Alex Murdaugh admits he first claimed he was at dog kennels in court

Alex Murdaugh testified Friday in Walterboro, South Carolina, during a grueling cross-examination, that the first time he admitted he was at the dog kennels the night of the slayings was when he was on the witness stand.

“So we can agree that the prosecution and law enforcement and so many of your friends and family heard for the first time your story about the kennels yesterday?” asked lead prosecutor Creighton Waters.

“Law enforcement, my partners and my friends heard me say that for the first time. Yes, I agree with that,” Murdaugh replied in his southern drawl.

The disgraced scion of a once-powerful legal dynasty admitted on direct examination that he repeatedly lied to investigators, claiming he was never at the dog kennels June 7, 2021, the night of the slayings. 

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Alex Murdaugh weeps as he testifies Thursday Feb. 23 in his own defense at his double murder trial in Walterboro, South Carolina. ( Grace Beahm Alford/ The Post and Courier/ Pool)

He made this same assertion to several friends and family members. 

However, a cellphone video later recovered from Paul Murdaugh’s phone captured his voice at the kennels at 8:44 p.m., contradicting Murdaugh’s alibi and placing him at the murder scene minutes before his son, Paul, and wife, Maggie, were shot to death.

Murdaugh has denied fatally shooting Paul, 22, and Maggie, 52, near the dog kennels at their hunting estate in Islandton, South Carolina.

Murdaugh told jurors he lied because he did not trust investigators and his opioid addiction made him paranoid.

“You, like you have done so many times in your life, had to back up and make a new story to fit with the facts?” Waters pressed.

“No, sir,” Murdaugh replied.

Creighton Waters, left, cross-examines Alex Murdaugh Thursday Feb. 23 in the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina. (Joshua Boucher/ The State/ Pool)

Murdaugh’s own lawyers repeated his claim in a nationally televised interview in November 2022, Waters pointed out. 

Murdaugh also admitted during questioning that he stole $3.7 million in client money in 2019 — the same year that his son Paul drunkenly crashed his boat into a bridge.

The collision killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach and triggered a wrongful death lawsuit. 

“You agree with me that, that figure in 2019 was generally higher than any other year that you’ve been stealing since 2011?” asked Waters.

“Sure, I’d agree with that,” Murdaugh replied.

Evidence shown in Alex Murdaugh’s trial for murder at the Colleton County Courthouse on Thursday, February 2, 2023.  (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post and Courier/Pool)

Murdaugh acknowledged that his legitimate income had been decreasing as the amount he stole increased in the time leading up to the double murder. 

Waters asked Murdaugh about his opioid addiction. “Opiates gave me energy,” Murdaugh replied. 

He said he was taking between 1,000 to 2,000 milligrams of oxycodone a day.  The maximum recommended dose for pain is 288 milligrams, according to the Mayo Clinic’s website.

He was often paranoid because he always had pills on him, he said.

“I had a pocket full of pills on June the 8 when I was sitting in David Owen’s patrol car,” he said of his interview with South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agents hours after the slayings.

A photo of the Murdaugh family taken days before Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were shot to death. From left to right, Buster, Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh. (Defense exhibit)

Murdaugh testified in his own defense Thursday, denying that he fatally shot Paul and Maggie near the dog kennels on the family’s 1,700-acre hunting estate in Islandton.

On cross-examination, Waters spent most of his time Thursday afternoon grilling Murdaugh about the millions he swindled from his clients to fund a lavish lifestyle rather than on the slayings of Murdaugh’s wife and son.

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“You had to sit down and look somebody in the eye and convince them that you were on their side when you were not?” Waters asked, referring to the vulnerable clients Murdaugh ripped off. 

“That’s what you did in every single one of these [cases]?” Waters said waiving a stack of papers.

Diagram of the section of Alex Murdaugh’s property where his wife, Maggie, and his son, Paul, were murdered. (Fox News )

Murdaugh repeatedly acknowledged his cons, but Waters insisted on walking him through the most egregious examples, including stealing from a teen girl and a quadriplegic man.

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Prosecutors have argued that Murdaugh killed his wife and son to deflect from his theft of nearly $9 million from his law firm and clients.