Alex Murdaugh takes stand at murder trial; talks lies, opioid addiction and murders

Alex Murdaugh, a former Hampton-based attorney and heir to a Lowcountry legal dynasty of solicitors and high-powered lawyers, put himself on the witness stand Thursday as he sought to explain years of lies and thefts.

Murdaugh, 54, admitted Thursday that he lied to state investigators about his whereabouts right before his wife, Maggie, and youngest son, Paul, were brutally murdered the night of June 7, 2021, at the family’s rural Colleton County estate, called Moselle.

He admitted to a decades-long opioid addiction and that he orchestrated an attempted suicide with Curtis “Eddie” Smith so his surviving son, Buster, could collect some $10 million to $12 million in life insurance.

And he professed, repeatedly, for the first time to stealing millions of dollars from his law firm and clients over the course of several years — some 90 allegations that Murdaugh is charged with but has not yet been convicted of.

But he insisted he was telling the truth about one thing: that he did not murder his wife and son.

Murdaugh’s testimony Thursday — the defense’s 11th witness to take the stand — was a surprise development in the most closely-watched South Carolina double-murder trial in years.

Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters on Friday resumed his cross-examination of Murdaugh, which started Thursday.

Murdaugh repeatedly confessed to decades of addiction and theft. But, from the witness state, he refuted other witness testimony and sparred with the crusading prosecutor, arguing that his past crimes and lies did not make him a murderer.

“Mr Waters, just to be clear I was begging for a meeting with y’all to try to bring this to a close,” Murdaugh said.

He faces life in prison without parole for the execution-style killings at the Moselle dog kennels, which he has repeatedly denied he carried out.

The choice to testify appeared to go against the advice of his attorneys, Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian, who told Judge Clifton Newman Thursday that his client “indicates that he doesn’t want to talk to me, which hurts my feelings.”

“I am going to testify,” Murdaugh told Newman, who advised the former attorney of his rights, including his right not to testify. “I want to testify.”

‘I didn’t shoot my wife or my son’

Did you shoot Maggie and Paul, defense attorney Jim Griffin asked his client immediately when he took the stand.

“I didn’t shoot my wife or my son anytime — ever,” Murdaugh said.

Taking the witness stand Thursday morning, the disbarred attorney positioned his body and his focus towards the jury and denied killing his wife and son.

Holding out a shotgun, defense attorney Jim Griffin asked, “Did you take this gun, or any gun like it, and blow your son’s brains out?”

“No sir, I did not,” Murdaugh replied, going on to say that he did not kill his wife.

But Murdaugh, who sat at the witness stand mostly positioning his focus and body toward the jury, admitted to being at the dog kennels with Maggie and Paul before the shootings, and that he lied to investigators about being there.

Over the course of the trial, multiple witnesses testified that they could hear Murdaugh’s voice in the background of a short video Paul recorded on his cellphone at the family’s dog kennels minutes before the murders are believed to have taken place. To family, friends and in three law enforcement interviews Murdaugh had repeatedly denied being at the kennels that night.

On the stand, Murdaugh insisted he was not responsible for the murders, and repeated what he’d maintained from the start of the investigation that he discovered the bodies at the kennels after returning from his mother’s house.

He blamed the lie on paranoia induced by his abuse of prescription opioids.

“As my addiction evolved over time I would get into these situations and circumstances where I would get paranoid,” Murdaugh said.

Normally during those paranoid episodes, “I could reason through it really quickly,” an emotional Murdaugh said through tears. “On June 7, I wasn’t thinking clearly. I wasn’t capable of reason and I lied about being down there.”

Murdaugh said he would never have done anything to intentionally harm Maggie and Paul, who he often referred to as ”Mags” and “Pau Pau” on the stand.

Murdaugh described how he and Paul rode around the property earlier that evening on June 7, 2021, looking at a field of sunflowers that had recently died and inspecting food plots used to attract game. After the drive, Murdaugh said he showered and changed out of the khaki pants and blue button shirt down he was seen wearing in Paul’s Snapchat video.

“Taking oxycodone makes you sweat more than you normally would,” Murdaugh said.

Murdaugh said he then put on the white T-shirt and green shorts he was seen later wearing on police footage.

After dinner with Paul and Maggie, Murdaugh said he took a golf cart down to the dog kennels separately to help them.

There, Murdaugh says he helped wrangle a chicken out the mouth of the family’s Labrador, Bubba. He said he then went “straight back to the house to the air conditioning,” and laid down on the couch with the TV on.

Murdaugh said he then went to visit his mother, who has late-stage Alzheimer’s, after the family’s longtime housekeeper, Barbara Mixson, asked him to visit because his father had been taken to the hospital earlier in the day.

Explaining some of the unusual movements the prosecution highlighted from his car’s OnStar system, Murdaugh said the family always drove up to the back of his parent’s house in Almeda and said he stopped for a minute in his mother’s driveway because his phone had fallen between his console and his seat.

He flatly denied that he was disposing of the murder weapons or bloody clothes during this time.

When Murdaugh returned to Moselle, he said he couldn’t find Paul or Maggie at the main house, so he drove to the kennels. Asked by defense attorney Jim Griffin about what he saw, Murdaugh appeared to struggled to find words.

“I saw what y’all (the jury) have seen pictures of,” he said crying. “It was so bad.”

Murdaugh said he tried to turn Paul’s body over by pulling on his belt loop, causing Paul’s cellphone to fall out of his pocket. Asked why he tried to turn his son’s body over, he said, “I don’t know why. He was laying face down, his head was the way it was. I could see his brain on the sidewalk.”

Murdaugh called 911 at about 10:06 p.m., at one point telling the operator, “I should have known.”

On the stand, Murdaugh said this was in reference to the threats Paul received over the 2019 boat crash that killed Mallory Beach that Paul was involved in.

“He got the most vile threats,” Murdaugh said. “We disregarded it because it was so over the top.”

In an attempt to clean up previous statements, Murdaugh testified that he understood his original timeline given to state investigators was incorrect. He had told 911 that he hadn’t seen Maggie and Paul for about two hours, even though by the time he called 911 he had only been gone for an hour and 20 minutes after Paul shot the kennel video.

He also denied he intentionally looked at a group chat, or did a Google search for a restaurant, or called a videographer he said he hadn’t spoken to in years — all activity that showed up on Murdaugh’s phone. He said he may have done so inadvertently.

And he also refuted testimony from his family’s housekeeper, Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson, about clothes and his mother’s caregiver, Shelley Smith, who testified Murdaugh returned to Libby’s home after his father’s funeral with a blue tarp-like item.

Murdaugh says he called Smith for Labor Day weekend shooting

On Sept. 4, 2021, suffering, he claimed, from early effects of opiate withdrawals, Murdaugh said he called his drug dealer and distant cousin, Curtis “Eddie” Smith to bring him more pills.

Then he changed his mind, Murdaugh said.

The previous day, Murdaugh had been fired from his former law firm, known as PMPED, the firm that his family founded in 1910. He had been asked to resign after it was discovered that he had stolen millions of dollars from the firm for more than a decade.

The morning of Sept. 4, Murdaugh said he was staying at his parent’s house and preparing to go to rehab. On the stand, he said he asked the family’s housekeeper, Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson, to text him pictures of the family’s insurance cards to help pay for treatment.

He had given the remainder of his pills to his brother, Randy, and the night before had only been able to take a lower dose than he needed to prevent withdrawal.

The morning, Murdaugh said his longtime best friend Chris Wilson, an attorney, confronted him over a missing check — a confrontation Wilson previously described as emotional, often angry.

After, Murdaugh said he called Smith, asking him to bring him pills. But then, he decided to ask Smith to shoot him.

“All this was coming to a head. I knew how humiliating this was going to be for my son (Buster). I’d been through so much,” Murdaugh said. “At the time, in the bad place that I was, it seemed like the better thing to do.”

“Did he in fact shoot you?” Griffin asked.

“He did,” Murdaugh said.

Murdaugh faces questions about finances

For the first time, Murdaugh admitted to the allegations he stole money from clients and his former law firm were true.

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.

“On June the 7? Absolutely not,” Murdaugh replied.

After some three hours of mostly friendly questions from Griffin, it was lead prosecutor Waters’ turn.

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, 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.

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?

Jack Swerling, a veteran South Carolina criminal defense lawyer who has been watching the trial, said it is rare for accused killers to take the witness stand in their own defense.

But Murdaugh likely did so because he was an excellent lawyer known for his people skills and ability to persuade, and he had confidence he could make a good showing to the jury, Swerling said.

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 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,” said Janet Griffin, from Lenexa, Kansas. “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. “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”

This story was originally published February 23, 2023 at 11:42 AM.

Ted Clifford

The State

803-771-8315

Ted Clifford is the statewide accountability reporter at The State Newspaper. Formerly the crime and courts reporter, he has covered the Murdaugh saga, state and federal court, as well as criminal justice and public safety in the Midlands and across South Carolina. He is the recipient of the 2023 award for best beat reporting by the South Carolina Press Association.

JM

John Monk

The State

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John Monk has covered courts, crime, politics, public corruption, the environment and other issues in the Carolinas for more than 40 years. A U.S. Army veteran who covered the 1989 American invasion of Panama, Monk is a former Washington correspondent for The Charlotte Observer. He has covered numerous death penalty trials, including those of the Charleston church killer, Dylann Roof, serial killer Pee Wee Gaskins and child killer Tim Jones. Monk’s hobbies include hiking, books, languages, music and a lot of other things.