Crowd Reacts to Conrad Murray Guilty Verdict

Los Angeles - A throng of Michael Jackson fans shouted their approval outside the downtown courthouse today when Dr. Conrad Murray was found guilty of causing the entertainer's death in 2009.

Some cried, others waved signs reading "Guilty" and still more held pictures of the late singer aloft. A victory chant started up afterward as Jackson family members made their way through the crowd to waiting limousines.

"I'm happy," said Michelle Mitchel, a dreadlocked Jackson fan in her 30s who traveled to Los Angeles from her home in the Bay Area to stand outside the courthouse when the verdict was read.

"We've been waiting more than two years for this," she said. "I cried as soon as I heard the verdict. It's so sad -- Michael's not here."

A phalanx of police officers managed to keep Jackson supporters on the sidewalk in front of the Criminal Courts Building and keep traffic moving along Temple Street unimpeded.

Echo Park resident Lawrence Kolb was among those gathered around an iPad outside the courthouse, watching a live television feed when the verdict was read aloud nine floors above the street.

"Everyone just screamed," he said. "Everyone was jubilant. I didn't see any Murray supporters."

But there was at least one among the crowd who believed in the Houston cardiologist, who was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the superstar's death at age 50 on June 25, 2009.

A lone man held a sign reading, "Dr Murray: An innocent man who must be exonerated."

As the crowd thinned, someone placed a boom box on a ledge and played a string of Jackson hits until a policeman moved the group on.