Attorneys for Alex Murdaugh asked a South Carolina judge on Friday to dismiss the original indictments charging him with killing his wife and son, arguing the lead investigator misled a grand jury^1,2.

The hearing was set for 10 a.m. in Lexington County, which WIS reported as the last pretrial session there before the case moves to Sumter County, where a new trial is scheduled for April¹.

Murdaugh was convicted in 2023 of murdering Maggie Murdaugh and their son Paul in 2021 on the family's Colleton County property^1,2. The South Carolina Supreme Court later threw out the convictions and life sentence after finding a court clerk improperly influenced jurors².

Defense lawyers say State Law Enforcement Division agent David Owen told the Colleton County grand jury that blood spatter was on a T-shirt Murdaugh wore the night of the killings, contrary to an earlier state report that found no blood stains, and that matching shotgun loads were found in weapons across the property, which they say was not so². WIS reported the defense also alleges later chemical testing altered the shirt and that investigators pressured an outside expert about possible gunshot spatter¹.

Prosecutors, according to the Associated Press, say they had other evidence supporting the charges, including a video Paul Murdaugh recorded in which Alex Murdaugh's voice can be heard at the scene, and they described any error as not amounting to bad faith². They have alleged Murdaugh killed his wife and son hoping sympathy would buy time to hide thefts from clients; he is already serving long prison terms for stealing millions and has denied being a killer².

Judge Debra McCaslin was to hear the motion^1,2. The Associated Press reported that even if the indictments were dismissed, prosecutors could seek new ones as soon as next month and that defense lawyers said they would not block that step, so an April retrial might still proceed². Owen retired in 2024; a judge last year dismissed a different murder case he worked after undisclosed information about a suicide threat².

CBS News aired a video report on the same court appearance³. What the judge rules, and whether any ruling delays the Sumter retrial, was not established in the accounts available Friday morning^1,2.