(NewsNation) — Randy Murdaugh says his younger brother Alex Murdaugh, who was recently sentenced to life for the murders of his wife and son, knows more than he’s saying about the killings, The New York Times reports.
“He’s not telling the truth, in my opinion, about everything there,” Randy Murdaugh told The Times in the first interview a family member has given since the trial started.
Telling the newspaper that he has “no doubt” his brother is a serial liar and thief, Randy Murdaugh says he still does not know whether Alex Murdaugh actually killed Paul, his son, and Maggie, his wife.
Paul and Maggie were shot to death in June 2021, on the family’s sprawling hunting estate, roughly 70 miles west of Charleston. Prosecutors say Alex Murdaugh shot the two to deflect attention from the imminent revelation of a decade of his financial crimes, while the former South Carolina lawyer maintains his innocence.
Murdaugh, along with his murder charges, was also facing 19 indictments and 99 financial charges related to crimes including money laundering, insurance fraud, forgery and tax evasion. According to The Times, he was charged with stealing more than $8 million from his law firm and clients, reportedly to support his opioid addiction.
These financial crimes are why Alex Murdaugh’s defense team decided to let him take the stand and testify at the trial.
“He was so beat up at that point, frankly, we had to throw a Hail Mary by putting him on the stand to explain the lie, explain why he cheated, explain why he stole, and because of his drug addiction,” Alex Murdaugh’s attorney, Jim Griffin, said on “CUOMO.” “We had hoped that jurors had experience, whether with family members or relatives, of how drug addicts lie, cheat and steal, and have an understanding of that. Obviously, that did not work.”
Murdaugh’s lawyers plan to appeal the jury’s verdict that Alex Murdaugh was guilty, on the grounds that the financial crimes evidence shouldn’t have been let in.
While Alex Murdaugh’s younger brother and surviving son Buster both testified in his defense, saying he had seemed devastated after the murders, Randy Murdaugh was not called to testify.
Both Randy Murdaugh and Alex Murdaugh are from a once-powerhouse legal dynasty in South Carolina. They were born two years apart, The New York Times reported, and went to the University of South Carolina for college and law school before working as partners in the family law firm. However, the Times says the brothers weren’t close.
“It’s not like there was some problem with our relationship, necessarily,” Randy Murdaugh told the newspaper. “We just really weren’t alike, so we didn’t do stuff together.”
Now that the trial is over, much of the Murdaugh family is now focused on supporting Buster Murdaugh, Alex Murdaugh’s surviving son, and Randy is continuing at the law firm — and even taking on a few of his brother’s clients, telling them, “I’m not him.”
“I’m doing things the right way, always have,’” he says to them, according to The Times. “I don’t beat around the bush.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.