SC drops all felony charges against Paul Murdaugh. Boat crash investigation stays open
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2019 Boat Crash Coverage
The crash of a Murdaugh family boat in 2019 killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach and started a chain of events that would remain in the news two years later. Here are the stories from that crash.
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This story first published Aug. 6, 2021.
The S.C. Attorney General’s Office on Friday officially dropped all charges against Paul Murdaugh related to the boat crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach in 2019.
A Beaufort County grand jury directly indicted Murdaugh April 18, 2019 on three charges: one count of boating under the influence causing death and two counts of boating under the influence causing great bodily injury. He pleaded not guilty in May 2019.
On June 7, Murdaugh was found shot to death along with this mother on the family’s sprawling property in Colleton County. He never faced trial.
AG’s Office spokesperson Robert Kittle, reached Friday, said the state dropped the charges because Murdaugh is dead. He was the only person charged in the Feb. 24, 2019 crash.
The AG’s Office dropped the charges after obtaining a copy of Murdaugh’s death certificate from the Colleton County Coroner’s Office, he said.
It took awhile — nearly two months after his death — because of the necessary paperwork and “bureaucratic hoops to jump through,” he said.
However, Kittle said, the investigation into the crash is still ongoing. Although he declined to say why, sources told The Island Packet last month that a state grand jury is investigating whether there was obstruction of justice in the 2019 boat crash investigation.
After the June 7 murders, new documents from the boat crash investigation and subsequent court filings revealed inconsistent sworn statements by police, possible missing evidence, attempts by the Murdaugh family to interfere and initial confusion over who was driving the boat.
A civil petition filed last month by Connor Cook, one of the boat’s passengers, claims that law enforcement may know about efforts to hamper the crash investigation and shift blame from Murdaugh to Cook.
Kittle, called last week, was adamant that the AG’s Office planned to prosecute only Murdaugh for the boat crash.
“We were ready to go to trial naming him as the driver,” he said.
Last week, a forensic toxicologist told The Island Packet that when hospital workers drew Murdaugh’s blood at the hospital on Feb. 24, 2019, his blood-alcohol concentration would have been about 0.24 — three times the legal limit to operate a motor vehicle in South Carolina (0.08). It would have been even higher — between 0.25 and 0.27 — at 2:20 a.m., the time of the crash, he said.
The blood sample confirms that Murdaugh would have been visibly drunk at the time of the crash and in the hospital, a description that hospital workers, police investigators and other boat passengers noted in post-crash statements.
Special treatment?
In the early morning hours of Feb. 24, 2019, a 17-foot boat allegedly driven by Murdaugh, then 20, crashed into bridge pilings along Archer’s Creek near Parris Island.
Mallory Beach, 19, went missing. Her body was discovered a week later.
It took prosecutors nearly two months to indict Murdaugh in the crash.
Murdaugh was out on bond at the time of his death. Two months after he posted bail in 2019, a judge removed his only condition, allowing Murdaugh to travel outside the 14th Judicial Circuit while awaiting trial. The 14th circuit comprises Beaufort, Hampton, Allendale, Colleton and Jasper counties..
While out on bond, Murdaugh had two brushes with law enforcement in Charleston County — a May 2020 traffic ticket for driving more than 15 mph over the speed limit, and a minor boating violation in March 2021, according to The Island Packet.
Many criticized the way police and the courts handled the boat crash case, and said Murdaugh received special treatment because of his prominent family, three generations of whom have been state prosecutors. He was never handcuffed at his bond hearing. His jail mugshot, taken in the courthouse hallway with an iPhone 7 Plus, depicted Murdaugh in a collared shirt — not an orange jumpsuit.
And even though Murdaugh faced BUI charges, the state did not restrict him from drinking alcohol or driving a boat. Prosecutors did not ask the court to consider as evidence in his bond hearing the 2017 citation Murdaugh received for possession of alcohol by a minor, according to previous reporting.
Murdaugh’s BAC levels, reported by The Island Packet this week, would have been used by a prosecutor in trial to convince a jury of Murdaugh’s guilt — a trial that will no longer happen.
This story was originally published August 6, 2021 at 3:34 PM with the headline "SC drops all felony charges against Paul Murdaugh. Boat crash investigation stays open."
