Alex Murdaugh's Defense Requests Raw Cellphone Data Behind Murder Timeline — as Attorneys Prepare to Challenge Digital Evidence at Retrial
Alex Murdaugh is headed to retrial in 2027.
Sept. 29 2026, Updated 3:27 p.m. ET
Alex Murdaugh's lawyers are taking fresh aim at a crucial piece of evidence for his upcoming retrial, demanding access to the raw cellphone data investigators pulled from the devices belonging to his slain wife, Maggie, and son Paul, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
At Murdaugh's explosive 2023 double-murder trial, data ripped from Maggie and Paul's cellphones became a crucial weapon in the prosecution's case against the disgraced legal scion. His new trial is set to begin on April 5, 2027.
Alex Murdaugh's Lawyers Seeking Phone Extraction Files
Alex Murdaugh was originally convicted of killing his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul.
In an explosive motion filed on Monday, September 28, Murdaugh's defense team claimed prosecutors handed over forensic reports generated from the murdered mother and son's phones, but not the underlying extraction files used to produce them.
"The defense has the reports. It does not have the data," his attorneys declared.
Now, Murdaugh's legal team wants a South Carolina judge to force the state to turn over those digital files, arguing their own expert needs access to independently scrutinize the cellphone timeline that played a pivotal role in his first murder trial.
Murdaugh's Lawyers Hope to Learn More About Cellphone Evidence
Alex Murdaugh's wife and son were found shot to death on the family's expansive property.
The filing does not prove the state's timeline was flawed or that investigators withheld evidence favorable to Murdaugh. Instead, his attorneys argued they can't determine whether the cellphone evidence tells the whole story until their own examiner can dig into the raw data.
Murdaugh had previously insisted he was nowhere near the murder scene in the crucial moments before Maggie and Paul were brutally gunned down.
However, his story was blown apart by a damaging piece of evidence on his murdered son's cellphone.
Paul's now-infamous kennel video captured his father's voice at the family's Moselle estate just minutes before he and Maggie were gunned down on June 7, 2021. Maggie's phone also became a digital goldmine for prosecutors, with its screen activity, recorded steps, and even changes in the device's orientation helping them piece together a minute-by-minute account of her final moments.
Alex Murdaugh's Double Murder Conviction Overturned
Alex Murdaugh caught a break when the South Carolina Supreme Court ordered a retrial.
Murdaugh was found guilty of the brutal murders of his wife and son on March 2, 2023, but his convictions were thrown out by the South Carolina Supreme Court on May 13 after the justices determined his trial had been tainted by the "improper" influence of then-Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill.
"Although we are aware of the time, money, and effort expended for this lengthy trial, we have no choice but to reverse the denial of Murdaugh’s motion for a new trial due to Hill’s improper external influences on the jury and remand for a new trial," the justices declared in their unanimous 5-0 ruling.
Alex Murdaugh Will Remain Behind Bars No Matter the Outcome
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Alex Murdaugh is still serving a 40-year federal prison sentence for financial crimes.
Murdaugh's legal team scored another major courtroom victory on September 8 when Judge Debra McCaslin agreed to move his retrial out of Colleton County and into Sumter County.
His first trial unfolded in Colleton County, home to the sprawling Moselle estate, where Maggie and Paul were killed. McCaslin determined the wall-to-wall publicity surrounding Murdaugh's sensational first trial had potentially poisoned the local jury pool.
Even if Murdaugh's legal team is somehow able to score acquittals in his murder case, he won't walk away a free man.
In April 2024, he was hit with a whopping 40-year federal prison sentence for 22 financial crimes, including wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering.
