Small Law Firms

Lawyer Shot... By Hitman... He Hired... Who Didn't Really Shoot Him?... Now Arrested For ANOTHER Death

Things continue to get crazier in South Carolina.

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If Alex Murdaugh is campaigning to become the subject of the next big true crime podcast then, to be honest, he’s doing a hell of a job.

To recap, the scion of one of the most powerful legal families in South Carolina — a family that has kept a stranglehold on the local prosecutors’ office for generations and has its name emblazoned on the area law firm — was reportedly shot in the head last month while changing a tire on a rural road. Early reports suggested that his tire might have been sabotaged to set up the attempt. This shooting came three months after his wife and son were found murdered. Which, itself, came on the heels of his now-deceased son being investigated in connection with a boating accident that killed a young girl. Which was only the beginning of the story because in the days immediately following the shooting, Murdaugh was fired from the family firm, accused of stealing from the partnership, and suspended from practicing law. He also told us that he’d hired the hitman that shot him.

The only thing is… the “hitman” says nothing happened.

“I didn’t shoot him,” Curtis Eddie Smith said in a prerecorded interview Thursday on NBC’s TODAY. “If I had shot him, he’d be dead. He’s alive.” Smith — who calls Murdaugh a close friend and has been identified by other news outlets as a distant cousin — has said he didn’t know what Murdaugh had planned when he called, asking to meet on a rural Hampton County road.

“He’s got it like this,” Smith explained on camera, holding one of his hands like a gun. “He said, ‘You going to shoot me?’ I said, ‘No.’” Smith said when Murdaugh began to move, he grabbed the gun from him and it “went off.”

“The gun went off. Did the bullet hit him?” TODAY anchor Craig Melvin asked. “No,” Smith said, shaking his head and beginning to cry as he looked at the floor. “There was no blood on me, there was no blood on him.”

Of course. Nothing else about this shooting makes any sense, so why wouldn’t the shooting… not be a shooting?

Hanging over all this was the unsolved — and hitherto unprosecuted — death of the Murdaugh’s family housekeeper. That case was wrapped up with a nominal settlement from Murdaugh that the housekeeper’s family claim they never ended up receiving.

And so now, authorities have arrested Alex Murdaugh on charges related to the housekeeper’s death.

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That’s from Mandy Matney, who is all over this case. She’s also the creator of the Murdaugh Murders Podcast, which… brings this whole post full-circle.

Earlier: South Carolina Lawyer Murder Story Keeps Getting Crazier
Lawyer Shot In The Head Now Suspended From Practice

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
Hitman Who Shot Lawyer Alex Murdaugh In The Head Hired By… Alex Murdaugh

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