SC judge sends Murdaugh’s alleged accomplice Curtis Smith to jail for breaking bond

A South Carolina judge on Thursday revoked bond for Curtis “Eddie” Smith, a distant cousin and alleged co-conspirator of Alex Murdaugh’s, sending Smith back to jail possibly until trial because Smith was not honest about money he had and his whereabouts during home confinement.

Judge Clifton Newman revoked Smith’s bond after S.C. Attorney General prosecutor Creighton Waters said Smith was lying when he told the judge at a June bond hearing that he had no money.

Newman, in a hearing at the Richland County courthouse, said he is open to revisiting the bond at a later date.

“I apologize for taking up your time,” Smith, 62, a disabled logger, who was wearing a light grey dress shirt and a tie, told the judge Thursday just before he was escorted out of the court’s back entrance by an armed county deputy.

Meanwhile, in a surprise development in the ongoing Murdaugh saga, Waters held a brief hearing for a new defendant he indicated was linked to Smith and Murdaugh: Spencer Roberts of Colleton County.

Roberts, whose hearing was held just before Smith’s, was in court Thursday for a bond hearing on two white-collar charges of getting COVID-19 unemployment insurance illegally and obtaining property by false pretenses. The charges arose, like the charges that Murdaugh and Smith now face, from state grand grand jury actions.

During a 10-minute bond hearing for Roberts, Waters said Roberts is “part of the investigation down in the Lowcountry” — a reference to various financial and drug crimes that Murdaugh has been charged with, according to sources familiar with the case.

“Roberts received downstream a substantial number of checks allegedly originating from Alex Murdaugh,” Waters told the judge, adding that search warrants not yet made public in Roberts’ case mention Murdaugh and allege that Roberts participated in illegal acts involving “a substantial amount of narcotics.”

Additional investigative information alleges “Mr. Roberts alleged involvement in narcotics” and a “substantial amount of narcotics were found” as a result of the search warrants, Waters said.

After court, sources familiar with the case said that law enforcement believes Roberts was a key part of a pipeline that funneled drugs to Murdaugh through Smith. The sources asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

Murdaugh’s attorneys, Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian, have said Murdaugh had a longtime opioid drug addiction on which he spent large amounts of money.

The pipeline is believed to have worked this way, sources said: Murdaugh would give checks of stolen money to Smith, who would cash them. Then Smith would give the cash to Roberts, who would use the cash to buy drugs that Roberts would then give the drugs to Smith, who would give them to Murdaugh, the sources said.

“This is an ongoing investigation. There is a lot more that’s being explored and that is to include a substantial amount of drugs,” Waters said.

The amount of drugs is “of trafficking weight,” said Waters, adding that drug trafficking charges carry a mandatory minimum 25-year sentence.

Waters did not explain why Roberts has not been charged with drug violations. However, prosecutors who are trying to get a person to testify against others often use the possibility of a serious charge as a lever to convince that person to talk.

Roberts was arrested Monday as law enforcement served search warrants on three properties in Colleton County, Waters said.

Roberts was “the central target” of the search warrants, which turned up a gambling den, a Glock pistol, drugs and cash, Waters said.

Roberts was at the gambling den property, he said.

At Waters’ request, Newman set bond at $200,000 on the charges with a condition of house arrest and GPS monitoring.

Roberts’ attorney, Mark Peper of Charleston, had urged a personal recognizance bond or a much smaller surety bond for Roberts, telling the judge his client is a lifelong resident of Colleton County and has good family support.

Roberts has not yet been charged with any Murdaugh-related crimes, but the

Judge revokes Curtis Smith’s bond

Smith, 62, is accused of drug trafficking and running a longtime money laundering scheme that involved some $2.4 million in money allegedly stolen by Murdaugh.

Prosecutors described Smith’s crimes as engaging in a money laundering operation, whereby Murdaugh over the course of several years then gave Smith some $2.4 million in checks, many of which were converted to cash and given back to Murdaugh.

Much of that money went to buy drugs for Murdaugh, who remains in jail on a slew of financial-related charges and also weapons and murder charges in the June 2021 shooing deaths of his wife Maggie and son Paul.

Smith has denied the charges.

During the 31-minute hearing for Smith, Waters quoted Smith’s statements at the June bond hearing about his financial condition.

“He said, ‘I ain’t got no money — twice,’” Waters told the judge.

But in fact, on the day when Smith said that, he had some $58,000 in a bank account. And just a few weeks ago, he had $80,000 in a checking account, Waters said.

Moreover, Smith had strayed from the boundaries during his house arrest to places like Walmart and “various private residences” where he was not supposed to be under the bond conditions, Waters said.

Last month, Smith was given a $250,000 surety bond, allowing him to stay out of jail. The bond required Smith to wear a GPS monitor and stay under house arrest except when on allowed outings away from the home

Jarrett Bouchette of Horry County, Smith’s lawyer, told the judge that Smith didn’t really misrepresent his financial situation, and that some recent money Smith had come into came from an insurance settlement.

“This is a man of limited means,” Bouchette said.

Smith has also been paying down debts with much of the money, Bouchette said, adding that Smith’s entire life savings is about $52,000.

“We certainly did not mean to imply or misrepresent anything to the court,” Bouchette said.

Newman told Bouchette Thursday that Smith “has an obligation to be candid with the court and not misrepresent anything to the court.”

Aimee Zmroczek, Smith’s other attorney, told the judge that some of the work that Smith does requires him to make deliveries and those were the houses he was going to.

He went to Walmart to get medicine, said Zmroczek, a Columbia attorney who was brought into the case Monday and is representing Smith on a pro bono basis.

“Since some of his work is not traditional work, there clearly needs to be more communication about where he’s going,” Zmroczek told the judge.

Zmroczek also said she and Bouchette had “a serious come-to-Jesus meeting” with Smith about where he can and cannot go and how he has to check in with authorities when he goes to unapproved places.

Smith suffers from serious medical conditions and they could get worse if he is put into jail, Zyrockzek said.

“A bond revocation at this point your honor would be harsh, a harsh punishment, for people who didn’t have a sufficient understanding (of the bond terms),” Zmroczek said.

Besides Smith, two other men — both longtime friends of Murdaugh’s — face criminal charges that they were involved in helping Murdaugh steal money from clients and associates.

One friend is Russell Laffitte, a longtime Hampton banker and Murdaugh’s childhood friend, who allegedly participated in Murdaugh schemes to use money from conservatorships that Laffitte oversaw.

Another is Cory Fleming, Murdaugh’s friend from law school, who allegedly helped Murdaugh steal millions of dollars from the estate of Murdaugh’s longtime housekeeper after she died of injuries in a fall at Murdaugh’s house.

This story was originally published August 11, 2022 at 4:06 PM.