A troubled Alex Murdaugh today claimed “disgusting” comments on social media about his son’s fatal boating accident had led someone to brutally murder his wife and son.
The disgraced legal scion said Paul, 22, was threatened and assaulted after the drunk boating accident that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach in February 2019.
Murdaugh told jurors: “The social media response that resulted was abhorrent. The things said about what they would do to PawPaw were so over the top.
“I believed then and I believe now that the wrong person saw and read this because I can tell you with certainty that the person or persons who did what I saw on June 7th was them Hated Paul Murdaugh and they had anger in their hearts.’
Murdaugh, after a morning brutal cross-examination during which he was grilled over his “new history,” claimed he was in the kennel but left just moments before his wife and son’s execution on June 7, 2021.
A troubled Alex Murdaugh today claimed “disgusting” comments on social media about his son’s fatal boating accident had led someone to brutally murder his wife and son
At the time of Paul’s death, Murdaugh was facing a lawsuit for allowing his son to drive his boat under the influence of alcohol when 19-year-old Mallory (left and right) was killed in February 2019. Murdaugh told police officers that Paul and Maggie had been killed in revenge for the accident
Alex Murdaugh’s boat Sea Hunt after it was crashed by his son Paul in a fatal accident that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach
It contradicts his earlier account to police – that he was only at the scene after Maggie and Paul were shot dead at the family’s Moselle, South Carolina hunting property.
But he admitted for the first time yesterday that he lied because his opioid addiction was making him paranoid.
Murdaugh’s new story is that he was there briefly but then returned to the house a minute after video taken by Paul at 8.45pm proving his father was in the kennel with the 22-year-old and his mother.
But the disgraced legal scion claimed today that “aside from going into the kennel, I was cooperative in every aspect of this investigation.”
Prosecutor Creighton Waters responded, “Very cooperative apart from the most important fact – you were with the victims shortly before they died.”
Murdaugh claims he drove back to the main house in a golf cart about a minute after a video taken by Paul at the kennel at 8:45 a.m. proving he was at the scene.
But the state argues that by then they were already dead – brutally executed just after 8:49 p.m. when their phones were “locked down forever”.
Waters said he went to his mother’s house afterwards to “set up an alibi.”
Murdaugh told the jury, “I have never established an alibi of any kind because I did not and did not harm my wife and child.”
The prosecutor pounced on his cellphone data in Murdaugh, including calls and a fuss after prosecutors said he shot and killed his wife and son.
Waters questioned why there were no steps for an hour after 8:09 p.m. – which covered the time window when the state says he killed his wife and son.
But then, at 9:02 p.m., “you become a very busy bee,” Waters told the disbarred attorney.
Murdaugh’s iPhone recorded 70 steps per minute for a total of 283 steps, three times faster than his normal pace.
Paul, Maggie and Buster Murdaugh on family vacation
The disgraced legal scion, 54, told police he had never been inside the kennel that night but admitted yesterday to lying because his opioid addiction was making him paranoid. Murdaugh’s new story is that he was briefly in the kennel, but then walked back to the main house about a minute after Paul took video at 8:45 p.m. proving he was at the scene
Alex Murdaugh’s son Buster with his girlfriend Brooklynn White, along with Alex’s siblings Lynn and John Marvin Murdaugh, appear in Colleton County Court, South Carolina on Friday
Before leaving for Almeda, he left Maggie missed calls and a text saying he was going to visit his mother.
Waters asked why he hadn’t just taken the short walk to the kennels and told her he was leaving.
Murdaugh replied, “There was no reason…it’s just that I let her know I’m going for a minute and coming back.”
Describing why he lied to police on Thursday, Murdaugh told jurors: “I don’t think I was capable of reasoning and I lied because I was down there and I’m so sorry I did it. I’m sorry for my son Buster, I’m sorry for Grandpa, Papa T (Maggie’s father)… most of all I’m sorry for Mags and PawPaw.”
“I would never intentionally do anything to hurt either of them. Always. Never,” he sobbed. “I didn’t shoot my wife or my son.”
Murdaugh said, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave. Once I lied and told my family about it, I had to keep lying.’
Crusading Creighton Waters barracks Murdaugh during Thursday’s cross-examination
Alex Murdaugh appears in Colleton County Court, South Carolina on Friday
Defense attorneys Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian looked strained as they listened to Thursday’s cricket
Buster, 26, leaned forward and covered his face with his hand as he listened to his father describe meeting his younger brother Paul on March 7th, 2021
In the 911 call, which was played back to the jury this morning, Murdaugh is heard saying, “I should have known.”
He told police his son was threatened and beaten after a drunk boating accident that killed Paul’s friend, 19-year-old Mallory Beach.
Murdaugh recalled speaking to his son’s lifeless body: “I told PawPaw I should have known. PawPaw received so many threats that I didn’t take it seriously or thought about it too much. I just said to him: PawPaw, I should have known.’
When the police arrived, the first thing he told them was, “I know what this is about,” and mentioned the fatal boat accident. Murdaugh was being sued at the time of the murders over the February 2019 boating accident in which Paul was driving his father’s ship while under the influence.
Murdaugh’s car was set on fire at 9:06 p.m. on the night of the murders and he was driving to his mother’s in Almeda, about 15 minutes from the hunting ground.
Murdaugh’s mother Libby has late-stage Alzheimer’s disease and her caregiver had told the legal offspring that she was in an agitated state after her husband Randolph III was taken to the hospital. The Murdaugh patriarch died of cancer three days after the murders of Maggie and Paul.
Murdaugh explained his thinking and why he lied to the police that night, telling jurors his “addiction developed over time to the point that his paranoia could be triggered by “anything”.
“It could be a policeman following me in a car,” he said.
He told the jury that when police arrived at the scene that night, he was advised by his lawyer friends and family not to say anything.
Murdaugh said: “I’m sitting in a police car with (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agent) David Owen and questioning my relationship with my wife and son coupled with my distrust of SLED has caused me to have paranoid thoughts.
“Normally I could take a deep breath, think about it, think it through.”
He added, “Once I lied, I kept lying.”
Alex Murdaugh sits with his attorneys before commenting in his murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse on Thursday
Buster watches his father with his hands over his mouth at the Colleton County Courthouse Thursday
Alex’s sister Lynn blows her nose while Buster and his girlfriend Brooklynn White sit to her left
Murdaugh was later asked to respond to the state’s claim that he killed his wife and son because his life was spiraling out of control financially.
“On June 7th, did you think your financial house of cards would collapse?” asked Griffin.
“Absolutely not,” Murdaugh replied.
Griffin went on to ridicule the state’s alleged motive that the killings saved Murdaugh from financial ruin.
The defense attorney asked: “Did Maggie’s death make funding difficult in the immediate aftermath of the murders? On June 7th?’
Murdaugh replied, “Yes. Because all Mosel property was 100 percent in Maggie’s name. The Edisto ownership was 50 percent in her name.’
The Murdaugh clan with Alex’s sister Lynn (from left), his son Buster, sister-in-law Lizzie and brothers John Marvin and Randy
John Marvin Murdaugh and his wife Lizzie are followed by Buster and his girlfriend, and Randy Murdaugh (blue shirt) arrives in court Thursday
The disgraced legal scion, 54, told jurors: “Paul was so bad … My boy was lying face down and I could see his brain hanging on the side wall.”
Of his relationship with his wife, Murdaugh said, “She was as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside.”
He described Maggie as a loving mother and wife who was the center of her family.
“She was devoted to these guys Buster, Paul – and me. She made sure we didn’t lack for anything,’ he said.
He said his wife is fun and sociable. “You couldn’t tell her something was good or bad, she wanted to do it, see it, experience it,” he said.
Murdaugh said that 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 way, she would smile at you and bite her lip and when she did it would just melt you,” he said.
Describing his son Paul, he said he was “a 100 percent country boy.” He was tough.’
“He could hunt anything. He could catch any fish. He could operate any device,’ said Murdaugh proudly.
Murdaugh said, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave. I once told a lie and told my family I had to keep lying.
Alex’s brother, John Marvin Murdaugh, listens as he collapses on the witness stand
Buster Murdaugh, 26, Alex’s only surviving son, listens to testimony at the Colleton County Courthouse
Buster, Maggie, Paul and Alex Murdaugh in a photo posted by the mother for Father’s Day 2020
He said Paul is “extremely loyal” but also sensitive and said he enjoys watching the sun go down with his friends.
Murdaugh claimed Paul was “misrepresented” by media coverage of the fatal boating accident he allegedly caused that killed Mallory Beach in 2019.
He said anyone who had anything negative to say about their son had “an ulterior motive”.
Murdaugh made the last-minute decision to take a stand against the advice of his own lawyers after a night of discussions with his defense team.
In the latest twist in the Murdaugh saga, his defense attorney, Dick Harpootlian, previously told the judge: “He has indicated that he does not need to speak to me. It hurts my feelings.’
Prosecutors began cross-examining the assignee on Thursday about his financial crimes and today moved on to his evidence about the night of the killings.