Murdaugh trial: I lied to police about the night of my wife and son’s murder

A former star lawyer accused of killing his wife and son has admitted lying to police about where he was at the time of the double murder, at the climax of a trial that has gripped America.

Richard “Alex” Murdaugh took to the stand in his own defence on Thursday in a stunning twist to a case involving family power and privilege that has already been filled with a string of revelations.

Mr Murdaugh, 54, sobbed as he addressed the courtroom on the brutal killing of his wife, Maggie, 52, who was shot five times with a rifle, and their 22-year-old son Paul, who died from two shotgun blasts on June, 2021, at the family hunting estate in South Carolina.

The once-prominent state attorney had told police that he was visiting his ailing mother in another town and not near his isolated Colleton County home in the hours before the killings.

However, several witnesses have testified during the month-long trial that they believed they heard Mr Murdaugh’s voice along with his son and wife on mobile phone video taken at some dog kennels about five minutes before the shootings.

Mr Murdaugh, who adamantly denied any involvement in the incident, sought to blame his addiction to opioids for clouding his thinking and creating a distrust of law enforcement as he dealt with officers in the aftermath.

“On June 7, I wasn’t thinking clearly. I don’t think that I was capable of reason,” he said.

With tears streaming down his face, Mr Murdaugh testified that once he started lying, he felt he had to continue: “Oh, what a tangled web we weave. Once I told a lie – I told my family – I had to keep lying.”

He had been at home with his wife and son earlier on the day that they died, but phone records indicate that he left to visit his mother around 9pm. He has said that he then returned home and found the bodies. Prosecutors have said that he killed Maggie and Paul before leaving, and then tried to create an alibi.

In audio of his call to 911, which he placed just after 10pm, a seemingly distraught Mr Murdaugh said he had arrived home and found their bodies on the ground.

“I saw what y’all have seen pictures of,” he said, describing Paul’s condition in graphic detail. “I could see his brain laying on the sidewalk. I didn’t know what to do.”

Several witnesses, including Maggie Murdaugh’s sister, have testified that Mr Murdaugh did not appear scared for the safety of himself or his surviving son Buster in the weeks after the killings despite the brutality of the shootings and no apparent leads from police.

On the stand, Mr Murdaugh was questioned by his attorney Jim Griffin on whether he shot Paul.

“Did you take this gun or any gun like it and blow your son’s brains out on June 7, or any day, or any time?” Mr Griffin asked. “No, I did not,” Mr Murdaugh replied: “I didn’t shoot my wife or my son anytime. Ever.”

Prosecutors have said Mr Murdaugh killed his wife and son to generate sympathy and distract from an array of nearly 100 other crimes for which he is also facing charges.

The Murdaughs were once one of South Carolina’s most prominent legal families. But the 2019 death of teenager Mallory Beach in a drunken boating accident began the unravelling of their legacy. His son, Paul, was allegedly driving his family’s boat intoxicated when it crashed.

Questions were raised at the time as to whether Paul was given favourable treatment because of his family’s influence.

That same year he was involved in a messy lawsuit over the death of Gloria Satterfield, who had worked as a nanny and housekeeper for Mr Murdaugh and his family for more than 20 years before falling at their home and dying from her injuries several weeks later.

Police arrested Mr Murdaugh, who at this time was receiving treatment from a drug detox centre in Florida, on charges stemming from a missing settlement fund. Mr Murdaugh admitted that he owed Ms Satterfield’s sons the full settlement plus lawyers’ fees, $4.3 million in all.

Fast forward to the days after the 2021 murders, prosecutors say Mr Murdaugh cashed a cheque to his personal account that had been made out to his legal firm – which was founded by his great-grandfather more than a century ago.

That finding led the company to investigate further and, when they discovered evidence of financial wrongdoing, to ask for Mr Murdaugh’s resignation, which he gave.

In another bizarre twist, he then attempted to stage his own murder the following day, hiring a friend to shoot him in the head. However, he survived and police began to question parts of his account.

Mr Murdaugh’s lawyers said he had come up with a plan to make his suicide look like a murder because he believed it would help his older son, Buster, collect on his life insurance policy as the family began struggling financially.

Mr Murdaugh would then turn himself in to the police and was charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and filing a false police report.

In the months that followed the family faced a slew of investigations involving several murders, corruption, and other alleged crimes, including insurance fraud, defrauding clients, theft of insurance payouts, and drug-related charges.

In the courtroom on Thursday, Mr Murdaugh faced a grilling from both his own legal team and prosecutors as to what happened the day of the murders.

After law enforcement officers arrived, Mr Murdaugh told them that his son Paul had been getting threats because of the fatal boat wreck he had been involved in a few years earlier.

Prosecutors contend that Mr Murdaugh killed his wife and son because he wanted sympathy to buy time to cover up his financial crimes that were about to be discovered. Mr Murdaugh’s lawyers have argued the motive does not make sense.

It is not unheard of for defendants in murder trials to testify, but it is a high-risk move that opens them up to a barrage of cross-examination from prosecutors.

A Netflix series about the case premiered on Wednesday night. 

The trial continues.