A jury instruction of "No Notes" astonished McNeal. Why that instruction and more mattered to her.
From the first day of the Alex Murdaugh trial, the judge instructed the jury that no notes were to be taken during this highly technical and complex trial of what would become six weeks in duration. The judge knew what a complicated trial this was going to be and it would be among the first in the state to extensively utilize cell phone data, On Star data, and GPS data. There would also be a DNA presentation and "Geo-fencing" as well as other jargon pertinent to whatever high-tech evidence was to come.
Without a doubt, all the details thrown at the jury would require hyper-attention with the implication that each juror would possess a remarkable memory. The result - the decision to bar any note-taking left the jurors naked when it came to organizing and analyzing the extensive amount of evidence they had heard over the six weeks. Did that speak, from the beginning, to the courtroom culture that embraced a lack of fairness in Murdaugh's trial?
McNeal has been fortunate to have gained access to many in the Murdaugh story. Her contact list is impressive and extensive. Her conclusions are, in part, as a result of what she has learned over the years from those who were either a party to the events of that night, or close to the investigation.
You will learn her thoughts about John Marvin Murdaugh, whom she came to know as a kind man trying hard to find the truth about all aspects of that night, as he keeps his young family and his wife steady as you go.
Her thoughts about Buster Murdaugh and his now wife, Brooklyn White Murdaugh, and their kindness exhibited to a young woman at the trial introduced to them by McNeal outside of the microphones and the circus.
Who knew when she sat behind Alex Murdaugh and to his right, at the invitation of Becky Hill, in Walterboro, South Carolina, that the trial and its outcome would become her single focus over the subsequent three years.
Since she expressed just as the trial was closing and over the last three years, that Alex Murdaugh did not have a fair trial, McNeal has lost friends and even business associates. Regardless, she continues to believe that every individual is granted the inalienable right to a fair trial and a presumption of innocence until the verdict is read, and that precept has always been a guiding principle in her life even if the price is steep.
Having a background working with people who have been challenged in a courthouse to prove their innocence, she has held not just their hands, but also the hands of their families as justice rumbles along a rocky path to an uncertain conclusion. It was a defining moment in the trial regarding the DNA when she felt called to act. She answered the call.
In the south, folks talk about "their people." Shay McNeal is a descendant of the Pride family of Virginia. She is haunted by the fact that the powerful John Pride, now a forgotten man, who was the President of the Virginia Senate when he refused to sign the Constitution unless a Bill of Rights was added, paid a price as did many of his peers. They understood the Sixth Amendment was needed and why a fair trial was essential and remains so today. It is intended to protect citizens, and be a barrier between them and an uncontrolled government. The promise of due process that is fair must be, not just guaranteed, but fulfilled at all costs.
Understanding this legacy was fundamental to McNeal. McNeal's great grandmother, Mary Pride, of the hamlet of Pride in western Kentucky, was the mother of Elizabeth Pride Evans, McNeal's grandmother who had passed away before McNeal's birth. Nonamama, as she was called, was quite the rebel herself, and wanted to make an impression on her eldest great grandchild.
McNeal often sat at her feet listening to the family stories about your "responsibilities and duty" and it was a lot to take in - it was scary. By age nine, just coming up on her 10th birthday, with McNeal leaving with her family for Japan, she realized the aged woman whom she called Nonamama might pass away before she could once again be able to sleep snugged up beside her. She did die while Shay's family was abroad. But Nonamama had scored. She planted that euphemistic seed in a quiet corner of Shay McNeal's psyche where it continues to reside.
The wonderful woman with the single braid circled around her head like a crown had sown a seed in the fertile mind of a young woman that would quietly take root. Through the years, it grew and over time blossomed. Cultivating the seed Nonamama planted would eventually manifest itself as a deep understanding of what it is like to be a daughter of liberty and what responsibilities accompany that accidental birth privilege.
There is now a bouquet that McNeal nourishes as it resides in that quiet corner of her mind reminding her how grateful and protective she is of our extraordinary Bill of Rights, as those rights are tested everyday. She believes that as a country, we do the best we can to live up to its promise, but sometimes we fail.
That is why answering the call is imperative and often for her the quest has not been without pain.
Critical to Begin with - did Alex Murdaugh Plan the Murders in Advance and Create an Alibi?
The prosecution maintained that Alex Murdaugh used the trip to his parents' house the night of the murders as an alibi in the detailed plan he had concocted to kill Maggie and Paul. In fact, Ms. Barbara Mixson, a long-time employee of forty-plus years of the Murdaugh's family, testified early on that she placed a call to Alex at his office on the afternoon of the murders. It was a call that tore Murdaugh in different directions. (This incoming call by Ms. Mixson to Murdaugh at 3:58:39 P.M. is in the call log of Alex Murdaugh's phone).
Mixson testified that she told Murdaugh that his mother, Miss Libby, who was suffering from early stage Alzheimer's Disease, was upset because she had found out Alex's father had been admitted to the hospital in Savannah that afternoon. Mr. Randolph Murdaugh, Alex's father died three days later, on June 10th. Barbara Mixson said his mother was "agitated" and "crying" and she asked Murdaugh to come to Almeda that night to comfort Miss Libby. Alex told Mixson he would.
That call and commitment created a conflict in the early evening hours of the murders. Alex Murdaugh had already told Maggie and Paul he would meet them at Moselle to straighten out the "mess" C. B. Rowe, the groundskeeper, had created. Blanca, the housekeeper, also testified that Maggie told her she had to return to Moselle to straighten out the C.B. Rowe "mess." Yet, the prosecution maintained in court that no one knew Maggie and Paul would be at Moselle that night except Alex. Simply not true. Both Blanca and C. B. Rowe knew Maggie and Paul would be there. Alex and Paul had repeatedly called and texted Rowe asking him to come to Moselle that evening. The call logs introduced into evidence show the telephone calls and texts to Rowe by both Alex and Paul.
C. B. Rowe had not shown up for work on the day of the murders to take care of the "mess." There is some murkiness about why he had not shown up. Purportedly he had to take his father to the doctor, but later it was said he was actually looking for another job. Rowe, the groundskeeper, had maintained he "accidentally" sprayed Roundup on the large acreage that comprised a sunflower field that was to be used for a dove shoot in the fall. Paul had worked hard on the field since the family hosted a yearly dove hunt, in September, for clients, friends, and family.
Doves are attracted to sunflowers and well cultivated sunflower fields in the Lowcountry are the stuff of bragging rights. This field had been Paul's personal project to show his father his cultivating prowess. Paul was bewildered at the field's demise since C.B. was a former chemistry teacher and should have been able to avoid this "mess." The "mess" - the in-trouble sunflowers. Much to Paul's displeasure they eventually did die.
Seeing his field go from thriving to dying, Paul was extremely unhappy about the "mess." He had told others how upset he was, including his co-workers, and in so doing used some colorful language to express his dismay about the "mess." Paul sent a text to C.B. Rowe at 7:00:06, "Are you coming tomorrow?" Then only twenty seconds later at 7:00:22, "Sunflowers are dead, We need to plow them under." The phone log of Paul tells quite a different story than the one recounted in a book published shortly after the trial regarding an exchange between C.B. Rowe and Paul on the day of the murders. In the book Murdaugh She Wrote,
On page 286.
"Anyway by 7:20 p.m. on the Monday he (Paul) was at Moselle, where he made a call to an estate worker (Rowe) asking advice about the proposed sunflower field and telling him that his Daddy wanted them to take care of the problem right away."
It sounds like the author, Kathleen McKenna Hewtson, may have spoken with Rowe regarding the events of the day Maggie and Paul were murdered. Further reading reveals more contradictions in her book that differ from the actual evidence. Troubling. Where did she get this information? If she did not speak with him then why this account of a dialogue between Rowe and Paul?
She goes on on page 287.
"Paul and the estate worker got along very well and when all the reasons for not complying with Alex's request were explained to Paul, he agreed they could start the next day."
The phone records presented by SLED and the FBI only show the aforementioned texts from Paul - no record of a phone call. Not even a lengthy text exchange.
Not receiving any response throughout the day from Rowe via text or telephone to Paul, Alex sent a text to C.B. at 7:18:44, "Call me pls." Again, no response from C. B. on SLED or FBI phone extractions. Alex and Paul must have been chagrined because it was potentially getting too late in the month to replant and have the field ready if they did not plant right away. Rowe's failure to return texts or a call with a reassurance he was as concerned as they were about replanting added to an already tense situation.
Paul was working on his replanting plan while at the kennel that night. Interestingly, in Murdaugh She Wrote, the author also says on page 287 that Rowe finally called Alex at 9:00. Yet, she also says that Alex called Rowe at 8:00 on the night of the murders. SLED and FBI records reveal that Alex did not call Rowe around 8:00. The author states that Rowe called Alex at 9:00. Again, SLED and FBI records reveal that C.B. did not call Alex around 9:00, but instead Rowe finally called Alex at 9:21:36.
In fact, the call to Murdaugh at 9:21:36 PM came while Alex was on the way to see his mother, per Ms. Mixson's request earlier that day. Alex was on the phone with Chris Wilson who had called him at 9:20:34 PM. The Wilson call lasted 131 seconds. Alex did take Rowe's call and it was brief. They agreed to talk the next day at Moselle.
So, the State's proffer that Murdaugh had planned his alibi well in advance of committing the murders is simply false. As false as the assertion that the prosecution made up out of whole cloth to sell the notion that no one knew Maggie and Paul were going to be at Moselle that night. The State knew exactly what they were pushing as their narrative while ignoring the aforesaid testimony, phone, and text logs, which all refute their fabrication of the planned alibi.
Barbara Mixson and Blanca apparently told the truth, but it did not fit with the State's cobbled-together scenario. If Ms. Mixson did not speak to Murdaugh about his upset mother, why the call to him at 3:58:39 that appeared on Murdaugh's call log after Libby Murdaugh and the rest of the family members were informed earlier that Randolph Murdaugh had been admitted to the hospital in Savannah and John Marvin Murdaugh was making arrangements for their father's hospital stay. It was only then that Miss Libby got upset and Mixson called Alex to come that evening.
Once again, the prosecution was keenly aware that Ms. Mixson had asked Alex to come to Almeda. She testified to that in court. So are we to believe that Murdaugh schemed between those less than five hours to kill Maggie and Paul and then use the trip that had just come up as an alibi?
Additionally, on the day of the murders he was in his office until he drove to Moselle to meet Paul and Maggie. He and Paul were at Moselle until Maggie arrived for dinner (affirmed by the timeline presented at the trial). If he had evil intent on his mind, he could have killed Paul in that window of time while they were practicing at the shooting range. Accidents do happen. Then there would have been no need for Maggie to become collateral damage, which from all indications, she was that night.
The State's position that Murdaugh created the alibi well in advance to visit his mother's house that night and that only Alex Murdaugh knew that Paul and Maggie were at Moselle on the night of June 7 falls apart when presented with the facts you have just read. In light of Ms. Mixson's testimony, Blanca's testimony, texts and phone logs, the State had to know this was a misrepresentation of the facts. Yet, they hammered it home to the jury. And it stuck.
Where were Alex and Maggie in the 24 hours leading up to the murder? The trial testimony shows the following: He and Maggie had been to Almeda the night before. They had brought "Handsome", Alex's father's nickname, his favorite raspberry donut from Krispy Kreme in Columbia, South Carolina where they had spent the weekend with Buster and his now wife Brooklyn. On the way back to Moselle, they stopped at Almeda and spent time with Handsome. He was not doing well and hardly woke up. After some time spent visiting with his caretaker, Maggie and Alex let him sleep and left.
Returning to Moselle, they readied themselves for the next day. Maggie had a doctor appointment in Charleston and Alex was embroiled in preparation for a hearing on the boat accident later in the week. It is doubtful that Murdaugh would have been planning to go to visit Almeda the night of the murders if the turn of events regarding his father had not played out as they did. Unfortunately during the night after they left his father would take a very bad turn. John Marvin and Randy tag-teamed each other the next morning to take Handsome to the doctor in Savannah. Later that day, in the evening at Moselle, Maggie would read some very surprising and sad news.
On each of their agendas that morning was the "mess." They had to sort it out since time was of the essence to achieve the successful field replant for the annual September dove hunt. And Paul had made no secret of his displeasure regarding the "mess." Paul was so upset about the situation after all his hard work. This was the atmosphere at Moselle that day and night, and it is supported by testimony, phone and text logs of all three.
Again, the State knew exactly what they were pushing as their narrative regarding the aforesaid testimony, phone, and text logs which when viewed clearly refute their fabrication of the planned alibi. Did others, in addition to Blanca and C.B. Rowe, also serendipitously know that Paul and Maggie would be there to fix the "mess?" We can only speculate and reexamine the facts to secure the answers.
Were There Other Suspects?
There was a much fought-over motion in Limine and the battle came down to asking Judge Newman to block the defense from introducing speculative "third-party guilt" evidence or pointing fingers at alternative suspects without direct proof. (See Holmes v South Carolina and Gregory v South Carolina to better understand implication of other suspects in a trial.)
The prosecution argued that doing so would merely misdirect and confuse the jury. The granting of this motion to the State against the defense was a defeat. The ultimate outcome of this motion thwarted the defense from introducing any evidence that might indicate someone else, other than Alex Murdaugh, could be responsible for the killing of his wife, Maggie, and his son, Paul.
Who had what to hide? And did the judge fairly rule that any such evidence failed to meet the evidentially nexus between another suspect and the crime. Also the test should have dealt with the potential that if the evidence of another suspect was entered then could that evidence have been exculpatory.
More Questions About DNA
Why did the defense have to file motions to have access to the DNA that the State withheld? The DNA under Maggie Murdaugh's nails did not match Alex Murdaugh's DNA and she had had her nails done only hours before the murders. Maggie had driven straight home from the salon that evening.
This extraordinary fact was treated as nothing to see here, just "transfer DNA" - move on. Much more to come on the DNA story. Many more facts that were under-reported or not paid any attention to, were, as a result of the breathtaking attitude of the prosecution, ignored. Again, move on nothing to see here. What you will learn regarding DNA and the role it should have had in the trial will be striking. The way the DNA was presented culminated in McNeal realizing they could convict the wrong man.
A thought: Politics and the Media Game Did this trial succumb to partisan politics that we are now witnessing all too often at play in this country? Murdaugh and his family were reasonably powerful Democrats, and his attorneys are Democrats as well. In fact, one attorney, Dick Harpootlian, was a senator in the South Carolina State House and a past two-time chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, but he was defeated in the primary, in June 2024, after decades of service. It is said that Harpootlian can be arrogant and occasionally offend a jury – is that why he asked the jury, in the first trial, to not hold his demeanor against his client, Alex Murdaugh? One wonders, did they?
On the other hand, Alan Wilson, an elected Republican Attorney General, who attended the trial most days and even took over questioning from the lead prosecutor of a key witness in the televised trial, is the son of the powerful United States Congressman, Joe Wilson (R SC). Attorney General Wilson has ambitions for a higher office, and the siren call of a televised trial could have been more than he could resist. He is now running for governor of the State of South Carolina, and the reversal has been hard for him to swallow. Wilson says he may seek the death penalty during the second trial.
Did Alex Murdaugh, the self-avowed drug addict and self-avowed thief, become the trophy to be awarded at the end of the trial? Where were the probing media? Unfortunately, many remained unaware or could not separate themselves from their leaked morsels of scoops favoring one side or the other. The result - so many under-covered machinations were allowed to take place in an unbridled fashion back of house beyond public view.
Was Alex Murdaugh the trophy?
A fair trial? Now, the South Carolina Supreme Court unanimously ruled no.
There is so much more to come that will stun you
when seen in the clear light of day.
About Shay McNeal
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Passionate and Dedicated
Shay McNeal is passionate about creating compelling fact-based books that engage and inform readers. With a strong work ethic and a commitment to excellence, Shay McNeal is known as a whip-smart renaissance woman who is fearless when calling balls and strikes as she sees them.
During McNeal's professional career, she has been listed in n
Shay McNeal is passionate about creating compelling fact-based books that engage and inform readers. With a strong work ethic and a commitment to excellence, Shay McNeal is known as a whip-smart renaissance woman who is fearless when calling balls and strikes as she sees them.
During McNeal's professional career, she has been listed in numerous Who's Who over the years, and is the winner of countless awards for excellence in advertising and marketing for domestic and international clients.
She really enjoyed heading up, as a political consultant, the media campaign that led to the defeat of David Duke, the former neo-Nazi and Klansman in the closely contested Louisiana Governor's race.
After running on the fast track of the media world, she wrote her first book, The Secret Plot to Save the Tsar. Its successful initial release in the United Kingdom landed the book at the top of Amazon's list for weeks. The book also received many positive reviews, including an almost full page review in The Sunday Times, in London.
Finishing a lengthy book tour, she settled down with her husband, Claude Poulin, at her farm Aspen Dale, in Northern Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C. A new challenge emerged. A few years on she taught herself to make wine and founded Aspen Dale Winery at the Barn. Ultimately, she won the best Cabernet Sauvignon and the best Sauvignon Blanc on the East Coast, presented by the American Wine Society on Capitol Hill at the Cannon House Building in Washington, D.C. She sold the winery in 2012.
Continuing to write, she became Associate Publisher of The Charleston Mercury, in Charleston, South Carolina where she published a column, Meet You in the Middle for over 13 years. On October 22, 2018, she published a very prescient book, entitled, The Road to Trump: How Failure to Meet in the Middle Fueled Trump's Rise and the Resurgence of China and Russia. The book is a compilation of her columns with emphasis on China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. It highlights decisions made in the global body politics that led to the election of Donald Trump amid a climate ripe for turmoil both here at home, in the United States, and across the world.
Shay has spent the last three years unraveling the Alex Murdaugh case.