CNN
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When Alex Murdaugh’s double-murder trial resumes Friday, some of his relatives will have to sit farther back in the South Carolina courtroom due to inappropriate contact and conduct, the Colleton County clerk of court said.

Murdaugh is being prosecuted for the killings of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, his wife and grown son, on June 7, 2021. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and two weapons charges.

In court Wednesday, Alex Murdaugh’s sister Lynn Murdaugh Goettee passed him a book through a member of his defense team. It was not shared with the victim’s advocate, and Goettee had been admonished just five minutes before that, a source with knowledge of the incident told CNN.

The book was considered contraband because it was not clear what was in it, the source said, adding Murdaugh was already back in his jail cell with it before anybody could check it. The book – the latest by John Grisham, titled “The Judge’s Rules” – was later confiscated.

State Judge Clifton Newman also was made aware of an obscene gesture Alex Murdaugh’s surviving son Buster Murdaugh made toward Mark Tinsley, the attorney representing the family of Mallory Beach, who was killed in a 2019 boat crash involving Paul Murdaugh, Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill told CNN. The gesture happened Monday during Buster Murdaugh’s testimony outside the presence of the jury.

The younger Murdaugh was admonished for the incident, Hill said. Lynn Murdaugh Goettee and Buster Murdaugh have been warned that any more violations will result in them being barred from the courtroom.

Amid the book incident, Wednesday’s testimony was interrupted when a bomb threat was called into the clerk’s office and the courthouse in Walterboro was evacuated, Hill said. Court resumed hours later.

Much of this week’s testimony has focused on Alex Murdaugh’s financial issues. The judge ruled Monday to allow such evidence, saying it was “so intimately connected” with the state’s case “that proof of it is essential to complete the story.”

Tinsley’s testimony is expected to continue Friday morning after ending Thursday with him on the stand. He represents the family of the 19-year-old Beach, who was killed when a boat owned by Alex Murdaugh and allegedly driven by Paul Murdaugh crashed.