COLUMBIA, S.C. — Defense attorneys for accused double murderer Alex Murdaugh say in a new court filing that Curtis “Eddie” Smith, not their client, likely killed Murdaugh’s wife and son in June 2021.
The 11-page motion, filed Friday in Colleton County, says that Smith flunked a lie detector test when asked about the June 2021 killings of Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22.
“Smith decidedly failed a polygraph when questioned if he murdered Maggie and Paul,” says the motion, filed by Murdaugh’s attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin. “The reason Smith failed the polygraph when asked if he murdered Maggie and Paul is because he in fact did commit these heinous crimes.”
The bodies of Maggie and Paul were found on the ground near dog kennels on the family’s 1,700-acre estate in rural Colleton County after nightfall on June 7, 2021. Murdaugh has said he found their bodies when he returned home.
A trial in the double homicide case against Murdaugh as the lone defendant has been scheduled to start Jan. 30 and run through Feb. 17 in Colleton County, where the killings took place. The case is assigned to Judge Clifton Newman.
Murdaugh was indicted in their shooting deaths in July and has since contended he is innocent.
Smith’s attorney Aimee Zmroczek told The State newspaper Friday that her client is innocent and has an “ironclad” alibi for the time the killings took place.
“Eddie Smith continues to be a victim of Alex Murdaugh and his deeds,” said Zmroczek, who represents Smith with Jarrett Bouchette.
“If you look at this case since the murders, there has been a desire on the part of Alex Murdaugh to insinuate that Eddie Smith is somehow involved. This is a continuation of that,” Bouchette said
Robert Kittle, a spokesman for South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson’s office, said Friday his office had just gotten a copy of the defense motion and plans to file a written response Monday.
“To date, we have provided over three-quarters of a terabyte of information to the defense,” Kittle said. “We will address these issues in our pleadings and in the courtroom and will not try this case outside the courtroom.”
Smith, 62, has for more than a year been a mysterious figure in the universe of people connected to Murdaugh.
A truck driver and Murdaugh’s distant cousin, Smith has been charged by a state grand jury with funneling substantial amounts of drugs to Murdaugh for years as well as serving as a vehicle to cash checks totaling millions of dollars that Murdaugh is said to have stolen from clients and other lawyers for years.
Smith also was charged last year in a botched scheme to allegedly help Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster, collect $10 million in life insurance on the death of his father. In that scheme, Murdaugh asked Smith to shoot him in the head, but “the bullet grazed Alex’s skull and did not kill him,” Friday’s defense motion said.
Smith is currently being held without bond in safekeeping, or isolation, away from other inmates at the Lexington County jail, Zmroczek said.
He is under state grand jury indictments for money laundering and drug trafficking, both under the alleged auspices of Murdaugh, the indictments say.
Meanwhile, Murdaugh, 54, is being held at the Richland County jail without bond after he was charged with the murders of Paul and Maggie.
Friday’s defense filing gives a rare glimpse into how investigators for the state Attorney General’s office have handled the months-long investigation into Paul and Maggie’s killings.
Since, the State Law Enforcement Division and the Attorney General’s office have released scant information about how the killings took place or what evidence they have to link Murdaugh to the deaths.
There were apparently no eyewitnesses to the killings.
The defense motion seeks to compel prosecutors to turn over all polygraph data, notes and other information related to a polygraph examination given to Smith by a SLED captain on May 5, 11 months after Paul and Maggie’s killings.
“Capt. (Bryan) Jones asked Smith if he shot Maggie or Paul, and he said no, repeatedly. Capt. Jones then told Smith the questions that would be asked during the polygraph examination, and, after more small talk, began the examination. Smith failed,” the motion says.
The motion says the polygraph indicated deception when Smith was asked, “Did you shoot either of those people at that property on Moselle Road? Did you shoot either of those people at that property on Moselle Road last June? Were you present when either of those people were shot at that property on Moselle Road?”
The motion also says that while prosecutors have produced some information about that polygraph test, they have not provided all data underlying the polygraph report.
Under a standard set by the U.S. Supreme Court, in a case known as Brady v. Maryland, prosecutors are supposed to turn over all evidence that could be favorable to a defendant in criminal cases.
“No Brady material will be withheld,” attorney general spokesman Kittle said.
Harpootlian and Griffin also unleashed a broad attack on how SLED and prosecutors have handled the case in their motion Friday.
“The State assumed Alex guilty of the murders before reviewing any evidence but failed to find evidence supporting that assumption despite an investigation lasting more than one year,” the motion said. “Nevertheless, on July 14, 2022, the Attorney General caved to intense public interest in this case and indicted Alex with the murders.”
Smith’s attorney, Bouchette, told The State newspaper the filing “looks like an effort to distract and dissuade from evidence of Mr. Murdaugh’s guilt.”
Ultimately, Bouchette said, “it is for the judge to decide what will be admissible at trial or not.”
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