After nearly three hours of deliberations, a jury reached a guilty verdict Thursday in the double murder trial Alex Murdaugh, a disgraced South Carolina attorney who was charged with the murders of his wife and their younger son at their rural hunting estate in June 2021.

The bodies of Margaret "Maggie" Murdaugh, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22, were found dead from multiple gunshot wounds near the dog kennels at the family's estate in June 2021, authorities said.

Alex Murdaugh, 54, who called 911 to report the discovery, was charged with their murders 13 months later.

Jurors -- and the packed gallery -- heard testimony from dozens of witnesses since the trial started on Jan. 23 in the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina.

Here's a look at five key moments from the high-profile trial.

A string of bloody killings and mysteries involving a prominent South Carolina family has been filled with a wild chase full of twists and turns -- culminating in a murder conviction against the family’s patriarch.

At the center of it is Alex Murdaugh, 54, a former lawyer who comes from a legacy of prominent attorneys in South Carolina, where three generations of the family had been state prosecutors in the Hampton County area for more than a century.

The saga began when his youngest son, Paul, was involved in a fatal boat crash in 2019. A year and a half later, Murdaugh's wife, Margaret "Maggie" Murdaugh, 52, and Paul, 22, were found fatally shot on the family's rural hunting estate.

Since then, there have been curveballs in the investigation -- including Alex Murdaugh's alleged money misuse that led to his disbarment, an admitted opioid addiction, an assisted-suicide attempt involving an alleged $10 million insurance fraud scheme and a high-profile murder trial.

Here's a timeline of the key events in the Murdaugh murders and scandals.

Alex Murdaugh was sentenced Friday to life in prison after being convicted of murdering his wife and their youngest son.

The life sentences for each murder will run consecutively.

Before the judge imposed the sentence, Murdaugh said, “I’ll tell you again. I respect this court. But I am innocent, and I would never under any circumstances hurt my wife, Maggie, and I would never under any circumstances hurt my son, Paul."

Judge Clifton Newman responded, "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 judge said, "The person standing before me was not the person who committed the crime, though it's the same individual."