Hitman Arrested After Top Lawyer Allegedly Planned $10 Million Insurance Scheme
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A man has been arrested after allegedly shooting a South Carolina lawyer in a $10 million assisted suicide insurance plot, according to local police.
Earlier this month, Alex Murdaugh was seemingly attacked in a roadside shooting. Reports said he was changing a tyre in Hampton County when he was shot in the head, but somehow managed to survive. This came after he lost his wife and son in June after they were gunned down on their rural estate, as well as other controversies.
The narrative seemed to indicate a wider plot against Murdaugh, 53, the scion of a decades-long legal dynasty, with his father, grandfather and great-grandfather earlier serving as the top prosecutor in counties in the Lowcountry. However, police say his shooting was part of a botched scheme to cash out his life insurance policy for his surviving son.
Curtis Edward Smith, 61, was recently arrested on charges of assisted suicide, assault and battery, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. ‘Mr. Murdaugh supplied Mr. Smith with a firearm and directed Mr. Smith to shoot him in the head,’ an affidavit said, as per The Daily Beast.
Both Murdaugh and Smith have reportedly admitted to their crimes, with attorney Dick Harpootlian saying, ‘[Murdaugh] didn’t want law enforcement spending more time on this fake crime instead of focusing on solving the murders of Maggie and Paul.’
Murdaugh’s lawyers have pointed towards his opioid addiction and outside influences for the failed plot, saying he believed ‘ending his life was his only option… for the last 20 years, there have been many people feeding his addiction to opioids. During that time, these individuals took advantage of his addiction and his ability to pay substantial funds for illegal drugs’.
‘One of those individuals took advantage of his mental illness and agreed to take Alex’s life, by shooting him in the head,’ Harpootlian and Jim Griffin alleged.
‘Fortunately, Alex was not killed by the gunshot wound. Alex is fully cooperating with SLED in their investigations into his shooting, opioid use, and the search to find the person or people responsible for the murder of his wife and son. Alex is not without fault, but he is just one of many whose life has been devastated by opioid addiction.’
Murdaugh also recently confirmed he’d entered rehab. ‘The murders of my wife and son have caused an incredibly difficult time in my life. I have made a lot of decisions that I truly regret. I’m resigning from my law firm and entering rehab after a long battle that has been exacerbated by these murders,’ he said in a statement.
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Topics: News, Now, Shooting, South Carolina, US
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