses in an effort to prove that Alex Murdaugh killed his wife and son. 

But first, there will be a decision about whether prosecutors can tell the jury about his financial crimes. 

Court is expected to start at 9:30 a.m.