(CNSNews.com) - Clifton Newman, the presiding judge in the Alex Murdaugh murder trial, lost his own son to natural causes this past January, making his comments at Murdaugh's sentencing on Friday all the more poignant.

In a soft, sad voice, with Murdaugh standing before him, Judge Newman said, "This has been perhaps one of the most troubling cases, not just for me as a judge, for the state, for the defense team, but for all of the citizens in this community, all the citizens in this state.

"And as we have seen, based on the media coverage throughout the nation, you have a wife who has been killed, murdered; a son savagely murdered. A lawyer, a person from a respected family who has controlled justice in this community for over a century, a person whose grandfather's portrait hung at the back of the courthouse that I had to have ordered removed in order to ensure that a fair trial was had by both the state and the defense."

The judge said the trial was "particularly troubling" for him, because Murdaugh had practiced law before him "and we've seen each other at various occasions throughout the years, and it was especially heartbreaking for me to see you go in the media from being a grieving father who lost a wife and a son, to being the person indicted and convicted of killing them.

"And you've engaged in such duplicitous conduct here in the courtroom, here on the witness stand..."

Before sentencing Murdaugh, Judge Newman asked him why he killed two members of his family, what he was thinking at that moment, even though he told Murdaugh he had no obligation to explain:

"And obviously as appeals are probably expected or absolutely expected, I would not expect a confession of any kind," the judge said.

"In fact, as I have presided over murder cases over the past 22 years, I have yet to find a defendant who could go there, who could go back to that moment in time when they decided to pull the trigger or to otherwise murder someone.

"I have not been able to get anyone, any defendant, even those who have confessed to being guilty, to go back and explain to me what happened at that moment in time when they opted to pull the trigger, when they opted to commit the most heinous crimes known to man."

During the sentencing hearing, Murdaugh twice insisted that he was innocent and that he "would never under any circumstances" kill his wife or his son.

But the judge told Murdaugh his testimony was not credible or believable. "You can convince yourself about it, but obviously you have the inability to convince anyone else about that."

The judge noted that even today, Murdaugh was continuing to lie: "But within your own soul you have to deal with that. And I know you have to see Paul and Maggie during the nighttime when you are attempting to go to sleep. I'm sure they come and visit you. I'm sure...And they will continue to do so. And reflect on the last time they looked you in the eyes as you looked the jury in the eyes.

"I don't know a person who has always been such a gregarious, friendly person and caused their life to be tangled in such a web, such a situation that yours spun into, and it is so unfortunate. Because you had such a lovely family, such friendly people, including you. And to go from that to this..."

The second time Murdaugh insisted he was innocent, the judge told him, "And it might not have been you."

"It might have been the monster you become when you take 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 opioid pills. Maybe you become another person. I've seen that before. The person standing before me was not the person who committed the crime though it's the same individual. We'll leave that at that. "

Shortly afterward, Judge Newman sentenced Murdaugh to two consecutive life terms in prison.