In win for Buster Murdaugh, his libel case against Netflix, others is moved to Hampton court

A federal judge ordered that some defendants in Buster Murdaugh’s libel lawsuit against out-of-state media companies — including Netflix — and one South Carolina reporter must stand trial in Hampton County.

The ruling by U.S. Judge Richard Gergel means that Murdaugh’s potentially strongest libel cases will be tried in the rural county where the Murdaugh family has held sway in society, law enforcement and legal affairs for more than 100 years.

The cases against other defendants will remain in federal court.

“Buster and I look forward to fighting this case, no matter the venue,” said Murdaugh’s attorney Shaun Kent.

Buster Murdaugh, 28, is the surviving son of convicted killer and disbarred lawyer Alex Murdaugh.

Buster Murdaugh’s libel lawsuit against the media companies alleges they falsely linked him to the 2015 violent death of Hampton County Stephen Smith, an openly gay teen. The lawsuit is just one of several high-profile legal cases involving the Murdaughs in state and federal courts.

In court filings, the media companies have denied the allegations.

The lawsuit was filed last summer in state court in Hampton County, but the defendants had it moved to federal court. Gergel’s decision this week means the issue will be resolved in both the federal courts and Hampton County state court, with four defendants in each court.

According to Gergel’s ruling, made Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025, the media companies who now stand to face a Hampton County jury are Netflix Inc.; Cinemart LLC; the Gannett Co. Inc. and its reporter Michael M. DeWitt Jr., editor of the Hampton County Guardian who was quoted in a Netflix documentary called “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal.”

Those companies and DeWitt wanted the case to stay in federal court, according to motions filed in court by their lawyers. Had DeWitt and Netflix convinced the judge they should stay in federal court, their trial would have taken place in Charleston. A jury there would have been chosen from a wide swath of Lowcountry counties where the Murdaugh family and other connections would likely have had much less influence.

According to Murdaugh’s lawsuit, filed last summer, Netflix and other companies defamed him by falsely implying that he was involved in the killing of Smith, 19, who died under mysterious circumstances on the night of July 8, 2015, while walking along a rural Hampton County road. Smith’s body, with head injuries, was found later that night by a passing motorist.

The Netflix documentary, for example, talked about the Smith killing and depicted “a young man with red hair carrying a baseball bat. (Buster Murdaugh) has red hair, and it is readily ascertainable from the content of the series that the creators were depicting (him) as the murderer of Stephen Smith,” Buster Murdaugh’s lawsuit said. The series also falsely asserted that Murdaugh was “engaged in a romantic relationship with Stephen Smith,” the lawsuit said.

“These statements are defamatory and falsely accused Mr. Murdaugh of committing murder,” his lawsuit alleges.

Smith’s death was long believed by officials to have been a hit-and-run, but in 2023 the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division said it was re-opening the case as a murder investigation.

No evidence has ever been produced that Buster Murdaugh had anything to do with Smith’s death. No one has ever been charged in the death, although SLED has investigated. Buster has publicly denied any involvement with the Smith death.

After Buster’s brother, Paul, and mother, Maggie, were found murdered in June 2021, it became a fad in social media and on some nationally-broadcast news shows and documentaries to associate Stephen Smith’s death with Buster Murdaugh, despite a lack of any evidence linking Buster to that death.

Other prominent Lowcountry deaths in recent years, however, did have links to the Murdaugh family.

In 2018, Murdaugh housekeeper Gloria Satterfield died after a fall on the front steps of the Murdaugh estate in Colleton County. In 2019, a teen, Mallory Beach, died in Beaufort County after a crash in a boat allegedly piloted by a drunken Paul Murdaugh. In 2021, Paul and Maggie were found shot to death at the Murdaugh estate. In 2023, Alex Murdaugh was convicted of their murders and is now serving consecutive life sentences in state prison.

The lawsuit against several other defendants who produced Murdaugh-related documentary series will stay in Charleston federal court. They are “Murdaugh Murders: Deadly Dynasty,” produced by Blackfin Inc. and broadcast by Warner Bros. Discovery; and “Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty,” produced by Campfire Studios Inc. and distributed and broadcast by Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. and Warner Media Entertainment Pages, Inc.

The only individual defendant in Buster Murdaugh’s lawsuit is DeWitt, the longtime reporter and editor. DeWitt is a Hampton County resident, and that residency was the key basis for moving the lawsuit against him and the media companies he is associated with to Hampton for trial, Gergel wrote in his order.

Murdaugh’s lawsuit alleged that DeWitt had made alleged defamatory statements when he appeared on the Netflix documentary segment about Buster Murdaugh’s alleged involvement in Smith’s death.

In their court filings in federal court, the defendants in Murdaugh’s lawsuit asserted that DeWitt’s statements made in their series were not defamatory and were within the bounds of free speech.

DeWitt was “speaking as a local expert about what he had learned about the law enforcement investigation [into Smith’s death] and heard from others in the community,” defendants said in a court filing. None of DeWitt’s statements asserted as a fact that Buster killed Smith, one filing said.

Although Buster Murdaugh is not a lawyer, his ancestors have for more than 100 years been prominent in the family law firm, now known as the Parker Law Group, and have had the reputation of holding great sway with Hampton County juries at civil and criminal trials. Buster’s uncle, Randy Murdaugh, is still a lawyer with the firm.

This is a breaking news story and may be updated.

This story was originally published February 21, 2025 at 5:30 AM.