‘I Did Him So Bad’: Alex Murdaugh’s Words After His Wife, Son Were Killed Disputed At Trial

Prosecutors Monday played audio from an interview between Alex Murdaugh, a disgraced former South Carolina attorney, and investigators. He claimed that he had slipped up in his previously consistent claim that his wife or son were not murdered.

Creighton Waters, the lead prosecutor, was questioning Jeff Croft (a senior special agent with South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) when he inquired about Murdaugh’s interview. “traumatic” picture the defendant was shown of his family’s injuries.

“When you asked the defendant about a traumatic picture that he saw of Paul and Maggie, what did he say?” Waters asked Croft.

“It’s just so bad. I did him so bad,” Croft responded, Buzzfeed News.

“’I did him so bad’?” Waters follow up.

“Yes, sir,” Croft replied.

During the exchange Murdaugh seemed to shake his head and speak the words. “that’s not what I said.”

The interview was played back, but it’s unclear if Murdaugh spoke. “I did him so bad” Or “they did him so bad.” Cathy Russon (executive producer at Law & Crime) noted that it was “hard to tell” What Murdaugh said to investigators. Chief investigative reporter of the Post and Courier, Avery Wilks, stated that he had heard Murdaugh. “they did” Not “I did.”

My two cents, it’s hard to tell if he says “I” He was so evil or “they” He was so evil! #AlexMurdaugh

— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) January 30, 2023

Murdaugh’s defense attorneys are expected to cross-examine Croft on Tuesday.

Opening statements began last Thursday, with Murdaugh accused of murdering his wife, Maggie, and youngest son, Paul, to build sympathy for himself as his embezzlement of millions of dollars from his law firm and clients was about to be revealed.

“Listen to that gathering storm that all came to a head,” Waters said in his opening statements, according to The New York Times. “The evidence is going to be such that you are going to reach the inescapable conclusion that Alex murdered Maggie and Paul, that he was the storm, that the storm was coming for them, and the storm arrived on June 7, 2021.”

Waters said that Murdaugh texted and called his dead wife’s phone after allegedly committing the murders to create an alibi, but that evidence shows Murdaugh was at the dog kennels on his family’s estate when the murders occurred. The prosecutor pointed to bullet casings matching those found around Maggie’s body in other places on the property, which Waters suggested meant she was killed with “a family weapon.”

He added that Murdaugh didn’t have an explanation for where two of the three rifles he had purchased over the past couple of years had gone. Waters also mentioned that empty boxes of ammunition with the same brand and type of bullets as those in the bodies were found on the property.

Even more damning was a raincoat with gunshot residue found at Murdaugh’s mother’s home, where he went after his wife and son were murdered.

Waters also pointed to cell phone evidence taken from Paul’s phone less than five minutes before he was killed. Paul had filmed one of the dogs to send to a friend, and prosecutors allege Murdaugh’s voice can be heard in the background of the recording. Murdaugh has said he wasn’t at the kennels that night. Prosecutors allege that Murdaugh murdered his wife and son around 8:49 p.m., just a few minutes after the video was taken.

In the defense’s opening statements, Murdaugh’s attorney Dick Harpootlian argued that the brutal nature of the murders was one reason Murdaugh couldn’t be the killer since he was described as a loving father and husband.

“He didn’t kill — butcher — his son and his wife,” Harpootlian said in his opening statement. “And you need to put from your mind any suggestion that he did.”

The defense also argued that the prosecution’s timeline was wrong and that Maggie and Paul were killed at some point after Murdaugh had left to visit his mother, People Magazine reported. Murdaugh has said he left his estate around 9 p.m., returning an hour later and calling 911 to say he had found his wife and son dead.