Prosecutor tears into Murdaugh’s ‘new story’ about why he was at the murder scene

Alex Murdaugh was today ripped over his ‘new story’ that he was at the kennels but left just moments before the State says his wife and son were shot dead.

The alleged killer, 54, told cops he had never been at the kennels that night but yesterday admitted he had lied because his opioid addiction made him paranoid.

Murdaugh’s new story is that he was at the kennels briefly but then went back up to the main house around a minute after Paul took a video at 8.45pm that proves he was at the murder scene.

But the disgraced legal scion claimed that ‘other than lying about going to the kennel, I was cooperative about every aspect of this investigation.’

Prosecutor Creighton Waters hit back: ‘Very cooperative except for the most important fact of all – that you were with the victims just moments before they died.’

Murdaugh claims he drove back up to the main house in a golf cart around a minute after a video taken by Paul at the kennels at 8.45 which proves he was at the scene. 

But the State argues that by that time they were already dead – brutally executed shortly after 8.49pm when their phones ‘locked forever.’  Prosecutors say Murdaugh drove to his mother’s home afterwards in order to ‘manufacture an alibi.’

Waters asked why Murdaugh was only now admitting that he had been at the murder scene after the video proved he was there. ‘Does that sound like real life to you?’ He asked.

Murdaugh denied this was a new story, telling the court: ‘This is the first time that this is being told publicly.’ 

Describing why he lied to cops on Thursday, Murdaugh told jurors: ‘I don’t think I was capable of reason and I lied about being down there and I am so sorry that I did. I am sorry to my son Buster, I am sorry to Grandpa, Papa T (Maggie’s father) … most of all I am sorry to Mags and PawPaw.’  

‘I would never intentionally do anything to hurt either of them. Ever. Ever,’ he sobbed. ‘I didn’t shoot my wife or son, ever.’

Murdaugh said: ‘Oh what a tangled web we weave. Once I told a lie, and I told my family, I had to keep lying.’ 

In the 911 call, which was played to jurors again this morning, Murdaugh can be heard saying, ‘I should have known.’

He told cops that his son had been threatened and punched in the wake of a drunken boat wreck in which Paul’s friend 19-year-old Mallory Beach was killed.

Murdaugh recalled speaking to his son’s lifeless body: ‘I said PawPaw, I should have known. PawPaw got so many threats I didn’t take serious or think too much about. I was just telling him: PawPaw, I should have known.’ 

When police arrived, one of the first things he told them was, ‘I know what this is about’ and mentioned the fatal boat crash. Murdaugh was being sued at the time of the murders over the boat accident during which Paul was driving his father’s vessel under the influence in February, 2019.

Murdaugh’s car was fired up at 9.06pm on the night of the murders and he drove to his mother’s in Almeda, around 15 minutes away from the hunting estate. 

Murdaugh’s mother Libby is in the late stages of Alzheimer’s disease and her caregiver had told the legal scion she was in an agitated state after her husband, Randolph III, had been taken to hospital. The Murdaugh patriarch died of cancer three days after Maggie and Paul’s murders.

Explaining his mindset that night and why he lied to police, Murdaugh told jurors that his ‘addiction developed over time’ to the point his paranoia could be set off ‘by anything.’

‘It might be a policeman following me in a car,’ he said.

He told jurors that when cops arrived at the scene that night he had been advised by his attorney friends and family not to say anything.

Murdaugh said: ‘I am sitting in a police car with (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agent) David Owen asking me about my relationship with my wife and my son, coupled with my distrust of SLED, it caused me to have paranoid thoughts. 

‘Normally I could take a deep breath, think about it, reason my way through it.’

He added: ‘Once I lied I continued to lie.’

Murdaugh was later asked to answer to the State’s claim that he killed his wife and son because his life was financially spiraling out of control.

‘On June 7, did you believe that your financial house of cards was about to crumble?’ Griffin asked.

‘Absolutely not,’ Murdaugh replied.  

Griffin went on to try and pour scorn on the State’s alleged motive, that the killings would have saved Murdaugh from financial ruin.

The defense attorney asked: ‘Did Maggie’s death make it more difficult to obtain financing immediately after the murders? On June 7?’

Murdaugh answered: ‘Yes. Because the entire Moselle property was 100 per cent in Maggie’s name. The Edisto property was 50 per cent in her name.’

Speaking about his relationship with his wife, Murdaugh said: ‘She was just as beautiful inside as she was outside.’

He described Maggie as a doting mother and wife who was the center of their family.

‘She was devoted to those boys Buster, Paul – and me. She made sure we didn’t want for anything ever,’ he said.

He said his wife was fun and gregarious. ‘You couldn’t tell her something was good or bad, she wanted to do it, see it, experience it,’ he said.

Murdaugh said if you heard her laugh ‘you didn’t even have to know what she was laughing at – if you heard her laugh you would laugh.’

‘She had this little playful-like way she would smile at you and bite here lip and when she would do it, it would just melt you,’ he said.

Describing his son Paul, he said he ‘was 100 percent country boy. He was tough.’

‘He could hunt anything. He could catch any fish. He could run any piece of equipment,’ Murdaugh said proudly.

He said Paul was ‘fiercely loyal,’ but also sensitive, saying he liked to watched the sunset with his friends. 

Murdaugh claimed that Paul was ‘misrepresented’ by media coverage of the fatal boat crash he allegedly caused that killed Mallory Beach in 2019.

He said anyone with anything negative to say about his son had ‘had an ulterior motive’. 

Murdaugh made the last-minute decision to take the stand against the advice of his own attorneys following a night locked in talks with his defense team. 

In the latest twist in the Murdaugh saga, his defense attorney Dick Harpootlian told the judge earlier ‘he indicated he doesn’t need to talk to me. It hurts my feelings.’ 

Prosecutors began cross-examining the legal scion on Thursday about his financial crimes and today moved onto his evidence about the night of the killings.