Prosecutors confronted Alex Murdaugh for the first time about his presence at the dog kennels where his wife and son were killed.
The disbarred Lowcountry attorney emphatically denied killing his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, at the family’s rural Colleton County home on June 7, 2021. But he admitted first on the witness stand Thursday that he lied to investigators about being with Maggie and Paul at the property’s dog kennels shortly before the murders, after a video shot on Paul’s cellphone captured his voice at the scene.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters confronted Murdaugh about that statement Friday morning, pushing Murdaugh to admit he did not confess his presence there on June 7, 2021, to his friends, family or law partners before he first took the stand Thursday.
He also lied about his whereabouts to law enforcement, Waters said.
“Other than lying to them about going to the kennel, I was cooperative in every aspect of this investigation,” Murdaugh said.
“Very cooperative, except for maybe the most important fact of all that you were with the victims just minutes before they died,” Waters shot back.
Murdaugh’s attorneys were claiming in television interviews as late as November 2022 that Murdaugh was home napping when the murders took place 1,000 feet away from the house, and did not go to the kennels until he found their bodies more than an hour later. Multiple witnesses who know Murdaugh testified that the voice on the video belonged to him.
“You couldn’t deny it, so like so often before, you had to come up with another lie,” Waters said.
Murdaugh maintained that the story he told first Thursday was the truth — he visited briefly with Maggie and Paul at the kennels before leaving to visit his mother, Libby, and had no knowledge of or involvement with them getting shot to death.
Waters asked for details Friday on his interactions with his family at the kennels, and tried to determine how long he had been there. Murdaugh said he spoke to Maggie from a golf cart for a minute, then retrieved a chicken from his dog and then quickly left because it was hot.
Murdaugh initially testified that he dozed off briefly when he returned home, but his cellphone showed activity at 9:02 p.m., just minutes after he would have returned home, Waters said.
Murdaugh said he couldn’t recall specifically what he and Maggie had talked about, and Waters questioned why he couldn’t remember those details.
At one point, Waters asked him if the dogs were acting agitated as if there was anyone else nearby to the kennels that Murdaugh didn’t see.
“There wasn’t anybody around that the dogs didn’t know,” Murdaugh said. “There was nobody else around for them to sense.”
On Thursday, Murdaugh took the stand for more than five hours, speaking to jurors for the first time about the violent deaths of his Maggie and Paul.
Murdaugh also admitted to stealing millions of dollars from his clients and his former law firm, felony charges he faces in a separate trial.
Murdaugh effusively acknowledged that he harmed people close to him by stealing, but when Water asked him questions about specific cases, he would often claim he couldn’t recall details. He also gave unclear but often long-winded answers when asked about his admitted abuse of opioids leading up to the shootings.
“Can you just answer my question, and then you can explain all you want?” Waters said at one point.
“Well, I don’t recall, and here’s why,” Murdaugh said, before recounting the experience of the first oxycodone pill he ever took.
Waters questioned Murdaugh repeatedly about his drug use, and Murdaugh admitted he had a long-standing addiction to opioids.
“I had a pocketful of pills on me on June 8 when I sitting in the patrol car with David Owen,” Murdaugh said, referring to an interview he gave to the S.C. Law Enforcement Division agent investigating his wife and son’s murders the day after the killings.
Murdaugh testified that he could no longer sleep through the night without taking pills, and he needed to take them first thing in the morning to stave off the first symptoms of withdrawals. Many days he took more than 2000 milligrams of oxycodone, he said.
He recalled that his family confronted him about his pill use just weeks before the shooting, as shown in a text message investigators pulled from Paul’s phone. Murdaugh said he told Paul he would go to rehab as soon as they dealt with the charges Paul faced over a fatal February 2019 boat crash that killed Mallory Beach.
Waters also highlighted that Murdaugh said he was having “paranoid thoughts” and blamed that for lying to police about his whereabouts, and that he suffered from withdrawal symptoms.
“You talked about withdrawals, how strong they are, and they could make you anything,” Waters said at one point.
“Almost anything,” Murdaugh answered.
Murdaugh remained on the stand under cross-examination on Friday morning.
Murdaugh faces questions about finances
Murdaugh currently faces 95 separate charges related to financial crimes across 17 different indictments.
Prosecutors have alleged Murdaugh, facing mounting debt and financial pressure, killed his wife and son to turn the attention away from him — an allegation Murdaugh and his defense attorneys have denied.
The thefts stemmed from an almost two-decade long opiate addiction that Murdaugh said he developed after a series of botched knee surgeries following an injury while playing football at the University of South Carolina.
“On June 7 did you believe that your financial house of cards was about to crumble?” Griffin asked Murdaugh Thursday.
“On June the 7? Absolutely not,” Murdaugh replied.
For about two hours Thursday and into Friday morning, Waters questioned Murdaugh about his family, his hope to become solicitor one day and police lights he had installed on his car and a solicitor’s badge he used to keep for its “warming effect” on law enforcement.
He was asked whether he had encouraged survivors of the fatal 2019 boat crash not to talk to police.
But for most of the time, Waters centered his focus on Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes — and the victims.
“I misled them,” Murdaugh, a former lawyer, told Waters of his clients. “I did wrong. I stole their money.”
On cross-examination Friday, Murdaugh said he did not dispute the facts of his crimes, but would not provide any specific details.
“Do you have any independent recollection of a time that you looked a person in the eye,” Waters demanded.
“I’m sure I do,” Murdaugh replied. “I remember stealing from people. I remember lying to people.”
At times, the zealous prosecutor appeared to grow visibly annoyed as Murdaugh resisted giving specifics. He repeatedly demanded that the experienced former plaintiff’s attorney give him an example of a time he looked a client in the eye and lied.
“I would have had some conversations where I looked them in the eye. I would have had plenty of conversations where I didn’t look them in the eye,” Murdaugh replied.
Murdaugh disputed previous testimony, saying he never felt immediate pressure from the 2019 fatal boat case, his debt or discovery of missing fees at his firm on June 7, 2021.
He said on June 7, 2021, the day he was confronted by his firm’s CFO about $792,000 in fees that he had stolen from his law firm, he had no concern that his former law school roommate, Chris Wilson, would provide his law firm with incriminating information.
The conversation was not a confrontation, Murdaugh testified.
“On June the 7 she was almost apologetic,” he said.
Maggie’s death actually worsened his financial position, Murdaugh said.
She owned 100% of Moselle home and 50% of the Edisto Beach house, limiting his ability to use them for collateral or access to any equity in the properties. Before her death, Murdaugh said Maggie would have signed whatever paperwork he asked her to.
“She didn’t question finances,” Murdaugh said Thursday.
Murdaugh was more than $4 million in debt to Palmetto State Bank the day his wife and son were murdered. Despite a yearly seven-figure salary, Murdaugh barely had $70,000 spread across several bank accounts.
“I’m not quite sure how I let myself get where I got,” Murdaugh said Thursday. “It came from battling addiction for so many years.”
Could a jury believe Murdaugh?
Unclear how Murdaugh’s testimony went over with the jury, the audience — some of whom drove from all parts of South Carolina, even cross country — had strong thoughts.
“The longer he talks, the less credible he gets,” said Linda McLennan, who drove to Walterboro from Jacksonville, Florida, at 3:30 a.m. after hearing Wednesday that Murdaugh was going to testify.
Some were less sure of his guilt.
Angela McLaurin, from Edgefield, said Thursday she found Murdaugh’s side of the story convincing.
And others said Murdaugh’s testimony was weighed down by their distrust for Murdaugh, who has been exposed to years of public scandal.
“He’s already told us he’s a liar,” Janet Griffin, from Lenexa, Kansas, said Thursday “But you might feel bad for him.”
Griffin, no relation to the defense attorney, said her husband paid for her flight to the trial as a Valentine’s Day present.
“You try to have some empathy,” Columbia resident Kenny Sumner agreed Thursday. “But it seems he can turn on a dime if when it was convenient.”
Watching the jury closely, Sumner said he couldn’t get a read on whether they were swayed.
“They look intent. (They) look like they’re into it,” he said, “but no one is showing a lot.”
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