The prosecution played parts of a video of Alex Murdaugh being interviewed by police in a car on the night of the murders. (Pool)Alex Murdaugh pointed to several different things he believed contributed to his decision to lie to law enforcement about where he was the night his wife, Maggie, and son Paul were murdered. He first admitted to lying to investigators during his first day of testimony Thursday when he said he was not at the scene of the killings. Being questioned by the prosecution Friday, Murdaugh said his partners at his law firm advised him not to talk to anyone without a lawyer.”That was just one of the many things that I believe led to that situation, sitting in there, where those paranoid thoughts came to me,” Murdaugh said. Prosecutor Creighton Waters played parts of a video of Murdaugh being interviewed by police in a car on the night of the murders. Murdaugh also said his “distrust of SLED,” or the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, was another factor that contrib uted to his paranoia, in addition to “the fact that I have a pocket full of pills in my pocket,” he said. He also said questions about his relationship with Maggie and Paul made him easy.”All of those factors combined and made me decide to lie,” Murdaugh tested. Some background: Within moments of taking the stand Thursday, Murdaugh acknowledged his voice is heard in a video that appeared to be filmed at the dog kennels where the bodies of his wife and child were found, saying he lied about being at the kennels earlier that evening because of “paranoid thinking” stemming from his drug addiction. CNN’s Dakin Andone, Dianne Gallagher, Randi Kaye and Alta Spells contributed reporting to this post.
