Judge continues deliberations on evidence of possible motive in Alex Murdaugh trial

Just hours before the June 2021 murder of Murdaugh's wife Maggie and their son Paul, Murdaugh was questioned by a colleague about nearly $800,000 that he was supposed to have handed over from the settlement of a case, according to testimony from Jeanne Seckinger, the chief financial officer for Park Law Group, Murdaugh's former firm. Seckinger said they suspected Murdaugh kept the money. 

"I told him I had reason to believe that he had received the funds himself and that I needed proof that he had not," Seckinger said, later adding that they "made him resign." 

But the jury did not hear that revelation — at least not yet. It was the judge who listened before deciding whether to allow the confrontation about the missing money be part of the prosecution's case. He plans to continue these hearings without the jury as the legal teams await his final ruling on financial evidence as a whole.