Buster Murdaugh was handed his first win in court as a judge ruled his defamation case against Warner Brothers could proceed.
The only surviving son of disgraced lawyer Alex Murdaugh – who is serving two life sentences for murdering his wife and youngest son in 2021 – claimed the production company implied that he ‘murdered a 19-year-old Hampton County man named Stephen Smith.’
Details of Smith’s death along with rumors of links to the Murdaugh family were broadcast in a documentary detailing the downfall of the once prominent legal dynasty.
The 28-year-old has never been accused of, or faced charges relating to, Smith’s death. In 2023, he publicly denied involvement in the tragedy and shut down persistent rumors the pair had been romantically linked.
Smith was a classmate of Buster and was found dead on a rural road in the summer of 2015. An autopsy determined he was fatally struck in a hit-and-run.
Former South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon told Fox News that the basis of the lawsuit is ‘something called defamation by implication.
‘There were rumors … Buster Murdaugh was somehow involved in his death. They would take interviews of people living in that area that would, in effect, repeat these rumors about Buster Murdaugh being involved in this murder.
‘The lawsuit claims that they just simply aired these interviews of rumors … and would juxtapose those interviews with actual law enforcement documents and related information.’
Buster Murdaugh was handed his first win in court as a judge ruled his defamation case against Warner Brothers could proceed
Buster maintained the documentary implied that he ‘murdered a 19-year-old Hampton County man named Stephen Smith’ (pictured)
Condon said he does believe Buster’s reputation was ‘severely damaged by the reporting that went on.’
Warner Brothers had attempted to have the defamation suit dismissed, but a judge ruled it could proceed.
In the lawsuit, Buster noted the ‘defamatory and false’ insinuations made in the documentary were ‘published to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of viewers who watched the show, including viewers in South Carolina.’
He said by airing details of Smith’s death in a documentary about his father’s crimes, the showrunners implied he, too, had ‘committed a crime or moral turpitude.’
In 2016, a year after her son’s death, Smith’s mother Sandy wrote a letter to the FBI stating that she believed the Murdaughs were somehow involved.
‘The first call my family received after the murder was from authorities notifying us of Stephen’s death,’ she wrote. ‘The second came very quickly the same morning from Solicitor Randolph Murdaugh.’
Sandy claimed to CBS authorities initially told her her son had been shot, but that within hours they said it was actually a hit-and-run.
There was no evidence of vehicle debris, skid marks or injuries consistent with someone being hit by a car and they were convinced that the victim had a gunshot wound above his right eye, according to the original incident report.
Convicted killer Alex is currently serving two life sentences for the murders of his son, Paul (left) and wife, Maggie (center left). He maintains his innocence
Smith was a classmate of Buster and was found dead on a rural road in the summer of 2015. An autopsy determined he was fatally struck in a hit-and-run
Sandy feared her son had been the victim of a hate crime.
Rumors swirled in the small town that Buster may have been romantically linked to Smith prior to his death, but these claims were never substantiated and Buster himself vehemently denied them.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division launched a homicide investigation into Smith’s death almost two weeks after Alex Murdaugh shot his wife Maggie and son, Paul in June 2021.
He was convicted over the killings in 2023 and is serving two consecutive life terms without possibility of parole.
Smith’s family raised more than $60,000 after Alex’s conviction to have his body exhumed for a private autopsy.
Murdaugh, a high-profile attorney in South Carolina’s Low Country, called 911 to report that he had found the bodies of his wife and son on their sprawling Moselle estate in rural Colleton County.
Police arrived to find Maggie and Paul shot dead. Investigators determined that two firearms had been used. Although Murdaugh initially denied involvement, officers soon began to unravel a web of financial mismanagement, embezzlement, fraud and drug abuse.
Three months later, Murdaugh – while under suspension for the alleged murders – was shot in the head as he changed a tire on his black Mercedes-Benz SUV.
In March 2023, Murdaugh was convicted after a highly publicized trial to two consecutive life terms without possibility of parole for killing his wife and son
Buster sat through the entire trial and supported his father. He maintains he had no involvement in Smith’s death, has never been named as a suspect or charged
Authorities soon alleged that he had arranged the shooting himself by hiring distant relative Curtis Edward Smith in a failed suicide-for-hire plot so that Buster could receive a $10 million life insurance payout.
Murdaugh was ultimately also convicted of dozens of financial crimes ranging from embezzlement to money laundering.
In addition to his life sentences, Murdaugh was sentenced in federal court in April 2024 to 40 years for financial crimes involving millions stolen from clients and colleagues – a sentence that was to run concurrently with his state prison terms.
A source close to Buster recently told DailyMail.com that, though he believes his father to be innocent of the murders, he is ‘really angry’ at the sweeping financial crimes that Murdaugh was subsequently convicted of.
‘He’s living his life but he doesn’t really have too much going on,’ a member of his inner circle said.
‘He’s pretty directionless, but he’s figuring it out.’
But last month Buster married his long-term girlfriend Brooklynn White, 29, in an extravagant ceremony surrounded by family and friends.
The couple chose the exclusive Coosaw Point – a luxury riverside community – for their nuptials, where a 50-person wedding will set a couple back around $26,000 for the venue costs alone.
