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Criminal Justice

Trial gets underway for alleged hit man accused of shooting attorney for litigant friend

By Debra Cassens Weiss

November 13, 2024, 3:10 pm CST

A Hilton Head, South Carolina, man is on trial this week for attempted murder in an April 2023 shooting of a Greenville, South Carolina, attorney.

The defendant, Travis Douglass, is accused of shooting lawyer JP Baum outside his law office in a crime carried out for a friend who was being sued by Baum’s then-law firm, the Law Offices of Truluck Thomason, WYFF 4 reports. Baum survived.

Prosecutors say Douglass’ friend, architect David Smith, was sued for $1.7 million over construction issues, according to a prior WYFF 4 story. Smith bequeathed his house to his wife in a will on the day of Douglass’ arrest and died the next day after crashing his car into a pole while traveling 105 miles per hour.

Baum’s lawyer has said he wasn’t the intended target, according to WYFF 4. Baum was the same size as another lawyer who was the subject of a Google search by Douglass, the lawyer said.

Baum feared that he was dying, he said in a statement read in court, according to the previous WYFF 4 story.

“My right lung collapsed, and blood began to fill my lungs. As I started to take what I believed was my last breaths in this world, I called my wife to tell her I was dying, and that I loved her,” according to the statement.

Evidence in the case includes video of a man getting out of a scratched RV to look at an attorney’s car and then waiting in the vehicle for three hours before the shooting, the television station reports.

Douglass had an RV with the same scratch, prosecutors say. A bullet casing was under the seat. Cell tower information and receipts also put Douglass in the vicinity of the crime.

A prosecution witness also cited Google searches by Douglass and Smith, including a search by Smith for “maximum sentence for accessory after the fact.”

Baum has left the Law Offices of Truluck Thomason and now practices with Campbell Teague, according to an online bio.

He did not immediately respond to an ABA Journal request for comment.