WALTERBORO, S.C. (WSAV) — Alex Murdaugh returned to the stand Friday to continue being cross-examined by the prosecution in his own double murder trial.

The disbarred attorney is accused in the murder of his wife and son, Maggie and Paul.

Murdaugh testified on his own behalf for hours Thursday, denying his role in the killings but admitting to lying to law enforcement about his whereabouts on the night of the murders and stealing money from clients.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters began cross-examination Thursday afternoon and continued for nearly two hours until the court adjourned for the day.

On Friday, Murdaugh testified he was addicted to opioids and taking 1,500 to 2,00 milligrams or 60 to 100 pills a day. He even admitted to having a pocketful of pills the night of the murders as he was talking to investigators.

The drugs made him paranoid, Murdaugh said, and made him lie to investigators about where he was during the murders.

Many times during his testimony, Murdaugh admitted to lying. He testified he lied to investigators about the fact he was at the kennels just moments before the killings. He said he lied to his friends, clients and family about stealing money from them.

Meanwhile, prosecutors pressed Murdaugh further about going to his mother’s house, the timing, and why he can’t remember other important details.

“Why don’t you remember when you were so busy during this critical four-minute period? Other than I was getting ready to go?” Waters asked.

“Well, because that’s what I was doing,” Murdaugh replied.

Prosecutors spent six hours with Murdaugh on the stand, and while it didn’t guarantee a guilty verdict, legal expert Joe McCulloch says the state could have affected the minds of the jury.

“They said, ‘When did you begin to lie?’ and he said, ‘When I got paranoid,’ and there’s not really anything to get paranoid about, and we heard that tape played twice today. You can’t have it both ways,” the attorney and USC law professor said.

McCulloch continued, “He is foraging for mistakes and I think Alex Murdaugh made one when he said I was there, the dogs were running around, I got the chicken out of his mouth. Creighton asked, ‘Well did the dogs sense anything?’ And Murdaugh at that point said something very telling — the dogs didn’t sense anybody they didn’t know. That resonated.”

Murdaugh also testified that he didn’t delete any phone calls from his own phone intentionally, and continued to apologize to the victims of his financial crimes.

Court is in recess until 9:30 a.m. Monday. Harpootlian says he anticipates four witnesses Monday and that they expect to rest by Monday afternoon.

WSAV News 3 will provide extensive coverage, airing the testimony live on air and streaming on wsav.com and in the WSAV NOW app.

WSAV is streaming all throughout the Alex Murdaugh murder trial. Follow WSAV‘s Investigative Reporter @WSAVAndrewD and Reporter @JLeonardNews for live tweets and keep up with the trial via our live blogs on wsav.com. Tune in to News 3 at 4 p.m., 5 p.m., and 6 p.m. for full coverage.

ALEX MURDAUGH MURDER TRIAL LIVE BLOG:

7:00 a.m. – A line began outside the Colleton County courtroom around 4:30 a.m. Friday in anticipation of another explosive day of testimony from Alex Murdaugh.

9:15 a.m. – Alex Murdaugh arrives at the Colleton County courthouse.

9:36 a.m. – Judge Newman gavels court into session. Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters continues his cross-examination of Alex Murdaugh. Much of Thursday’s cross-examination focused on Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes. Waters continues that line of questioning on Friday.

9:40 a.m. – Murdaugh testifies his Palmetto State Bank $1 million line of credit was maxed out in June 2021. 

Murdaugh is asked about him spending the Farris fees — amounting up to $792,000. He’s asked if he spent all of it in two months but Murdaugh says he’s not aware of the timeline but he did spend it very quickly. 

9:52 a.m. – Waters asks Murdaugh about a client suffering from cancer. Waters says Ronnie Crosby called Murdaugh and told him how much the client needed the money. Murdaugh says he doesn’t remember that conversation. 

Ronnie Crosby was Murdaugh’s former law partner.

“When you doing the things wrong I was doing you have all kinds of ways of justifying it and I’m not saying that makes it right by any means cause it’s not it’s wrong, I’ve said that a hundred times. But when I was doing it, as addicted as I was … to be able to look yourself in the mirror you lie to yourself,” Murdaugh says. Murdaugh also said the client owed him so much money when he stole his money he didn’t tell him.

9:57 a.m. – Waters begins to question Murdaugh about his pill usage.

Murdaugh says some days he was taking upwards of 60 OxyContin pills a day. That amounted to around 2,000 milligrams per day.  

Murdaugh begins going through his withdrawal symptoms. He said he would sweat constantly, his legs would shake, he had uncontrollable diarrhea among other things. 

Murdaugh says he has pills on him constantly. He said he had a pocket full of pills in his pocket when he was sitting in SLED agent David Owen’s patrol car during his first interview the night of the killings. He says he would get paranoid when he would be driving and see a police car.

10:23 a.m. – Waters asks Murdaugh if he ever told police that he was at the kennels the night of the killings. Murdaugh says he never did that.

Murdaugh says he was “begging” to speak with Waters prior to the indictment to tell him more information about the night of the killings. 

Waters says the only reason why Murdaugh testifies that he wanted to speak with them is that family members and close friends identified his voice in the kennel video. He says Murdaugh only changed his original story that he wasn’t at the kennels was because it contradicts the kennel video. Murdaugh disagrees that that’s his motivation for changing his story. 

10:32 a.m. – Waters questions Murdaugh about saying the confrontation between Murdaugh and Jeanne Seckinger was “no big deal.” Murdaugh says he didn’t feel he was confronted. He said it was a short conversation and Seckinger didn’t seem angry.

Waters asks Murdaugh about confronting Mark Tinsley about his lawsuit against him in the 2019 boat crash case.

“Absolutely, unequivocally never happened,” Murdaugh said.

10:43 a.m. – The prosecution asks about what Murdaugh did on June 7, 2021.

Murdaugh testifies went to work and worked on a case involving Dominion Energy and began preparing his financial statement. He also had a conversation with Jeanne Seckinger.

Later that day, he arrived at the house and spent time with Paul riding around the property. He says didn’t see any Blackout on their ride and Paul did not have the .300 Blackout with him on the ride.

He confirms the time of the tree video. He says he went back to the house by himself when Maggie got there. He took a shower around 8 p.m. and then sat on the couch to eat dinner. 

10:55 a.m. – Waters transitions to what happened before they went to the kennels.

Murdaugh says Paul was eating dinner before he started. Murdaugh says Paul then got up left the room shortly thereafter but remained at the house “for a little bit longer” before heading to the kennels. 

Murdaugh says Maggie asked him to go with him to the kennels along with Paul. Murdaugh says he was hesitant at first but then went back down there “very quickly” after she asked him. He says he changed his mind because initially he didn’t want to go because it was so hot outside and he had just recently showered he didn’t want to sweat and get dirty doing work at the kennels.  

Murdaugh says he was at the kennels for “a very short time” around a couple of minutes. He says he and Maggie were talking but he doesn’t remember what the conversation was exactly, but Maggie was “concerned” about Paul. 

Murdaugh says he wasn’t withdrawing when he was at the kennels because he had pills that day.

Murdaugh then says he takes the chicken out of a dog’s mouth — which Murdaugh says can be heard at the end of the kennel video. Then Murdaugh says there was nobody around that spooked the dogs. Murdaugh says it took him seconds to take the chicken out of his mouth and then hopped on the golf cart and left. 

“It was chaotic, it was hot and I was getting ready to do exactly what I didn’t want to do … I was getting ready to sweat, get to work,” Murdaugh said.

Murdaugh says he didn’t leave without saying goodbye but he doesn’t remember exactly what he said but he knows he said goodbye in some way. 

Murdaugh says he went home, began watching TV and could’ve dozed off. But he was walking around at 9:02 p.m. possibly to the kitchen to get something. 

Murdaugh says he didn’t bring a 300 blackout and shotgun to the golf cart and he also didn’t see one at the kennels. Murdaugh says he didn’t hear anything. 

Murdaugh initially said he heard someone pull up but now he says he didn’t hear anything.

Murdaugh says except for the lying, he was very cooperative with law enforcement.

Waters: “You were very cooperative except for maybe the most important fact of all that you were at the murder scene with the victims just minutes before they died, right?” Murdaugh responds, “I did not tell them I went to the kennel.” 

11:20 a.m. – Judge Clifton Newman issues a 10-minute break.

11:40 a.m. – Trial resumes.

Murdaugh says he doesn’t believe there was any blood on the chicken when he picked it up and that he didn’t wash his hands afterward. Murdaugh also says Maggie wasn’t handling the hose while he was there. 

11:43 a.m. – Waters begins showing Murdaugh the condensed timeline that SLED created. Murdaugh says “he must not have” brought his phone with him to the kennels. He says that wasn’t uncommon because he planned on just going down to the kennels for a short period of time. 

11:50 a.m. – Waters shows the records don’t match Paul being at the shop at 8:08 because his phone pings at the house. Murdaugh argues he doesn’t think that’s right.

Murdaugh agrees with Waters that Paul’s phone shows he was at the kennels at 8:38 p.m. about seven minutes before the kennel video. Both Maggie and Paul’s lock forever at 8:49 p.m. 

12:00 p.m. – Maggie’s phone shows that there were steps taken at 8:53 p.m. Murdaugh’s phone “comes to life” at 9:02 p.m. because he was getting ready to go to his moms house. Murdaugh says he doesn’t know what he was doing. Waters presses him about what he was doing. Murdaugh continues to say he doesn’t remember what he was doing. 

12:03 p.m. – Murdaugh says he was making several phones call prior to leaving for his mom’s house. Some of those calls included to Maggie who was at the kennels at that time. Murdaugh says he doesn’t know why his cell phone data was deleted.

12:07 p.m. – Murdaugh says didn’t check on Maggie and Paul before leaving to go to his moms because “there was no reason to.” 

12:26 p.m. – Waters asks why he didn’t want to give law enforcement accurate information.

“I did want to give law enforcement accurate information,” Murdaugh says. But he says he went to speak with Blanca because SLED agent David Owen specifically asked him about their conversation about what he was wearing that morning. 

12:31 p.m. – Murdaugh says he went from Almeda to his home and then went back down to the kennels.

Murdaugh is asked if he checked Paul and Maggie’s bodies before calling 911. Murdaugh says that he didn’t. Instead, he saw their bodies, called 911 and then checked on their bodies. Murdaugh initially told police he checked their bodies before he called 911. “I don’t believe that’s what I said,” Murdaugh testifies. Murdaugh previously told law enforcement he checked the bodies before calling 911.

12:39 p.m. – Waters plays the first interview Murdaugh gave SLED. Murdaugh says he ran over to Paul first, tried to turn him over and check his pulse. He then says he ran over to Maggie to check her pulse and then called 911. Murdaugh disputes that he was telling SLED what he did step-by-step. 

12:50 p.m. – Waters and Murdaugh spar over the idea that Murdaugh lied to SLED in his first interview. Murdaugh says Maggie was at the kennel and he was at the house. Waters says that’s a lie because Murdaugh was heard on the kennel video, however, Murdaugh says it wasn’t a lie because Maggie was at the kennel and he was at the house at points during the evening. 

Murdaugh says several factors led to his decision to lie. Murdaugh says he didn’t trust SLED, he was the first one that found the bodies, he said he had pills in his pockets among other things all made him want to lie. 

Waters and Murdaugh are being very combative when discussing Murdaugh’s motivations to lie. 

1 p.m. – Judge Newman issues a break until 2:15 p.m. 

2:23 p.m. – Court resumes and defense attorney Jim Griffin petitions to correct the record about Murdaugh’s claim that he wanted to sit down with investigators about the financial crimes.

Griffin says Waters misrepresented that and said that was referring to the double murder trial. He asks the judge to strike statements made by Murdaugh during that line of questioning.

Newman rules in favor of the state.

2:29 p.m. – Waters begins playing the first interview again. Waters is trying to establish that Murdaugh told police he checked on Paul and Maggie’s bodies prior to calling 911. Murdaugh disputes that and says he called 911 first and then he checked their bodies.

Waters brings up the boat wreck. Murdaugh says that he never believed that any of the kids who were on the boat, or their families, had anything to do with hurting Maggie and Paul. But he does believe someone killed them because of the boat wreck. He says that the rumors generated on social media caused Paul to get vile threats. He says that whoever did this hated Paul and had a lot of anger, and the rumors about the boat case are the only reason someone could hate Paul.

Waters mocks the theory, asking Murdaugh if he believes a 5’2 12-year-old vigilante knew Paul and Maggie would be at the kennels and that Murdaugh would be gone between 9:06 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.

Waters plays the second SLED interview from June 10. He asks if Murdaugh was lying in that interview. Murdaugh says everything about him not going down to the kennels was a lie. Waters accuses Murdaugh of being able to lie so easily and so naturally.

Waters begins asking about who Murdaugh borrowed money from to cover the Farris fees. He says he borrowed money from Johnny Parker, Chris Wilson, and Palmetto State Bank. Waters asks why Murdaugh didn’t borrow all the money from PSB. He says he was limited on the amount he could borrow because Maggie had died.

Waters asks about the missing 300-Blackout. Murdaugh says that Paul’s was stolen or went missing around the Halloween party. The replacement went missing as well and Murdaugh says he hadn’t seen it since around Christmas. Will Loving says that they used the replacement at Moselle during turkey season. Murdaugh says he believes Loving, but he didn’t see it himself. He says Paul was horrible about leaving guns everywhere.

Waters brings up the September 2021 confrontation with his law partners about the stolen funds. He brings up the roadside shooting. Waters points out that Murdaugh lied to SLED throughout that investigation.

Waters says when accountability is at Murdaugh’s door, bad things happen. He brings up June 7 and September 4. Murdaugh says he doesn’t believe June 7 happened because of accountability at his door. He says that the roadside shooting wasn’t to garner sympathy. He expected to die.

Waters says that shame is an extraordinary provocation for Murdaugh. He says it is Murdaugh’s biggest concern. Murdaugh says he doesn’t like to be shamed, but it’s not his biggest concern.

Waters asks if Murdaugh has had a successful career. Murdaugh says no, he was an addict for 20 years, so he doesn’t consider that successful. He says his self-esteem was low.

Waters asks if in June of 2021, Murdaugh was coming to a point of financial crisis. Murdaugh says he was having financial issues like he had many times in the past.

Waters asks if Murdaugh is a family annihilator. Murdaugh asks if he means did he shoot his wife and son? Murdaugh says no, he would never hurt them under any circumstances. Waters asks if Murdaugh lied to Maggie and Paul. He says he did sometimes. Waters asks if he lied to others and goes through a list of family members, friends, colleagues, clients, and law enforcement. Murdaugh says yes to each. He qualifies some saying that he didn’t directly talk to them, but he stole from them.

Waters says people lie because they know they have done something wrong. Murdaugh says in most cases he did do something wrong.

Waters points out that Murdaugh is a perpetual liar, yet he wants the jury to believe the story Waters says he manufactured yesterday. Murdaugh says that’s not true.

Waters plays the Daniel Greene bodycam video from the night of the murders. Greene was first on the scene. Greene asks the last time Murdaugh was with Maggie and Paul. Murdaugh says it was earlier that night. He says he went to his mom’s and he probably saw them 45 minutes before that. Waters says he lied to Greene about the last time he saw Maggie and Paul and he lied to the jury about all the reasons he lied to agent Owen. Murdaugh says he does not agree. Prosecution rests.

3:54 p.m. – Court is taking a 15-minute break.

4:00 p.m. – A live update from Walterboro with WSAV News 3’s Andrew Davis.

4:11 p.m. – Court resumes. Defense attorney Jim Griffin begins redirect with Murdaugh.

Griffin asks if Murdaugh has pending criminal charges for his financial crimes. Murdaugh says yes.

Griffin asks if Murdaugh was an addict. Murdaugh says he is an addict. He says he lied to cover it up.

Griffin presents texts from Paul to Murdaugh sent May 30 and a picture of Paul’s feet. Murdaugh testified that Paul had high blood pressure and his feet were swelling. He says he and Maggie talked about it the night of the murders.

A text about Murdaugh’s father’s health is also presented.

Griffin asks about the 283 steps Murdaugh took at 9:02 p.m. the night of the murders. Waters had questioned what he described as increased activity. Griffin asks if Murdaugh had Maggie’s phone with him. Murdaugh says he didn’t have her phone at any point that night. Griffin points out that the phone data shows Maggie and Murdaugh’s phones were not moving together at the same time.

Griffin asks if Murdaugh repeatedly asked SLED to get phone and GPS data. He says he did. He said it was important to him because Maggie’s phone was located down the road. He knew he never had his phone with him or in his car, and the data would show that.

Griffin asks about the inaccurate times Murdaugh gave SLED. Murdaugh says that he wasn’t lying, he was giving estimates. He says he often told SLED that he wasn’t sure of the exact time, but they could check his phone or car or keycard for the exact time.

Griffin asks if Murdaugh saw anybody else down at the kennels. Murdaugh says no.

Griffin asks about the roadside shooting. Murdaugh says that he lied because the shooting went sideways and he didn’t die. He says his main concern at that point was that he didn’t want Buster to know he tried to kill himself.

Griffin asks if Murdaugh murdered Maggie and Paul. Murdaugh says no. He says if he was under the pressure that the prosecution claims he was under, he would’ve hurt himself, not Maggie or Paul.

4:38 p.m. – Prosecution questions Murdaugh again. Waters accuses Murdaugh of being more concerned about a bag of pills in his pocket than about his wife and son. Murdaugh says no.

Waters accuses Murdaugh of being so concerned with getting the cell phone data because he was a lawyer and he knew how to manufacture an alibi to cover his tracks.

Waters asks if yesterday Murdaugh testified that he knows he hurt the ones he loves. Murdaugh says he did. Waters tries to end the testimony. Murdaugh asks to explain. He says Waters is implying he killed Maggie and Paul. He says that is not what he meant. He meant he hurt his family, his law partners, his clients, etc through his addiction and financial crimes.

Waters concludes. Murdaugh is dismissed from the stand.

4:44 p.m. – Court is in recess until 9:30 a.m. Monday. Harpootlian says he anticipates four witnesses Monday and that they expect to rest by Monday afternoon. Waters says that they anticipate a couple of reply witnesses.

WCBD contributed to this report