When exactly did AM learn of the video?
From the link below, unless the video was associated with an app and the warrant was not yet returned, seems it had to be around Oct 2022.
A state circuit court judge mostly sided with the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office Thursday, denying motions filed by the defense team of former Lowcountry attorney Alex Murdaugh.
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Published: Oct. 20, 2022 at 6:21 AM PDT|Updated: Oct. 20, 2022 at 1:22 PM PDT
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - A state circuit court judge mostly sided with the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office Thursday, denying motions filed by the defense team of former Lowcountry attorney Alex Murdaugh.
Murdaugh is charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of his wife, Maggie, and their youngest son, Paul, who were shot to death at the family’s hunting property in rural Colleton County more than a year ago.
The defense issued three motions focusing on evidence prosecutors have failed to provide specific pieces of discovery, a legal term referring here to evidence they plan to use against Murdaugh, as the law requires. Attorney General Alan Wilson’s office released a response Wednesday arguing the motions were “without merit” and that the state has already “provided discovery far in excess of what is technically required.”
“Due to the complexity of this case, it is essential that the defendant be given adequate discovery rights to ensure that he is fully prepared to extend the charges against him,” Judge Clifton Newman said.
Murdaugh’s attorneys hoped to convince Newman to force the state to hand over more than a dozen pieces of evidence, but Newman denied the motion to compel the state to do so, saying the state is making a good faith effort in doing just that.
“The parties have been in touch with each other and I do not find any lack of diligence on the part of the state in complying with discovery,” he said.
Among the items on the defense’s list were notes from the Murdaugh autopsies and cell phone data, which Murdaugh’s attorneys call a “major part” of the state’s case but argue that the state is being difficult in turning over the data they plan to use by providing too much data; the defense argued when they received two data dumps Wednesday that totaled a half-terabyte, the files consisted of folders within folders within folders.
“Cellphone data or data from cellphone locations that would be – I think they put in a motion earlier – compelling proof of his guilt, that motion you heard a month ago. Where is it?” Murdaugh attorney Dick Harpootlian said. “We have experts that we have hired that are waiting for that data to vet it.”
“They have all the cellphone data and to some extent, they are claiming that they have all the underlying data but they don’t want to analyze it themselves,” lead prosecutor Creighton Waters said. “Mr. Harpoolian says, ‘Well, we don’t think it says what the state thinks it says.’ Well, that’s what a trial is for.”
[...]
Murdaugh’s lawyers said they are 90 days away from the trial and they need all evidence as soon as possible.
But Newman denied a defense request for subpoena powers. Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian said he might seek another hearing next week if the defense had still not received evidence.
“The court will not issue a blanket order. It would be unprecedented as far as this court is aware of,” Newman said. “The court will address any requests for discovery subpoena in a case-by-case, incident-by-incident basis.”
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