Alex Murdaugh, a disgraced attorney from South Carolina, was found guilty by a jury in 2021 of brutally killing his wife and younger son on the family's property.

After hearing testimony from more than 70 witnesses for five weeks, including Alex Murdaugh himself, who denied the murders but admitted to lying to investigators and defrauding his clients, the jury reached its verdict on Thursday after deliberating for nearly three hours.

He was found guilty on all four charges, including two for murder and two for possessing a weapon in the commission of a violent crime.

According to Judge Clifton Newman, the court would meet again on Friday at 9:30 a.m. local time for the sentence. The murder charge places a sentence of 30 to life in the hands of Alex Murdaugh.

During the reading of the verdict, Alex Murdaugh, 54, did not appear to be feeling anything. He was silently led out of the courtroom after being handcuffed.

After the verdict, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson told reporters outside the courthouse, "no one in society is above the law."

Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters stated to reporters, "It doesn't matter how prominent you are -- if you do wrong, if you break the law, if you murder, then justice will be done in South Carolina."

Before beginning their deliberations, the jury went to the family's Moselle estate on Wednesday to inspect the scene of the crime. Authorities stated that in June 2021, the bodies of Paul Murdaugh, 22, and Margaret Murdaugh, 52, were discovered near the dog kennels on the family's estate. They had been shot multiple times.

More than a year later, Alex Murdaugh, who called 911 to report the discovery, was charged with their murders.

Alex Murdaugh, who comes from a long line of prominent lawyers in the area, is accused of murdering his wife and son to distract from his financial misdeeds and gain sympathy, according to the prosecution.

In the meantime, the defense has portrayed him as a devoted husband and father and argued that the police failed to consider the possibility that anyone else could have killed the couple. Alex Murdaugh blamed his lying to investigators on his addiction to painkillers, which he claimed led to "paranoid thinking," during his testimony.

Waters claimed that Alex Murdaugh was the only person "who had the motive, who had the means, who had the opportunity to commit these crimes" and that his "guilty conduct after these crimes betrays him" during his nearly four-hour closing argument on Wednesday.

Murdaugh was depicted by Waters as someone adept at lying who was accustomed to anticipating how jurors would interpret the evidence. Waters also informed the jurors that credibility is crucial.

"This is a trained individual who knows how to put together complicated cases. Waters said, "He's been a prosecutor." He has previously presented closing arguments to juries. Therefore, whenever you have a defendant like that, you should consider whether or not they are fabricating alibis and defenses."

A video from Paul Murdaugh's phone that placed Alex Murdaugh at the kennels minutes before authorities believe the shootings occurred, contradicting earlier statements in which he stated he was never at the kennels, was shown by Waters as part of a timeline that investigators compiled from the three Murdaughs' cell phones on the day of the murders.

Waters claimed that the "most important thing" Alex Murdaugh could have told law enforcement was when he last saw his wife and child alive.

"Why on earth would an innocent, reasonable husband and father lie about that at such a young age?" Waters claimed

The state had failed to meet its burden of proof, according to the defense, and investigators "failed miserably" in the case, concluding immediately that Alex Murdaugh was responsible for the deaths of his wife and son and never looking elsewhere, according to the defense.

During his closing argument on Thursday, defense attorney Jim Griffin told jurors about the numerous opportunities that were missed. He also mentioned evidence that investigators did not collect, such as DNA, foot imprints, and fingerprints. He also played back videos of witnesses for the prosecution describing Alex Murdaugh's love for his wife and son.

"Which brings us to the question, why?" said Griffin, discounting the state's proposed motive that years of lies and theft were about to catch up to Alex Murdaugh and the murders were a way to divert attention.

"Even if the financial day of reckoning was impending, if it was right there, he would not have killed the people he loved the most in the world," he said. "There's no evidence that he would do that."

Griffin also addressed that Alex Murdaugh admitted to lying to investigators about his alibi the evening of the shootings.

"I probably wouldn't be sitting over there right now if he did not lie. But he did lie, and he told you he lied," Griffin told the jurors."He lied because that's what addicts do. He lied because he had a closet full of skeletons and he didn't want any more scrutiny on him."

In the months following his wife's and son's murders, Alex Murdaugh resigned from his law firm, which sued him for allegedly funneling stolen money from clients and the law firm into a fake bank account for years. He also said he entered a rehab facility for opioid addiction.

Alex Murdaugh faces about 100 other charges for allegations ranging from money laundering to staging his own death so his surviving son could cash in on his $10 million life insurance policy. He was also charged for allegedly misappropriating settlement funds in the death of his housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, who reportedly died after a falling accident at the Murdaugh family home in February 2018.