WALTERBORO, S.C. — 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 South Carolina attorney and accused murderer outlined the plot to have his distant cousin shoot him on the side of a country road in a recorded phone call to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division days after the Labor Day weekend shooting in 2021.
SLED agent Ryan Kelly, who previously testified about the investigation into Murdaugh, returned to the Colleton County Courthouse on Thursday to offer more testimony about the Labor Day weekend shooting, now that prosecutors had the OK from the judge.
Judge Clifton Newman opened the door to the testimony Wednesday, reversing a previous ruling after deciding questions about the accused shooter, Curtis “Eddie” Smith, allowed evidence of the shooting to come into Murdaugh’s double-murder trial.
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 have the capability to be driven on 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 fired a 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.
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 his attorney Dick 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 anymore.”
Murdaugh believed his surviving 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 that authorities 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.
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 by the week’s end.
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.
If convicted on the murder charges, Murdaugh faces life in prison without parole.
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