A South Carolina judge denied a request on Monday from Russell Laffitte, Alex Murdaugh’s friend and the former CEO of Palmetto State Bank, for a new trial in his financial crimes case just days after Murdaugh was found guilty of murdering his wife and son in 2021.
Laffitte was convicted in November 2022 on six financial crime charges related to Murdaugh’s decade-long corruption schemes totaling millions of dollars.
“Viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the Government and analyzing whether any rational trier of fact could find the essential elements of the crimes charged beyond a reasonable doubt, the Court finds Defendant has failed to meet his burden for judgment of acquittal,” U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel wrote in a Monday order.
Prosecutors in Murdaugh’s double murder case said the former lawyer killed Maggie and Paul Murdaugh to distract from financial misdeeds, which Murdaugh admitted to on the witness stand.
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Former Palmetto State Bank CEO Russell Laffitte exits federal court in Charleston, South Carolina, on Sept. 6. ((John Monk/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The Laffitte and Murdaugh families rose to South Carolina prominence around the same time in the early 20th century, when the Lafittes founded Palmetto State Bank, and the Murdaugh family began a personal injury law firm.
Three generations of the Murdaugh family served as top prosecutors in the South Carolina Lowcountry, effectively occupying the seat for 86 years.
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Laffitte helped Murdaugh steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from six of the former lawyer’s clients, according to federal prosecutors.
Mugshots for Alex Murdaugh, left, and Russell Laffitte from Wednesday, July 20, 2022. (Richland County Detention Center/Kershaw County Detention Center)
While the initial indictment did not mention Murdaugh by name, it said Laffitte collected nearly $392,000 in fees for serving as a personal representative for the six clients of a “personal injury attorney at a law firm in Hampton, South Carolina,” according to a July press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of South Carolina.
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The clients included two sisters, Alania Spohn and Hannah Plyler, who were injured in a 2005 car accident that killed their mother and brother when they were children.
Former Palmetto State Bank CEO Russell Laffitte, center, walks out of the federal courthouse in Charleston, South Carolina, on Aug. 24 after he was arraigned on a new fraud charge. (John Monk/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Laffitte transferred personal loans to himself and Murdaugh from the six conservator accounts, and they used the funds for personal expenses, prosecutors said during his trial last year.
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Murdaugh, who was convicted on March 3 in his wife Maggie and son Paul’s June 2021 murders, faces 99 counts of financial crimes spanning 19 indictments that allege he stole nearly $9 million through various schemes.
