New statement released in Murdaugh shooting. Who is managing family’s latest crisis?

Charlotte Observer - 9/15/2021

Alex Murdaugh was shot because someone who helped fuel his opioid addiction took advantage of him, his spokespeople told national audiences Wednesday, portraying their client as a victim even as Murdaugh was expecting to be arrested.

The statement was the latest in a handful of messages from NP Strategy and Murdaugh’s attorneys to news outlets, working to manage the various crises surrounding the Murdaugh family.

NP Strategy, the PR firm representing the Murdaughs, has sent crafted statements over the three months since Murdaugh’s younger son, Paul, and his wife, Maggie, were found shot to death at their Colleton County estate. The PR messages began with the announcement of a reward in the double murder investigation, but over the weeks provided reactions to allegations of stolen money, drug addictions, being pushed out of his family’s law firm and the recent shooting that Murdaugh is said to have told law enforcement he choreographed.

While Murdaugh has not publicly spoken about these cases or the many odd circumstances surrounding them, he’s communicated through the PR firm, his attorneys, and through his brothers in a pre-recorded interview Good Morning America produced in June.

Murdaugh is currently at a rehab facility but is expected to be charged in his botched suicide attempt, according to his lawyer Dick Harpootlian.

Wednesday’s statement outlined Murdaugh’s reasoning for staging the shooting.

The latest statement

“On September 4, it became clear Alex believed that ending his life was his only option,” the statement says. “Today, he knows that’s not true.”

“Many people” fed Murdaugh’s opioid addiction for the past 20 years, the statement said.

“During that time, these individuals took advantage of his addiction and his ability to pay substantial funds for illegal drugs,” it said. “One of those individuals took advantage of his mental illness and agreed to take Alex’s life, by shooting him in the head. Fortunately, Alex was not killed by the gunshot wound.”

The statement does not name the individual, but Curtis Edward Smith of Walterboro was arrested and is facing multiple charges in an alleged botched suicide attempt law enforcement said was orchestrated by Murdaugh. As of Wednesday morning, Smith was still in police custody after receiving bond on unrelated drug charges.

According to documents released by the S.C. Law Enforcement Division late Tuesday night, Murdaugh provided Smith with a gun and instructed Smith to shoot him in the head so Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster, could receive a $10 million insurance payout.

“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,” the statement concludes. “Alex is not without fault but he is just one of many whose life has been devastated by opioid addiction.”

The statement was attributed to Murdaugh’s attorneys, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, in response to “the news released by SLED last night” within minutes of Harpootlian’s appearance on the TODAY show.

Although Murdaugh is expected to be charged in his own shooting, he maintains he did not murder his wife or son, Harpootlian said. It’s unclear what charges Murdaugh will face.

Previous statements

The PR firm’s first statement, on June 25, weeks after the double murder, announced that Alex Murdaugh and his older, surviving son, Buster, were offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in the case.

“I want to thank everyone for the incredible love and support that we have received over the last few weeks,” Alex Murdaugh said in his first public statement since the murders. “Now is the time to bring justice for Maggie and Paul.”

The PR firm would go on to release a statement two days after Alex Murdaugh’s Sept. 4 shooting saying Murdaugh was resigning from his family’s law firm and entering drug rehab.

“The murders of my wife and son have caused an incredibly difficult time in my life,” it said. “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. I am immensely sorry to everyone I’ve hurt including my family, friends and colleagues. I ask for prayers as I rehabilitate myself and my relationships.”

The law firm then sent a statement saying it had confronted Murdaugh on Sept. 3, the day before he was shot in the head, over money law partners allege he stole. The statement said Murdaugh told them he intended to resign. Murdaugh’s older brother Randy Murdaugh, who’s a partner at the firm, said he was shocked by the news of the missing money and his brother’s drug addiction.

Another statement from the PR firm came almost a week after the shooting “to clear up a number of facts from that day,” but the message was no longer written in first person from Murdaugh. It described his head wound and the original shooting narrative.

NP Strategy, based in Columbia, is a subsidiary of Nexsen Pruet law firm.