Murdaugh describes getting shot in his own words in recording played to murder trial jury
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Alex Murdaugh Coverage
The Murdaugh family saga has dominated the news after another shooting, a resignation and criminal accusations — with Alex Murdaugh at the center of it all. Here are the latest updates on Alex Murdaugh.
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Jurors in Alex Murdaugh’s double-murder trial on Thursday heard for the first time Murdaugh in his own words describe his plan to die in an assisted attempted suicide after the murders of his wife and son in June 2021.
The disbarred Lowcountry attorney and accused murderer outlined the plot to have his distant cousin, Curtis “Eddie” Smith, shoot him on the side of a country road in a recorded phone call to the S.C. Law Enforcement Division days after the Labor Day weekend shooting in 2021.
Murdaugh had said he persuaded Smith to shoot him in a scheme in which Murdaugh was supposed to die so his surviving son, Buster, could collect $10 million in life insurance proceeds, his attorneys said.
Throughout the 40-minute phone call with SLED, Murdaugh described to investigators for the first time his 20-year drug addiction, his connections to Smith, who had ties to a drug gang, and his habit of paying Smith some $50,000 a week for opioids.
“Why did you lie when this initially happened?” SLED agent Ryan Kelly, who previously testified about the investigation into Murdaugh, asked Murdaugh on the recording.
“I don’t have a good reason,” Murdaugh replied on the call, made from a Georgia rehab facility with his defense attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin. “I was in a bad, bad, bad place.”
The recording, with its revelations of drugs and a botched attempted suicide, is the latest dark twist in the sprawling Murdaugh saga — captured in now 19 days of a trial already marked by testimony of brutal murders, massive financial fraud and Murdaugh’s years-long betrayals of friends, law partners, clients and family.
Murdaugh is charged with the execution-style killings of his wife Maggie, 52, and son, Paul, 22, at the family’s 1,770-acre estate, Moselle, in rural Colleton County on June 7, 2021. If convicted of two counts of murder, he faces life in prison without parole.
The attempted suicide took place at a crucial time following the killings of his wife and son.
Not only was SLED beginning to consider Murdaugh a key suspect in their deaths, but on Sept. 3, 2021, the day before the attempted suicide, Murdaugh’s law partners confronted him about his longtime thefts from the firm and fired him.
He was left with massive debts and ever-expanding criminal investigations digging into all aspects of his life.
Ordinarily, such testimony would not be part of a murder trial.
But over strenuous defense objections, Judge Clifton Newman opened the door to the testimony and said he would allow lead prosecutor Creighton Waters to play the tape of Murdaugh’s confession because defense attorneys, during their cross-examination of another witness — SLED agent David Owen, the lead investigator on the murders — had opened the door to testimony about Smith and the roadside shooting.
“The state is entitled to explore the relationship between the defendant and Smith,” Newman told the court with the jury out. “The defense decided to go right there, as if they could dance through fire without getting burned, scarred or anything.”
Murdaugh comes clean about Labor Day weekend shooting
The Sept. 13, 2021, interview with SLED agents had been brokered by Murdaugh’s attorneys Harpootlian and Griffin in an effort to have their client to, at last, begin telling the truth to law officers about the Sept. 4, 2021, roadside shooting, leaving Murdaugh with a grazing wound to the head.
After Murdaugh was shot, he called 911 to report he had been shot by a stranger after his tire went flat. That incident caused Murdaugh to be airlifted to a Savannah hospital, and it sent law officers on a wild goose chase to find his supposed assailant.
But there was never an assailant because Murdaugh arranged the incident with Smith, Murdaugh’s attorneys told SLED agents in setting up the interview.
When explaining to Smith what he wanted him to do, Murdaugh said, “I told him that things were getting ready to get a little bad, and that I would be better off not here, and I asked him to shoot me.”
Smith acted “a little surprised, and then he said, ‘OK,’” Murdaugh told investigators.
SLED agent Kelly on Thursday described being called to the scene on Old Salkehatchie Road on Sept. 4, 2021, where he examined Murdaugh’s car. He noted the supposedly flat tire was a run-flat, which was designed to be drivable even after it was punctured. The tire appeared to have been punctured with a small knife, he said. A similar knife was found near the car, Kelly said.
Murdaugh and Smith’s DNA was found on the knife, the witness said.
In speaking to investigators with his defense attorneys by phone from a Georgia rehab facility, Murdaugh claimed a “very nice” man in a dark-colored pickup truck stopped to help him, then shot when he turned around, striking him in the head.
Murdaugh said he never lost consciousness. He did not identify the shooter, but said it was a man between the ages of 30 and 45. Murdaugh even described the supposed individual to a police sketch artist.
In his cross-examination, Harpootlian underlined that Murdaugh really was shot in the head, reading from a medical report that he had a fractured skull and an indentation in the back of his head. Kelly said he didn’t question whether Murdaugh had been shot.
Harpootlian also suggested Murdaugh may not have been fit to answer investigators’ questions during his time in the Georgia rehab facility, noting he had tested positive for opioids when he was admitted. Kelly said that during a visit investigators made to Murdaugh, he was conscious, walking around and able to give clear answers to investigators’ questions when they spoke to him.
Harpootlian attempted to raise Murdaugh’s pending charges for financial crimes related to his alleged thefts, noting that Murdaugh has been in jail since his arrest in October 2021.
“Was he indicted for 90 counts of financial fraud for which he faces life in prison?” Harpootlian asked, although Newman sustained an objection to the question.
After the shooting, investigators noticed a blue Chevrolet pickup truck in the area on surveillance camera footage from a nearby church, a vehicle they eventually connected to Smith.
In a recorded phone call played at the trial, Murdaugh, answering questions from Harpootlian, described how he hired Smith to kill him and set up the shooting on the rural road. Murdaugh said he had been buying drugs from Smith for years. He said after he lost his job at his law firm and was confronted by his law partners for stealing money from the firm, Murdaugh decided “it would be better for me not to be here any more.”
Murdaugh believed his son, Buster, would benefit from a $10 million life insurance payout, but didn’t think he would receive the money if Murdaugh died by suicide. Murdaugh said he got the revolver for the shooting from his mom’s house, he said, but didn’t know where the gun was after the shooting.
The investigator told Murdaugh they had spoken to Smith earlier.
“He said he had to talk to his attorney first, and he listed you,” the investigator said. “We told him that wouldn’t be possible and then he listed Randy (Murdaugh’s brother).”
Murdaugh denied that any other members of his family knew about his plans to die by suicide. He also said he did not owe any money to any drug dealers, other than the money he was paying to Smith for his drugs.
The interviewing agent was skeptical of Murdaugh’s claims that Smith shot him as a favor, without offering to pay Smith.
“I’ll be honest, that doesn’t make any sense to me,” the investigator said.
Investigators believe Murdaugh’s lies about the shooting were meant to further a narrative that his family was being targeted after his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, were shot to death at the family’s rural Colleton County home on June 7, 2021. Prosecutors contend they were actually killed by Murdaugh himself, part of a plot to distract attention from Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes.
Murdaugh’s defense attorney Harpootlian will question Kelly in cross-examination Friday morning. Smith, who is on the witness list, has so far not been called to testify. The state is expected to rest its case sometime Friday. The trial could stretch nearly two more weeks. Monday is a holiday, and defense attorneys have indicated that presenting their case could take five to seven days.
If you or someone you know needs help, call 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or visit 988lifeline.org for crisis chat services or for more information. You can also text SAVE to 741741.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREWhy did we report on suicide?
Discussion of suicide can be difficult, especially for people who may already be thinking of harming themselves. As a general practice, The State does not report on suicides unless they involve prominent individuals or occur in public places. In the case of this story, we felt the incident warranted fact-based reporting accessible to members of our community.
The State generally does not identify individuals who die by suicide unless it is a public figure.
The State maintains rigorous standards when reporting on public health issues like suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline 24 hours a day at 1-800-273-8255, or calling or texting 988, or texting HOME to 741741.
This story was originally published February 16, 2023 at 4:39 PM with the headline "Murdaugh describes getting shot in his own words in recording played to murder trial jury."
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