Alex Murdaugh's best friend describes why he testified against him in double murder trial

The former best friend of Alex Murdaugh is speaking out about his decision to testify against the disgraced legal scion during his bombshell double murder trial.

Chris Wilson told NBC News' Craig Melvin in an exclusive interview that it was 'hard' to take the stand against the once prominent South Carolina lawyer - after he was called by prosecutors to give evidence about Murdaugh's alleged financial crimes.  

'There's a relationship there that I thought was based on trust and respect,' Wilson said. 'And all of those things that when you find out it's not, it's hard to relive that, hard to talk about it.' 

After a six weeks of harrowing testimony, Murdaugh, 54, was found guilty on Thursday of murdering his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, at the family's 1,800-acre hunting estate in Moselle in South Carolina's Lowcountry on June 7, 2021. He has been sentenced to life in prison. 

Dateline NBC will air a comprehensive two-hour special on Friday at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT, with insiders close to the family speaking out for the first time.

Chris Wilson, a former friend of Alex Murdaugh, talks to NBC News' Craig Melvin about his decision to testify against the disgraced legal scion during his bombshell double murder trial

Murdaugh listens to his attorney make closing argument on Thursday. A few short hours later, he was found guilty in the June 2021 murders of his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22

Last month, the state called Wilson to the stand where he revealed that his former friend Murdaugh had admitted stealing from his firm and confessed to a 20-year opioid addiction

The trial lasted six weeks at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, a sleepy, rural town 50 miles west of Charleston in a low-lying region of South Carolina over which the Murdaugh family has wielded immense judicial and political power. 

Last month, the state called Wilson to the stand where he revealed that Murdaugh had admitted stealing from his firm and confessed to a 20-year opioid addiction.

Wilson was one of seven witnesses the state called in the absence of the jury to provide explosive evidence about how Murdaugh's life was spiraling out of control - which prosecutors claim was the motive for the killings.

Judge Clifton Newman later ruled that Murdaugh's financial crimes were admissible in his trial, despite the defense fighting to keep that evidence from the jury, arguing that there is 'no logical connection' between the financial impropriety and the murders. 

On Friday's two-hour Dateline special, Wilson explains why it was hard for him to testify against his longtime friend. 

'Hard,' he answered, when Craig Melvin asked him how he felt about taking the stand. 

'Not for any other reason other than it brings up all the hurt. Not because it's hard to tell the truth or not because I didn't know that I had to be involved and do, you know, what I had to do, but it's just, it's hard because there's a relationship there that I thought was based on trust and respect, and all of those things that when you find out it's not, it's hard to relive that, hard to talk about it.'

Wilson's wife, Dana Wilson, who was also a close friend of Maggie Murdaugh, was also interviewed by Melvin and recounted how she found out about the allegations Alex Murdaugh had been misdirecting funds. 

'I remember Chris telling me, and I'm shaking my head, like - there's no way. There's no way. He made good money. How? Why? What? No, that's not right. And Chris was shocked in disbelief.' 

Wilson's wife, Dana, who was also a close friend of Maggie Murdaugh, revealed to Melvin what it was like to find out about the allegations that Alex Murdaugh had been misdirecting funds

Dana Wilson was close to Maggie Murdaugh, who was murdered in June 2021, along with her son Paul. Pictured are Buster, Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh on a family vacation in Lake Keowee in May 2021 - a month before the killings

Dana Wilson also recalled when it became obvious to her that Murdaugh wasn't who she thought he was. 

'When he was who I thought he wasn't, in September, September 3rd, that was a Friday before everything came out to the public,' she told Melvin.

'Because Chris had gotten a phone call that day from Lee Cope and told him what had been going on, that he'd been stealing money, he'd been fired, had a pill addiction.'

Dana added, 'I mean, this was his best friend. We didn't want to believe it. But after that phone call, more came out. More came out, kept coming out, more is still coming out probably. I mean, it's just, who is this person? I don't know this person. Who was he?' 

When her husband Chris took the stand last month, he told the court that he was roommates with Murdaugh in law school and said that he thought Murdaugh was his best friend and believed he felt the same way.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters asked: 'You feel that way now?'

'I don't know how I feel now Mr. Waters,' Wilson said, his voice cracking.

Wilson answers questions from prosecutor Creighton Waters during his former friend Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial in South Carolina on February 9

Wilson testified on the stand last month that Murdaugh admitted to him that he had stolen money from their firm and that he had been addicted to opioids for 20 years

In the birthday video introduced by the defense, Murdaugh is seen with his best friend, Chris Wilson, whom he allegedly took advantage of by convincing Wilson to divert Murdaugh's cut of funds from a case they shared to his personal account instead of Murdaugh's law firm

Wilson had worked on a case with Murdaugh during which $792,000 in legal fees disappeared. This sparked the investigation by the law firm, PMPED.

Wilson testified Murdaugh admitted he had stolen money and had been addicted to opioids for 20 years. He told the court he was informed on September 3, 2021, by PMPED attorney Lee Cope that Murdaugh about the thefts.

He later met with Murdaugh at his parents' home in Almeda.

'I was so mad. I had loved the guy for so long, and I probably still love him a little bit, but I was so mad.'

Wilson grew emotional as he told the court he does not know how he did not notice his friend's life was descending into chaos.

'He told me that he had been stealing money.' Murdaugh admitted that he had 'sh*t me up.' He said he had 'sh*t a lot of people up.'

Wilson later found out that Murdaugh had been shot in the head.

'What in the devil is going on?' Wilson told the court he thought at the time. 'I thought he had tried to kill himself.'

While Murdaugh has reached out, Wilson hasn't spoken to him since.

One of the texts sent to Wilson said: 'So sorry for the havoc I created. I'd do anything to make it right.'

Wilson was also seen in a birthday video introduced by the defense, as they attempted to show Murdaugh as a family man. 

Six weeks of testimony came to a close Thursday as both sides had one more chance to plead their case before Judge Newman sent the jury to deliberate. Less than three hours later, the jury came back with a guilty verdict.

One of the jurors Craig Moyer appeared on Good Morning America on Friday where he revealed it took just 45 minutes of deliberations to convince the three other jurors of Murdaugh's guilt.

'He was a good liar, but not good enough,' Moyer said, breaking his anonymity to discuss the blockbuster trial that had America gripped. 

Murdaugh arrives to someone holding a sign: 'FORGIVE MY SINS JESUS SAVE MY SOUL'

Reverend Raymond Johnson of Myrtle Beach at court on Wednesday, telling DailyMail.com he 'wants to see justice done ... a wife and son have been torn from their family and community'

Murdaugh's defense attorney Jim Griffin said Thursday that state agents were so determined to get the disgraced South Carolina attorney convicted of murder in the killings of his wife and son that they lied about or misrepresented evidence. 

Griffin emphasized that investigators focused solely on him and conducted the investigation so poorly that any evidence pointing to someone else, like fingerprints or possible DNA on Maggie or Paul Murdaugh's clothing, was never gathered.

'How could he have butchered Maggie and Paul without leaving a trace of evidence within a matter of minutes?' Griffin said.

Prosecutors got the last word with a rebuttal argument before the judge gave the jury its instructions to begin considering their verdict. 

'You can't answer every question, and the law doesn't require it,' prosecutor John Meadors said.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters gives his closing statement during the murder trial of Alex Murdaugh at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro on Wednesday

Defense attorney Jim Griffin attacked a video which proves Murdaugh was at the crime scene moments before prosecutors say he killed his wife and son, saying 'there is nothing to indicate any strife or anger'

Maggie, Paul, Alex and Buster Murdaugh with their dog Bubba in a new family photo

Buster Murdaugh, girlfriend Brooklynn White and Alex's sister Lynn arrive at court Thursday

Investigators said there was about 17 minutes between the time his wife and son stopped using their cellphones and when he left the property to visit his ailing mother.

Experts from both sides agreed there had to be a massive amount of blood, tissue and other material from the killings, but the prosecution did not present any evidence of blood spatter on clothes. The weapons in the case also have never been found.

'He had 17 minutes. He would have to be a magician to make all that evidence disappear,' Griffin said.

Prosecutors believe Alex Murdaugh killed his wife and son because he feared his years of stealing millions of dollars from his law firm and clients would be exposed and his lofty standing in the community toppled. They said he hoped their deaths would make him a sympathetic figure and draw attention away from the missing money.

A key piece of evidence for prosecutors is a video that includes the voices of Murdaugh, his wife and son at the kennels just minutes before investigators said they were killed. The video wasn´t discovered for a year because agents couldn´t initially hack into his son´s iPhone

For 20 months, Alex Mudaugh told everyone that he wasn't at the kennels but while testifying in his own defense, he finally admitted he was there.

'He lied because that´s what addicts do. He lied because he has a closet full of skeletons,' Griffin said.

Dog kennels at the Moselle property Wednesday where Maggie and Paul's bodies were found

Maggie's body was found a few yards to the right of the doghouse while Paul's was in the doorway of the feed room at the kennels (far right)

Prosecutors said all Murdaugh did was lie - to the people he was stealing from, to police about a key fact in their investigation, to his family about his drug use and even about the order in which he checked his wife and son for signs of life, switching who he checked first in different police interviews.

Griffin said that showed how badly the state wants to convict Murdaugh at all costs, referring to prosecutors' closing argument where they said the evidence showed Maggie Murdaugh died while running to see her son.

'Alex was running to his baby. Can you imagine what he saw?' Griffin said. 'And is it evidence of guilt that he doesn't remember what the sequencing was at that moment?'

Griffin said his time as a prosecutor left him pained to say the State Law Enforcement Division either fabricated or lied about evidence.

The lead agent on the case said on the stand that he told the grand jury that indicted Murdaugh 13 months after the deaths that the T-shirt Murdaugh was wearing when police arrived had high velocity blood spatter from his son that happens when someone is shot at close range.

But other agents in the case had already reported further testing on the shirt showed no blood on it and the shirt was never mentioned by prosecutors at the trial. Meadors said law enforcement is not on trial, Murdaugh is. 

A photo of the property taken on February 16 shows that the bicycle was not out on the lawn and that it was placed there ahead of the jury visit on Wednesday

Jurors visited the estate after the defense requested they get a better understanding of the crime scene. Holes are seen in the glass of the feed room where Paul was shot with a shotgun

The prosecutor said he was offended that Murdaugh's defense is claiming that law enforcement 'didn´t do their job while he is withholding and obstructing justice by not saying, 'I was down at the kennels.´'

The two shotgun blasts that killed Paul Murdaugh had different size pellets. Owen incorrectly told the grand jury other shotguns in the house were loaded in a similar fashion.

'There's two shooters out there,' Griffin said.

And there was the matter of the blue rain jacket that state agents said was covered in gunshot residue when it was found at Murdaugh's mother's house. Investigators theorized Murdaugh wrapped guns in it to hide on his parents' property, but Murdaugh's family didn't recognize it and it wasn't his size.

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