Alex Murdaugh’s defence attorney has been mocked for his “spicy” cross-examination of a law enforcement official who testified about the accused killer’s botched hitman plot.
Dick Harpootlian resorted to shouting at SLED Senior Special Agent Ryan Kelly during an intensely combative exchange on Friday, which marked day 20 of Mr Murdaugh’s trial for the double murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul.
During testimony on Thursday, jurors heard Mr Murdaugh’s 911 call and police interview on 4 September 2021 – where he told Agent Kelly he was the victim of a drive-by shooting.
Jurors then heard a second interview on 13 September, where Mr Murdaugh confessed to the special agent that he had orchestrated the plot with his alleged co-conspirator and drug dealer Curtis “Cousin Eddie” Smith.
Under cross-examination on Friday morning, Mr Harpootlian sought to question whether the disgraced attorney had been competent to answer questions during his initial police interview on 4 September – due to his head injury from the shooting and him allegedly being under the influence of opioids at the time.
For much of the cross, he grilled the special agent about whether he had asked doctors for Mr Murdaugh’s medical records that day.
Mr Harpootlian then grew increasingly frustrated that Agent Kelly would not simply give a yes or no answer – as the agent explained that the hospital would not have handed those over, presumably due to patient confidentiality.
At one especially combative point, Mr Harpootlian appeared to sneer as he called the officer “special agent” and then carefully and slowly spelled out each word of his question.
While Mr Harpootlian grew more irate, the agent remained cool-headed, standing by his point.
“They didn’t talk to me about his medical records,” the agent continued.
“Did you ask them?” Mr Harpootlian asked.
This repeated back-and-forth continued several more times until Mr Harpootlian reached fever pitch, shouting: “Did you ask them?”
The agent also noted that, during the 4 September interview, Mr Murdaugh agreed to speak to him, appeared to understand his questions and gave answers that were appropriate to the subject matter of the questions.
The testy exchange was disrupted by several objections from the prosecution – with at least one for the defence “badgering the witness” – and the judge at one point telling Mr Harpootlian “you must allow the witness to answer”.
At another point – when Mr Harpootlian appeared to begin to recount his own version of events – Judge Clifton Newman interjected, telling him: “Mr Harpootlian, you cannot testify.”
Mr Harpootlian’s frustration was not lost on those tuning into the high-profile trial at home, with many taking to social media to brand him “spicy”.
“@Harpootlian4SC woke up and chose to be spicy this morning. Sir, this is NOT a good look for you,” one person tweeted.
“It’s the blood rising more and more in his face I thought he was gonna explode,” chimed another person.
Another person tweeted: “#Harpootlian is loosing the playground to Det Kelly. Jury sees all.”
Others took to posting memes mocking the South Carolina attorney and state lawmaker for his courtroom antics.
The tense exchange came after the defence was dealt a blow in court this week when the judge ruled that jurors could hear evidence of the botched hitman plot.
On 4 September 2021 – three months on from the 7 June 2021 murders of Maggie and Paul – the disgraced attorney was ambushed in what he initially claimed was a drive-by shooting along a road in Hampton County.
He checked into rehab the following day, announcing that he was struggling with a 20-year opioid addiction and that he had resigned from his law firm PMPED.
But, Mr Murdaugh’s story about the roadside shooting soon unravelled and he confessed to law enforcement that he had orchestrated the saga, getting Mr Smith to shoot and kill him in an assisted suicide plot so that his surviving son Buster could get a $10m life insurance windfall.
Both Mr Smith and Mr Murdaugh were arrested and charged over the incident.
Judge Clifton Newman initially ruled that the roadside shooting incident was beyond the scope of the trial.
But, after another tense cross-examination from the defence, he reversed his ruling saying that Mr Murdaugh’s team hsd opened the door to the testimony.
On Thursday, jurors heard about the incident for the first time.
The panel heard Mr Murdaugh claim – first in the 911 call and then in a police interview in hospital – that he was ambushed by a “nice-looking” white male, aged 30-40 with facial hair and close-cropped hair.
Mr Kelly testified that a sketch artist was then called in to help capture Mr Murdaugh’s description of the non-existent man, with the sketch being presented in court.
Jurors then heard audio of a call Mr Murdaugh and his lawyers made to Agent Kelly on 13 September 2021 – nine days after the shooting – where he confessed to orchestrating the entire plot with Mr Smith.
In the call, which Mr Harpootlian was present at, Mr Murdaugh told the agent he had believed his family would be “better off without him” because he knew his ousting from his law firm and his string of financial crimes were about to come out.
“I was in a very bad place,” he said. “I thought it would be better for me not to be here anymore. I thought that it would make it easier on my family for me to be dead.”
He insisted that he did not pay Mr Smith to kill him, something the agent told him “doesn’t make any sense to me”.
In the audio he also admitted he had spent up to $60,000 a week buying drugs from Mr Smith – using “ill gotten” money – but dismissed any connection between his drug abuse and the murders of his wife and son.
Prosecutors claim that the roadside shooting saga was part of Mr Murdaugh’s pattern of creating violence to get away with things.
The shooting came just one day after he was confronted by partners at his law firm PMPED for stealing millions from his law firm clients. He was forced to resign.
Witnesses have testified that the roadside shooting put the investigation into his alleged financial crimes on hold.
Prosecutors claim that Mr Murdaugh shot dead Maggie and Paul by the dog kennels of the family’s sprawling estate in Islandton, in order to distract from his string of alleged scandals and financial crimes.
PMPED had begun asking questions about missing payments at his law firm and Mr Murdaugh’s finances were about to be exposed due to a hearing in the boat crash lawsuit three days on from the murders, the prosecution said.
At the time of the murders, Paul was awaiting trial over the death of Mallory Beach – a 19-year-old woman who died in a 2019 crash in the Murdaugh family boat.
Paul was allegedly drunk driving the boat at the time and crashed it, throwing Beach overboard. Her body washed ashore a week later. Paul was charged with multiple felonies over the boat wreck and was facing 25 years in prison at the time of his murder.
The Beach family sued Mr Murdaugh and a lawsuit hearing was scheduled for 10 June 2021. It was postponed following Maggie and Paul’s murders.
As well as the botched hitman plot and Mr Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes, the brutal double murders also brought to light a series of unexplained deaths.
Days on from the shootings, an investigtion was then reopened into the 2015 death of Stephen Smith, who was found dead in the middle of the road in Hampton County.
The openly gay teenager, 19, had suffered blunt force trauma to the head and his death was officially ruled a hit-and-run. But the victim’s family have long doubted this version of events, with the Murdaugh name cropping up in several police tips and community rumours.
An investigation was also reopened into another mystery death connected to the Murdaugh family – that of the Murdaugh’s longtime housekeeper Gloria Satterfield.
She died in 2018 in a mystery trip and fall accident at the family home. Mr Murdaugh then allegedly stole around $4m in a wrongful death settlement from her sons.
Mr Murdaugh, 54, is facing life in prison for the murders of his wife and son. He has pleaded not guilty.
