good saturday morning, everyone. and welcome to cnn this morning. i m amara walker. and i m boris sanchez. all eyes on the sky this morning as a chinese spy balloon continues drifting over the united states. where it is expected to go and why the white house has not ruled out shooting it down. and a brutal blast of dangerously cold air sweeping across the northeast. in some places it will feel like 50 to 60 degrees below zero. where we re seeing the cold air and when things will start to warm up. plus new developments in the tyre nichols case, why another officer is out of a job and why some first responders are now losing their licenses. plus important new testimony in the alex murdaugh trial, twists in the case and what it could mean for murdaugh s defense, coming up on cnn this morning . hi, everyone. if you are not keeping track, it is saturday. not time to go to work for most of you. february 4. thanks for waking up with us. i m amara walker in atlanta. an
whether the judge will allow the jury to hear those details. randi kaye, thank you. and joining me now is cnn legal analyst and criminal defense attorney joey jackson. a lot here to unpack. so we heard part of that testimony that the shell casings found near maggie s body and around the scene match firearms from their home. but they were found to be inconclusive as murder weapons. so what do you make of that and does that introduce enough doubt to help alex murdaugh? great questions. good morning. so you have two narratives. from the prosecution per spect difference, they are trying to put the weapon in his hand. the prosecution is trying to establish that. saying we examined the shell cases around the property, we examined the particular firearm and we determined that the shell
this expert s testimony is key. by telling the jury that shell casings scattered around the property where the murdaughs live and shell casings found at the murder scene match firearms at the home, the state is making the case that the guns used to kill maggie and paul had been fired many time on the murdaugh family and owned by the murdaugh. remember john bettingfield said he built three of the blackout rifles for alex murdaugh. and paul had spoke about using them. when you were with that blackout, did you usually have the gun and shoot or did paul usually have the gun and shoot? it would just depend. what had the gun more? probably paul. other guy is looking? that s correct. is that something that you all did frequently? a good bit, yes, sir. reporter: the state s goal is to convince the jury that the
remington. and side by side, this is the 300 blackout. reporter: and paul greer is a firearms expert for the south carolina law enforcement division. he examined shell casings found at the scene. and greer told the jury that some of the casings found at the scene were fired from or kjek ejected by weapons used before at the home. yes, they all appeared to have the same head stamp information and information on the side of the shell and their case construction all appears to be consistent. reporter: prosecutors say maggie was shot five times with a 300 blackout rifle and their son paul killed with a shotgun. according to testimony, both of those were often used by the murdaugh family. this shotgun determined to be a super black eagle three semi automatic shotgun and 12 gauge. reporter: and here is why