The court handed down a guilty verdict against him.

Literal

Court [topic-は] him [dat-に] guilty-[possessive-の] verdict [object-を] handed-down

判決を下す ('to hand down a verdict') is the formal collocation for rendering a court decision. 下す ('to lower, give, hand down') is used metaphorically for decisions that come from authority to a lower party. 有罪 = guilty (有 'have' + 罪 'crime'); 無罪 = not guilty.