COLUMBIA, S.C. — Attorneys for Alex Murdaugh have requested a preliminary hearing on charges related to an alleged failed suicide plot on Sept. 4 for a $10 million insurance payout.
The hearing will take place in front of a Hampton County magistrate and has yet to be scheduled.
Murdaugh turned himself in to the Hampton County Detention Center on Sept. 16. The suspended Hampton lawyer faces charges of insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and falsifying a police report.
The S.C. Law Enforcement Division charged him and client Curtis Edward Smith in an alleged scheme for Smith to shoot and kill Murdaugh on a rural Hampton County road in order to collect a life insurance policy for Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster.
Murdaugh’s lawyers sent the request on Thursday, according to documents. The hearing sets up a possible showdown between prosecutors from the S.C. Attorney General’s office and defense lawyers Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin.
Murdaugh is currently in an out-of-state rehabilitation facility, as part of his $20,000 personal recognizance bond.
Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, and other son, Paul, were shot and killed on June 7 at their Islandton home. The case still under investigation by SLED that has attracted national and statewide attention.
In addition to those two murders and the insurance fraud charges, investigations now involving Murdaugh include three untimely deaths, the alleged embezzlement of millions from his former law firm and an alleged scheme to divert insurance money from the estate of his late housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield. SLED is investigating all of those.
The purpose of preliminary hearings in South Carolina is to establish whether police have “probable cause” when they arrest someone.
“Probable cause” is a standard of proof meaning that police have some reasonable belief to suspect a crime has been committed, but it is not as strong a standard of proof as the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard needed to find a person guilty of committed a crime.
If probable cause is found by a municipal judge or presiding magistrate, the case will be “bound over,” which means it will continue in the court system.
However, cases can also be “remanded down” — reduced to a lesser offense — or dismissed at a preliminary hearing, said Daniel Coble, a Columbia attorney and former Richland County magistrate who wrote a book on preliminary hearings published by the S.C. Bar.
Defense lawyers typically use preliminary hearings in order to get details on evidence and to try to convince the magistrate to throw out a warrant against their client.
Statements under oath at a preliminary hearing by police officer can be used by the defense at a later trial to impeach parts of a prosecution’s case.
Generally, the arresting officer or the chief investigating officer must testify and then the defense gets to cross-examine the officer. But the defense is not allowed to put up evidence.
A SLED officer will have to testify at the hearing in front of the magistrate and Murdaugh’s lawyers.
News of the preliminary hearing was first reported by the Post and Courier newspaper.
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