GUILTY: Pop star’s family and fans cheer after jury convicts doctor of involuntary manslaughter

MICHAEL JACKSON’S doctor faces up to four years in prison after being convicted last night of the pop star’s involuntary manslaughter.

The trial painted him as a reckless caregiver who administered a lethal dose of a powerful anaesthetic that killed Jackson.

The verdict against Dr Conrad Murray marked the latest chapter in one of pop culture’s most shocking tragedies — the death of the King of Pop on the eve of the singer’s heavily promoted comeback concerts.

Members of Jackson’s family, including his sister LaToya, wept quietly after the verdict was read.

Murray sat stone-faced during the verdict and was handcuffed and taken into custody without bail until sentencing on November 29. He appeared calm as officials led him out of the courtroom.

There was a shriek from LaToya in the courtroom when the verdict was read, and the crowd erupted outside the courthouse.

The jury deliberated for less than nine hours. The Houston cardiologist, aged 58, faces a sentence of up to four years in prison. He could also lose his medical licence.

Murray’s attorneys left the courtroom without commenting.

Jackson died on June 25, 2009, and details of his final days slowly emerged over several months.

The complete story, however, was finally revealed during the six-week trial. It was the tale of a tormented genius on the brink of what might have been his greatest triumph with one impediment standing in his way — extreme insomnia. The most shocking moments, however, came when prosecutors displayed a large picture of Jackson’s gaunt, lifeless body on a hospital gurney and played the sound of his drugged, slurred voice, as recorded by Murray just weeks before the singer’s death.

Jackson talked about plans for a children’s hospital and his hope of cementing a legacy larger than that of Elvis Presley or The Beatles.

“We have to be phenomenal,” he said about his This Is It concerts in London.

“When people leave this show, when people leave my show, I want them to say, ‘I’ve never seen nothing like this in my life. Go. Go. I’ve never seen nothing like this. Go. It’s amazing. He’s the greatest entertainer in the world’.”

Throughout the trial, Jackson family members watched from the spectator gallery, fans gathered outside with signs and T-shirts demanding “Justice for Michael” and an international press corps broadcast reports around the world.

The trial was televised and streamed on the internet.

Prosecutors portrayed Murray as an incompetent doctor who used the anaesthetic propofol without adequate safeguards and whose neglect left Jackson abandoned as he lay dying.

Murray said he had formed a close friendship with Jackson, never meant to harm him and could not explain why he died.