Russell Laffitte trial: SC jurors picked, prosecutor ties case back to Murdaugh and murder

A jury of eight men and eight women, including four alternates, have been selected to decide the federal case against Russell Laffitte, a former Hampton bank CEO and accused accomplice of Alex Murdaugh’s.

“No Facebook, no Instagram, none of that,” Judge Richard Gergel told the jurors Tuesday, the first day of the trial, as he ticked off a list of other social and news media sites to avoid, including Tumblr, Snapchat and YouTube.

The trial of Laffitte, 51, in Charleston federal court is the first of a series of trials connected to the fate of Murdaugh, 54, a disgraced former South Carolina lawyer and accused killer whose alleged exploits have been publicized across the state and nation for more than a year.

Murdaugh is an “unindicted co-conspirator” of Laffitte’s, according to legal filings in the former banker’s case.

Murdaugh’s name is expected to be mentioned throughout the trial, and it took center stage in opposing lawyers’ opening statements on Tuesday afternoon.

Laffitte is charged with bank and wire fraud. The trial is expected to reveal inner workings of a profitable law firm and a small but prominent community bank.

Laffitte, the former CEO of Palmetto State Bank, is accused of being Murdaugh’s accomplice in schemes in which both men allegedly misappropriated and misused nearly $2 million of money belonging to Murdaugh’s clients that had been deposited in trust in Laffitte’s bank.

Both men lived and worked in Hampton — Murdaugh as a partner in his powerful family law firm and Laffitte as CEO of his family bank.

“I want you to get your information right here in the courtroom,” Gergel said to jurors Tuesday. “You got the best seat in the house. Nobody else is going to get it any better than you.”

In her opening statement, prosecutor Emily Limehouse mostly described how Laffitte and Murdaugh used their positions as a banker and lawyer, respectively, to misuse money that Murdaugh had gained in settlements.

But at one point, Limehouse disclosed that on the morning of June 7, 2021 — the same date when Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, were found murdered that night — a member of Murdaugh’s law firm had questioned Murdaugh about missing legal fees.

She did not identify the staffer, nor did she elaborate on the their conversations.

Murdaugh has been charged with their murders. He has pleaded not guilty.

Although much information has surfaced about Murdaugh, that conversation hours before the deaths of his wife and youngest son has never before been publicly disclosed. It was not clear how Limehouse was going to use that information as the trial proceeds.

In his opening statement, Laffitte’s lawyer Bart Daniel portrayed his client as a victim of Murdaugh’s, whom Daniel described as “a master manipulator and a world class con man, ... an evil genius, patient and cunning and brilliant.”

The jury will see that Laffitte cooperated extensively with the FBI and the State Law Enforcement Division, Daniel said.

Laffitte “made mistakes, he’ll tell you that,” Daniel said.

But, he added, Laffitte’s main mistake was trusting Murdaugh, a man who even fooled his own law partners, who are “shrewd, sophisticated lawyers, some of the best lawyers in the state of South Carolina,” he said.

Laffitte is mostly “a homebody,” and ”is not the kind of guy to go partying around,” Daniel said.

The jury of eight men and eight women picked Tuesday includes 12 actual jurors and four alternates, who will sit through the trial and fill in if an actual juror can’t make it. Because the press and public were excluded from jury selection, there is no way to tell, for the present, who is a juror and who is not.

Gergel also excluded reporters and the public from the courtroom for the final phase of jury selection. About 70 potential jurors, identified only by the numbers they were wearing, filled the six rows of seats in the courtroom.

Behind closed doors, prospective jurors were quizzed by the judge on their knowledge of the case, and whether that knowledge would influence their being able to render a fair and impartial juror, one man who wasn’t picked to be a juror told The State newspaper as he left the courthouse.

Jurors must also be able to base their verdict on what they hear from the witness stand and other evidence introduced during the trial and not arguments of lawyers.

“You want thoughtful jurors who are going to be objective, but I would be wary in this day and age of internet and 24-hour news coverage of anyone who comes in and says they haven’t heard about this case,” said Eric Bland, a Columbia attorney whose client — Alania Spohn — was allegedly defrauded by Laffitte.

Spohn is expected to testify for the prosecution, and Bland said he’s standing by the courtroom to monitor events.

Other prosecution witnesses are expected to include members of Murdaugh’s former law firm, a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. official who will discuss proper bank standards and alleged victims of Murdaugh’s and Laffitte’s fraud schemes.

Laffitte is also expected to take the witness stand in his own defense.

Gergel told the jurors they cannot discuss the case with anyone, even family members.

If family members want to know why jurors can’t talk about the case, Gergel said, “Blame me — everybody else does.”

The trial is expected to last two weeks.