Who is Curtis ‘Eddie’ Smith, the man involved in Murdaugh Labor Day shooting, money laundering?

Is he Cousin Eddie, Fast Eddie or just plain Eddie?

Curtis Edward Smith has been described variously as a victim of Alex Murdaugh and a co-conspirator.

He’s been charged with helping Murdaugh attempt to kill himself and with money laundering in some of Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes. He’s also been described by Murdaugh’s attorneys as Murdaugh’s drug dealer.

The two men could not be more different. Smith, a high school graduate, worked blue-collar jobs all his life, including one of the riskiest in America, logging. Murdaugh, is described by many as a glib, never-met-a stranger guy whose wealthy family includes four generations of lawyers in the Lowcountry.

Smith has said in interviews he is guilty only of thinking of Murdaugh as a brother.

“I don’t know if betrayed is even the word for it,” Smith said in one of a handful of television interviews. “I thought of him as a brother, you know, and loved him like a brother. And I would’ve done almost anything for him. Almost.”

One thing is sure. Very little in his life would have predicted he’d be implicated in one of the most high-profile crimes in recent memory, that of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, gunned down at their Islandton home in June 2021.

Here’s what we know about Smith.

A Marine Corps family

Smith was the oldest of three sons of a Marine and his wife. He was born on Parris Island near Beaufort in 1960. The family lived in North Carolina, Mississippi before settling in Walterboro in 1982. He’s been described as a distant relative of Murdaugh’s. Smith’s mother’s maiden name was Murdaugh.

He worked as a logger, hauling trees and as a supervisor for a logging company. Then in September 2007 he hurt his back and underwent two surgeries to remove discs. Smith was prescribed OxyContin for pain.

“It’s an everyday thing,” Smith told a television interviewer about the pain.

Murdaugh was his lawyer in personal injury lawsuits, but the outcome of the cases could not be determined.

Smith was married and divorced and the couple had one daughter.

He lives in a small house in a rural area outside Walterboro. Court records in Colleton County show he has faced a handful of traffic violations, most often driving without a license, but nothing more serious.

On the side of the road

On Sept. 4, 2021, Smith and Murdaugh met on Old Salkehatchie Road not too far from the Murdaugh estate.

Murdaugh wanted Smith to shoot him in the back to make it look like a murder, ostensibly so Buster, Murdaugh’s son, could collect on a $10 million life insurance policy, Smith said.

“It ain’t going to happen,” Smith said he told Murdaugh.

Murdaugh put the gun to his head , Smith has said in multiple television interviews. As they struggled, the gun went off, he said. . Murdaugh fell to the ground. Smith said he checked to be sure his friend was OK, then he took the gun and drove off. He has not revealed publicly how he disposed of it.

Murdaugh, meanwhile, called 911 and was taken to a hospital in Savannah, where he was treated for a superficial head wound. He told law enforcement someone in a pickup who saw him on the side of the road with a flat tire and shot him.

Smith faces charges of assisted suicide, assault and battery of a highly aggravated nature, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud, and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.

Murdaugh is charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and filing a false police report.

In a television interview, Smith said, “If I’d have shot him, he’d be dead. He lied.”

More crimes alleged

As charges against Murdaugh mounted during 2021 and 2022, Smith was pulled into yet another caper.

Authorities allege that for almost eight years — from Oct. 7, 2013, to Sept. 7, 2021 — Murdaugh and Smith bought and sold oxycodone, the same drug Smith was given for his back injury.

Also they allege Smith took 437 checks from money Murdaugh took from settlements to clients and his law firm and cashed them for his friend.

Smith said he was an errand boy and took none of the money for himself.

The total amount? Some $2.4 million, the S.C. Attorney General’s Office alleges.

They are both accused of conspiring to purchase and distribute oxycodone in Colleton County, criminal conspiracy and narcotics offenses.

Lie detector

Last August, Murdaugh’s attorneys filed an 11-page court motion alleging Smith likely killed Maggie and Paul. They said he failed a lie detector test administered within the past year when asked if he had murdered them.

When investigators questioned him, he said, “I know I was nowhere near the place where Maggie and Paul got killed at.”

He was at home with friends, he said.

Smith’s attorney Aimee Zmroczek told The State his alibi is “ironclad.”

The agent asked three questions during the polygraph exam about Smith’s role in the deaths, the motion states. Twice Smith was asked if he shot either victim, and once he was asked if he was present during the killings.

Smith answered in the negative to all three questions, but the exam found there was evidence of “attempted deception” on his part, according to the motion.

“I wasn’t there, there ain’t no way, shape or form nobody can put me there when I was not there,” he told the investigator.

In jail for months

Smith’s bond on the original charges was revoked due to him lying about how much money he had and for not understanding that he couldn’t randomly leave his house to work. It’s been reported he was working as a handyman after being injured in a logging accident.

He’s been held in the Lexington County Detention Center to keep him away from Murdaugh, who has has been in Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Richland County.