BIZARRE-ATT’Y BUST
Lawyer Alex Murdaugh is cuffed in fraud, suicide scheme
Scandal-plagued South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh surrendered Thursday to authorities, days after admitting he hired someone to kill him in a failed insurance scam, according to his lawyer.
Murdaugh has been charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and filing a false police report, all stemming from the Sept. 4 shooting that left the legal scion hospitalized with a superficial gunshot wound to the head, the State Law Enforcement Division announced Thursday.
After weaving a story about being shot by a man in a pickup truck while he was pulled over on a rural road with a flat tire, Murdaugh, 53, confessed Monday to concocting the entire scheme to ensure his eldest son Buster received his $10 million life insurance payout.
Murdaugh was released Thursday afternoon to a rehab facility. A judge granted him a personal recognizance bond on the condition that he remain at the rehab center and alert the court if he leaves.
Desperate after his wife and other son were murdered on their Hampton County property in June, Murdaugh fell into a drug-fueled depression, another one of his lawyers, Dick Harpootlian, said on NBC’s “Today” Wednesday.
He was fired from his law firm, started by his grandfather Randolph Murdaugh Sr. more than 100 years ago, after allegedly stealing more than $1 million. The money, Harpootlian said, went to fund his opioid habit. But by Labor Day weekend, Murdaugh thought he was out of options and, as a last resort, asked Curtis Smith, a former client, to kill him.
“That Saturday morning, he was trying to get off the opioids; he was not taking any of them, was in a massive depression, realized things were going to get really, really, bad and decided to end his life,” Harpootlian said Wednesday.
Murdaugh had previously represented Smith at least twice, according to WJCL: once for a personal injury lawsuit that Smith brought against a land-management company and once for a speeding case.
On the day of the botched suicide, Murdaugh met with Smith, provided the gun and told Smith to shoot him in the head, according to the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division. Smith then followed Murdaugh to a rural road, shot him as he stood next to his car, drove off and dumped the gun.
Murdaugh even slashed his own tire with a knife, police said.
When Murdaugh survived, he spun a tale of a roadside shooting before eventually confessing.
Smith was hit with charges including assisted suicide and insurance fraud . A judge set his bond Thursday at $55,000.
The June murders of his wife Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and son
Paul Murdaugh, 22, remain a mystery, with no arrests or suspects. Harpootlian insisted Wednesday that the grieving father had nothing to do with their deaths.
Their killings, however, have pulled to the surface a series of other scandals circling the prominent legal family.
In late June, state officials reopened the investigation into the 2015 death of 19-year-old Stephen Smith, which was written off as a hit-and-run. Paul and his older brother Buster were interviewed at the time as persons of interest.
There has also been renewed interest in the February 2019 death of 19-year-old Mallory Beach, who was thrown overboard from a boat driven by Paul Murdaugh when he crashed into a bridge. Paul pleaded not guilty to boating under the influence causing death and two counts of boating under the influence causing great bodily injury. He was still awaiting trial when he was killed. The charges were dropped as a matter of protocol after his death.
On Thursday, the State Law Enforcement Division opened an investigation into the death of Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaughs’ former housekeeper who died in 2018 after a “trip and fall” at their estate. Hampton County Coroner Angela Topper said her death was never reported to the coroner’s office and an autopsy was not performed.
Her manner of death was listed as “natural” on her death certificate, which Topper said was “inconsistent with injuries sustained in a trip and fall accident.”
Satterfield’s sons also claim they never saw any of the $505,000 paid to the Murdaughs as part of an insurance settlement from their provider for personal liability in the wrongful death and medical payments stemming from the incident.