Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk right now and true crime, and then together we are going to work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go. Hey, guys, welcome to Primetime Crime. It's Kylie. I so wanted to do this episode yesterday, but I had literally nothing left in the tank after sitting through all of that ELC Murdo stuff that was yesterday. I was out running errands in the daytime and so badly wanted to watch it because I had heard that it was probably going to be wrapping up. And I come home and I'm just like sitting on my bed watching it, and then I'm like, you know what, I can't sit here for hours and just watch the Shenanigans. I just can't because it was pure Shenanigans. So I put my ear pods in and I got up and I did a little walk run while I listened to all of it go down, and that made like the last half of it go by really really quickly. So we are going to talk about everything that happened yesterday, specifically the ruling which spoiler alert, they did not grant him a new trial. But we're going to talk more about that as the time comes. So this whole evidentiary hearing was basically to prove yay or nay that Becky Hill, the call Itton County Clerk of Court, made statements to the jury before they reached their final verdict of guilty of double homicide that helped sway them towards a guilty verdict. So that's been the premise of this. There was a jur that came forward and said that she feels this happened and her verdict was swayed by statements that Becky Hill had made. So that is the whole reason why we're here. And of course it doesn't look great for Becky because as there's a sworn affidavit that all these things were said. And then on the other hand, we have Becky Hill, the clerk of court who wrote a book following the trial behind the Doors of Justice, and there was a whole thing about you know, her writing the book and making money, and a lot of that was put into well, she said that she would make more money if he was found guilty and you know, told them to look at his body language and all his other stuff. So it's really interesting though, because jurors there's many jurors in this case. They all sat, they all listen to the same evidence. They all went back to the jury room and they made their decision. And it's mostly just this Jersey that they've diagnosed such a healthcare worker. They declared her Jersey, and she's the one in her sworn affidavit said that Becky Hill said stuff like look in his body language, don't let him sway you, things like that, like where she said she felt that Becky Hill felt like he was guilty, and she felt that she needed to vote that he was guilty. So that's what she's saying in her affidavit, Like this is a legal document, it's a big deal. Well, they bring all of the Jersey and Jeane Tole sits with all of them individually and goes through everything, goes through all their affidavits, and then they are brought up and they're questioned like under oath, like I swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth the whole shebang. So Jersey gets up there and they're questioning her about you know, do you feel that you were swayed to vote guilty by Becky Hill? And she said yes, I'm gonna play the audio in a minute, Well, why do you think that? I just I just think that, Like there's no like examples as to what she meant when she said that. It was just like, well, I just felt like she thought he was guilty, so I had to kind of sway and say that he was guilty. And then she kind of backtracks, which it was messy. It was it was a messy moment. So she backtracks, and then the judge was like questioning her, Well, this is what you said in your affidavit, and this is what you're telling me now, like they don't match up. Like, let's get on the same page here. I'm gonna play the audio of that and then we're gonna talk about it. Verdict based internally on the testimony, evidence, and law presented to you in this case. Yes, ma'am. Did you hear miss Becky Hill make any comment about this case before you were verdict? Yes, ma'am. If yes, what did missus Huel say to watch his actions, to watch his ac choose what else, to watch him closely, to watch him closely? Anything else? You remember him? There? It is, but I can't remember. Okay, that's fine. Now, Becky Hills saying those things I'm not saying that she didn't say those things, but that doesn't really suggest that he is guilty. There is nothing in that that is saying like he's guilty. It's basically her saying, like innocent or guilty, watch his actions, like watch how he presents, Watch how he presents, and make up your mind from there, not like you really should watch his actions because I think he's guilty. That is jury tampering. Becky Hill saying, I personally think he's guilty, but you just watch his actions, you wait and see. That's bad, that's that's messy. We don't want that. But her saying like watch his actions, like, that's not technically jury tampering because she's not giving her opinion. She's just saying watch him closely, watch his actions like she is a clerk of port, that's what she does. So then Judge Toll goes on to question her further. And I am going to play another audio clip. Fair warning, I know they can get a little louder than like my regular audio. So audio clip coming in three two one influenced in any way by the communications of the clerk of port in this case, yes, ma'am, And how was it includes to me, it felt like she made it seem like he's already killed, all right, And I understand that that that's the tenor of the remarks she made that affect your finding a purity you in this case, yes, ma'am. So now we're going to listen to Judge told read what her affidavit said, which two completely different things. Like she very much changed her story. She in my opinion, allegedly in my opinion, not a credible witness, like she is changing her story, and like, like I said at the beginning of this, Becky Hill's either lying or the juror is lying. And it definitely seems that the juror wasn't really telling the full truth, or at least she interpreted it differently than like it really happened. But now we are going to go ahead and listen to the audio of the stuff that Jersey said in the sworn Affidavid audio clip coming and three two one ALFI David that was given by this particular juror. Paragraph ten said, I questions by mister Murdoch's gilt, but I'm hote guilty because I felt pressured by the other jurors. We would request an inquiry as to that, which is how when this mess was filed she expressed the basis for her verdict, which, obviously the answer is a little different now, So we would request a brief inquiry from the court as to that specification. That's all right, thank your honor. Your honor as to the two things. The first thing is he is correct, she gave it AFFI David, we would ask your honor to let her read her affidavit to refresh her memory. She said other things, they're very detailed in here. See I asked you previously, was your verdict from Mark the second twenty three influenced in any way by communications from Backy Hill, the clerk of court. You answered that question. Yes, in light of what you said in the affidavit, which is I had questions about mister Murdock's but voted guilty because I felt pressured by the other jewel rs. Is that answer that I just read a more accurate statement of how you felt. Yes, Oh, yes, ma'am. All right, so you do stand by the affidavit, yes, ma'am, very good. Thank you. So Jersey basically was like, JK, I take it all back. I'm going to go with what I put in my affidavit that I was pressured by the other members of the jury to find him guilty. Then, following this whole thing, her attorney files a follow up affidavit that is basically like she wanted to clarify her testimony. She felt influenced by Becky Hill before going into the juror room to come to the verdict, and then when she was in the verdict room or at the jury room, sorry, she felt further pressure from her failer jurors to find him guilty. Again, this is so so messy. I can't even begin to tell you. It's so messy. It's a mess. It's truly a mess. I'm gonna touch a little on Becky Hill's testimony. I'm not going to play audio clips, but I do really recommend you guys go watch it because I love Dick Carputlian. I don't care what anyone says. He is fun and I like him, and he's damn good at his job. And Jim Griffin too like I just like them. But Dick Carpoutlia, the way he approaches people during questioning, it just I just love it. I think it's great. So Becky is on the stand and you know, Becky is very like she has like sweet grandmother energy, like you want to like her. She just seems sweet, like she'll make you a glass of sweet tea and a piece of pie. She just has that sweet energy about her. Like you don't want to believe these things about her, you really don't. So Dick is questioning her and of course asked her, like, when did you decide that you wanted to write a book? Was it during trial, was it before a trial? Was it after trial? And she said that she had thought about it, possibly before a trial, but didn't really take any steps to further it. And then at the end of the trial is when she connected with her co author. And then he had asked her if she had contacted with any other clerks of court, and of course she said, yes, I had connected with somebody who's a really good friend of mine, Ronald mcavene. She is the Barnwell County Clerk of court and they're good friends. So Ronda testified as well about the different interactions that she and Becky had had over the course of this six week trial. And then Dick asked her about how much money she made from her book sales and she said overall, she probably made one hundred thousand dollars and that was split between her and her co author, Dick Carputli and then brings up that in her book, Becky calls herself Switzerland, and Becky said, yes, that's correct, and then brings up a conversation where Becky was writing back from the Mozille property with three other people, so there was four of them in the car, and in that car she decided that he was guilty. They all decided that he was guilty. And she said, they all did have that combo, but none of the people in the car were jurors. It didn't happen around any jurors. It was her and a court reporter, a security officer, and a deputy sheriff. And then Dick Carputliin brought up that part of her book was stolen and she said, yes, I did plagiariyes, and I apologize for that. And Dick comes back and is like, well, that does that make it right because you apologize for it. I was just I was just beside myself that this is even happening. And then there was this particular juror who I guess wore a suit the day that they went to figure out what the verdict was going to be, and Becky Hill allegedly had texted like some people that were going to come by to watch the proceedings, and she basically told them, like, you better get here soon. Today is going to be the day, Like she thought that it was going to be a quick verdict kind of thing. That's what they were alluding to anyway, But she basically said, I knew that the end of the trial was coming up, but I told them like, hey, you better get here if you want to see any of the action, because I think it's going to be wrapping up soon. She didn't know for sure that the jury was going to come back in three hours, which they did. They could have taken three days for all she knew, but she was basically saying, Hey, it's wrapping up, like you should get here if you want to see anything. And then Dick brought up how in Becky's book, Becky had said that her grandfather and grandpa Buster Murdo were close and they had the Murdoff family had a reputation of criminality, and Dick was saying, like, how do you know that they're criminals? Why would you say something like this, and she was like, well, I just heard stories and it's just part of the poeticness of being a writer and you know, authoring a book, and it's just something I said. And he was really pushing back, like, how do you know that that was the case? And you just put it in your book so you could make money, Like he was really really going at her and basically was saying that all of that proves that she will make stuff up just to sell a book, and she will press for him to be guilty just to sell a book. That is what he was alluding to, and the defense was alluding to in this whole appeal situation jury tampering situation. So there's a lot more to it, Like it goes on and on and on like ours, but those are the parts that I like found interesting. It took notes on. But at the end of the day, the judge came back and said that she does not believe that there was jury tampering by Becky Hill. Now, she said, Becky Hill definitely let the fame and that all of the potential of selling a book go to her head and it was a really poor choice that all of that kind of coincided, and it's true like this never should have happened. It really could have ended very very very badly in my opinion, if this had been if this had been proven true, that there was this jury tampering, because there's also things about her following people into the bathroom and all of that. But the judge basically decided she does not feel that there was jury tampering. She has been a judge for a long time. She's eighty years old, and she said, never in her career has she seen anything like this. This is a whole other level of something else for her, and she does not believe that Becky Hill caused there to be a guilty verdict. Enroled that Elik would not get a new trial. However, I definitely think that I think she made the right decision. I don't think there was any proof that Becky jury tampered. She might have done some dumb things, but she didn't jury tamper, although it could have gone the other way very very easily. And I do think there should be some type of penalty for everything that happened because it could have gone really, really bad, and it costs the justice system a ton of money, Like having an evidentiary hearing, and it costs, like so many people, so many extra hours of work. It's just so much and it just never should have happened. And if there's any chance and doubt in your mind that your behavior might come across as tampering or affecting a verdict, just don't do it, like you just don't do it. So I do think the high profileness of the case and the fact that she was planning to write a book, I think it all just kind of got out of hand for her. And I don't think she really knew how to handle that because it was such a high profile case and it's it's myrtal, like he was a prosecutor, like that is a big, big deal, especially in South Carolina. This case has spanned across the US, but in South Carolina, Murtals were like royalty, So this is a big deal. So I do think it just kind of got out of hand and she didn't know how to handle it, and one thing led to another led to another, and here we are, so as of right now, no new trial, but I bet that it's gonna be back in appeals and we're gonna be here again because this is the song that never ends, and we have not seen the last of Elec mrdall. There's absolutely no way Elick may have done and said a lot of stupid things, but at the end of the day, he is a lawyer first and his brain is geared towards that, and I don't think he's going to stop at anything to try to get out of this murder conviction. I really just see this going on and on and on. But at the same time, I also think he's thriving in jail because he does have that lawyer knowledge, and I'm sure he's already kind of become like the prison lawyer, and he is just probably thriving having people you know, come to him for advice and all of that. So I I really don't know. I'm never going to know anything about anything. I can talk about it all day. I still get like confused as to what I think happened, why it happened, all of that. But I do think that the judge made the right call here. I do think there should be some type of repercussions for Becky Hill, although I do like her and I don't think she meant bad by what happened. I think it could have gone really, really bad, and I definitely think that there needs to be some type of repercussions for that, because this could have gone in a totally opposite direction and we would have had to sit through another six week plus double murder trial and do it all over again. And there's a chance that he could get off on it. Like you just don't ever know in these situations. But for now, we are back to where we were. He is in prison and we are going to go from there. I will keep you guys updated. You know, there's going to be a lot more common so I'm going to keep you guys updated, And I just want to do this quick little episode to kind of wrap everything up because a lot of people are like, what happened? What's going on? And I feel like this is a way to kind of get it out to the masses without having to repeat myself fifty five thousand times. I'm definitely the murderer contact person amongst like everyone I know, which I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But I will keep you guys updated on all of the things, and I will see you guys on Friday for a new episode. Bye.
