Alex Murdaugh, a disgraced lawyer from South Carolina who was found guilty of murdering his wife and youngest son earlier this year, is accused by his cousin of instructing them to shoot him.
Alex Murdaugh Case, Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal Season 2 is up on Netflix.
This alleged request came because he thought that the evidence against him for the murders was strong enough to lead to his conviction.
Curtis “Eddie” Smith, aged 62, who is also Alex Murdaugh’s cousin and former client, made this shocking claim during the second season of the Netflix series called. This series, released on Wednesday, provides an overview of Murdaugh’s widely-covered six-week murder trial.
Alex Murdaugh, aged 55, is currently serving two back-to-back life sentences after being found guilty of murdering his wife, Maggie, aged 52, and his son, Paul, aged 22, in March of this year.
According to past reporting by PEOPLE, In August 2021, Murdaugh reportedly attempted to fake his own death in an effort to secure a $10 million life insurance payout for his surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, who was 26 years old at the time. Prosecutors claim that Murdaugh had Smith shoot him on the side of the road as part of this scheme, but the attempt was unsuccessful, resulting in only minor injuries to Murdaugh.
In the episode, Smith mentioned that he questioned Murdaugh about his reasons for wanting him to shoot him.
“Cause they’re gonna to be able to prove that I was responsible for Maggie and Paul,” Murdaugh allegedly replied.
“And I knew I hadn’t shot him,” Smith says. “There wasn’t no blood on him. There wasn’t no blood on me. So I went home.”
On September 4, 2021, Murdaugh called 911 to report that he had been shot by someone in a passing pickup truck. However, both authorities and Murdaugh’s lawyer had previously suggested that Murdaugh had orchestrated the shooting himself, as reported by PEOPLE in 2021.
Smith was arrested on September 14, 2021, and faced charges of assisted suicide, aggravated assault and battery, and insurance fraud in relation to the shooting. As of now, according to Today, Smith has not entered pleas for any of these charges.
Smith previously told Today that he did not pull the trigger.
Murdaugh was found guilty of both murders in March. During the trial, he testified in his own defense and confessed to lying about his whereabouts on the day his wife and son were murdered. He attributed his actions to a lack of trust in the police and paranoia resulting from a 20-year opioid addiction, as reported by PEOPLE.
