Lawyer Who Allegedly Hired Hitman To Kill Him So That His Son Could Collect $10 Million Insurance To Surrender

A South Carolina lawyer, Alex Murdaugh, allegedly hired a hitman to kill him, will surrender in connection with insurance fraud.

His lawyer Jim Griffin told Fox News Wednesday said that there is a warrant for his arrest for conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and he plans to voluntarily surrender Thursday. He shared that the arraignment and bond hearing will be held at the Hampton Country magistrate court at 4 pm.

The news of Murdaugh's surrender comes after he was shot on Sept. 4 and was found with "superficial" wounds to his head. Murdaugh, whose wife and son were shot dead earlier this year, allegedly admitted the shooting was a plan to collect a $10 million insurance for his surviving son.

On Wednesday, one of his lawyers, Dick Harpootlian, told Today show that his client knew what he was doing was not right. He said that the murder of his wife and son took a tremendous toll on him, and his father died of cancer that same week. While it is difficult to live with something like this, he got through by using opioids.

Harpootlian said, "He believed that $10 million policy had a suicide exclusion. Suicide exclusions are only good for two years, and he didn't realize that, so he arranged to have this guy shoot him." The hitman, identified as Curtis Edward Smith, is facing many charges including assisted suicide.

Harpootlian said that the recent shooting was an attempt on his client's part to do something to protect his son, and he didn't want law enforcement spending time on this fake crime instead of focusing on solving the murders of his wife and son, who were killed more than three months ago. Murdaugh has denied any involvement in their killings, and arrests are yet to be made.

Before the recent shooting, Murdaugh had resigned from his law firm after allegations about misappropriated funds popped up and said he was entering a rehabilitation center. He allegedly stole millions of dollars from his company, and most of it was spent to purchase opioids. In his statement, he had apologized to everyone he had hurt including his family, colleagues and friends.