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Former Client Charged With Shooting Alex Murdaugh in ‘Assisted Suicide’ Attempt Alex Murdaugh Told His Former Client to Kill Him Before Shooting, Police Say
(about 2 hours later)
A former client of Alex Murdaugh’s was arrested on Tuesday and charged with “assisted suicide” and assault in the shooting and wounding of the prominent South Carolina lawyer this month, the latest twist in a mysterious series of crimes that have drawn intense scrutiny since June, when Mr. Murdaugh came home to find his wife and son shot to death. Alex Murdaugh, the prominent South Carolina lawyer whose wife and son were shot and killed in June, asked a former client to kill him this month so his other son could collect a $10 million insurance payment but survived being shot in the head, the police said on Tuesday night.
The former client, Curtis Edward Smith, 61, was also charged with battery, pointing a gun, insurance fraud and selling methamphetamine, a state police agency said in a statement. Mr. Murdaugh’s lawyer did not respond to inquiries about the arrest. It was the latest startling twist in a series of mysteries that have brought intense scrutiny to the Murdaugh family and the rural slice of South Carolina where their family has held sway for more than a century, though the central question of who killed Mr. Murdaugh’s wife and son remains unsolved.
Mr. Murdaugh, 53, represented Mr. Smith as recently as 2015 in a lawsuit that Mr. Smith had filed against a forest management company based in Charlotte, N.C. He had also represented Mr. Smith in several other cases, including minor traffic violations. The former client, Curtis Edward Smith, 61, of Walterboro, S.C., was arrested and charged with assisted suicide, aggravated assault and battery, and insurance fraud in connection with the shooting on Sept. 4, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division said.
Mr. Murdaugh called 911 from a rural road in Hampton County, S.C., on Sept. 4 to say he had been shot in the head, an injury the police have described as a “superficial” gunshot wound. Mr. Murdaugh told the police that he had stopped on the side of the road to inspect a flat tire when someone pulled up in a pickup truck, asked whether he was having car trouble and shot him in the head, Mr. Murdaugh’s lawyer has said. The state police agency said that Mr. Murdaugh, 53, had admitted to the scheme on Monday and that Mr. Smith had admitted to being at the scene and getting rid of the gun. Mr. Murdaugh’s lawyer did not respond to inquiries about the arrest, and it was not clear if Mr. Smith, who was booked in the Colleton County jail, had a lawyer.
A day earlier, Mr. Murdaugh had been pushed out of his family law firm, which said it discovered that he had misused millions of dollars. Mr. Murdaugh issued a statement apologizing to his family and his colleagues and said he was entering rehab. It was a stunning fall for Mr. Murdaugh, who is part of a legal dynasty that has amassed powerful ties in the South Carolina Lowcountry over the past century. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather all served as the top prosecutor across a five-county region for more than eight decades, until 2006. Mr. Murdaugh has not been charged, but he is referred to as a “co-defendant” in the charging documents for Mr. Smith; a police spokesman, Tommy Crosby, said without elaborating that the police expected to bring more charges in the case.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Murdaugh had vehemently denied that the shooting on the side of the road was self-inflicted, saying he had sustained an entry and exit wound and a skull fracture. Mr. Murdaugh’s lawyer and spokeswoman had insisted that the shooting on a rural road in Hampton County, S.C., was not self-inflicted. They said that Mr. Murdaugh had stopped to inspect a flat tire when someone in a truck pulled up and shot him, causing a skull fracture. He was released from a hospital within several days.
The shooting came nearly three months after Mr. Murdaugh returned to his family’s large, rural property in Islandton, S.C., and discovered his wife, Maggie, and son Paul, a 22-year-old college student, shot to death. A day before the shooting, Mr. Murdaugh had been pushed out of his family law firm, P.M.P.E.D., which said it discovered that he had misused millions of dollars. Mr. Murdaugh issued a statement apologizing to his family and his colleagues, and his lawyer said he was entering a drug rehab program.
The killings, which remain unsolved, have drawn attention to the Murdaugh family’s checkered history in the region. At the time of his death, Paul Murdaugh was facing charges that he had drunkenly crashed a boat in 2019, killing Mallory Beach, a passenger, and wounding others. It was a stunning unraveling for Mr. Murdaugh, who is part of a legal dynasty that has amassed powerful ties in the South Carolina Lowcountry over the past century. His great-grandfather, grandfather and father sequentially served as the top prosecutor across a five-county region from 1910 until 2006.
Mr. Murdaugh represented Mr. Smith as recently as 2015 in a lawsuit that Mr. Smith had filed against a forest management company based in Charlotte, N.C. He had also represented Mr. Smith in 2013 when Mr. Smith was given a ticket for driving up to 10 m.p.h. over the speed limit.
The shooting of Mr. Murdaugh came nearly three months after he returned to his family’s large, rural property in Islandton, S.C., and discovered that his wife, Maggie, and son Paul, a 22-year-old college student, had been shot to death.
At the time of his death, Paul Murdaugh was facing charges that he had drunkenly crashed a boat in 2019, killing Mallory Beach, a passenger, and wounding others.
The killings also led the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to open an investigation into the 2015 death of Stephen Smith, a 19-year-old man whose body was found in a road 10 miles from the Murdaugh home and whose death was ruled a shooting and then a probable hit-and-run. No one has been charged in his death.