WALTERBORO, South Carolina — On Thursday, a panel of 12 jurors deliberated for less than three hours before returning a guilty verdict in the case of Alex Murdaugh, who was charged with the murder of his wife and son.

Without posing a single question to the judge while they deliberated, the jury decided that Murdaugh, who was 54 at the time of the crime, was guilty of two counts of murder and two counts of possessing a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.