"Shackled Alex Murdaugh is granted $20K bail but must return to rehab after being charged in 'suicide hitman plot' to defraud $10m in life insurance: Attorney reveals he is BROKE and has been addicted to opioids for 20 YEARS

Murdaugh, 53, was given bond of $10,000 for fraud and $5,000 each for conspiracy and false reporting

Bond hearing was held at Hampton County Detention Center Thursday after he surrendered for arrest

Lawyer says Murdaugh's 'financial condition is ruinous' and he is 'struggling every day' with opioid addiction

'This is a 20 year addiction, this is something he's struggling with every day. If somebody wants to see the face of opioid addiction, you're looking at it,' he said

Murdaugh was led into court cuffed and shackled, with no obvious sign of a gunshot wound to the head

He is accused of paying a hitmanto shoot and kill him as part of a $10 million life insurance scheme

He was arrested and charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and filing a false police report after surrendering to authorities Thursday morning

He checked into rehab for drug addiction days after the September 4 shooting and is being investigated over misappropriating funds from his law firm

Murdaugh's wife Maggie and son Paul were shot dead in June in a still unsolved double murder"

The plot thickens. Murdaugh knows hitmen? Whoa. The killer son and wife had to go? (speculation). This whole story stinks to high Heaven. NEVER turn your back on a Ginger..

"Alex Murdaugh wept as his attorney described his fall from grace and ‘ruinous’ financial state following the murder of his wife and son and a 20-year-opioid addiction at his bond hearing Thursday afternoon.

Murdaugh shuffled into the courtroom in Hampton County Detention Center shortly after 4pm today – he wore prison scrubs and was shackled hand and foot.

He cast his eyes down and his mouth worked constantly and nervously behind his mask as he sat before the judge.

He sat beside his attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin while his sister, Lynn Goettee sat taking notes in a seat directly behind.

Murdaugh, 53, was appearing on three charges insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and filing a false report.

Bond was set at $10,000 for the insurance fraud and $5,000 each for conspiracy and filing a false police report totally $20,000 – a fraction of the $55,000 bond set for his alleged co-conspirator Curtis Eddie Smith, who also faced more serious firearm and assault charges.

Speaking for his client, Dick Harpootlian pointed to his client’s previous ‘blemishless character ‘and appealed to the judge’s sympathies saying: ‘He has fallen from grace. But before any of this falling happened his wife and son were brutally murdered and that has had an extraordinary effect on him.

‘We ask you to allow him to go and heal himself. His financial situation is ruinous.’

He continued: ‘This is a 20-year-addition. Something he’s struggled with for years.’

In a moment of drama, Harpootlian appeared to play to the press who crowded the courtroom as he gestured to his gaunt client and 'if anyone wants to see the fact of what opioid addiction does, you’re looking at it.’

Harpootlian went onto claim that the June 7 murder of Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, 52, and younger son, Paul, 22, ‘put him over the edge.’"

Sauce: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9998485/Alex-Murdaugh-driven-JAIL-turns-paying-hitman-kill-him.html