Solicitor stepped away from the 2019 boat crash investigation. Why not now?

Two years ago, when Mallory Beach went missing after a Sea Hunt boat crashed into a bridge piling near Parris Island, the area’s top prosecutor almost immediately stepped away from the investigation.

It was an ethical decision, his office said at the time.

Three of the boat’s occupants, including Paul Murdaugh, who was later charged in the crash, were related to employees in his office.

“It would be unethical for our office to be involved in prosecuting or sorting out the facts of any case in which material witnesses, potential defendants or victims have a familial relationship with someone in our office,” Jeff Kidd, spokesperson for the 14th Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office, wrote in 2019.

But Duffie Stone, 14th Circuit solicitor, is now refusing to say what role his office is playing in the investigation into who killed Murdaugh and his mother after they were found shot to death last week outside their Colleton County home.

The chief prosecutor, whose office has close ties to the Murdaugh family, has not responded to repeated calls and texts to clarify whether his office will step away from the case, as it did for the 2019 boat crash investigation.

The solicitor’s silence raises questions about potential conflicts of interest as the investigation continues. Given that the husband and father of the victims works part time for the office, why has Stone not said he will remove himself from prosecuting the case?

Police have not publicly announced a suspect and no one has been charged, but photos show investigators with Stone’s office speaking with a member of the Murdaugh family near the crime scene. They raise questions for Stone that he isn’t answering.

Stone and spokesperson Kidd have not answered numerous phone calls and texts from The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette seeking to clarify asking whether the office will step away from the investigation into the homicides of two members of the Murdaugh family.

The Murdaugh family’s connections to the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office run deep. Three generations of Murdaughs held Stone’s elected position for more than eight decades.

Alex Murdaugh, who called 911 and told police he had discovered the bodies of his son Paul and wife Maggie, works as a part-time prosecutor for the 14th Judicial Circuit, according to his attorney profile.

A photo taken by the Post and Courier newspaper shows investigators with the Solicitor’s Office speaking with John Marvin Murdaugh, Alex Murdaugh’s brother, near the crime scene last week. A video from Good Morning America shows the same investigators walking with Murdaugh.

Stone’s office handled the 2019 boat crash much differently — quickly stepping away before a person was charged.

In 2019, one day after a boat crash killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach, Solicitor Stone asked to be removed from the investigation because three people on the boat were related to employees of his office. Among the relationships, Paul Murdaugh, who was later indicted for the crash, was the grandson of former solicitor Randolph Murdaugh III.

“There was enough for us to say, ethically, we shouldn’t prosecute that case,” Solicitor’s Office spokesperson Jeff Kidd said at the time. “We moved early to make sure that law enforcement weren’t coming to us with legal questions.”

In response to criticism about the decision, the Solicitor’s Office’s Facebook page, operated by Kidd, commented on a March 6, 2019 Island Packet article that it would be “unethical” for the office to get involved.

Kidd added that the Solicitor’s Office is “not typically involved in a criminal investigation until after a law-enforcement agency brings a charge. However, it is not unusual for those agencies to seek guidance from our attorneys on legal questions involving their cases.”

It was “most prudent” to ask the S.C. Attorney General’s Office to intervene “to not delay an investigation or give anyone reason to question its integrity.”

S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson’s office took over prosecuting the 2019 case after Stone’s office stepped away. Called Wednesday, AG’s Office spokesperson Robert Kittle said that, as of Tuesday, the AG’s Office has not gotten involved in the double homicide investigation.

Asked if the AG’s Office asked the Solicitor’s Office to step away from the investigation, Kittle responded with an email statement: “We have the utmost confidence in the State Law Enforcement Division, which is conducting this investigation. Until the investigation is complete, any decision on a prosecutor is premature. No one has been charged yet so there’s no one to prosecute.”