By Nathan Layne
(Reuters) -Richard “Alex” Murdaugh, the disbarred South Carolina attorney charged with murdering his wife and son, on Thursday admitted to lying to investigators about his whereabouts on the night of the killings but denied any involvement in their deaths.
In dramatic testimony, Murdaugh told the jury that he did not shoot his wife, Maggie, 52, and 22-year-old Paul, the younger of their two sons, who were both gunned down near dog kennels on the family’s estate on June 7, 2021.
“I didn’t shoot my wife or my son anytime, ever,” Murdaugh said from the stand.
Murdaugh, the scion of an influential South Carolina legal family, was indicted by a grand jury in July on two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon in connection with the shootings. He pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors have introduced cellphone audio evidence showing Murdaugh was at the kennels right before his wife and son were fatally shot at close range, contradicting what he had told investigators and others in the wake of the incident.
Murdaugh said he was suffering from paranoia tied to a drug addiction and did not trust the police.
“On June 7, I wasn’t thinking clearly. I don’t think I was capable of reason and I lied about being down there. And I’m so sorry that I did,” Murdaugh testified.
Murdaugh testified that he left the kennels after removing a chicken from the mouth of Bubba, one of their dogs. He said he returned to the family home and then drove to visit his mother, unaware that Maggie and Paul had been killed.
Rocking back and forth and with tears running down his face, Murdaugh said he returned to the kennels and found his wife and son motionless and disfigured.
“I saw what y’all have seen pictures of,” Murdaugh said, describing Paul’s condition in graphic detail. “I could see his brain laying on the sidewalk. I didn’t know what to do.”
Prosecutors have said Murdaugh killed his wife and child to generate sympathy and distract from an array of financial crimes for which he is also facing criminal charges, an alleged motive that Murdaugh’s lawyers have argued does not make sense.
(Reporting by Nathan LayneEditing by Bill Berkrot)
