Former SLED investigator who testified at Alex Murdaugh trial fired from Charleston County Sheriff's Office

Former South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) researcher Ryan Kelly was fired from his presumption arsenic main inspector for the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office connected June 8, the bureau confirmed to Fox News Digital.

Kelly oversaw the sheriff’s office’s Office of Professional Standards, which handles interior affairs matters. His termination followed allegations of harassment and improper conduct.

Kelly was antecedently a cardinal SLED cause during the high-profile investigations involving Alex Murdaugh.

His firing comes up of Murdaugh’s anticipated retrial and could rise questions astir past grounds and investigative enactment tied to cases successful which Kelly played a role.

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Prosecutor Savanna Goude questions SLED cause Ryan Kelly during the Alex Murdaugh proceedings astatine the Colleton County Courthouse connected Monday, Feb. 13, 2023. (Grace Beahm Alford/Pool)

Asked whether Kelly’s termination could impact the upcoming retrial, Murdaugh’s pb defence attorney, Dick Harpootlian, declined to comment.

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"Not astatine this time," Harpootlian told Fox News Digital.

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Alex Murdaugh is led into the Colleton County courthouse successful Walterboro, S.C., connected Feb. 28, 2023. He is connected proceedings for the treble slaying of his son, Paul, and wife, Maggie, successful June 2021. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)

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During Murdaugh’s archetypal 2023 trial, Kelly testified astir the September 2021 roadside shooting successful which Murdaugh initially claimed helium had been changeable by an chartless assailant portion changing a tire.

Kelly, past a SLED elder peculiar agent, was the pb researcher connected that incident. Prosecutors utilized the occurrence to amusement jurors what they described arsenic Murdaugh’s signifier of deception aft the murders of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul.

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Jurors heard grounds that Murdaugh aboriginal admitted helium had arranged for Curtis "Eddie" Smith to sprout him truthful his surviving son, Buster, could cod a beingness security payout.

The roadside shooting was abstracted from the June 2021 murders, but it became a cardinal portion of prosecutors’ broader lawsuit 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 astatine the Beaufort County Courthouse successful Beaufort, S.C., connected Nov. 28, 2023. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP)

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Murdaugh, 58, was convicted successful March 2023 of murdering his wife, Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, astatine the family’s sprawling hunting property successful Colleton County successful June 2021.

He was sentenced to beingness successful prison, but his lawyers aboriginal pushed for a caller trial, arguing that the assemblage had been improperly influenced by erstwhile Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill.

The South Carolina Supreme Court reversed the denial of Murdaugh’s new-trial question connected May 13 and sent the lawsuit backmost to the circuit court.

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Murdaugh has denied sidesplitting Maggie and Paul. The brace were recovered changeable to decease adjacent the canine kennels astatine the family’s Moselle estate, a sprawling spot successful South Carolina’s Lowcountry.

Alex Murdaugh listens to Britt Dove, SLED cause specializer successful machine forensics, sermon accusation from his cellphone during his execution proceedings astatine the Colleton County Courthouse connected Feb. 1, 2023. (Joshua Boucher/The State/Pool)

Prosecutors argued Murdaugh killed his woman and lad to distract from his crumbling ineligible and fiscal satellite arsenic years of thefts and lies were closing successful connected him.

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His defence squad insisted helium was a loving hubby and begetter who had been wrongfully accused aft investigators zeroed successful connected him excessively quickly.

Although Murdaugh’s execution convictions were overturned, helium remains down bars connected abstracted financial-crime convictions aft admitting helium stole from clients and his erstwhile instrumentality firm. Prosecutors person said they mean to retry him connected the execution charges.