Judge Newman, jurors could testify at Murdaugh hearing this month
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The judge who gained national attention when he presided over the Alex Murdaugh murder trial may have to testify at a hearing later this month as Murdaugh seeks a new murder trial.
Murdaugh was convicted for the June 2021 murders of his wife, Maggie; and their son, Paul, at the family’s hunting property in rural Colleton County. Murdaugh’s defense team filed a motion for a new trial alleging jury tampering on the part of Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill.
A brief filed on Jan. 10 lists four murder trial jurors — listed as Jurors 254, 630, 741 and 785 — as well as Barnwell County Clerk of Court Rhonda McElveen, who assisted at the trial. Murdaugh believes, based on her interview with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, that she will corroborate expected juror testimony about Hill’s statements because she will testify that Hill made substantively identical statements to her during trial, and because she received several complaints from court staff about Hill having inappropriate and excessive s with jurors, the brief states. Murdaugh’s attorneys state she, therefore, may have personal knowledge about whether Hill made the statements jurors say she made.
On Jan. 12, five more people were added to the list of people who could take the witness stand in a refiling. It includes Aubrey M. Hill, daughter of Colleton County’s Clerk of Court Becky Hill, Creighton Waters and Carly Jewell with the Attorney General’s Office and David Owen and Rachel Joseph with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
“The state must call Ms. Hill to deny the allegations that she tampered with the jury,” the brief states, adding that depending on her testimony, Murdaugh’s team might call additional witnesses as rebuttal witnesses. Judge Clifton Newman, who presided over Murdaugh’s murder trial and financial crime trials, was listed as a potential witness, along with Hill’s son, Jeffrey Hill, the former IT director for the Colleton County Courthouse; and others.
“Murdaugh has no objection to the State calling other jurors who were in that room to testify that they never heard Ms. Hill make inappropriate statements,” the brief states. “But Mr. Murdaugh objects to calling jurors who were in a different room to testify that they never heard Ms. Hill make inappropriate statements.”
Former South Carolina Supreme Court Jean Toal will preside over the three-day hearing, which is scheduled for Jan. 29 in Richland County.
Hill has denied the allegations in a sworn statement, saying she neither asked jurors about Murdaugh’s guilt before deliberations nor suggested to them that he committed the murders.
Murdaugh is serving life imprisonment without parole after a jury found him guilty of the killings back in March.
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