Hitman hired by Alex Murdaugh to be star witness in new wave of trials

Curtis “Cousin Eddie” Smith, 62, Alex Murdaugh’s who is the reported suicide-for-hire hitman, may act as a star witness for the prosecution in Murdaugh’s trials for financial crime.

“Mr. Smith is a good and decent man who was, like so many others, manipulated and taken advantage of by Mr. Murdaugh, and we look forward to the opportunity to present his story at trial,” Smith’s attorneys, Jarrett Bouchette and Aimee Zmroczek, said in a March 2 statement following Murdaugh’s guilty verdict.

Murdaugh, was given a life sentence on Friday for the June 2021 homicides of his wife and son.  

Murdaugh initially admitted that he hired Smith, 62, to shoot him in September 2021 so that the disgraced 54-year-old lawyer could get a $10 million insurance payout for his surviving son, Buster Murdaugh. 

Murdaugh initially admitted that he hired Smith to shoot him in September 2021 to allow him get a $10 million insurance payout for his surviving son, Buster Murdaugh. 

Smith reportedly botched the hit, meaning that Murdaugh survived to give his account of what happened to his wife and son.

Creighton Waters, who was the lead prosecutor in the Murdaugh double murder trial, stated that this plot demonstrates Murdaugh’s “consciousness of guilt” after he shot his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, to death on their family’s hunting estate in South Carolina.

Waters stated that the shooting could be used to prove that Murdaugh will lie and play victim when forced into a corner.  Judge Clifton Newman made the decision that allowing the suicide attempt to be entered as evidence was “a bridge too far.”

Smith was indicted on several charges in November 2021 for the part he played in Murdaugh’s attempted suicide.  Smith’s charges included false claim for payment, filing a false police report, pointing a firearm at a person, assault and battery and assisted suicide.

Murdaugh then attempted to place the blame for the murders of his son and wife at the door of Smith, something which Smith’s lawyers furiously denied.

“[D]espite months of filings and courtroom statements seeming to imply that Mr. Smith was either the ‘real killer’ or knew who was, when the time came to present evidence, Mr. Murdaugh’s defense team never attempted to call Mr. Smith to testify despite the fact that he was available to do so.”