Murdaugh Murders Podcast - TSP #44 - Feds Fight For PMPED & Palmetto State Bank. Did Cory Provide Evidence? + Becky Hill’s Absurd Presser

Episode Date: March 28, 2024

On today's True Sunlight Podcast, Co-hosts Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell break down what happened at Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill’s pathetic last attempt at staying in the post-Alex Murdaugh spotlight and why there might be more to the story about Becky’s pick for a replacement.  Also on the show, the federal government files a 126-page response to Russell Laffitte’s appeal, proving once again that they fight the hardest for victims … and, to them, the victims are Alex’s old law firm and Russell’s family’s bank.  Plus, Mandy and Liz put together a timeline surrounding Alex’s failed polygraph with the FBI. He was asked where $6 million in unaccounted stolen money went and didn’t answer them truthfully. But why did they ask that question when they did and do Cory Fleming’s and Peter Strauss’ cases have anything to do with it? Stay Tuned, Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight...☀️ In March we’re offering your first month of Soak Up The Sun membership for 50% off. Join Luna Shark Premium today at Lunashark.Supercast.com. Premium Members also get access to searchable case files, written articles with documents, case photos, episode videos and exclusive live experiences with our hosts on lunasharkmedia.com all in one place. CLICK HERE to learn more: https://bit.ly/3BdUtOE. And for those just wanting ad-free listening without all the other great content, we now offer ad-free listening on Apple Podcast through a subscription to Luna Shark Plus on the Apple Podcasts App. Or become a Premiere Member on YouTube for exclusive videos and ad-free episodes. SUNscribe to our free email list to get that special offer for first time members, receive alerts on bonus episodes, calls to action, new shows and updates. CLICK HERE to learn more: https://bit.ly/3KBMJcP Visit our new events page Lunasharkmedia.com/events where you can learn about the upcoming in-person and virtual appearances from hosts! And a special thank you to our sponsors: Microdose.com, PELOTON, and VUORI. Use promo code "MANDY" for a special offer! For current & accurate updates: TrueSunlight.com facebook.com/TrueSunlightPodcast/ Instagram.com/TrueSunlightPod Twitter.com/mandymatney Twitter.com/elizfarrell youtube.com/@LunaSharkMedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I don't know how it got this bad, but I am furious. I am furious at Becky Hill, who chose to remind the world on Monday that she hasn't learned a thing. I am furious with the feds for actually believing Elick Murdoch would pass a lie detector test and offering a foolish deal based off of that improbable request. I am furious with the South Carolina Attorney General's office, who is showing zero concern about the Colucci murder trial coming up in May.

However, I am more convinced than ever that sunlight is the only solution in the land of no consequences. My name is Mandy Matney. This is True Sunlight, a podcast exposing crime and corruption previously known as the Murdoch Murders podcast. True Sunlight is a Luna Shark production written with journalist Liz Farrell. Well, guys, it's the end of another era. Sort of.

Becky Hill is no longer the Colleton County Clerk of Court. And true to Becky's style, she announced her resignation in the strangest, most dramatic way possible, in front of a pack of reporters outside of the Colleton County Courthouse. Now, I have been a small-town journalist for over a decade, and before this week, I've never seen a Clerk of Court hold a press conference ever. While the position is elected, it is more of a behind the scenes, ensuring the court is functioning type of job. It is not a spokesperson job.

It is not a job that warrants resignation speeches. But y'all know the Murdoch story and the players in it are full of firsts. And wow, Becky was on brand Monday morning. Now, we knew two things heading into Monday morning's press conference. We knew that Becky's co-author Neil Gordon said on the Surviving the Survivor podcast over the weekend that he met with Sled on Friday to discuss Becky in their book. Meaning, the investigation into possibly abusing her role in office is still ongoing, and it's

pointed at her. We also knew, thanks to reporter Drew Tripp at ABC News 4, that Becky told her staff Monday evening that she would be resigning from the clerk of court position. So obvious girl math says the two have to be related, right? One would think? And if she's holding a press conference, that means that she is doing something beyond resigning, right? Silly me.

I thought she would be finally apologizing to her constituents, to the people of South Carolina, to the entire justice system she nearly compromised by shoving herself into the spotlight that she wasn't prepared for. I thought she would be apologizing to people like us, who gave her the benefit of the doubt when Dick and Jim threw her to the wolves, only to find out that she was a part of the

lie that hurt our team's reputation. And speaking of apologies, I recently looked back at some of the things I said about Becky and I will be the first to admit that I gave her way too much grace and I am sorry if I ever made you listeners feel sorry for this person. Because wow, she has turned out to be so much worse than I thought. Let's be clear, she's not Elick Murdoch bad, or anywhere near that. And her being awful does not mean that she tampered with the jury and that Elick deserves a new trial.

There was a whole hearing on that, and for a reminder, Justice Jean Toll determined that Team Murdoch did not meet the burden of proof when it came to evidence of jury tampering. We don't believe Becky, but we believe the jurors who testified. So Becky, being awful and needing to apologize, is separate from Elick Murdoch's jury tampering accusations. Becky should have said the words, I am sorry.

If nothing else, she could have said, I'm sorry for plagiarizing a story from a BBC reporter. She talked a lot about her grandchildren during her speech. What kind of example does stealing someone else's work set for children? Without admitting to criminal activity, a blanketed statement like, I got wrapped up and I am not proud of some of the things I did. And I am sorry for those I hurt would have gone a long way. That would have elevated this press

conference from should have been an email status, but no Becky out Becky'd herself Monday morning. And unfortunately her attorney Justin Bamberg stood beside her while she did it. So here is Justin from Monday morning. Good morning everybody. Good morning. And unfortunately, her attorney Justin Bamberg stood beside her while she did it. So here is Justin from Monday morning.

Good morning, everybody. My name is Justin Bamberg, myself, along with Will Lewis, our counsel for Ms. Becky Hill, the Colleton County Clerk of Court. Today will be brief, but today's important. Obviously, over the last few months, Miss Hill has really wanted to address her constituents. Obviously with things that were going on,

she has certain rights and she's got to protect herself, most of which came under the advice of counsel. And that, I think, has been lost on a lot of people with everything that's been going on is that as clerk of court you do have a constituency the residents here in Colton County and today could have occurred hiding behind a computer screen or hiding behind our lawyers and Miss Hill was committed to that not happening and I stand

respect her very much for So when Justin Bamberg sa okay, cool. Becky is fina the music and apologize. an entire bou press who traveled from a captured the moment before the demeanor of a small to

had done absolutely nothi everyone. It has been my to service your Colleton court over these past four years. The Clerk's Office has provided many services to the citizens of Colleton County. The Colleton County Clerk's Office is proud of our services and the significant impacts we have made in the history of South Carolina. Here at the Colleton County Courthouse you will find a full-service passport office with certified agents ready to help you as well as notary services and e-filing that has streamlined our civil processes. Another significant

impact in our clerk's office was in 2023. I knew this was going to be bad when she started bragging about her e-filing system, you know, using a computer in a courthouse in the year 2024. But then it got worse. When we had to manage one of the biggest trials in South Carolina history, our small town came together and made everyone proud. Managing a trial was such importance to the people of South Carolina,

as well as of the national and international media, interest and public scrutiny, and has caused me to reflect upon decisions involving my stay in the office of the clerk of court. Make everyone proud? What in the Barbie land is Becky saying right now? She is going to bring up that trial? Okay. So she has to say something, owning up to something, right? Wrong. And so after much reflection, I have decided

that it is best not to run again for re-election. I will now be able to focus on being a wife, a mother, and grandmother to my two gra be spending time with the most to me with the upcom to ensure that I provided Republican candidates who pursuing this position. I thank all of the citizens

voted for me, who have supported me, and who have stood by me. Okay, so the filing deadline to run for clerk of court is April 1st. She gave them a week. So that is an ample time. Two candidates have filed for that position, by the way. Wanda Taylor and Leslie A. Jamieson. But anywho, I was thinking, okay,

she is thanking people like she won an Oscar. Maybe this is where she shows some humility and acknowledges the Elick Murdoch sized elephant towering over her. But no. Becky then took a moment of silence for a Colleton County woman who died last week. I'm sure she was a beautiful person. But I really hope Becky got permission from the family to bring her name into the circus of a press conference. She said it with the vibe of someone who knew hard questions were coming so she blurted out that she knew someone who recently died. I hope that wasn't her intention, but I don't have a lot of hope for Becky anymore. Now, I know we are at the point of no return with Becky,

and this press conference absolutely should have been an email. She continued to speak like she is not a disgraced clerk of court under criminal investigation whose carelessness and taste for fame nearly jeopardize the most important verdict in South Carolina history. I also want to thank my amazing staff who work in the clerk of court's office for the

wonderful job that they have done and that they will continue to do. We are fortunate to have strong leadership within our office and I am proud to say that our clerk's office will seamlessly move forward. I look forward to all of the future holds and will finally remember the true amazing friendships that I have made while serving the incredible people of Colleton County. And so as we fix our eyes forward, I would like to announce also that my resignation as clerk of court will be effective immediately. Thank you." So again, she is under criminal investigation for allegations unrelated to the Murdoch murders

trial. I get that she cannot acknowledge specifics about that, as Justin said earlier. But a simple sentence or two, just recognizing that she did in fact disappoint the people of Colleton County, or that she stole someone else's work for her own book, that would have gone a long way. But she did not. Then Justin doubled down on behalf of his client, who put him in an unfortunate position. So let me be extremely clear. Today is not in response whatsoever to anything going on with any investigation or anything of that nature. And I'm gonna say that one more time.

Today is not in response to any new development of some investigation or anything like that. Today is about the people of Colleton County. There is still another week available for filing for the court's office and it is what it is. If Ms. Hill had stayed in office, the people of Collison County would be the ones who get distracted to a certain degree because there are a number of candidates running for clerk of court.

Those candidates have different things that they, different platforms that they want to campaign on. And it would be inevitable that if Becky was still serving while those candidates were campaigning every time they mentioned something, every time there's an article, every time there's a forum and candidates are discussing the future that they seek to create for the courthouse behind us, there will be a degree of a cloud over that because it will be talking about the sitting clerk, etc. So this decision was made wholeheartedly by Miss Hill for the benefit and to the benefit of the citizens of Colleton County.

Here is the thing. Becky gave the good people of Colleton County only five business days before the deadline to file for clerk of court. Couldn't she have made this decision earlier if she was truly concerned about the people of Colleton County? Justin again said that they would not be answering any questions about the investigation into Becky and where it stands. But he said again that her decision to resign was not a response to anything related to the investigation. A reporter pushed them on this, thankfully.

An old Barbie-land Becky had a very on-brand response. Without a doubt, my grandchildren. If you have grandchildren, you know. But you're saying your resignation had nothing to do at all with the investigation? Yes, sir. And then it got even weirder when reporters asked who would take over for Becky in the meantime and Becky pointed to a man named Gary Hale who was awkwardly standing behind her.

Becky was acting as if she took off her pageant crown and was given the power to decide who was next in line for the throne. Interestingly, she said Gary Hale would take her place. And yeah, that name should sound familiar. Hale was a bailiff during Ellic's trial, but in July, Becky did some finagling to get him promoted. Well, according to her emails, he is now deputy clerk of court, basically number two. Huh. Remember around the time Becky was promoting her book last summer, there was a big controversy

about the photo of Ellic lying in his cot reading a John Grisham novel during the trial? And that picture was taken from a courthouse security camera and it was posted on Facebook by Becky's co-author's wife. Well Becky was blamed for that in one of the ethics complaints, which she is still being investigated for. In her response to the ethics commission, Becky claimed that Gary Hale took that photo from his cell phone and then she later sent that photo to her co-author's wife. Sources have told us that Gary Hale is not the person who took that photo to her co-author's wife. Sources have told us that Gary Hale is not the person who took that photo.

But it is sure interesting that he got promoted right around the time the ethics complaints were filed, right? Ultimately the photo was not used in the book, nor does the photo have anything to do with Ellic getting a fair trial. But her ethics complaint alleges that she used her access as a clerk of court to obtain special material that was not public for her book. And let's just say, we hope that Sled and the Ethics Commission are still investigating those claims. So essentially, when asked who would take over for her, Becky pointed to the guy she blamed for one of her ethics debacles who recently got promoted from bailiff to deputy clerk. That is interesting.

But soon after the press conference ended, Governor McMaster released a statement appointing Judge Seth Yutse to the position. Which is another name that should sound familiar. Seth Yutze is the husband of Megan Yutze, the public information officer for Colleton County who Becky's son Colt was reportedly spying on last summer, for which he was charged with wiretapping around Thanksgiving. Y'all see how small these circles are? Phew. Gary Hale has not filed to run for clerk of court yet,

but if he does, let's just say we have found quite the paper trail between Barbie Land Becky and Gary Hale. And boy, do we have questions. Again, Sled's investigation into Becky Hill is ongoing. She is by no means in the clear of anything. While I have zero faith in Becky's moral compass right now, I hope she is smart enough to stay away from the clerk's office and books and the media. I hope she does focus on her family and her grandchildren right

now because after all she could be facing charges and jail time at some point. And we will be right back. So, I bet you thought we were done talking about Russell Lafitte. Turns out, not so much. Last Friday, the federal government filed its response to Russell Can't Admit Defeat Lafitte's whiny foot stomp of an appeal. And well, it's pretty epic. It's 126 pages with redactions. As you all know, we have mixed feelings about the federal government's involvement in the Murdoch cases. Obviously, it's the federal government. So at first, we were really encouraged that the FBI and the US Attorney's Office were going to investigate Elick Murdoch's criminal enterprise.

Maybe they could get to the bottom of this. But that was back when we were naive and thought the feds were the big guns and not as easily influenced by small town power players as local agencies seem to be. Now years later, we can all see that the fed's involvement was nothing more than them allowing Elec, Corey and Russell to use them in their attempts at getting the state to back off so they could have softer landings in a country club prison. Worse than that though, the Fed seemed to be super concerned with making sure PMPED and Palmetto State Bank got classified as actual victims deserving of financial justice.

And it's that last part that really gets us. But stick a pin in that thought for now. I just wanted to get that stuff out of the way before I complimented the US Attorney's Office for their response to Russell's appeal. In a lot of ways, almost all the ways actually, it's better than their original presentation against Russell in the courtroom back in November 2022 because they were able to lay out his crimes in a much more understandable format. Instead of the facts being split up in little pieces among the witnesses and among the exhibits, and instead of us having to remember a hundred different, very specific dollar amounts, everything was connected

and all the context was included in this file. Here's David with an example of that. On December 22nd, 2011, the day after Lafitte negotiated all of Hakeem Pinkney and Natasha Thomas' settlement money for Murdoch's benefit, instead of putting it in their conservatorships, Lafitte filed paperwork telling the probate court that Pinkney and Thomas' conservatorships had never received any money. He asked to close the Pinkney's conservatorship

because Pinkney had passed away in October 2011. He asked to close Thomas's because she had turned 18. Incredibly, just two weeks after he told the probate court that neither Pinkney nor Thomas needed a conservator and that he had not managed any money for either, he collected $75,000 in conservator fees from them. What a nice, crisp portrait of a criminal. So, Russell's chief complaint in his appeal is related to affidavits he got from jurors. Sound familiar? When these guys have nothing but the facts against them, they want to poke around in the jury room in the hopes that they'll find something that'll get that conviction overturned. As you all know, what goes on during

jury deliberations is meant to remain secret. So this portion of Russell's appeal and the government's response is redacted, which is very, very frustrating because it seems like Russell is making an argument that his jury was about to be hung and Judge Gergel ruined everything for him by removing two jurors after they had deliberated for more than 10 hours and that Judge Gergel ruined everything for him by removing two jurors after they had deliberated for more than 10 hours and that Judge Gergel should have declared a mistrial at that moment. And that might be the part the government is most worried about. Side note, after five months of talking about Elex Motion for a new trial and Becky Hill and the egg lady juror and the blanket juror and juror 630 with her flippity flops, it makes Russell's jury issues look quaint and easy. It's like

visiting your kindergarten class after your eighth grade graduation. We had no idea back in November 2022 just how far we were going to get from making macaroni necklaces and coloring in the alphabet. So Russell says that Judge Gergel erred when he decided to remove jurors 93 and 88 and replace them with alternates. The way it went down is this. About 10 hours into deliberating and after asking to rehear portions of testimony, the jury sent Gergel four notes in quick succession. Two were from juror 93. The first, and I'm going to paraphrase these, was like, I need to take my antibiotic at such and such time and it's at home. The second was like, PS, I feel pressured to change my vote in here. One note, again, I'm going to

paraphrase here, was from juror 88 who was like, replace me with an alternate because I am too stressed out in here. And one note was from an unknown number of jurors. And that note said, quote, a juror's previous court experiences influencing that jurors ability to discuss the trial in a group setting. And that this juror had made comments on, quote, having been bullied as a juror on previous trials and advised that the juror in question would not consider evidence in this trial, was hostile to hearing any debate from certain other jurors, and disagreed with the jury charge. Now, a jury charge is the instructions that a judge gives to the jury and it's what they're supposed to consider when making their decision for each charge against the defendant. The jurors who wrote

that note asked Judge Gergel to consider speaking to this issue so they could proceed with deliberations. Okay, so in response to that, the prosecution asked the judge to dismiss the juror who needed her medicine, to ask the juror with the anxiety whether she could do the job, and to remove the juror who wouldn't follow the law. The judge decided his plan of action would be to talk to the jurors with no one but a court reporter present and that he would take action as needed. He asked for all their opinions and thoughts on the matter. In the end, he decided to dismiss the two jurors with medical issues, meaning the one

who needed her medicine and the one with anxiety. The point of contention there for the defense is that they were surprised when he came back in the courtroom and told them that the juror with anxiety had been removed. Russell contends that the judge should have personally consulted with him first on that. As you can imagine, the state had a robust and well-informed response to that and all other points coming from the defense. All told, the response cites more than 90 cases and asserting its arguments. I'm not gonna go beat for beat with it because it's a lot. We'll make the full document

available to premium members in case anyone wants to dive in further. But back to the thought that I told you to stick a pin in earlier, the fact that the federal government's greatest achievements so far is that they're the ones responsible for classifying PMPD and Palmetto State Bank as victims. During Russell's sentencing hearing in August of last year, this wasn't apparent by the way, it wasn't until I got back to my hotel room and talked with sources that I understood what the federal government had done. And it wasn't until his sentencing sheet was filed that we could see it in black and white. The only two parties listed on Russell's criminal monetary

penalties page were PNPAD for $1.2 million and the bank for upward of $2.3 million. Remember, Judge Gergel didn't fine Russell. He just ordered him to pay restitution. Plus, he waived interest for Russell, meaning Russell can essentially take his sweet time in paying that back to an extent. And the reason Judge Gergel waived that interest is because he had determined, without investigation,

according to the government's 126-page response, that Russell couldn't financially handle the burden of interest. But here's the thing. During the sentencing hearing, it came out that Russell had $10 million in assets and a $5 million debt burden. It wasn't clear if that burden included the restitution. But in his pre-sentencing report, the U.S. Probation Office determined that Russell could

afford to pay around $4 million in fines and restitutions. In his pre-sentencing report, the U.S. Probation Office determined that Russell could afford to pay around $4 million in fines and restitutions. Again, the fine was $0.00. The government of the United States declined to fine Russell Lafitte in lieu of making sure there was enough money to pay his victims, which would be great if those victims weren't PMPED and Palmetto State Bank. Because they were the gatekeepers. It would be great if those victims weren't PMPED and Palmetto State Bank, because they were the gatekeepers, the institutions that allowed for anomaly after anomaly after anomaly

from these clowns, whose responsibility was to protect their clients and customers from bad actors in their own companies. But victims? Like Mark Tinsley said, a five-year-old could have seen what Ellick and Russell were up to. And yet these two long-time historical businesses couldn't. Victims? It's sick. It's immoral and it's very close to being corrupt. There was no reason for the feds to step in with Russell, Corey or Ellick. At least none that we've seen so far. Maybe they'll wow us with some more co-conspirators by holding others

accountable but for now nothing. The state had it under control. The state was well within its right to prosecute these crimes that happened in South Carolina. The fact that the feds stepped in means it costs taxpayers more money and when Judge Gergel had a chance to recoup some of that money, he instead said, let's give it to the victims. And the victims are the people who, by simply doing their jobs,

could have stopped this in its tracks years ago. So yeah, the prosecution spent a sad amount of time arguing with the appeals court that Judge Gergel had made a mistake when he waived interest on Russell's payments to PMPD and Palmetto State Bank. Here's David with what they wrote. Buckle up because you're going to feel queasy

after hearing this. Lafitte's bank and Murdoch's law firm paid millions to make Lafitte and Murdoch's financially whole. Okay, sorry, we're only one sentence in and I have to cut in here because that's debatable. It's unclear how many victims received compensation, but we do know that many of the victims received only the amount of money that had been taken from them, with no consideration for inflation or the passage of time, which makes this next part even more sickening.

Lafitte has means to repay them, and every day he doesn't, the victims lose more money. Again, the victims are PMPED and Palmetto State Bank. They should be paid the statutorily mandated interest. And that's our federal government, ladies and gentlemen. But wait, there's more. Finally, the district court's error seriously affects the fairness, integrity, and public reputation of judicial proceedings.

Mandy, are you hearing this? Yep. It is unbelievable. Keep going, David. The Mandatory Victims Restitution Act makes restitution mandatory, and U.S. Code 3612 makes interest mandatory unless a defendant is unable to pay.

Lafitte is able to pay. Allowing him not to, despite the law's unequivocal directive, diminishes the purpose of restitution in making victims whole. It also weakens public trust in the criminal sentencing scheme by allowing similarly situated defendants to face desperate consequences. I swear, it is like they took the stuff we have been writing about them for years and found a way

to repurpose it to help PMPED and Palmetto State Bank of all people. If you don't make Russell pay PMPED and Palmetto State Bank interest, it will erode the public's trust in the criminal sentencing scheme? What? They should have read this out loud to themselves before committing it to the docket. Okay, David, give them the last part. I feel like blocking my ears for this.

Lafitte and Murdoch's crimes have attracted substantial attention from across the world, and they have seriously undermined public faith in the legal system, particularly in South Carolina, allowing Lafitte to escape paying required interest on the restitution he owes the victims. Meaning, PMPD and Palmetto State Bank. Y'all. Risks further eroding the public's trust

in judicial proceedings. The waiver of interest should be vacated, and the case should be remanded for factual findings on Lafitte's ability to pay. I think it's going to be a long time before I can forget that the U.S. Attorney's Office basically took one of our True Sunlight or Murdoch Murder Podcast scripts and turned our words around to benefit PMPAD and Palmetto State Bank. It's unbelievable. The public trust is going to be lost unless Russell Lafitte is forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the millions he already has to pay to

PMPAD and Palmetto State Bank. Now, prosecutors would argue back at us and say that the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act ties their hands here and that they're obligated to bring this to the court's attention, which sure, I get that. But who decided that PMPD and the banks were victims, America? It was you. As victims, the firm and the bank are now entitled to money

to cover associated expenses with any internal investigations they conducted and money lost as a result of the defendant's actions. Remember how we talked about that Murdoch economy and how it's cyclical? How money only ever seems to enter it and never seems to leave it? We saw this with Johnny Parker's personal jumbo loans to ELEC. We saw it with a complaint Johnny filed against ELEC atbo loans to ELEC. We saw it with the complaint Johnny filed against ELEC at a time when ELEC had been enlisting family and friends to help liquidate his assets to hide from the boat crash victims. We saw it when Johnny petitioned

for a slice of ELEC's assets and got in line with the rest of the victims. And we saw the same kind of thing coming from Randy Mardch too. There was no good reason for the federal government to insert themselves into a case that the state seemed to be managing just fine. Or fine enough anyway. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Yet. I want to say that part. There's no good reason that we can see yet for the federal government to have inserted

themselves into the Murdoch mess. No matter how many times we've been disappointed here, we continue to hold out hope that they will hold others accountable. Which brings us to Elec Murdoch's sentencing hearing, which is going to be held on Monday. But first, one last line from the government's response to Russell. Quote, these crimes would not have happened without Elec Murdoch, but they could not have happened without Russell Lafitte. See, it's moments like that when they really seem to get it, alas.

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Buy Heart, a better formula for formula. Learn more at buyheart.com. On Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. Attorney's Office filed a very interesting brief titled the government's motion to hold defendant in breach of plea agreement. I say interesting, but I really mean annoying. Because guess who lied to the federal government? The liar did. The biggest liar in all of South Carolina, Richard Alexander Murdoch Sr.

He did. Raise your hand if you predicted that would happen. Yep, that's a lot of hands. Like over a hundred thousand. The only hands not up appear to be the U.S. Attorney's Office, where they were like, huh, maybe this time, guys. So let me summarize this for you. The state indicted Ellic, Russell, and Corey.

Then in each of those cases, the federal government came in and was like, mine too, we want some of that. And then very redundantly charged them for all intents and purposes, for essentially the same crimes. Meaning we are paying for Ellic, Corey, and Russell to be prosecuted twice. Which would be fine if it wasn't for the dumbness of it and the lack of results by

the feds. It would be one thing if the feds came in with better cases, like if they arrested a whole ring of good old boys who helped Ellic become the monster he is today. But they didn't. They came in with rolls of cheap red carpet under their arms. And over and over and over, they gave Ellic, Corey, and Russell

leeway that they did not deserve. Beyond that, the only conclusion we can come to here is that the feds dipped in because they thought they could muscle the state out of the picture and that would leave Elec, Cory, and Russell with a chance at much better post-conviction lives. But that is not what happened, right? It backfired. And now, the federal government is left holding the silly bag on this one.

Okay, I will give him some grace here. Because with Tuesday's filing, there were some glimmers of hope. Before we get into it, remember when we did our Cory Fleming is Missing episode on October 5th? If not, it's True Sunlight episode 19 in case you want to go back and listen. A quick refresher though. In mid-August, Corey was sentenced by the federal government. He was taken into custody immediately afterward but was taken to the Charleston County Detention Center where he continued to be held until his state

sentencing in mid-September. Because he was sentenced by the federal government first, he was to be taken to a federal prison to serve out that time, about four years, and then he'd be returned to state custody to serve out the rest of his state sentence. But then he went missing. And here's what I mean by that. Neither Charleston County Detention Center nor the Bureau of Prisons could confirm that he was in their custody and he appeared in neither of their online databases as an inmate or prisoner. Why? Well, back on October 5th, one of our theories was that Corey was turning states evidence and trying to get a reconsideration for his unexpectedly hefty state sentence, which brings us to now. We think there's a

timeline here that has some significance anyway. So, okay, to start with, here's David with the sterling opening paragraph to this motion. When he pleaded guilty, the defendant, Richard Alexander Murdoch, agreed to be fully truthful and forthright with the government by providing full, complete, and truthful information about all criminal activities, about which he has knowledge, and to submit to a polygraph examination. I want to point out that the emphasis on the all of all criminal activities was the government's and not ours, because it sounds like Ehrlich might have given them some info but was holding out in the places where it

counted. Here's David with the rest of that opening paragraph. In exchange, the government agreed to recommend Murdoch's federal sentence be served concurrently with any state sentence imposed for the same conduct. Murdoch has failed to cooperate as required under the plea agreement and has failed a polygraph examination administered at the government's request. Murdoch thereby deprived the government of the benefit of its bargain. The government requests the court find Murdoch breached in the plea agreement and relieve the government of its obligations.

Now, the timeline here is very interesting. And I mean that. It is actually really, really interesting. So, we all know in March 2023, Elick was convicted for killing Maggie and Paul, and that before that, he had forced the state to give him a speedy trial, making it so he would be tried on the biggest charges first, then

tackle the financial thefts. The strategy there, of course, was, see if we can get him off the murder charges, then get the federal government to indict Ellic, and then sentence him before the state can prosecute him for those same crimes. Get him the lowest federal sentence we can negotiate and get him transferred to Club Fett. When he was found guilty, that changed things. But by April, he and his team were already hot on the heels of his jury, trying to cobble together

some after-discovered evidence they could exploit to get Ellic a new trial. In May, Ellic was indicted federally. Then in June, July, and August, ethics complaints were filed against Becky, accusing her, among other things, of having an abnormal relationship with Ellic's jury. And in July, she published her book, further handing Ellic and his team evidence to exploit her in order to get a new trial. Oh, and also one juror, a juror who was removed and Dick's paralegal signed affidavits accusing

Becky of jury tampering, gave Ellic some light at the end of the tunnel on his Plan B. I say Plan B, but actually this time, Ellic was like on Plan M. So many things hadn't gone his way. That said, between April and August, Ellic and his team truly seemed to believe that they found an exit door for him on those state murder charges. At the end of the summer, in early September, shortly after they announced their motion for a new trial

and publicly accused Becky of jury tampering. And shortly after their ELEC approved Fox Nation documentary aired, ELEC was in good spirits. He really thought they were going to pull this off. Because right after that came the plea deal with the federal government. The state still had not scheduled a date to try him on the financial charges. And there was a fair chance that they might not be able to do it before Elick got sentenced by the feds. Not only were Dick and Jim trying to get Judge Newman disqualified and constantly reminding

him that he was about to retire, Dick almost threw himself down on the tracks to stop the Creighton Waters freight train. They needed to get to the federal finish line before the state had their bite of the apple. Now, during that time, before the plea agreement in late September 2023, Ellick had already met with the FBI three times, according to Tuesday's filing. He met with them on May 4th, which is shortly before he was indicted by the US Attorney's Office. And again on June 7th, you know, the anniversary of him killing Maggie and Paul. And again on August 18th, which is a day after Corey Fleming was sentenced in federal court.

Remember, at this point, Corey had only mildly cooperated with the federal government. He cooperated just enough to strike a deal where he only had to plead guilty to one charge. Now, a few things happened after Alex plea hearing at the end of September. One is, like we said, Corey disappeared from the public databases and we couldn't get anyone at the Bureau of Prisons or South Carolina Department of Corrections or the Charleston County Detention Center to tell us where he was. The day after our Where is Corey Fleming episode aired on October 5th, he suddenly popped up

on the Bureau of Prisons page. Again, why did Corey's seeming disappearance stick out to us? It's because we were told that it could be an indication that he was turning state's evidence. A few weeks after he popped up again, and this was on October 17th, Hilton head attorney, sorry, suspended Hilton head attorney, Peter Strauss was charged with one federal charge of removing property to prevent seizure in relation to a billion dollar Ponzi scam out of California. If you don't remember who Peter Strauss is, you can learn more about him in two previous

True Sunlight episodes, number 29 and number 38. Long story short though, we had reason to believe that he, Peter Strauss, might hold some answers as to where Elick had stashed his money because we knew Peter specialized in offshore asset management and that he had crossed paths with Corey and that Elick had made one or two trips possibly to the Bahamas on private planes after Maggie and Paul died and before he was arrested that fall. Now, Peter's federal charge came nearly four years after he ended up on the federal docket and his indictment was sealed for months until last month.

He is set for federal sentencing on April 29th, by the way. So a few weeks after Corey went missing and one day after Peter Strauss was charged in a sealed indictment, Elec Murdoch met again with the FBI. This time, they held him to the plea deal and hooked him up to a polygraph. Here's David with what the government had to say about that. Although Murdoch accepted responsibility for the charged criminal conduct and admitted the involvement of his co-conspirators, Russell Lafitte and Corey Fleming, the government believed Murdoch had not been fully truthful as required under the plea agreement. Despite numerous interview sessions during which the government gave Murdoch every opportunity to be fully truthful and forthright, the government decided to polygraph Murdoch every opportunity to be fully truthful and forthright.

The government decided to polygraph Murdoch on issues related to hidden assets and the involvement of another attorney in Murdoch's criminal conduct. On October 18, 2023, an FBI polygraph examiner administered a polygraph examination of Mardoch in two separate series on two topics of interest. Another attorney you say? Interesting, right? Again look at the timeline. All in October. Corey panics about his hefty state sentence a month before this polygraph. Then he disappears from the public custody logs,

which sources told us could be a sign he was turning state's evidence. Then Peter Strauss is indicted, whom Corey knew and whose sources said might hold the key to where Ehrlich's stolen money went. Then, the FBI decides to polygraph Elick the next day in what was a fourth meeting with him. But here is the weird thing. What the government seems to be saying here is that even though they entered into a plea deal with Elec Murdoch

at the end of September, a plea agreement that was fully based on Elec's promise to be truthful, they did so knowing that he had not been honest with them. Why do I say that? Because three of the four meetings that Elec had with the FBI that they cited in Tuesday's motion took place before the plea deal. Only one meeting happened afterward and that was the meeting where he was polygraphed, which they did because they didn't think he had been truthful before that. So what happened there? Either the government learned some new information between the time they entered into their dumb

but hopeful agreement with Elick and when they polygraphed him a few weeks later, or they knowingly entered into an agreement with a liar and the joke is on all of us. And now we're going to have to listen to Dick and Jim squawk about false pretenses. Speaking of Dick and Jim, aren't you curious about how they're going to handle this on Monday? Remember when they tried to get cousin Eddie's polygraph admitted into evidence because Eddie had shown some signs of deception when asked if he knew what happened to Maggie and Paul and whether he was at Moselle that night,

they argued in favor of polygraphs back then. If they even tried to question the authority of Ellic's polygraph, I hope Emily Limehouse and her team are prepared to interrupt Dick with a spirited remix of his own sputtering voice, huffing and puffing its way through a courtroom monologue in front of Judge Newman about how polygraphs are amazing. Okay, all of that said, on March 15th, Judge Gergel issued an order giving Dick and Jim notice that he planned on considering an upward variance

of the sentencing guidelines provided in the pre-sentencing report. Then on March 18th, the prosecution alerted Dick and Jim that they plan to file a motion telling the court that Ellic is a big fat liar and they want to be released from the plea deal. So we are going into this April 1st sentencing not knowing whether Ehrlich is the fool or the federal government is. Hopefully it is the former and not the latter.

And hopefully this motion is a sign that the feds are actually on to something here. Because in the motion, they mention that $6 million in stolen money remains unaccounted for, and that Elick failed his polygraph when asked about that money and where that money is. Now, after hearing the government's earnest plea to the appeals court to vacate Judge Gergel's waiver on Brussels having to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest to PMPED and Palmetto State Bank, we have to question, is the federal government actually interested in tracking down ELEX money? Or is this another assist to PMPED and the bank?

Is this just the federal government trying to get more money in the pot for the law firm and the bank to have. I guess we will know the answer to that when we see who they list on ELEC's restitution page. ELEC is set for federal sentencing at 10 a.m. Monday, April 1st. Lunashark will be there and we plan on reporting live for premium members only on the cases against Elec Murdock Discord thread. As y'all know, during the height of the Murdock story, we often would find ourselves in the middle of writing a script for the show and right before the deadline, there would be

breaking news that would totally upend our plans. It happened almost every week, to the point where it became a running joke. Well, it totally happened to us again this week. We got sidelined by breaking Murdoch News. Because of course. So we will pick up where we left off with the Michael Colucci case in the Stephen Smith case next week. In the meantime, there are a few things that we just have to talk about regarding Kaluci. Over the past week, we have learned several disturbing things about the Michael Kaluci case.

The first is the stack of police reports that we have gotten back from Beth Braden's various FOIA requests. These police reports tell a story of what kind of person Michael Kaluci was before and after his wife Sarah was killed. The second thing that has been really disturbing, Beth Braden has been extra pesky with the South Carolina Attorney General's office. But they can't seem to answer simple questions about Michael Colucci's bond conditions. Where is he living? Does he have an ankle monitor tracking him? Does Is anyone checking police reports and making sure he is staying out of trouble? These questions should have very clear answers.

We are talking about a man out on bond for murder. A man who has been out on bond for murder for nearly 8 years. We are talking about a man who has been out on bond for murder for nearly 8 years. For example, when Beth asked if Michael Colucci had an ankle monitor, the AG's office spokesperson answered included the words, Pretty sure. This is disturbing because it feels like the Attorney General's office is not on its A-game with Michael Colucci.

And the trial is quickly approaching and there is no telling what kind of tricks Andy Savage has up his sleeve. We need the AG's office to take the Colucci case seriously. And sunlight is the only answer. Get ready for a deep dive into the Kaluji case and an extra deep dive on Lunashark Premium as the May trial date gets closer. Sarah Lin's family and friends

have waited almost nine years for justice. There should be nothing pretty sure about this case from the AG's office. They acted pretty sure the last time and it landed with a mistrial. Stay tuned, stay pesky, and stay in the world. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. True Sunlight is a Lunashark production created by me, Mandy Matney, and co-hosted by journalist Liz Farrell.

Learn more about our mission and membership at lunasharkmedia.com. Interruptions provided by Luna and Joe Pesky.