COLUMBIA, S.C. (WSAV/WCBD) – A judge reinstated bond for Curtis Eddie Smith, an accomplice of convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh, in Columbia Monday afternoon.

Known to some as “Cousin Eddie,” Smith is facing charges tied to a failed suicide-for-hire plot in which Murdaugh allegedly paid Smith to shoot him on the side of a rural road, along with a slew of charges connected to drug and financial crimes.

Judge Clifton Newman granted the motion under the same conditions — a $250,000 bond with house arrest.

“I understand the significance of these cases as tied in with Alex Murdaugh and I totally understand the importance of the letter of my bond,” Smith told Newman. “Once I get on my property, no one going to drag me off.”

Smith will only be allowed to leave home for work, church, the grocery store and medical appointments for a significant back problem he says has gone untreated in jail.

The last time Smith was in court, Newman revoked his bond after prosecutors detailed the ways he did not follow the house arrest rules. This time, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office supported it.

“He has cooperated completely and we are asking, your honor, to take that into consideration,” said John Meadors with the AG’s office, “and the state is asking, your honor, respectfully, if he would reinstate his bond.”

Prosecutors say Smith was ready to testify against his Murdaugh in his murder trial and has been helpful to investigators in the other criminal cases against Murdaugh.

Smith, was indicted in June 2022 for money laundering, forgery, and trafficking methamphetamine on top of a previous indictment from a Hampton County Grand Jury for his role in that botched attempted suicide.