Former clerk in Alex Murdaugh murder trial arrested, charged in connection with alleged crimes while serving as county official

Rebecca Hill, a former court clerk who worked on the Alex Murdaugh murder trial, was arrested Wednesday and faces multiple charges in two South Carolina counties from her time as a county official.

Hill, 57, was charged with one count of obstructing justice and two counts of misconduct in office in Colleton County, a sheriff’s department spokesperson said. All three allegations are felonies. 

Hill also faces a misdemeanor charge of perjury in Richland County, according to a press release from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

Hill was booked into the Colleton County Detention Center and released after posting a $30,000 bond — $10,000 for each charge in Colleton County. She was then processed at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Richland County, where she remains in custody, the facility’s website shows.

Hill’s attorney, Will Lewis of the South Carolina-based firm Richardson Thomas, LLC, said Thursday they “will not be releasing a comment at this time.”

Murdaugh, 56, was convicted in 2023 of murdering his wife and youngest son. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, which he is serving alongside a separate 27-year sentence for financial crimes.

Murdaugh’s legal team has long accused Hill of witness tampering during the 2023 murder trial. Hill has denied any jury tampering.

“We are aware of the charges filed against Becky Hill and while these developments are serious, they are not surprising,” Murdaugh’s lawyers, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, said in a statement. “We have long raised our concerns about her conduct during and after the trial and this arrest further underscores the need to protect the integrity of the judicial process.”

In 2024, Murdaugh’s attorneys appealed the murder and weapons charges because they claimed Hill violated ethics codes and prejudiced jurors to allegedly presume their client’s guilt. The attorneys also accused Hill of allowing her personal motives to influence her professional conduct to promote a book she co-authored on the trial.

Ultimately, the judge presiding over the case rejected the appeal, and Hill later resigned from her position.

Warrants obtained by CBS News show that Hill’s charges are related to her time as a Colleton County court clerk.

The obstructing justice charge stems from a Feb. 28, 2023, incident when Hill allegedly made “sealed evidence” from the Murdaugh trial available to a third party, according to a warrant.

One misconduct in office claim stems from a June 7, 2021, incident when Hill allegedly breached her duty of accountability by using her public office to promote her book “Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders,” a warrant shows. The second misconduct in office charge is connected to actions that allegedly took place from Sept. 1, 2021, through March 5, 2024, when, according to a warrant, Hill “willfully, dishonestly and unlawfully” requested and received more than $10,000 in financial bonuses from the county government.

The perjury misdemeanor charge in Richland County allegedly took place on Jan. 29, 2024, when Hill told a judge, under oath, that she did not allow any members of the press to view sealed exhibits during the trial, according to a warrant.

CBS News has reached out to the Colleton County Clerk’s Office and the South Carolina Commission on Indigent Defense.

Emily Mae Czachor

contributed to this report.