Man accused in Alex Murdaugh failed suicide plot has bonds set Thursday. What to know [The Charlotte Observer]

A Walterboro man accused of aiding Alex Murdaugh’s suicide plot by shooting him in the head for an insurance payout was assigned $55,000 in total bonds on Thursday in Hampton County.

Curtis Edward Smith, 61, received a $20,000 bond for assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, $15,000 for assisted suicide, $10,000 for insurance fraud, $5,000 for conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and $5,000 for pointing and presenting a firearm.

They are all cash surety bonds, according to a Hampton County Detention Center official.

Cash surety bonds require payment to the court in that amount, by either a bail bondsman or family member, as a promise the person will return to court if they leave jail.

The jail official declined to say who the judge was that set Smith’s bonds. The bond hearing took place at 9 a.m. at the Hampton County jail.

SLED charged Smith on Tuesday afternoon, and he was first booked into the Colleton County Detention Center on unrelated drug charges.

On Wednesday, Colleton County Magistrate Judge Keisha D. Gadsden assigned Smith a $5,000 cash surety bond on an unrelated methamphetamine charge. He also received a personal recognizance bond for an unrelated marijuana charge.

According to court documents obtained Wednesday, Smith was a former client of Alex Murdaugh’s in a 2010 personal injury lawsuit.

In arrest affidavits for Smith, SLED indicated Murdaugh was part of a conspiracy for Smith to kill him. A lawyer for Murdaugh said on Wednesday night that Murdaugh would turn himself in on Thursday to be charged with conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.

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