More than two years after Michael Jackson’s death, a Los Angeles jury convicted Dr. Conrad Murray of involuntary manslaughter.Credit…Pool photo by Al Seib

LOS ANGELES — Michael Jackson, among the most famous performers in pop music history, spent his final days in a sleep-deprived haze of medication and misery until finally succumbing to a fatal dose of potent drugs provided by the private physician he had hired to act as his personal pharmaceutical dispensary, a jury decided on Monday.

The physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter nearly two and a half years after Jackson’s shocking death at age 50. The verdict came after nearly 50 witnesses, 22 days of testimony and less than two days of deliberation by a jury of seven men and five women. The trial had focused primarily on whether Dr. Murray was guilty of abdicating his duty or of acting with reckless criminal negligence, directly causing his patient’s death.

Dr. Murray, 58, faces up to four years in prison and the loss of his medical license. He sat stoically as the verdict was read and did not react as he was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs. Judge Michael Pastor ruled that he should be held without bail until his sentencing, set for Nov. 29.

Jackson, who had become a star as a child in Gary, Ind., singing with his siblings in the Jackson 5, grew into one of the best-known performers in the world. Though increasingly eccentric in his later years, often living on a secluded California estate he called Neverland, Jackson always had a fervent core of fans and, despite scandals, his lavish lifestyle and persistent money woes, always seemed just a comeback away from a return to the top.

Hundreds of fans showed their devotion by gathering outside the downtown courthouse throughout the trial — many of them sporting Jackson’s signature single white glove. On Monday, they chanted “Justice, justice” and spent hours after the verdict dancing to his hits, from “Beat It” to “I Want You Back.” Huge crowds had also gathered outside the California court where Jackson was tried, and acquitted, on child molesting charges in 2005.

Image

Dr. Conrad Murray during the final stage of his trial on Thursday.Credit…Pool photo by Kevork Djansezian

The singer’s parents, Joe and Katherine Jackson, and siblings La Toya, Jermaine and Randy were in the courtroom for the verdict. The family left the courthouse without speaking to the hordes of reporters gathered outside, simply saying they were “very happy” with the verdict and flashing a thumb.

Dr. Murray, a Houston cardiologist, was paid $150,000 a month to work as Jackson’s personal physician as he rehearsed in Los Angeles for “This Is It,” a series of 50 sold-out concerts in London that he needed to pay off hundreds of millions of dollars in mounting debts.

Testimony showed that Dr. Murray had stayed with Jackson at least six nights a week and was regularly asked — and sometimes begged — by the insomniac singer to give him drugs powerful enough to put him to sleep. Jackson, Dr. Murray told the authorities, was especially eager to be administered propofol, a surgical anesthetic that put him to sleep when other powerful sedatives could not. Testimony indicated that propofol, in conjunction with other drugs in the singer’s system, had played the key role in his death on June 25, 2009.

Prosecutors tried to paint Dr. Murray as a money-hungry physician who would do things no reputable doctor would do — including improperly and recklessly administering an anesthetic normally given only in a hospital. The full retinue of drugs given to Jackson while he was under Dr. Murray’s care was so beyond normal practice, prosecutors said, that it amounted to a “pharmaceutical experiment.”

For its part, the defense tried to portray Jackson as a man so desperate to make his comeback concerts a success that he was willing to take wild chances and grew terrified that he would not be able to perform to his own exacting standards without more rest and less stress.

The morning Jackson died, Dr. Murray told investigators during a recording played in State Superior Court here, the singer told him, “Just make me sleep; it doesn’t matter what happens.”

Image

Joe and Katherine Jackson, Michael Jackson’s parents, arrived at the courthouse in Los Angeles on Monday.Credit…Bret Hartman/Associated Press

When Jackson died, he was more than $400 million in debt, but since his death, his estate has prospered, generating more than $310 million and paying off most of his debts.

The estate has struck several lucrative deals, including a movie, video games, a new recording contract and two productions by Cirque du Soleil.

Shortly after Jackson’s death, Dr. Murray told investigators that the pop star would routinely plead with him to administer more propofol, calling it his “milk.” The defense argued that Jackson gave himself the fatal dose of the drug. The Los Angeles County coroner ruled that Jackson’s death was caused by “acute propofol intoxication,” in combination with two other drugs in his system.

Two days after Jackson’s death, Dr. Murray told investigators that he had been using propofol almost nightly for two months to help the singer sleep.

In their closing arguments, prosecutors repeatedly invoked Jackson’s three children to a jury that included nine parents, saying that the singer wanted to perform, in part, so that they could see their father on stage. David Walgren, the deputy district attorney in charge of the case, described the frantic moments after Dr. Murray realized that Jackson was not responsive and as the pop star’s children watched him lie lifeless on his bed.

Prosecutors sought to show that Dr. Murray veered significantly from acceptable medical practice at nearly every turn: by administering the propofol, not having proper monitoring equipment and failing to call 911 right away, among other things. They said Dr. Murray had not kept any records of administering propofol but had taken time to record Jackson’s voice on his iPhone.

A Los Angeles jury finds Michael Jackson’s personal doctor, Conrad Murray, guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the pop star’s death. Rough cut (no reporter narration).CreditCredit…Reuters

He did not tell the paramedics who arrived at Jackson’s home about the propofol, which prosecutors said showed that he knew he was responsible for the singer’s death. Just one day before the trial ended, Dr. Murray decided he would not testify.

Steve Cooley, the Los Angeles County district attorney, said that he hoped the trial would send a message to other “unscrupulous, corrupt” doctors who help fuel patients’ reliance on powerful drugs.

“In Los Angeles we see many examples of high-profile people losing their lives because of their addiction to prescribed medication,” Mr. Cooley said. “To the extent that someone dies as a result of their playing the role of Dr. Feelgood, they will be held accountable.”

Mr. Cooley said that he doubted that Dr. Murray would serve a full four-year sentence because of the state’s chronically overcrowded prisons.

In one of the most dramatic moments in the trial, prosecutors played the iPhone recording Dr. Murray made of Jackson toward the end of his life and the court heard the singer rambling about his dream of building the world’s largest children’s hospital.

“I’m going to do that for them,” Jackson is heard saying in slurred speech. “That will be remembered more than my performances. My performances will be up there helping my children and always be my dream. I love them. I love them because I didn’t have a childhood. I had no childhood. I feel their pain.”

When his voice trailed off, Dr. Murray waited several seconds before asking, “You O.K.?”

After several more seconds, Jackson answered, “I am asleep.”