AEG Won't Pay Financial Damages Over Jackson Death

Update 3:45 p.m. PST: Jurors decided that AEG did hire Michael Jackson's physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, but that the physician was not unfit or incompetent. The decision means that AEG is not legally responsible for the King of Pop's 2009 death and therefore will not pay financial damages to Katherine Jackson and her grandchildren, who filed the lawsuit against the global concert promoter.

Original Story 2:35 p.m. PST: A verdict has been reached in the trial stemming from the wrongful death lawsuit brought against concert promoter AEG Live by the mother and children of the late entertainer Michael Jackson.

The verdict is expected to be read around 3:30 p.m PST in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.

The jurors took just under 14 hours to reach a consensus.

Coincidentally, Katherine Jackson appeared at the LA courthouse Wednesday to wait for the verdict. This was the first day she had been seen at the courthouse during the deliberations.

The decision by the panel of six men and six women marks the end of a more than five-month-long trial that has gripped fans around the globe and offered a window into the late entertainer's life - from his prior abuse of prescription drugs to his financial condition to his final hours.

Jackson died in 2009 from acute propofol intoxication, according to the L.A. County Coroner. Propofol is a powerful surgical anesthetic.

At the time of his death, the 50-year-old entertainer was rehearsing for his sold-out comeback tour "This Is It," for which AEG Live LLC was the promoter.

The lawsuit filed by Jackson's mother Katherine and his three children alleges AEG Live negligently hired Dr. Conrad Murray and failed to adequately supervise him.

Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in connection with Jackson's death and is currently in prison.

Jackson family attorney Brian Panish told jurors in his closing arguments last week that the concert promoter should pay damages exceeding hundreds of millions of dollars.

Attorneys for AEG Live have denied that the concert promoter employed Murray, insisting that money used to pay the physician came out of an advance to the late King of Pop.