Juror in Alex Murdaugh's trial: "I didn't see any real remorse" 7:22
(CNN) --
For a year and a half, Alex Murdaugh denied being anywhere near the scene where his wife, Maggie, and 22-year-old son, Paul, were brutally murdered.
But it was one of his victims, his son, who would provide the evidence that legal experts say exposed his father's web of lies and ultimately led to his conviction for the double homicide.
"It's ironic, in the end, that it was the victim, Paul Murdaugh, who solved his own murder," Dave Aronberg, state's attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida, told CNN Thursday night.
Murdaugh, a now-disgraced former South Carolina prosecutor, was convicted Thursday of fatally shooting his wife and son and was sentenced a day later to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
He has maintained his innocence throughout the entire process.
Why Alex Murdaugh murdered his wife and son, according to the Prosecutor's Office
The key evidence came from a video Paul recorded moments before he was shot dead.
It seemed to show one of the family dogs near the kennels on his property.
He also captured Alex Murdaugh's voice in the background and put him at the crime scene.
The video, which Murdaugh did not know existed before the trial, meant his alibi crumbled and left him no choice but to take the stand and explain why he had repeatedly lied to authorities about his whereabouts, legal experts told CNN.
Murdaugh, while denying killing his wife and son, testified that he lied about where he was due to paranoid thoughts stemming from his years-long addiction to opioid pain relievers, as well as his distrust of investigators.
While on the stand, he also confessed to more lies and admitted in court that he had stolen millions from his law firm and clients over nearly two decades.
He told the jury that despite his repeated deceptions in the past, he was honest about one thing: he had not killed his family.
But the jurors did not believe him.
And in a case with little or no direct evidence linking Murdaugh to the scene, South Carolina's top prosecutor credited the video for achieving a swift conviction by the jury.
“This was a case of circumstantial evidence, but what people need to understand is that circumstantial evidence is just as powerful as direct evidence,” South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who was part of the prosecution team, said Friday. accusation.
"I think the kennel video was the end of it."
"The jury realized how he was trying to manipulate them, how he was lying, and they read it, they listened to the video from the kennel and they made the right decision."
The video convinced the jury
Craig Moyer, one of the jurors who helped convict Murdaugh, told ABC News in his first public interview that it took the panel less than an hour to reach a unanimous decision.
The video is what convinced him.
"I could hear his voice clearly," Moyer told ABC.
"And everyone else heard it too."
Moyer said he was surprised Murdaugh admitted he lied about the video, but added that he still did not believe the defendant was telling the truth about what happened on the night of June 7, 2021.
Murdaugh was "a good liar," Moyer claimed, "but not good enough."
The harsh words of the judge to Alex Murdaugh in his sentence
“When he took the stand, Alex Murdaugh had his chance to make his claim.
However, it was a very difficult thing to do," said criminal defense attorney and CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson.
“As much as you deny, deny, deny being in the kennels, you took the stand because you happened to be there.
The data from the cell phone put you there, the data from the car put you there, in addition to the fact that your own voice put you there, by virtue of what your son recorded.
"I think by virtue of what the jury said, it was clearly his opinion that ... (Alex Murdaugh) was still lying, the evidence was clear and that he was guilty," Jackson added.
Why Murdaugh Said He Lied About Being At The Crime Scene
The video was recorded by Paul at 8:44 pm on the night of the murders, according to testimony during the trial.
Colleton County Coroner Richard Harvey testified that he estimated Maggie and Paul's time of death to be around 9 p.m. — although he clarified that it was possible they were shot anytime between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. —.
After admitting that he lied to authorities about where he was that night, Murdaugh said he briefly went to the kennels and left at approximately 8:47 p.m.
She later visited her mother and found the bodies of Maggie and Paul when she returned home, according to her testimony.
Murdaugh told the court that as his long-standing addiction evolved, it often caused him to go into "paranoid thoughts."
Those paranoid thoughts were triggered the night of the slayings, he said, when investigators examined his hands for gunshot residue and questioned him about his relationship with his wife and child.
Murdaugh claimed that was why he lied.
“All of those things, after I found them, along with my mistrust of (the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) made me have paranoid thoughts,” he testified.
“I wasn't thinking straight.
I don't think he was capable of reasoning.
And I lied about being there, and I'm so sorry I did."
"Once I told the lie, I told my family, I had to keep lying," he told the court.
Former prosecutor Sarah Ford told CNN that Murdaugh "really had no choice but to take the stand and clear up" the video at the pound.
“And the jury did not believe that clarification.
He was lying to them long before he walked into the courtroom, long before he took the witness stand and the jury believed that he was lying to them on that witness stand as well,” Ford said.
(Credit: Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool)
What's next for Murdaugh?
After his sentence, Murdaugh was turned over to the South Carolina Department of Corrections.
He was processed Friday night at a reception and evaluation center in Columbia, the department said in a news release.
As part of that process, he had his head shaved, a standard procedure for inmates processed in the system, department spokeswoman Chrysti Shain said.
Murdaugh will then undergo medical examinations and an educational and mental health evaluation, the statement added.
Over the next month and a half, department officials will take into account the results of his tests and evaluations, as well as his offense and sentence, in deciding which maximum-security prison he will be sent to, the department said.
CNN's Alta Spells contributed to this report.
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