Alex Murdaugh accomplice Curtis Smith subpoenaed to testify at upcoming murder trial

Curtis “Eddie” Smith has been subpoenaed to appear as a witness in Alex Murdaugh’s upcoming murder trial.

Smith’s criminal defense attorney, Aimee Zmroczek, has confirmed that Smith, who is accused of conspiring with Murdaugh as part of a money laundering scheme, has been ordered to appear at Murdaugh’s trial.

He was subpoenaed by the state Attorney General’s Office.

Murdaugh is set to go on trial this month in Colleton County in the killings of his wife, Maggie, and son Paul.

A spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office said he was unable to comment on the subpoena, which was first reported by the Post and Courier.

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 from his family’s law firm and from Murdaugh’s own clients.

Smith’s subpoena comes as prosecutors attempt to isolate Murdaugh as the only person with motive and opportunity to commit the murders.

The Attorney General’s Office has sought to use the volume of Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes to establish that the disgraced ex-attorney had a motive to kill his wife and son. Murdaugh faces 99 charges across 19 different indictments.

In court and across a blistering series of motions, lead prosecutor Creighton Waters has argued that the impending discovery of his alleged thefts and embezzlement drove Murdaugh to commit the gruesome murders on June 7, 2021.

In recent motions, the prosecution has argued that Murdaugh attempted to hide from this “perfect storm,” by making himself appear to be a victim.

But bringing Smith to the stand means exposing him to cross-examination by Murdaugh’s defense attorneys, Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian. In October, they said in a motion that Smith had failed a polygraph exam when asked about the murders.

“Smith decidedly failed a polygraph when questioned if he murdered Maggie and Paul,” the motion says. “The reason Smith failed the polygraph when asked if he murdered Maggie and Paul is because he in fact did commit these heinous crimes.”

Were Smith called to testify, defense attorneys could ask him about the polygraph examination, unless they were forbidden by the court.

On Dec. 28, prosecutors filed motions asking that Circuit Court Judge Clifton Newman forbid the inclusion of polygraph evidence.

“Juries may give excessive weight to the opinions of a polygrapher and improperly cede their critical function in determining the credibility of witnesses,” the motion said. It asks that the court clearly forbid “any actions in front of the jury which expresses, implies, or even faintly suggests the existence or non-existence of any polygraph examinations.”

In a separate motion filed Dec. 28, the prosecution also asked Newman to exclude “conjectural evidence that (a) third party, rather than the defendant committed the crime.”

Smith alleged to have played role in Murdaugh’s schemes

Prosecutors have accused Smith of engaging in a money laundering operation, in which Murdaugh, over several years, gave Smith some $2.4 million in checks. Many of these checks were allegedly converted to cash and given back to Murdaugh.

Murdaugh spent much of that money on drugs for himself, prosecutors say. Smith has denied the charges.

Smith has also been charged in connection to the supposed shooting of Murdaugh on the side of a road in September 2021.

At the time, Murdaugh maintained that he was shot at by an unknown assailant as he attempted to fix a tire. He said that the bullet grazed his head. However, in a court appearance shortly after the shooting, Murdaugh appeared unscathed.

He and Smith have since been charged with staging the shooting as part of a scheme to obtain a $10 million life insurance payout for Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster.

But in an interview with NBC Today, Smith maintained that there was no scheme. Instead, he said that Murdaugh asked to meet him on the side of the road. When Murdaugh appeared with a gun and asked Smith to shoot him, the former logger said that he tried to wrestle the gun out of Murdaugh’s hand when it went off.

“If I’d have shot him he’d be dead,” Smith said in the interview.

In June, Smith’s bond was revoked by Newman after prosecutors discovered that he had more money than he initially admitted to at his first bond hearing.