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The Colleton County Clerk of Court was listening in on Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial when she noticed her security chief quickly slip into the packed courtroom.
Prosecutors had just begun to question a forensic data analyst about information extracted from Murdaugh’s Chevy Suburban in the moments after his wife and son’s June 2021 murder. But clerk Rebecca “Becky” Hill was instead intently watching her security chief as he leaned down to whisper in Judge Clifton Newman’s ear.
From her seat in the middle of the courtroom, Hill did not notice any alarming reaction from Newman, which she took as a sign that the whispered news probably had to do something with his family. Then, Newman suddenly stood up to interrupt the morning session for a sudden recess.