The cousin of Alex Murdaugh has revealed he was left stunned after the double killer previously asked him to shoot him in the back of the head. Yesterday, Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison with no parole for the murder of his 52-year-old wife Maggie and their son Paul, 22.
Curtis Smith had done all manner of tasks over the years for the highly respected attorney and his partner Maggie over the years, the Mirror reports. Smith claims he and his distant relative were on a desolate country road one morning when the legal veteran said 'I want you to shoot me in the back of the head' while holding a loaded gun in his hand.
Murdaugh, 54, who was addicted to painkillers, wanted to die so his son Richard could inherit his £8million life insurance policy. However, his plan failed and he was left with a wound to his head which he told police was caused by a stranger who shot him as he changed a tyre.
Smith was later hit with a range of charges including assisted suicide and assault. This was the beginning of the lawyer's fall from grace in one of the most abnormal and gripping cases in recent US history.
He was handed a life sentence without parole for the double killing after a four-week trial which took jurors less than three hours to reach a verdict on. Murdaugh shot and killed Maggie and Paul in June 2021 after leading a double secret life involving multimillion-dollar swindles and abuses of trust in Moselle, South Carolina.
Even after Murdaugh was sentenced yesterday for the killings of his family, he showed no remorse and maintained that he was not involved with the murders. He told Judge Clifton Newman: “I am innocent. I would never hurt my wife Maggie, and I would never hurt my son Paul.”
Prosecutor Creighton Waters, who chose to not inflict the death penalty, said: “The depravity, the callousness, the selfishness of these crimes are stunning.” The crimes took place in the summer of 2021 when Murdaugh rang police to inform them that he had found his wife and son shot dead outside the kennels of the family's 1,700-acre hunting estate.
Paul had been struck in the skull at point-blank range with a shotgun while Maggie was killed by four shots from an assault weapon. Within just weeks, police began to suspect Murdaugh.
Prosecutors said he murdered his wife and son in an attempt to gain sympathy and prevent being exposed as a multi-million dollar fraudster. Jurors heard Murdaugh was 'a kind of person for whom shame is an extraordinary provocation'.
The court heard he was facing financial ruin which his 'ego couldn't stand so 'he became a family annihilator'. During the trial, in which his surviving son testified, a series of criminal investigations and lawsuits came to light, alleging Murdaugh betrayed friends, colleagues and clients.
The police have reopened certain investigations, including the death of a former classmate of Murdaugh's son. Another involved a maid who was believed to have fallen and died on the front steps of the family home.
Mr Waters said the killer was facing legal action that 'could potentially ruin him and expose the reality of what he had been doing for years'. Initially, the double murder was thought to be linked to the death of Mallory Beach.
In February 2019, the 19-year-old was among a group of pals taken out by Paul on the family boat for a party on the Beaufort River. The boat tragically crashed and killed Mallory which sparked a lot of anger in the community.
When Paul was killed, many thought it was an act of retribution. But prosecutors said all that theory provided was Murdaugh's opportunity to help cover up his criminal schemes.
Those were further fuelled when his wife and son found a stash of pills inside his computer bag. Paul told his dad in a text in May 2021: “We have to talk. Mom found bags of pills in your bag.”
Maggie had searched the internet for markings on the drugs as she attempted to identify them, prosecutors said and found a description that matched some oxycodone pills. Three weeks later, she searched for another pill description.
This was another piece of evidence that the prosecution used, coupled with multiple inconsistencies in Murdaugh's statements to the authorities which resulted in his conviction. Prosecutors said that Paul's text message supported the argument that a 'perfect storm' had been brewing that threatened to expose the crook's embezzlement of millions of his dollars from his law firm and clients in addition to his huge spending on his painkillers addiction.
Jurors were presented with phone records and car location data with contradicted Murdaugh's account of his actions on the night of the murders. Most crucially, prosecutors played a video taken by Paul where his dad's voice could be heard at the crime scene in the minutes before he was killed.
However, the killer has kept up with his repeated claims that he was not present when they were shot. His lawyers desperately tried to shift attention to other suspects, revealing an unknown man's DNA was found underneath Maggie's fingernails.
They also suggested that police should have investigated the drug dealers who Murdaugh was buying from. He wrote large cheques, sometimes for as much as £50,000 in a week to a distant cousin who was sourcing the drugs for him.
However, the jury did not fall for his lies and juror, Craig Moyer yesterday told how the video filmed by his son convinced him that Murdaugh was guilty. He said: “He was a good liar but not good enough.
"I didn’t see any true remorse or any compassion or anything. He never cried. There were no tears. I saw his eyes.”
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