WATCH: Alex Murdaugh Admits He Lied About Whereabouts Night of Murders, Blames Drug-Fueled ‘Paranoid Thinking’

Alex Murdaugh’s testimony in his trial for murdering his wife and son had a dramatic start on Thursday, with his stunning admission that he had lied about being at the kennels the night of the murders.

Murdaugh was disbarred shortly after his 22-year-old son Paul and wife Maggie were murdered on June 7, 2021 at the family hunting lodge property, after a series of alleged financial improprieties were revealed. The prosecution’s theory has accused Murdaugh of killing his wife and son to distract from his own personal financial troubles.

The disgraced ex-attorney’s own defense counsel, Jim Griffin, opened his questioning by asking Murdaugh a series of questions if he shot his wife and son, using graphic descriptions of the guns used to kill them and their injuries.

“Did you take this gun or any gun like it and blow your son’s brains out on June 7th or any time?” was one such question.

“No, I did not,” was Murdaugh’s repeated reply.

Griffin then asked Murdaugh about the “kennel video,” referring to a Snapchat video believed to have been recorded by Paul minutes before his death. Murdaugh is not seen in the video but a voice is heard in the background, and multiple witnesses testified previously in the trial to identify the voice as Murdaugh’s.

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

“It is,” Murdaugh replied.

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

“I was,” said Murdaugh.

Griffin asked another series of questions, asking his client if he had lied to the officers on the night of June 7 about the last time he had seen Maggie and Paul and about being at the kennels that night.

When asked why he had lied, Murdaugh blamed his drug addiction for causing “paranoid thinking.”

“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,” he 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.”

Murdaugh described his emotions that night after finding his wife and son, being told not to talk to anybody without a lawyer, the sheriff taking gunshot residue tests from his hands, sitting in a police car with the officer asking him about his relationship with his wife and son, “and all of those things coupled together after finding them, coupled with my distrust” for law enforcement “caused me to have paranoid thoughts.”

“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, but on June 7th, “I wasn’t thinking clearly, don’t think that I was capable of reason.”

“And I lied about being down there,” he admitted. “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 added, using his nicknames for his wife and son. “I would never intentionally do anything to intentionally hurt either one of them. Ever. Ever.”

Watch above via CNN.

This article has been updated with additional information.