The billionaire TV talk show host described the three-day trial as the saddest experience of her life.

Oprah Winfrey’s spin at civic service has ended Wednesday with the conviction of a man for murder.

'It's a huge reality check, there's a whole other world going on out there. ... When your life intersects with others in this way, it is forever changed,' Winfrey said outside the courtroom, flanked by other jurors.

Jurors deliberated for more than two hours in the trial-turned-media frenzy before convicting 27-year-old Dion Coleman of first-degree murder in the February 2002 shooting death of 23-year-old Walter Holley. Coleman will be sentenced in September and could face 45 years to life in prison.

'The bigger story here for me is a man is dead, murdered, supposedly over $50, and that the real war is still going on in the inner-city streets every day. … Young black men killing each other,' Winfrey told reporters afterward in the lobby of the Cook County Criminal Courts Building.

Winfrey's selection as a juror Monday drew loads of attention to the trial that would have largely escaped notice except for one famous juror (Read Oprah Deliberates on Murder Trial Jury). Television cameras chronicled the talk show host’s moves outside and inside the bustling lobby of the courthouse because cameras weren't allowed in the courtroom.

Winfrey called all the attention distracting.

'This is not good for the victim's family. ... This is not about Oprah Winfrey, the fact is a man has been murdered,' Winfrey said.

Winfrey was an attentive juror during the trial, sometimes taking notes, but she said the violent nature of the crime – Holley was shot seven times, including in the face – had shaken her when it came time to view photographs of the victim.

'I had problems looking at the graphic evidence. I'm not a person who watches murder shows. If there's a gun involved and it's in a movie, I turn away. I make a choice not to go to violent films. I make a choice not to watch violence on television or read about it,' she said.

Jury experts questioned why either lawyer would agree to keep such a high-profile juror whose opinion might sway the rest of the panel. Even Winfrey said she thought she was too opinionated to be picked as a juror, but lawyers on both sides approved of her serving.

'She was accepted by both parties and we want fair intelligent jurors on a jury whether it's Miss Winfrey or anyone else,' Prosecutor Kathy Van Kampen said.

Assistant Public Defender Cynthia Brown thought Winfrey would be a good juror because of her experience in being accused of something after her involvement as a previous civil lawsuit defendant. In 1998, a Texas jury acquitted Winfrey in a defamation case brought by cattlemen over comments about eating beef that she and a vegetarian activist made on a 1996 show. A second lawsuit against Winfrey filed shortly after the first trial lingered until its dismissal in 2002.

Winfrey said she was not the jury foreman and she tried to remain neutral during deliberations in an attempt not to make herself 'a jury of one.' She plans to highlight her trial experiences on an upcoming episode of her show.