LEXINGTON, S.C. (AP) — Attorneys for Alex Murdaugh asked a judge Friday to throw out the original murder indictments for killing his wife and son, saying the chief investigator in the case lied to the grand jury.
Murdaugh is facing a retrial on the murder charges after the South Carolina Supreme Court threw out his convictions and life sentence, ruling that a court clerk improperly influenced jurors against him during his 2023 trial.
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Prosecuting attorney Creighton Waters and attorney David Fernandez speak after the end of the last pre-trial hearing for the retrial of Alex Murdaugh, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, in Lexington, S.C. (Henry Taylor /The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)
Prosecuting attorney Creighton Waters listens during the last pre-trial hearing for the retrial of Alex Murdaugh, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, in Lexington, S.C. (Henry Taylor /The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)
Defense attorney Jim Griffin motions to dismiss during the last pre-trial hearing for the retrial of Alex Murdaugh, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, in Lexington, S.C. (Henry Taylor /The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)
Alex Murdaugh sits at the defense table with attornies Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian during the last pre-trial hearing Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, in Lexington, S.C. (Henry Taylor /The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)
Alex Murdaugh arrives to court during a judicial hearing on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, in Lexington, S.C. (Tracy Glantz/The State via AP, Pool)
Even if the request to dismiss the indictments is granted, it may not stop or even postpone an April retrial for the disgraced lawyer. Prosecutors can seek another set of grand jury indictments, and defense attorneys said they won’t stop them.
Judge Debra McCaslin did not immediately decide on the defense request, promising a written ruling next week. But one of her last comments at the hearing may have indicated where she is going.
“If you had to go back to the grand jury, could you have it all done and ready to go by April 5th?” she asked prosecutor Creighton Waters.
“Your honor, I'm always working ahead,” Waters responded.
A ruling throwing out the indictments would be another rebuke of the chief investigator in Murdaugh's case, State Law Enforcement Division agent David Owen.
A judge last year threw out a different murder case Owen was involved in because the dead woman's mother told the agent about a suicide threat her daughter made days before she died that Owen never relayed to prosecutors or defense attorneys. She was found dead by the same method she told her mother she was going to use to kill herself.
Owen abruptly retired in 2024, not long after he was honored as State Law Enforcement Officer of the Year.
Prosecutors pointed out while Owen is accused of hiding or not revealing evidence in that case, all the issues in the Murdaugh case involved evidence and reports the defense had at the original trial.
Prosecutors said Murdaugh, 58, killed his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, on their sprawling property in the South Carolina Lowcountry in 2021. Murdaugh is spending decades in prison for stealing millions of dollars from clients, and has admitted in court that he is a thief, insurance cheat, bad lawyer and longtime opioid addict. But he denies being a killer.
Defense lawyers said that as prosecutors sought the indictments, Owen told the Colleton County grand jury that blood spatter was found on a T-shirt Murdaugh was wearing the night of the killings. An earlier report from state agents said there were no blood stains, and no such evidence was introduced at trial.
Owen also told grand jurors that the same ammunition load of buckshot in one chamber and large birdshot in the other used to kill Paul Murdaugh was found loaded in weapons all over the Murdaugh property, which was not the case.
The grand jury may have heard about plenty of evidence, including the video Paul Murdaugh recorded in which Alex Murdaugh’s voice could be heard at the scene, contradicting his claims that he wasn't at the kennels near where his wife and son were killed any time close to their deaths.
But defense attorney Jim Griffin said the false claim of the blood of Murdaugh's son was the only thing anyone heard that could link him to the place and time of the killings.
“A phone call doesn’t put him there. The video doesn’t put him there,” Griffin said. “The blood from his murdered son sprang through the air -- it’s raining back on him -- puts him there.”
Prosecutors said they had plenty of other evidence supporting the murder charges, and wrote in court papers that “a single mistake is not bad faith.”
Along with the kennel video, Owen told the grand jury about the family's mounting debts, guns missing from the house that matched what could have been used in the killings and how Murdaugh's schemes to steal from clients and his law firm were close to being discovered.
“This is what the agent understood at the time. And it’s ultimately not something that would cause a substantial effect on the grand jury or cast grave doubt when we look at all the other evidence that was presented,” Waters said.
Prosecutors said Murdaugh killed his wife and son because he thought the sympathy generated by the killings would buy him time to cover up his thefts.
But Murdaugh's lawyers have repeatedly pointed out how little physical evidence prosecutors have — no DNA or blood was found splattered on Murdaugh or any of his clothes, even though the killings were at close range with powerful weapons that were never found.
“What we're asking, your honor, is to reboot — go back to square one," Griffin said.
Prosecuting attorney Creighton Waters and attorney David Fernandez speak after the end of the last pre-trial hearing for the retrial of Alex Murdaugh, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, in Lexington, S.C. (Henry Taylor /The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)
Prosecuting attorney Creighton Waters listens during the last pre-trial hearing for the retrial of Alex Murdaugh, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, in Lexington, S.C. (Henry Taylor /The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)
Defense attorney Jim Griffin motions to dismiss during the last pre-trial hearing for the retrial of Alex Murdaugh, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, in Lexington, S.C. (Henry Taylor /The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)
Alex Murdaugh sits at the defense table with attornies Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian during the last pre-trial hearing Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, in Lexington, S.C. (Henry Taylor /The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)
Alex Murdaugh arrives to court during a judicial hearing on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, in Lexington, S.C. (Tracy Glantz/The State via AP, Pool)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine fired almost 1,200 drones at Russian targets overnight in one of its biggest aerial attacks since Moscow’s full-scale invasion nearly five years ago.
Meanwhile, U.S. and Russian negotiators raised the stakes in talks to stop the fighting by including for discussion wider European security arrangements that have been in place since the end of the Cold War. That change, long sought by Moscow, has alarmed European leaders and placed a question mark on NATO’s future role.
“Russia wants to talk about questions of European security architecture. We don’t need to talk about that. There is one,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said, referring to NATO.
After two days of talks with Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Abu Dhabi this week, U.S. envoys briefed Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was in Dublin, Ireland, to meet European leaders.
More talks are planned as negotiators seek a breakthrough in peace efforts, according to U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
A team of diplomats from the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the European Union will be sent to the talks, said European Council President Antonio Costa after a meeting in Dublin. The session was dominated by European efforts to avoid being sidelined in the U.S.-led negotiations.
Kushner, who is also President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, said Russia had agreed to include Europe in upcoming talks, after Moscow's long insistence that the continent’s governments should be excluded because they supported Ukraine.
Europe’s presence at the table will allow negotiators “to address the broader postwar European security arrangements alongside the territorial issues between Ukraine and Russia,” Kushner said on X.
European leaders are wary of Russian maneuvering, as well as Trump’s praise for Putin and his administration’s sharp criticism of Europe.
The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said Europe must insist on a ceasefire before taking the negotiations further — the opposite of what Putin demands.
“If we start to talk about what Russia is asking regarding the security architecture, we actually walk into the traps that Russia is setting us,” she said in Dublin.
Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden insisted that Europe must take its fate into its own hands. “We cannot let neither the Americans nor the Russians decide about our future,” Frieden said.
Moscow is aiming “to dismantle NATO and the post-Cold War European security architecture,” the Institute for the Study of War said in an assessment Thursday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reaffirmed that Russia is open for contacts with the Europeans.
“Once we understand (Europe’s) true intentions and their readiness to facilitate the peace process, then it will be possible to make a decision on holding a dialogue regarding a settlement in Ukraine in an expanded format,” he said.
Zelenskyy on Friday repeated his complaints about drone speed limits on the U.S. Starshield system — SpaceX’s military-grade version of the Starlink satellite internet service — that Ukraine needs for its defense.
The speed restrictions are limiting Ukrainian drones to 161 kph (100 mph) on the entire front line and in Russian-occupied territory, he said, making it impossible for Kyiv to deploy its interceptors effectively against Moscow's fast-moving jet-powered drones.
“We still have no clear explanations,” he said of the unannounced restrictions, after first raising the issue on Thursday.
Ukrainian officials are asking the U.S. State Department, the Pentagon and SpaceX to clarify and resolve the situation, he said.
Last month, similar SpaceX limits on Ukrainian drone speeds severely disrupted operations, alarming officials in Kyiv who fear a drop in U.S. support.
Elon Musk acknowledged in October that his company SpaceX had throttled the Starlink internet service in Ukraine for about a week, saying the system couldn’t be used for offensive strikes against Russia.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 1,198 Ukrainian long-range drones between late Thursday and early Friday. However, strikes on three Russian regions killed seven people, including a 12-year-old, and wounded 17, local officials said.
Ukraine’s General Staff said it hit an oil refinery in the Russian city of Volgograd, starting a fire. The refinery has a capacity of about 110 million barrels per year, it said.
The massive Ukrainian drone barrage appeared designed to show that Kyiv is holding its own in the war, countering Moscow’s insistence that a Russian victory is inevitable. Ukraine has repeatedly hit Russian refineries, claiming last month it neutralized more than half of Russia’s refining capacity.
Kyiv’s forces are using drones and ground robots to help defend against Russia’s army along the about 1,200-kilometer (750-mile) front line snaking down eastern and southeastern Ukraine.
With its troops largely bogged down on the battlefield, Moscow has used strategic bombardment of civilian areas to hurt Ukraine.
Russia launched 117 drones against Ukraine overnight, killing at least two people, including a 17-year-old, authorities said.
A single Russian attack Friday on southern Zaporizhzhia hit two five-story apartment blocks and wounded 30 people, including six children, officials said.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and thousands of civilians, analysts and humanitarian organizations say.
Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure caused widespread power outages across about half of the country's regions Friday, said First Deputy Minister of Energy Artem Nekrasov.
Moscow has battered Ukraine’s power grid each winter during the war, hoping to weaken public morale.
AP reporters Sam McNeil in Dublin, Susie Blann in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Participants pose for a group photo during the EU Summit in Dublin, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026.(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, rescue workers put out a fire of a residential house destroyed in a Russian strike on Kharkiv region, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
Energy workers clear rubble from a production hall destroyed in a Russian airstrike at a DTEK power plant in Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, a residential building is seen damaged in a Russian strike on Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, a rescuer with a local man helps an elderly woman to get out from a residential building damaged in a Russian strike on Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
A medic looks into a nurse's room at a hospital damaged in a Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)
Russian President Vladimir Putin, fourth right, speaks to U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, second left, and Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, behing Witkoff at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin, Moscow, on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff, right, Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, left, and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak to the media at the airport in Dublin, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026.(AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
