Chess games and a new job: How Alex Murdaugh is spending life behind bars

Disgraced former South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh scored a big legal win last week after the South Carolina Supreme Court agreed to hear his appeal for a new murder trial. 

But while he awaits the hearing, which bypassed a lengthy appellate process and could overturn his double life sentence, Murdaugh is playing chess “all the time” and working as a wardkeeper’s assistant in a state prison protective unit, his lawyer and state records say.

“He said there are really good chess players in there,” defense attorney Jim Griffin told NBC News on Thursday. “Alex is an affable guy. I am sure he has made friends.”

The strictly indoor extracurriculars, however, only occur in the eight hours Murdaugh spends out of his cell in the less-than-100-person unit separated from the prison’s general population. From Friday to Monday, he is “totally locked in his cell with no freedom of movement,” Griffin added. 

The new details of how Murdaugh is spending his time behind bars come amid reports the 56-year-old is “living it” up in state prison, where he has been housed since his conviction last year for fatally shooting his wife, Maggie, and their son, Paul, at their family hunting estate. He has also been sentenced on dozens of state and federal charges for bilking millions from his former law firm and clients for over a decade.

In a Wednesday podcast panel, Aimee Zmroczek, the lawyer representing Murdaugh’s co-defendant, Curtis Eddie Smith, alleged that Murdaugh has fully “adapted” to prison and is “living it up” while running a side business. In text messages to NBC News, Zmroczek said she heard the claims from “multiple inmates” who have “been involved with his dealings,” but declined to provide more information. 

“I was actually in prison yesterday. … Let me tell you, he is running that place,” Zmroczek said on the podcast. “He has a side gambling system.”

Griffin and the South Carolina Department of Corrections, however, immediately denied Zmroczek’s bold claims. 

“She doesn’t know what the hell she is talking about,” Griffin said, noting Murdaugh is not even housed in the prison Zmrocezek mentioned in the podcast, though he declined to name the correct facility out of fear for his client’s safety and privacy. “The claim that he is running a gambling ring is laughable because his contact is limited. They don’t even have cards back there, to my knowledge.”

“The Murdaugh economy rolls on. It’s just noise, it doesn’t matter,” he added.

Department of Corrections spokesperson Chrysti Shain said that Murdaugh remains in protective custody in a maximum-security prison and only interacts with people who live or work in his unit. Calling Zmroczek’s claims “not true,” she added that there is no record of the lawyer visiting Murdaugh’s “prison Tuesday or any day in the past two years.”

“The attorney described Murdaugh’s behavior, but she has not seen him nor has she visited the prison in which he is housed since he has been incarcerated,” Shain said. 

The South Carolina Department of Corrections’ report on Murdaugh shows that he has not faced any disciplinary sanctions since last August, when he was unable to use the phone for 30 days after abusing his privileges. That same month, he also lost his canteen privileges after “unauthorized use” of another inmate’s PIN. The prison report also shows that Murdaugh started a new job as a wardkeeper’s assistant on Aug. 14, a position he held twice before.

“Good for him,” Griffin said, admitting he did not know about the new work assignment even though he spoke to Murdaugh on Friday and has weekly phone calls. 

Eric Bland, who represents several Murdaugh-related victims and jurors from his murder trial, believes that while Zmroczek’s comments may be “a bit of embellishment,” he would not be surprised by some nefarious behavior under correction officers’ noses. 

“There is obviously an underground commerce in prison, people get creative and they are much more creative inside than outside. The prison system doesn’t condon a gambling operation, but a lot of things happen,” Bland said. “But don’t forget, it’s an extremely regimented, clock-driven lifestyle and you cannot make your own decisions. He is also in a maximum security prison and his interactions with people are extremely limited.”

And while Zmroczek’s comments describe a life behind bars that seems to be a scene out of “Goodfellas,” it does not seem completely impossible given the realities of prisons and clever inmates. Murdaugh’s lawyer, however, is not worried and is focused on their appellant cases. 

Last week, the state Supreme Court agreed to hear Murdaugh’s state appeal for a new murder trial based on allegations that a court clerk tampered with the jury that convicted him. Defense attorneys allege Colleton County court clerk Becky Hill told the 12-person jury not to believe Murdaugh’s testimony and other evidence and pressured a swift guilty verdict. 

“The legal principle of major importance is whether it is presumptively prejudicial for a state official to secretly advocate for a guilty verdict through ex parte contacts with jurors during trial, or whether a defendant, having proven the contacts occurred, must also somehow prove the verdict would have been different at a hypothetical trial in which the surreptitious advocacy did not occur,” his lawyers argued in a July appellant filing. 

While a date has not been set, the state Supreme Court hearing could lead to an overturn of a judge’s January decision that denied Murdaugh’s initial attempt at a re-trial. Former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal’s decision came after an evidentiary hearing into whether Hill’s comments during the trial influenced the jury. Toal ruled that while Hill was “attracted to the siren call of celebrity” even before the trial, the jury was not compromised. Hill has denied the allegations. 

“We are really looking forward to making our case to the Supreme Court,” Griffin said.