Alex Murdo admits he first said he was in a dog kennel in court

Murdo testified Friday in Walterboro, South Carolina, during grueling cross-examination, that he first admitted to being in a dog kennel the night of the murder, when he was a witness.

“So we can agree that the prosecutor’s office and law enforcement agencies, as well as many of your friends and relatives, heard your story about kennels for the first time yesterday?” Attorney General Creighton Waters asked.

“Law enforcement, my partners and my friends heard me say this for the first time. Yes, I agree with that,” Murdo replied in a southern accent.

The disgraced scion of a once-powerful legal dynasty admitted under direct examination that he repeatedly lied to investigators, claiming he had never been in a dog kennel on June 7, 2021, the night of the murders.

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Alex Murdo cries as he testifies Thursday, Feb. 23, in his defense at the double homicide trial in Walterboro, South Carolina. (Grace Beam Alford/ The Post and Courier/ Pool)

He made the same statement to several friends and family members.

But cell phone video later recovered from Paul’s phone captured his voice at the nursery at 8:44 p.m., contradicting Murdo’s alibi and showing him at the scene of the murder minutes before his son Paul and wife Maggie were shot dead.

Murdo denies shooting Paul, 22, and his 52-year-old wife, Maggie, near a dog kennel on their Islandton hunting estate.

Murdo told jurors he lied because he didn’t trust investigators and his opioid addiction made him paranoid.

“Did you, as you have done so many times in your life, have to step back and make up a new story to match the facts?” Waters pressed.

“No, sir,” said Murdo.

Creighton Waters cross-examines Alex Murdo on Thursday, February 23, at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina. (Joshua Boucher/State/Pool)

Waters noted that Murdo’s own lawyers repeated his statement in a November 2022 national television interview.

Murdo also admitted during interrogation that he stole $3.7 million of client money in 2019, the same year his son Paul drunkenly crashed his boat into a bridge.

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

“Do you agree with me that this figure in 2019 was generally higher than in any other year you have been stealing since 2011?” Waters asked.

“Of course I would agree with that,” Murdo replied.

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

Murdo admitted that his legitimate income was declining as the amount he stole had increased in the time leading up to the double murder.

Waters asked Murdo about his opioid addiction. “The opiates gave me energy,” Murdo replied.

He said he takes 1,000 to 2,000 milligrams of oxycodone a day. According to the Mayo Clinic website, the maximum recommended dose for pain is 288 milligrams.

According to him, he was often paranoid because he always carried pills with him.

“I had a pocket full of pills on June 8 while I was in David Owen’s squad car,” he said of his interview with South Carolina law enforcement agents hours after the murders.

Photograph of the Murdo family taken days before Paul and Maggie Murdo were shot. Left to right: Buster, Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdo. (Defense exhibition)

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

Under cross-examination, Waters spent most of his time Thursday afternoon interrogating Murdo about the millions he swindled from his clients to fund a lavish lifestyle, not the murders of Murdo’s wife and son.

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“Did you have to sit down and look someone in the eye and convince them that you were on their side when you weren’t on their side?” Waters asked, referring to the vulnerable customers Murdo had robbed.

“That’s what you did in each of these [cases]said Waters, waving a stack of papers.

Diagram of the plot of Alex Murdo’s property where his wife Maggie and son Paul were killed. (Fox News)

Murdo repeatedly acknowledged his shortcomings, but Waters insisted on telling him about the most egregious examples, including stealing from a teenage girl and a paraplegic man.

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Prosecutors alleged that Murdo killed his wife and son to evade stealing nearly $9 million from his law firm and clients.