Alex Murdaugh’s defense is braced this week for explosive testimony from the ‘killer’s’ cousin who allegedly shot him in a botched suicide attempt after his wife and son were killed.
The state will drop its case this week, but Curtis “Cousin Eddie” Smith has yet to testify. Smith is accused of shooting Murdaugh in the head three months after the disgraced legal scion, 54, allegedly killed his wife and son.
Murdaugh and Smith face separate charges for life insurance fraud allegedly designed to endow his surviving son, Buster, with $11 million. Smith denies involvement in the scheme, instead claiming he was trying to stop a suicidal Murdaugh from shooting himself.
Before the trial, Murdaugh’s defense alleged that Smith was involved in the June 7, 2021 murders of Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, at the family’s extensive hunting property in Islandton, South Carolina.
Scroll down for the LIVE video from the courtroom.
Alex Murdaugh is arriving on Monday as prosecutors plan to close their case by mid-week. Murdaugh is accused of shooting dead his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, on June 7, 2021 at the family’s expansive hunting property in Islandton, South Carolina.
Curtis Edward Smith, 62, is being sent back to prison after a judge revoked his bond at a hearing Thursday, August 11, 2022 at the Richland County Courthouse in Columbia, South Carolina. He is accused of taking part in a life insurance scam with Murdaugh and shooting him in the head about three months after the murder of his wife and son
In a lawsuit filed in October, Murdaugh’s attorney said police overlooked a lie detector test conducted by Smith when he was questioned about the murders.
Smith told investigators he was “nowhere near” the Murdaugh family home on the night of the murders and was at his own home with friends.
But they say the test showed he lied when he made those remarks.
Smith is the same man who police say was hired by Murdaugh to shoot in the back of the head weeks after the murders of Paul and Maggie.
In the same polygraph test, Smith proposed another theory: that Maggie was having an affair with a groundsman, which her son Paul came home and discovered.
He suggested that the groundsman then murdered both Paul and Maggie in a panic. Smith didn’t name the groundsman, nor did he explain why he thought that was plausible.
Before the trial began, Smith’s attorney claimed that the failed life insurance shot was actually an attempt by Murdaugh to murder his cousin and frame him for the murders.
Aimee Zmroczek said, “I think when he (Murdaugh) lured Eddie to the side of the road, he wanted to kill him and blame him for the whole thing… I have a strong belief that that would happen.”
Speaking to NewsNation in January, the attorney also confirmed that there had been no talks of a plea deal regarding Smith. “The basic story hasn’t changed and this honest truth is being told when Eddie took an oath to tell the truth,” Zmroczek said.
The state argues Murdaugh killed his wife and son to distract from his financial crimes.
Testimony for the past week has focused on witnesses who told the jury how the disgraced attorney stole millions from his office.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters said Murdaugh was “out of time” and “the walls were getting close”. On the day of the murders, he was faced with over $792,000 that had “disappeared” from a recent case he was working on.
He was also facing a civil lawsuit over his son’s drunken boating accident that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach in February 2019.
Maggie recently confided in the family’s housekeeper that the family was being sued for $30 million over the boat wreck.
Buster, Maggie, Paul and Alex Murdaugh
Alex Murdaugh arrives in Colleton County Court in South Carolina on Monday
Murdaugh’s defense theory is that someone else killed Maggie and Paul in revenge for the accident.
They argue that their client was a “loving” husband and father who could never have killed his wife and son. They have branded the state’s alleged financial motivation as “ridiculous.”
Last week there was major drama in the process that overtook the sleepy town of Walterboro in South Carolina’s Lowcountry.
The courtroom was evacuated on Wednesday after a bomb threat was made to the judge’s chambers and Buster Murdaugh was booted to the back of the court after he allegedly gave a prosecution witness the middle finger last Monday.
Murdaugh faces 30 years in prison if convicted of the murders.
This photo, provided by the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office, shows Curtis Edward Smith. He was charged with assisted suicide, insurance fraud and several other counts
The disfellowshipped attorney also faces about 100 other charges ranging from stealing client funds to running a drug and money laundering ring.
Prosecutors allege Murdaugh thought he would be caught stealing and killed his wife and son to buy time to cover up the money trail.
The clerk of the family law firm said Murdaugh stole millions in fees and client bills.
A law school buddy said Murdaugh broke his trust and left him to pay $192,000 to keep his client’s trust fund in balance.
The son of the Murdaughs’ housekeeper and nanny, who died in a fall, testified that Murdaugh promised to get them a hefty insurance death settlement but raised more than $4 million for himself.
The defense protested any witnesses, saying there was no evidence the killings were linked to financial misdeeds.
“It’s piling up. This is more of an attempt to bias the jury into believing that someone stealing a bunch of money would somehow commit murder,” said Murdaugh’s attorney, Dick Harpootlian.
Prosecutors subpoenaed 47 witnesses in 12 days of testimony, but at times there was little rhythm to the orders.
Last week, Murdaugh’s mother’s caretaker testified about a blue jacket Murdaugh may have been wearing when he visited, but then other witnesses testified about financial crimes before the state forensic officer, who examined the jacket for blood and gunshot residue, took the stand.
Long testimonies have focused on cellphone data between Paul Murdaugh’s friends.
At the time of Maggie and Paul’s deaths, Murdaugh and his son were facing a civil lawsuit over the boatwreck that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach in February 2019. Murdaugh told officers Paul and Maggie were killed in revenge for the accident
Some evidence was presented but never explained to the jury, who don’t have notebooks to keep track of witness statements.
A crime scene technician produced a receipt that circled a $1,021.10 Gucci item, but it has not been brought up since.
An FBI technician provided the times Murdaugh’s SUV was driven into and out of the park on the night of the murders, without interpretation.
Early in the trial, Murdaugh cried and rocked in his chair several times as crime scene photos of his wife and son were shown and described.
Prosecutors and the defense have said the aftermath of the shooting was horrific. Agents testified that Paul’s brain was severed from his skull with a shotgun at point-blank range.
Murdaugh has adamantly denied killing his wife and son. His lawyers said he was visiting his ailing mother on the night of the killings and that police wrongly focused on him from the start.
Murdaugh cried Thursday when the defense showed video of a family birthday party weeks before the murders.
But during testimony for financial crimes, Murdaugh was much more stoic, listening and occasionally speaking to his attorneys.
Within weeks of the murders, state agents were demanding data from the SUV Murdaugh used to visit his mother on the night of the murders and from Paul Murdaugh’s cell phone.
But both devices were encrypted and unbreakable in 2021.
Alex Murdaugh listens as his friend Chris Wilson testifies at the Colleton County Courthouse Thursday during his double murder trial
The family’s housekeeper, Blanca Simpson, testified that Alex told her to go to the house the day after Maggie and Paul were killed on June 7, 2021 in the kennels on the Moselle, South Carolina estate and clean up
Hacking advances allowed agents to break into Paul Murdaugh’s iPhone data last year, and they found one of the most important pieces of evidence to date — a video he took of a dog in the family’s kennel about five minutes before investigators said the murders took place.
Multiple witnesses have said that all three Murdaughs can be heard in video captured near the site.
Murdaugh told police both of these things right after the bodies were found, and a few days later he was never in the kennels.
An FBI agent testified that he worked for a year to crack the encrypted data from the computer entertainment and information console in the SUV provided by the Murdaugh family law firm.
Along with other information, he extracted the times the vehicle was shifted into and out of park, although he could not tell if the vehicle was moving or someone had their foot on the brake.
The agent said he could also tell when the windows went up or down, but never said if that happened during Murdaugh’s 20-minute drive to his mother’s home on the night of the murders.
Maggie’s cell phone was recovered by the side of the road the day after the murders
SCHEDULE: NIGHT OF THE KILLS
Alex Murdaugh, 54, is accused of shooting dead his wife Maggie, 52, and younger son Paul, 22, on the night of June 7, 2021 at the family’s hunting property in Islandton, South Carolina.
Here are the key events in the timeline established by the prosecution:
At 7.56pm, Paul sent a Snapchat video to friends showing the 22-year-old driving around the property with his father.
At 8:15 p.m., Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, came home and the trio had dinner together. Autopsies showed similar stomach contents for Maggie and Paul.
Around 8:30 p.m., Paul’s phone moves in the direction of the kennel.
Then, at 8.44pm, a second video taken by Paul in the kennel – soon to lead to a murder scene – allegedly proves Maggie, Paul and Alex were together.
At 8:49 p.m., prosecutors say Paul’s phone was locked and forever silent, never to text again or make another call.
Between 9pm and 9.30pm, Paul and Maggie were killed – according to the coroner.
At 9:06 p.m., Murdaugh’s car is set on fire.
The alleged killer said he was visiting his mother in Almeda, about 15 minutes’ drive away, who has late-stage Alzheimer’s disease.
At 10:07 p.m., Murdaugh called 911 and claimed he got home to find his wife and son shot.