Alex Murdaugh, the prominent South Carolina attorney accused of murdering his wife and son, has taken the stand to testify in his own defense.

He did not have a simple time of it on Tuesday as his own attorney peppered him with tough questions. Defense attorney Jim Griffin asked him if he shot his son, Paul, in the chest at his house to which he responded “no.”

But Griffin was not done.

“Did you take this gun, or any gun like it, and blow your son’s brains out on June 7th, or any day, or any time?” the attorney said.

‘No, I did not,” Murdaugh said.

“Mr. Murdaugh, did you take 300 blackout such as this and fire it into your wife Maggie’s leg, torso, or any part of her body?” Griffin said, which Murdaugh denied again.

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“Did you shoot a 300 blackout into her head causing her death?” the attorney said.

“Sir, did not shoot my wife or my son any time, ever,” the defendant said.

‘I didn’t shoot my wife or my son anytime — ever.’

Taking the stand in his own defense, Alex Murdaugh admitted to lying to investigators when questioned about his wife Maggie and son Paul’s deaths, but denied shooting either one. pic.twitter.com/upU0Zp6oGu

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) February 23, 2023

But he did admit that he lied to investigators and blamed it on drugs.

The defendant then asked Murdaugh f his voice was heard in a video, known as the “kennel video” taken by his son in the moments before his death.

“Mr. Murdaugh, is that you on the kennel video on June 7th, 2021?” the attorney said.

“It is,” Murdaugh responded.

“Were you in fact at the kennel the night that Paul and Maggie were murdered?” Griffin said.

“I was,” Murdaugh said.

His attorney asked him if he lied to investigators about being at the kennel right before Paul’s death.

“I did lie to them,” he said three times after three questions.

“As my addiction evolved over time, I would get in these situations and circumstances where I would get paranoid thinking, and it could be anything that triggered it,” the defendant said. “Maybe a look that somebody gave me or a reaction that something I did, and it might be a policeman following me in a car.”

“Normally when these paranoid thoughts would hit me, I could take a deep breath real quick and think about it, and reason my way through it, and just get past it quickly,” he said. “I wasn’t thinking clearly, don’t think that I was capable of reason.”

“And I lied about being down there,” he said. “And I’m so sorry that I did. I’m sorry to my son Buster. I’m sorry to Grandma and Papa T. I’m sorry to both of our families.”

“Most of all, I am sorry to Mags and Paul Paul,” he said as he cried in court. “I would never intentionally do anything to intentionally hurt either one of them. Ever. Ever.”

“Once I lied, I continued to lie, yes sir,” he said. “I had to keep lying.”

‘Once I lied, I continued to lie … ‘Oh, what a tangled web we weave.’’

Alex Murdaugh gets emotional on the stand while apologizing to his family, including his wife Maggie and son Paul, who he is accused of killing. pic.twitter.com/ZKKU5r9uUj

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) February 23, 2023

After he regained his composure his attorney asked him about what he did when he found his wife and son’s bodies.

“I think that I jumped out of my car. I am not sure exactly what I did, but I know that I got out of my car. I know I ran back to my car,” he said. “I was on the phone with 911 and trying to tend to ‘Paw-Paw.’ I was trying to tend to Maggie. I just went back and forth between them.”

And he cried when he described the condition of his son’s body when he found him.

“I could see his brain laying on the sidewalk,” he said. “I didn’t know what to do.”

NPR reported.

He also spoke about another aspect of the case that has raised many questions: his change of clothes, and the apparent use of a shower at Moselle.

Murdaugh said he and Paul had been driving around the property, checking on plantings for fields they used to hunt doves. He was sweaty, he said, from work — adding that he was heavier at the time, and saying that taking opioids also made him sweat more.

Murdaugh said he took a shower after getting back to the house, and that was why, he said, he changed into clean clothes and was reluctant to go down to the dog kennels with Paul and Maggie. He laid on the couch, he said, but then he opted to follow them, taking a golf cart down to the kennels.