A South Carolina law enforcement agent testified that accused killer Alex Murdaugh sobbed and said, “I did him so bad” when shown graphic photos of his slain son in what could be a possible confession.
Murdaugh’s defense attorneys refuted Tuesday that the legal scion actually said, “They did him so bad” through tears as they slowed down the audio recording of the interview conducted with state agents three days after he allegedly shot and killed his wife and son in June 2021.
State Law Enforcement Division senior special agent Jeff Croft testified he was “100% confident” Murdaugh said “I” during the interview — suggesting that the 54-year-old confessed to fatally shooting his son Paul, 22, and wife, Maggie, 52 at least four times with two separate gun near the dog kennels at their Colleton County hunting estate.
The prosecution has yet to explain why they have stressed the comment.
“What were the things going through your mind when you heard, or misheard, ‘I did him so bad?’” defense attorney Jim Griffin asked Croft during cross-examination in the Colleton County Courthouse. “I wasn’t a good dad? I spoiled him? Or, I killed him?”
“It was definitely something we needed to follow up on,” Croft responded.
Croft told the court that he did not immediately ask for clarification on what Murdaugh meant because he did not want to lose his cooperation in the investigation. Griffin asked Croft why they did not bring it up when they interviewed him again three months later, to which the agent said they did not get around to it but did ask him explicitly if he killed his wife and son.
“[The jury gets] to hear the tape and make their own mind up on what he said, yes sir,” Croft said
Murdaugh, the disgraced heir of a powerful multi-generational legal dynasty, is accused of shooting his troubled son Paul twice with a shotgun, before then shooting Maggie with an AR-style assault rifle multiple times before receiving firing a single, execution-style shot to the back of her head while she was face-down on the ground not far from Paul.
Through four days of the trial, the prosecution again provided interesting tidbits of information surrounding the murder and investigation without offering any additional explanation — such as a $1,021.10 receipt from a Gucci store with an item circled or Maggie’s cellphone recovered on the side of the highway.
Murdaugh’s defense team cross-examined Croft — the prosecution’s 10th witness since the trial began — to try to poke holes in the investigation.
Croft was asked if he knew why state agents didn’t search Murdaugh’s home in the hours after the killings for dirty clothes, possible blood in drains or other evidence. Croft said he didn’t know what other agents did.
Griffin also asked Croft why agents didn’t search Murdaugh’s ill mother’s home until September — three months after the killings — even though that was the only place Murdaugh said he went before finding the bodies a little over an hour after he allegedly killed them.
“I know I did not go and I’m not sure what any of the other agents in the investigative circle had done,” Croft said.
Another witness on Tuesday testified about phone records which the prosecution claims contain “crucial evidence” in the case.
Alex Murdaugh told police hours after the killings and repeated in Croft’s interview three days later that he wasn’t at the kennels that night.
However, cellphone evidence indicates that he was in fact in the kennels with Maggie and Paul when the murders took place around 8:50 p.m. Prosecutors say he then tried to cover his tracks by visiting his mother while placing calls to family and friends. He called police at 10:06 p.m. after he returned home at 10:01 p.m.
Murdaugh’s lawyers have suggested “it’s much more likely” there were two shooters — neither of which were Murdaugh — which would explain two separate guns used. Neither murder weapon has been found.
Murdaugh, who has pleaded not guilty to the slayings, also faces 99 separate charges of financial fraud and trying to get a man to fatally shoot him so his surviving son Buster could collect a $10 million life insurance policy. That matter will be handled at a later trial.
While Murdaugh has proclaimed his innocence since his indictment last summer, prosecutors allege that he gunned down his family to cover up his extensive financial crimes.
If convicted of murder, he will face a minimum sentence of 30 years. Prosecutors are not pursuing the death penalty.
With Post wires