Alex Murdaugh’s lawyers say he was shot in the head. But where’s the injury?
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Alex Murdaugh Coverage
The Murdaugh family saga has dominated the news after another shooting, a resignation and criminal accusations — with Alex Murdaugh at the center of it all. Here are the latest updates on Alex Murdaugh.
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Alex Murdaugh, who reported being shot in the head two weeks ago, made his first public appearance Thursday since the June murders of his younger son, Paul, and wife, Maggie.
At his bond hearing on charges of insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and falsifying a police report, Murdaugh wore a jail jumpsuit. His ankles and wrists were shackled. His gray and strawberry blond hair was closely cropped. But there was no sign of a head injury. Not even a Band-Aid.
His appearance in the Hampton County courtroom belied what his lawyers have said for the past 10 days. Murdaugh “had an entry and exit wound.” “His skull was fractured.” He “may have had ... some minor bleeding of the brain.”
Since the first reports of his shooting Sept. 4, when Murdaugh called 911 to say he’d been shot by some guy in a blue pickup while he was changing his tire on the side of the road, the reports of how badly he was hurt have varied.
The initial Hampton County Sheriff’s report checked “no” by the question asking whether the victim had any visible injury. After news outlets questioned that detail, Sheriff TC Smalls said the checked box was an error.
Once the S.C. Law Enforcement Division took over the investigation, SLED referred to the gunshot wound as “superficial.”
Murdaugh was airlifted to a Savannah hospital, released within 48 hours of the shooting and was on his way to a rehab facility to treat his addiction to oxycodone. He gave SLED a description of the shooter. A week later, he changed his story.
Arrest warrants for Murdaugh and the man accused of shooting him, Curtis Edward Smith, say Murdaugh gave Smith a gun and told Smith to shoot him. Murdaugh said he believed that if he staged his own murder, his surviving son, Buster, would received a $10 million insurance payout.
The plan didn’t work. Murdaugh survived.
Those at Thursday’s bond hearing — and those watching live streams at home — briefly saw Murdaugh’s face as he walked toward his seat at the defense table next to his lawyers.
For most of the hearing, the audience saw the back of Murdaugh’s head, which appeared unscathed from a bullet.
Murdaugh’s attorney Dick Harpootlian raised a finger to the the back of his own head, saying that’s where a bullet entered and exited Murdaugh’s head.
“He may have had a minor skull fracture, some minor bleeding of the brain,” he told the court.
Asked about the head wound Friday, Harpootlian repeated what he said in court the previous day, again pointing to the back of his head and reiterating there was an entrance and exit wound.
This story was originally published September 17, 2021 at 1:52 PM.
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