by Disgraced former attorney Alex Murdaugh testified Thursday that he never shot his wife and son but lied to investigators about not having the dog kennels that killed the two, a decision he blamed on drug addiction and paranoia.
“I would never do anything intentionally to hurt either of them,” he said of wife Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52, and son Paul Murdaugh, 22, who were found dead near the kennels on the property. hunting in South Carolina. June 7, 2021.
Alex Murdaugh said he lied to authorities about the last time he saw his wife and youngest son at dinner and said he wasn’t at the kennels the night they were killed. He said he felt overwhelmed by police questioning, the bodies he found and instructions from a solicitor not to talk to anyone.
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“As my addiction grew over time, I would find myself in situations or situations where I would become paranoid,” he said. When he mentioned that he was not there at the time of their death, he said that he could not stop and felt that he had to keep this story.
Murdaugh checked himself into a substance abuse rehab facility shortly after his family’s death.
Several witnesses had disputed his initial story that he was away visiting his mother around the time of the killings and that he was never at the dog kennels. They said they recognized Murdaugh’s voice in a video taken from the wreckage just moments before authorities believe the mother and son were shot nearby. A former friend of Paul Murdaugh testified Thursday that he also heard Alex Murdaugh’s voice in the video.
Murdaugh said Thursday that he initially refused to go out to the kennels with his wife and son because he had just showered and it was hot outside. He said the sleeping pills he took made the heat worse. He later drove over on a golf cart and helped remove a live chicken from one of the dog’s mouths, the sound of the act apparently being captured on kennel video, recorded by his son. Murchadh said he then went back to the house. Once there, he lay down on a sofa and then decided to visit his mother.
Murdaugh said he called his wife twice to share his plans but she didn’t answer her phone, and he also sent her a text message.
“At the time, it didn’t strike me as unusual,” he said as his wife didn’t respond.
According to Murdaugh’s account, after spending some time with his mother, he returned to the house and found his family inside. After not finding them, he went to the kennels in his car and saw their bodies lying on the ground. Authorities said the pair were shot multiple times at close range. The firearms believed to have been used in the shooting have not been recovered.
“I could see his (Paul Murdaugh) brain lying on the pavement. I didn’t know what to do,” he said, crying. Alex Murdaugh said his son’s phone fell out of his pocket while trying to move his body. He put it back in his pocket.
Murdaugh called 911 and said he spoke to his family about “a few hours ago.”
That 911 call came in at 10:06 p.m., about an hour after investigators believe the mother and son were fatally shot. Paul Murdaugh took the kennel video at 8:44pm
Alex Murdaugh told 911 dispatch that his son had been threatened in the past and expressed remorse for not taking it seriously.
“(Paul Murdaugh) received so many threats that I didn’t take seriously, think twice about them,” the father said. He said most of the threats posted on social media were “over the top” and anything the family felt they needed to take seriously.
At the time of his death, Paul Murdaugh was awaiting trial on several felony charges related to a fatal boating accident in 2019. He was accused of driving the boat while intoxicated, killing a 19-year-old woman.
Buster Murdaugh, the son of Alex Murdaugh, who survived, testified Tuesday that his father was in complete disarray at the home after the father called him to tell him what had happened.
“He was devastated, heartbroken,” he said. “I walked through the door, saw him and gave him a hug.”
In addition to the murder charges, Alex Murdaugh faces separate financial charges – including insurance fraud, money laundering and tax evasion – filed more than a year after his family’s death.
A defense attorney asked the judge Wednesday to limit prosecutors’ ability to question Murdaugh on the stand about those other charges. The attorney argued that these are not related to the shooting and that it could be self-incriminating to question him about them.
Prosecutors have argued that these charges are related to the killings, however. They say Murdaugh killed his family in an attempt to gain sympathy and buy him time to cover up these still unsolved crimes.
The judge said he would not issue “some general order limiting the scope of cross-examination,” but would consider Murdaugh’s privilege against self-incrimination.
Murdaugh faces 30 years in prison if convicted of murder.
