LEXINGTON, S.C. — South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Debra McCaslin denied Alex Murdaugh’s request for more ballistics reports connected to a specific type of ammunition used to kill his wife, Maggie, but told prosecutors to hand over the “raw data” used for crime scene comparison.

“I don’t believe that the defense has established that the requested information is material for the preparation of the defense, or otherwise subject to disclosure,” she said. “SLED has conducted testing, and at this time, no ballistic matches have been identified linking the evidence at issue to another weapon, crime or investigation.”

She said earlier in the hearing that the motion sounded like a “fishing expedition.” Murdaugh’s defense countered that .300 Blackout rounds are the second-most popular type of ammunition in the country for some rifles.

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“It may very well be a fishing expedition, but we when their witness indicated that Blackout was rarely used, that Blackout cartridge, and minimized because they were trying at that point to prove it was a family weapon, very rare — we believe it’s got much more, use in that area, especially where people use it to hunt hogs,” said defense attorney Dick Harpootlian. “I don’t understand what the objection is.”

He said under Brady and Giglio precedents, the defense should be allowed access to ballistics regarding more cases in the area that used .300 Blackout ammunition, which is what killed Maggie Murdaugh.

The defense had wanted casings from other crimes involving .300 Blackout examined by a defense expert.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters countered that there have been no tool mark hits consistent with the evidence collected from the crime scene, even if the same brand of ammunition was used in other crimes.

The popularity of .300 Blackout has also increased in popularity over the last five years, he said.

Waters said that a manual and machine-assisted examinations found that shell casings from around Murdaugh’s former estate were consistent with those recovered at the crime scene.

Harpootlian asked for a chance to have a defense expert conduct the same kind of analysis.

“All right,” the judge said. “I’m going to order that you get Mr. Harpootlian, all the raw data that you have, and then Mr. Harpootlian, after your expert looks at, if you need anything else, you can let me know.”

Fox News’ Adam Sabes and Samantha Daigle contributed to this report.