GoFundMe launched for Alex Murdaugh trial witness for ‘bravery’ of testifying
Mushell “Shelly” Smith gave emotional testimony describing how Mr Murdaugh showed up at his parents’ house for a brief 20-minute visit on 7 June 2021 but later asked her to tell authorities he had been there double the length of time
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A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to raise money for Alex Murdaugh’s mother’s caregiver “for her bravery” in testifying at his murder trial.
Mushell “Shelly” Smith gave emotional testimony in Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, where she cast doubts on part of Mr Murdaugh’s alibi on the night of the murders – revealing he lied about how long he had spent at his sick mother’s house.
Breaking down in tears at points, she described how a “fidgety” Mr Murdaugh showed up at the house for a brief 20-minute visit on 7 June 2021 but later asked her to tell authorities he had been there double the length of time.
In the aftermath of the killings, he then offered to help Ms Smith both financially and with her other job and brought a mystery blue item to leave at his parents’ home, she told jurors.
Now, Ms Smith’s daughter Rachelle Buckner has launched a GoFundMe campaign to “reward her for her bravery and her honesty as it was one of the hardest things she had to do”.
“As you all know my mother was the caretaker for Alex Murdaugh’s mom. She recently had to testify against him and it had brought much heartache and stress to her. My mother is the most caring, giving, and selfless person ever. She would give the shirt off her back if she could,” Ms Buckner writes on the page.
“Since knowing she would have to testify she had gone through so much with the what-ifs, should I, and the I HAVE TO! I want to reward her for her bravery and her honesty as it was one of the hardest things she had to do.
“We want to show her that she is not alone and we stand behind her 100%!”
By Thursday morning – less than 24 hours after it was launched – the GoFundMe had raised more than $7,800 for Ms Smith.
The campaign was brought up at the trial on Thursday afternoon when the defence noted that another witness, Mark Tinsley, had donated $1,000.
Mr Tinsley is the attorney who filed a lawsuit against the Murdaughs on behalf of the family of Mallory Beach, the 19-year-old killed in a boat crash where Paul was allegedly drunk behind the wheel in 2019.
Defence attorney Phil Barber asked to strike Mr Tinsley’s testimony due to the fact that he “made a financial payment to a witness in the middle of a trial ... as a reward for her honesty”. Mr Barber contended that Mr Tinsley - who has since removed his name from the GoFundMe - has a financial interest in the outcome of the trial.
Judge Clifton Newman denied the motion, calling the issue “good fodder for cross-examination”.
Before the donation from Mr Tinsley was mentioned in court, legal experts warned that the GoFundMe could be detrimental to the prosecution’s case if the state wanted to call her to testify again.
“This is a really bad idea. This witness is now receiving something of value for her testimony. If the prosecutors office knows about this they’ll shut it down,” tweeted Elizabeth Riley, who says she spent 35 years as a trial attorney, specialising in Constitutional law.
“Defense could call the daughter as a witness to establish that Smith is profiting, during the trial, from her testimony.”
Ms Smith worked as a caregiver to Mr Murdaugh’s mother Libby from October 2019.
In court on Monday, she told jurors about Mr Murdaugh’s unusual behaviour both on the night of the murders and in the days that followed.
She testified that a “fidgety” Alex Murdaugh showed up at his sick mother’s house between 8.30pm and 9.30pm on the night of 7 June 2021 – then left 20 minutes later. She testified that it was “unusual” for him to visit at night and he was “fidgety”.
A few days after the murders, she testified that Mr Murdaugh spoke to her about his visit that night, telling her: “I was here 30 to 40 minutes.”
The conversation left her feeling “nervous”, she said – so much so that she called her brother who is a police officer to relay what he had said to her.
Days after that initial conversation, Mr Murdaugh spoke to her again – this time offering “to help her out” with paying for her upcoming wedding and putting in a good word for her with her other job.
Ms Smith broke down in tears describing Mr Murdaugh and his family as a “good family” and told jurors under cross-examination that she believes his offers to help her were simply him being a “good person”.
Days after Mr Murdaugh’s offer with wedding expenses, Ms Smith testified that Mr Murdaugh showed up at his mother’s house at 6.30am in the morning cradling a “blue something” in his hands.
She said he took it upstairs and left it before leaving again.
She also noticed for the first time that he had a cut or bruise on his forehead.
During a search of his parents’ home, law enforcement found a blue tarp and a blue rainjacket.
SLED forensic scientist Megan Fletcher testified that at least 38 gunshot residue particles were found inside the coat – an amount that fits with the prosecution’s claim he used the garment to hide and move one or both of the guns used in the murders. Another 14 were found on the outside, with 52 in total on the item.
A smaller amount of gunshot residue particles were also found on Mr Murdaugh’s hands, t shirt and shorts and the seatbelt buckle on his car.
Agent Fletcher said the evidence is consistent with a recently fired firearm being placed inside the rainjacket.
Maggie and Paul were shot dead on the family’s sprawling 1,700-acre estate in Islandton back on 7 June 2021.
Their murders brought to light a series of scandals surrounding the Murdaughs including unexplained deaths, the multi-million-dollar fraud scheme and a botched hitman plot.
At the time of the murders, Paul was awaiting trial over the death of Mallory Beach – a 19-year-old woman who died in a 2019 crash in the Murdaugh family boat.
Paul was allegedly drunk driving the boat at the time and crashed it, throwing Beach overboard. Her body washed ashore a week later. Paul was charged with multiple felonies over the boat wreck and was facing 25 years in prison at the time of his murder.
The Beach family sued Mr Murdaugh and a lawsuit hearing was scheduled for the week of the murders. It was postponed following Maggie and Paul’s murders.
Days on from the shootings, an investigtion was then reopened into the 2015 death of Stephen Smith, who was found dead in the middle of the road in Hampton County.
The openly gay teenager, 19, had suffered blunt force trauma to the head and his death was officially ruled a hit-and-run. But the victim’s family have long doubted this version of events, with the Murdaugh name cropping up in several police tips and community rumours.
In September 2021 – three months on from the murders – Mr Murdaugh was shot in the head in what turned out to be a botched hitman plot which he had orchestrated with alleged accomplice, distant cousin and drug dealer Curtis Eddie Smith.
He checked into rehab for a 20-year opioid addiction days later.
It then emerged that he had been ousted from his law firm PMPED for stealing millions of dollars from law firm clients.
Separate to the murder trial, Mr Murdaugh is charged with a slew of around 100 charges from multiple indictments for embezzling almost $8.5m from clients in fraud schemes dating back around a decade to 2011.
The attorney, who has since been disbarred, represented the clients in wrongful death lawsuits before allegedly pocketing the settlement money for himself.
An investigation was also reopened into another mystery death connected to the Murdaugh family – that of the Murdaugh’s longtime housekeeper Gloria Satterfield.
She died in 2018 in a mystery trip and fall accident at the family home. Mr Murdaugh then allegedly stole around $4m in a wrongful death settlement from her sons.
Mr Murdaugh, 54, is facing life in prison for the murders of his wife and son. He has pleaded not guilty.