Joey Coleman: 'Violent' inmate at SC prison identified as man behind bomb hoax during Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial
WALTERBORO, SOUTH CAROLINA: Inmate behind the bomb hoax that delayed the double murder trial of Alex Murdaugh has been identified as a local prison inmate who is described as "violent." Joey Coleman, the bomb hoaxer's identity was confirmed by police on Wednesday night, February 22.
Creating chaos in Walterboro, South Carolina's Colleton County courthouse, Coleman made the threat by calling the clerk on February 8 during the trial which had to be evacuated as he claimed there was a "bomb in the judge's chamber," reported Daily Mail.
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Who is Joey Coleman?
Joey Coleman, 32, is a local drug dealer who was jailed in 2018 and was sentenced to serve 30 years. During a stick-up incident in Yemanese, South Carolina, after two store clerks were pistol-whipped, Coleman was taken into custody. The violent inmate, who remained in the Ridgeland Correctional Facility in Jasper County, possessed a contraband cell phone which was discovered by investigators after they traced the threat call.
Is there any connection between Murdaugh and Coleman?
According to the detectives, there is "no direct connection" between Murdaugh and Coleman. Following the bomb threat, Coleman has been shifted to Columbia's Broad River Secure Facility. Lawyers, public members, and the press were requested to leave the courthouse during the trial after the inmate called to falsely claim that a bomb was placed, according to Daily Mail.
Before the courthouse was evacuated, a police officer entered the place to signal the judge, and the jury was immediately moved out. The usually blocked rear doors were opened by a police officer and a court clerk which confused the members of the public and the lawyers. The trial was then allowed to resume after two hours following the search conducted at the building and concluding the threat to be false.
'I didn't shoot my wife or son, ever'
Murdaugh is accused of murdering his wife Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, on June 7, 2021, at their family's hunting estate in Moselle, located 20 miles from Walterboro. The disgraced legal scion who reportedly had the habit of chronic opioid intake was in the grips of the drug during the fatal shootings. It was also claimed Murdaugh bought pills worth $60,000 a week.
The former attorney who testified at the court on Tuesday, February 22, denied the double murder accusations against him. "I would never intentionally do anything to hurt either of them. Ever. Ever. I didn't shoot my wife or son, ever," he said sobbing while he testified in his defense. Recalling the moment he saw his wife and son lying blood-soaked on the floor, he broke down and told jurors, "Paul was so bad ... My boy was lying face down and I could see his brain hanging on the side wall."
Murdaugh's defense previously claimed that Curtis 'Eddie' Smith, the disbarred attorney's drug dealer cousin was buying from a violent local gang, Walterboro Cowboys but skimmed money off the top and suggested that the gang carried out a revenge murder against Maggie and Paul. If convicted, Murdaugh will face 30 years to life in prison.