COLUMBIA, S.C. — After 235 days behind bars, Curtis “Eddie” Smith, whom indictments allege was Alex Murdaugh’s accomplice in various money laundering, drug and fraud schemes, can get out of jail on $250,000 bond — if he behaves himself, a state judge said Monday.
Judge Clifton Newman said he would allow Smith, 62, a shaggy-haired disabled logger and truck driver, to go free pending trials on the criminal charges against him.
But, said Newman, if Smith violates conditions of his bond, he will land back in jail again.
”If this bond is reinstated, Mr. Smith, there will be strict compliance with it, no deviation, no leniency, no latitude in any way,” Newman told Smith.
“I totally understand the importance of the letter of my bond,” Smith told the judge during a 19-minute hearing at the Richland County courthouse.
Lawyers John Meadows and Don Zelenka from the state attorney general’s office said they did not object to Smith’s getting out on bond, in large part because he had agreed to testify against Murdaugh in Murdaugh’s recent double-murder trial. It turned out Smith wasn’t called to the witness stand. Meadors also told the judge he believed Smith was being truthful with prosecutors.
But Smith will have to comply with strict rules governing his release, including wearing a GPS monitor at his own expense, taking drug tests and staying at home and only going to work. As a truck driver, Smith will be able to only drive certain known routes, the judge said.
Smith, wearing a blue and green plaid shirt and dusty brown khaki pants, nodded his agreement.
His lawyers, Aimee Zmroczek and Jarrett Bouchette, also told Newman that Smith’s health was suffering and he had gained a lot of weight.
“My sugar’s off the charts, blood pressure’s off the chart,” Smith told the judge, who wanted to know how many pounds he had added.
“About 55 pounds,” said Smith, explaining that a lack of exercise had been responsible in large part for his weight gain. “I haven’t been able to get any exercise. I work all day. I enjoy work, and I haven’t been able to do any.”
Newman revoked Smith’s bond last August after hearing arguments from a state prosecutor that Smith had not been honest about the amount of money he had available to post bond. At a hearing last June, Smith had told the judge he had no money, but in fact, the prosecutor said, Smith had tens of thousands of dollars in bank accounts.
Smith had also traveled to places in the Lowcountry he was not supposed to while out on bond, prosecutors said.
An indictment last June against Smith accuses him of drug trafficking and running a longtime money laundering scheme with Murdaugh involving $2.4 million in stolen money.
At a hearing last June, the attorney general’s chief prosecutor, Creighton Waters, told Newman that much of the $2.4 million went to buy drugs for Murdaugh, but a substantial amount of cash remained unaccounted for.
A Colleton County jury convicted Murdaugh, 54, last month of killing his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, after a highly-publicized six-week trial. The disbarred lawyer is now serving two life sentences without parole in a high-security unit in one of the South Carolina Department of Corrections’ maximum security prisons. The corrections department has not disclosed the location.
Smith was not charged in the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.
Murdaugh also faces nearly 100 other financial fraud charges including forgery, embezzlement, and money laundering involving numerous victims including clients, other lawyers, his former law firm and even his own brother, Randy Murdaugh. Trial dates on those charges have not yet been set.
Smith is one of several associates of Murdaugh caught up in the former lawyer’s various alleged schemes.
Last November, Murdaugh’s childhood friend, Russell Laffitte, the prominent ex-CEO of a regional Lowcountry bank, was found guilty in federal court in Charleston of numerous counts of financial fraud involving funneling money to Murdaugh. Laffitte has not yet been sentenced.
In March 2022, a close friend of Murdaugh’s from law school, Beaufort attorney Cory Fleming, was indicted on charges that he conspired with Murdaugh to steal millions of dollars in an inheritance scheme involving the death of Murdaugh’s late housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield. Fleming is out on bond and has not yet been tried.
Smith also faces insurance fraud charges in Hampton County that allege he took part in a botched suicide plot in September 2021 with Murdaugh, who wanted Smith to shoot him so Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster, could collect $10 million in life insurance proceeds, officials said. Smith has denied shooting Murdaugh, who was slightly wounded in the incident.
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