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Former South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) investigator Ryan Kelly was fired from his position as chief inspector for the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office on June 8, the agency confirmed to Fox News Digital.
Kelly oversaw the sheriff’s office’s Office of Professional Standards, which handles internal affairs matters. His termination followed allegations of harassment and improper conduct.
Kelly was previously a key SLED agent during the high-profile investigations involving Alex Murdaugh.
His firing comes ahead of Murdaugh’s anticipated retrial and could raise questions about past evidence and investigative work tied to cases in which Kelly played a role.
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Prosecutor Savanna Goude questions SLED agent Ryan Kelly during the Alex Murdaugh trial at the Colleton County Courthouse on Monday, Feb. 13, 2023. (Grace Beahm Alford/Pool)
Asked whether Kelly’s termination could affect the upcoming retrial, Murdaugh’s lead defense attorney, Dick Harpootlian, declined to comment.
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“Not at this time,” Harpootlian told Fox News Digital.
Alex Murdaugh is led into the Colleton County courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., on Feb. 28, 2023. He is on trial for the double slaying of his son, Paul, and wife, Maggie, in June 2021. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)
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During Murdaugh’s initial 2023 trial, Kelly testified about the September 2021 roadside shooting in which Murdaugh initially claimed he had been shot by an unknown assailant while changing a tire.
Kelly, then a SLED senior special agent, was the lead investigator on that incident. Prosecutors used the episode to show jurors what they described as Murdaugh’s pattern of deception after the murders of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul.
Jurors heard evidence that Murdaugh later admitted he had arranged for Curtis “Eddie” Smith to shoot him so his surviving son, Buster, could collect a life insurance payout.
The roadside shooting was separate from the June 2021 murders, but it became a key part of prosecutors’ broader case against Murdaugh.
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Alex Murdaugh talks with his attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin during his sentencing for stealing from 18 clients at the Beaufort County Courthouse in Beaufort, S.C., on Nov. 28, 2023. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP)
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Murdaugh, 58, was convicted in March 2023 of murdering his wife, Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, at the family’s sprawling hunting estate in Colleton County in June 2021.
He was sentenced to life in prison, but his lawyers later pushed for a new trial, arguing that the jury had been improperly influenced by former Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill.
The South Carolina Supreme Court reversed the denial of Murdaugh’s new-trial motion on May 13 and sent the case back to the circuit court.
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Murdaugh has denied killing Maggie and Paul. The pair were found shot to death near the dog kennels at the family’s Moselle estate, a sprawling property in South Carolina’s Lowcountry.
Alex Murdaugh listens to Britt Dove, SLED agent specialist in computer forensics, discuss information from his cellphone during his murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse on Feb. 1, 2023. (Joshua Boucher/The State/Pool)
Prosecutors argued Murdaugh killed his wife and son to distract from his crumbling legal and financial world as years of thefts and lies were closing in on him.
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His defense team insisted he was a loving husband and father who had been wrongfully accused after investigators zeroed in on him too quickly.
Although Murdaugh’s murder convictions were overturned, he remains behind bars on separate financial-crime convictions after admitting he stole from clients and his former law firm. Prosecutors have said they intend to retry him on the murder charges.