ST. MATTHEWS, S.C. — Rebecca “Becky” Hill, whose career as Colleton County clerk of court began in obscurity, rose to stardom and finished in disgrace, capped a bizarre subplot in the Alex Murdaugh murder saga Monday by pleading guilty to state charges of misconduct, perjury and obstruction of justice.

In a brief 35-minute hearing, Hill — accompanied by her lawyer Will Lewis of Columbia — pleaded guilty before Circuit Judge Heath Taylor in the main courtroom of the 112-year-old Calhoun County courthouse, a stately two-story red brick structure with tall white columns in front and an octagonal cupola topping the roof.

Taylor then sentenced Hill, 58, to probation. Sitting at the defense table with Hill was her longtime husband, Tommy Hill.

“You have been humiliated throughout the whole ordeal, but of your own doing,” the judge told Hill, referring to the Murdaugh murder trial. “A lot of folks got swept up in the hoopla of that whole trial. A lot of folks probably made a lot of money, but you didn’t.”

But, said the judge, “I don’t think this conduct warrants an incarcerated sentence.”

Before the judge pronounced sentence, he had listened to an impassioned plea for mercy and a noncustodial sentence by defense attorney Lewis.

“Mrs. Hill has accepted responsibility from Day 1,” Lewis told the judge, adding that because of her crimes, the once-respected Hill had lost her reputation and the respect of others. “She has lost her life. She’s given up her position. She faces shame every day. She’s on home detention right now in her home community.”

There is no risk that Hill, who had no prior criminal record, will ever commit another crime, Lewis said. Hill is a good person, a grandmother who taught herself American Sign Language to help her goddaughter, he said.

Special prosecutor Rick Hubbard did not make a sentencing recommendation.

In any event, Hill was the latest in a vortex of ruined human lives caught up in the Murdaugh saga, a cast of characters that included members of Murdaugh’s family, his law partners, his clients from whom he stole millions and two of his oldest friends, ex-lawyer Cory Fleming and ex-bank president Russell Laffitte, who are now serving time in federal prison for helping Murdaugh carry out various frauds.

Charges against Hill

Hill, who resigned her $101,256-a-year clerk of court job In March 2024, had been charged with obstruction of justice in the leaking of confidential court information to a reporter, as well as perjury for allegedly lying in a public hearing to Judge Jean Toal, a former S.C. Supreme Court chief justice, about the leak and giving other media people access to confidential court documents during Murdaugh’s 2023 trial. Media who received the leaks were not identified.

Hill was also charged with misconduct in office for allegedly giving herself nearly $12,000 in unauthorized bonuses in public money and using her public office of clerk of court in the courthouse to promote a book she wrote. Specifically, she used the office to make a YouTube video that promoted her book.

“She was using her office to make money, and you can’t do that,” Hubbard told the judge.

As part of the behind-the-scenes plea negotiations that led to Monday’s hearing, Hill brought a check for $11,880 as restitution for the bonuses in state and federal money she had given herself.

Hill will also have to serve 100 hours of community service, the judge said.

“Good luck to you, ma’am,” the judge said the hearing’s end.

All charges were misdemeanors except for perjury, which is a felony.

In a statement she read to the court, Hill said she knew she had let down the court, the community and people who trusted her.

“There is no excuse for my mistakes. I am ashamed of them, and I will carry that shame with me for the rest of my life,” Hill said.

Hill had been a popular media star at the 2023 six-week murder trial of Murdaugh, helping reporters and prosecutors, orchestrating juror and witness movements and finally reading the jury’s verdict of “guilty” as a television audience estimated in the millions watched. State Attorney General Alan Wilson was so taken by Hill, who has been described as being “full of a lot of Southern grace,” that he publicly called her “Becky Boo” and thanked her for her help after the trial.

Perhaps because of his closeness with Hill, Wilson selected Hubbard to be an independent special prosecutor in the case and work with investigators from the State Law Enforcement Division and the S.C. Ethics Commission to look into Hill’s conduct to see if criminal charges were warranted. Hubbard is the elected Solicitor for the 11th Judicial Circuit, based in Lexington.

After the trial, Hill wrote and had published a book, “Behind the Doors of Justice,” about the Murdaugh murder trial from an insider’s point of view. Published in mid-summer of 2023, just five months after the trial, it was the first of more than 20 non-fiction books — some top quality and others of uneven quality — to be published about South Carolina’s most sensational murder trial in years.

But within weeks, Hill ran into trouble.

In early September 2023, Murdaugh’s defense attorneys, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, accused her of tampering with the Murdaugh jury in an effort to get guilty verdicts — Murdaugh was accused of the double murder of his wife, Maggie, and son Paul — in order to hype sales of her book. Hill denied the allegation.

Then, in late December, 2023, it was revealed that Hill had plagiarized a section of her book from a veteran BBC reporter who had mistakenly emailed Hill a draft of her Murdaugh story. Hill admitted the literary theft.

The book was withdrawn from publication after selling about 14,500 copies, and embarrassing her co-author, Neil Gordon, who had nothing to do with the plagiarism.

Later Monday, Gordon released a statement that said in part, “I appreciate seeing Becky step up and take responsibility for her actions, including the charge of misconduct in office, as it was directly related to the book I co-authored with her. ... Sadly, poor judgment around our book had been a pattern for Becky, as we later learned she plagiarized its preface.”

After a hearing in January 2024 presided over by Toal, Hill resigned her post.

Toal ruled that any questionable contact by Hill with jurors in the Murdaugh case was not enough to overturn the verdict.

Murdaugh’s case is now on appeal in the S.C. Supreme Court with arguments before the justices scheduled for February.

Toal’s decision to hold as harmless Hill’s questionable contacts with jurors is one of the centerpieces of the attack on the verdict levied by Murdaugh’s attorneys. Murdaugh’s attorneys contend that because of the improper jury contacts, Murdaugh should get a new trial. Murdaugh, who is serving two life sentences in state prison, contends he is innocent.

Hubbard speaks on jury tampering

In his recitation of the charges against Hill, Hubbard told the judge his team of SLED investigators had also looked at jury tampering as a possible criminal charge.

Of the 12 jurors and two alternates that were questioned by investigators, only three described improper contacts by Hill — and they gave multiple and different statements that contained various inconsistencies, Hubbard said.

“Our standard of review is very different from the one the (Supreme) court will take,” Hubbard told the judge. “For us, it was, did action take place that rose to the level of crime, and if there was, could we prove it beyond a reasonable doubt?”

None of the jurors brought this information up to the judge at the time of the trial, Hubbard told the judge.

“All three of these jurors would be my key witnesses,” Hubbard said. “The inconsistencies would be insurmountable if I proceeded forward.”

Also, said Hubbard, SLED interviewed the 11 remaining jurors. “None of them corroborate these three jurors ... all of them denied everything that was said by Mrs. Hill ... I would be facing a trial with 11 witnesses coming in and saying ‘Everything the State (prosecutors) are saying is not true’.”

Harpootlian, one of Murdaugh’s lawyers who is handling Hill’s appeal to the Supreme Court, released a statement after her guilty plea.

“The guilty plea is not surprising. More importantly, the agency expected to impartially investigate these charges — SLED — has a vested interest in avoiding any outcome that would question the verdict of the initial Alex Murdaugh murder trial. If Becky admittedly perjured herself in the jury tampering hearing held by Judge Toal, what else could she have lied about?” Harpootlian’s statement said.

Media leaks

During the Murdaugh murder trial, Hill committed obstruction of justice by providing “unauthorized individuals with access to sealed exhibits in violation of a written order from the judge, Judge (Clifton) Newman, and also in violation of her duties as clerk of court,” Hubbard told the judge.

Specifically, Hubbard said, on Jan. 14, 2024, nearly a year after the Murdaugh murder trial had ended, SLED was advised that “several graphic crime scene photos that had been designated as sealed exhibits” during the 2023 trial had been made public. SLED also learned about other supposed sealed photos were popping up in text messages, Hubbard said.

Time stamps in metadata on the photos showed they had been taken during the trial Feb. 28, 2023, at 7:49 p.m. inside the Colleton County courthouse, Hubbard said.

“It was after hours, so there was no business going on in the courthouse,” Hubbard told the judge. A security card used by Hill to access the room showed she was in the room from 7:46 p.m. to 8:06 p.m., proving that she was in the courthouse at the time the photographs were taken and shared with others,” Hubbard said.

“These same photographs were then placed on Twitter and shared with others,” Hubbard said.

A member of the media told SLED that Hill had provided “multiple members of the media with unrestricted access to evidence from the Murdaugh murder trial including evidence from those sealed exhibits,” Hubbard said.

Those photos were not supposed to be made public, Hubbard said.

“Obviously, it violated a judge’s order and threatened the integrity of the trial itself,” Hubbard said.

In a separate offense involving media leaks, Hill committed perjury during a Jan. 2024 hearing when during her sworn testimony she lied to Judge Toal, Hubbard said.

While Hill was on the witness stand, Toal questioned Hill about the sealed photo exhibited, asking if she ever allowed “anyone from the press to view the sealed exhibits,” Hubbard said.

Hill replied, “No, ma’am.”

Toal then asked Hill if any “press people were ever allowed to view the exhibits, even the sealed exhibits which you had on file,” Hubbard related.

Again, Hill replied, “No, ma’am.”

Hubbard did not identify any member of the media who received the special treatment from Hill.

SLED had a contingent of agents who worked on Hill’s case in the courtroom Monday. They were Jeremy Smith, Peter Rudofski, Adam Slizewski, Allison Fitzgerald, Matt Brown and Dylan Hightower.

With Hubbard were deputy solicitor Suzanne Mayes, assistant solicitor Bruce Norton and assistant state attorney general Ben Alpin.

Two Ethics Commission investigators were also present — former staffer James Bagnall and current staffer Ryanne Caldwell.

Ethics Commission alleged violations against Hill are still pending.

Judge Taylor, who was appointed to oversee Hill’s case, chose to hold Monday’s hearing in Saint Matthews, the small rural county seat of Calhoun County, about 35 miles south of Columbia.

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