Conrad Murray's trial/ Day 10-11-2011

CONRAD MURRAY TRIAL
Key Cop Testifies
[Livestream]

The cop who led the L.A.P.D. investigation into Michael Jackson's death is expected to take the stand in Conrad Murray's manslaughter trial after the jury hears the rest of his 2-hour interview with police.

Detective Orlando Martinez is a critical link in the investigation that led to charges being filed against Murray. His testimony could be crucial.


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Murray Points at Another Doctor in Michael Jackson’s Death


(CNN) – Michael Jackson’s three children “cried and cried and cried” when an emergency room doctor told them their father was dead, Dr. Conrad Murray said in a police interview two days after the pop icon’s death.

Jurors in Murray’s involuntary manslaughter trial will hear the last 45 minutes of the police interview Tuesday morning. Most of the audio recording was played in court Friday.
“I will wake up in the morning, and I won’t be able to see my daddy,” Paris, then 11, said, according to Murray.
Murray is not expected to testify during the trial, but the interview playback means jurors will have heard his story — at least as he told it two days after Jackson’s death.
The prosecution could benefit from the jury hearing Murray say he was away from Jackson for just two minutes before finding him without a pulse. Phone records and witnesses showed that moment came after he spent at least 45 minutes on his cell phone.
Murray’s defense, however, may gain by the more personal view jurors get of the doctor without subjecting him to prosecution questioning.
The jury on Friday heard Murray’s reasons for not immediately calling 911 for help, his explanation of his much-criticized CPR techniques, and the story that he was trying to wean Jackson off a dependency on propofol.
Tuesday’s interview playback will begin with Murray relating how Jackson’s children “really were weeping, really weeping” when they were told doctors at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center were unable to save their father.
“I hugged them all, gave comfort to Paris, comfort to Prince, comfort to Blanket, which is the last little guy, because whenever they were sick, they would always ask for Dr. Conrad,” Murray said.
Murray, who treated Jackson and his children for colds and minor illnesses when they visited or lived in Las Vegas, was hired as Jackson’s full time physician just two months before his June 25, 2009, death.
“After they cried and cried and cried, then his daughter uttered a lot of words of unhappiness and, you know, she will live alone without her dad and she didn’t want to be an orphan,” Murray said, referring to Paris.
“She asked me, ‘Dr. Murray, you said you save a lot of patients. You know, you save people with heart attacks, and you couldn’t save my dad,’” he told detectives. “I said, ‘I tried my best.’ And she said, ‘I know that, Dr. Murray. At least I know. I know you tried your best. I know you tried your best, but I’m really sad. You know, I will wake up in the morning, and I won’t be able to see my daddy.’”
Murray said he also was unable to explain Jackson’s death to other family members gathered in a conference room at the hospital.
“Do you know why he died?” one of them asked, Murray told police.
“My answer was ‘No,’ and that’s the reason why I was recommending to the family to have an autopsy, because I also wanted to know,” Murray said.
Prosecutors contend Jackson died because of Murray’s criminal negligence, including the use of the surgical anesthetic propofol in his bedroom, without proper monitoring equipment.
The Los Angeles County Coroner ruled that Jackson’s death was the result of “acute propofol intoxication” in combination with several sedatives — all drugs Murray acknowledged in the police interview that he gave Jackson in the hours before his death.
But in the portion of the interview to be heard Tuesday, Murray points the finger away from him to other doctors.
“I was not aware of any other medications that he was taking, but I heard that he was seeing a Dr. Klein three times a week in Beverly Hills,” Murray told police. “And he never disclosed that to me.”
Defense lawyer Ed Chernoff contended at the start of the trial that Dr. Arnold Klein had addicted Jackson to Demerol, a narcotic pain reliever, during the singer’s regular visits to his Beverly Hills dermatology clinic in the weeks before his death.
“His production team had said to me recently that his worst days in the set is when he had gone to Dr. Klein’s office, which is about three times a week,” Murray said in the interview. “And when he came back, he was basically wasted and required at least 24 hours for recovery.”
Three earlier prosecution witnesses testified that they were aware of Jackson’s frequent visits to Klein’s office and that Jackson’s speech would be slow and slurred afterward.
Toxicology tests did not find Demerol in Jackson’s blood at the time of his death, but the defense contention is that it played a role because Jackson was unable to sleep because he was suffering from withdrawal from the drug.
Murray told police that Jackson was “showing signs of a withdrawal,” but he suspected it was from propofol, which he said he was trying to wean Jackson off after two months of nightly use.
Jackson’s death came after two nights of not using propofol. Murray said he gave him a series of three sedatives — Valium, lorazepam and midazolam — on the third night without success.
“It wasn’t working,” Murray said. “So, was he going through a withdrawal from that agent? Was it his mind that was forcing him to stay awake?”
After 10 hours of trying, Jackson begged him to give him propofol again, which the singer called his “milk.” He needed rest before an important rehearsal for his “This Is It” comeback shows.
“I’ve got to sleep, Dr. Conrad,” Murray said Jackson pleaded to him. “I have these rehearsals to perform. I must be ready for the show in England. Tomorrow, I will have to cancel my performance, because you know I cannot function if I don’t get to sleep.”
By 10:40 a.m., Murray said he gave in.
“I then decided to go ahead and give him some of the milk, so he could get a couple of hours sleep so that he could produce, because I cared about him,” Murray said. “I did not want him to fail. I had no intentions of hurting him. And I was compassionate. But what I was doing, too, recognizing that Michael Jackson may have had a dependency to a substance. I was trying to wean him off.”
On the recording, Murray insisted he kept a close watch on Jackson after he finally fell asleep. The physician never mentioned the long list of e-mails and calls that cell phone records later revealed.
The doctor said he left the room for about two minutes to visit the toilet. When he returned, he realized his patient had stopped breathing, Murray said.
“Immediately, I felt for a pulse and I was able to get a pulse in the femoral region,” he said. “His body was warm. There was no change in color, so I assumed that everything happened quickly.”
Murray told police he immediately started one-handed CPR on the bed alternately with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Jackson.
“I couldn’t lift him off the bed by myself,” Murray said. “What I did was to improvise. His bed is fairly firm, so I got my left hand under his body and I compressed with my hand not moving in place.”
Jackson security chief Alberto Alvarez, the first person to join Murray in the effort, testified that he questioned Murray’s knowledge of CPR techniques because he was trained to put a patient on a hard surface and use two hands.
Murray said he did not call 911 for help immediately because he expected answering the emergency operator’s questions would take too much time away from the resuscitation efforts.
Instead, he ran down the stairs and shouted for the chef to summon help, and he placed a call to Jackson’s personal assistant, Michael Amir Williams, to ask that he send a security guard upstairs, Murray said.
Murray said he tried his best to revive Jackson.
In the portion of the interview played Friday, Murray said Jackson told him that hiring him as his personal doctor was “divine guidance.”
Murray said that when he agreed to be Jackson’s personal physician for his “This Is It” shows in London, he had no idea he would have to give him regular infusions of propofol.
But it was a drug Jackson told him he had used for years to get elusive sleep, he said.
“I was a bit surprised of his pharmacological knowledge,” Murray told police. “He explained that he used it frequently on his tours.”
During his two months on the job, he gave Jackson propofol “30 days a month, every day, with the exception of three days leading up to his death,” Murray said.
If convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Murray could spend four years in a California prison and lose his medical license.


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Murray points at another doctor in Michael Jackson's death
By Alan Duke, CNN
October 11, 2011



Los Angeles (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's three children "cried and cried and cried" when an emergency room doctor told them their father was dead, Dr. Conrad Murray said in a police interview two days after the pop icon's death.
Jurors were hearing the last 45 minutes of the police interview Tuesday morning, the 10th day of Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial. Most of the audio recording was played in court Friday.

Jackson matriarch Katherine Jackson sat on the second row of court with her husband and several of her children Tuesday after being absent from the trial for more than a week on an international trip. The Jackson family listened as Murray described to detectives the reaction of her 11-year-old granddaughter, Paris, to being told her father was dead.

"I will wake up in the morning, and I won't be able to see my daddy," Paris said, according to Murray.
Murray is not expected to testify during the trial, but the interview playback means jurors will have heard his story -- at least as he told it two days after Jackson's death.

She was almost Michael Jackson's doctor Jackson friend: Murray should do time Conrad trial testimony debated
The prosecution could benefit from the jury hearing Murray say he was away from Jackson for just two minutes before finding him without a pulse. Phone records and witnesses showed that moment came after he spent at least 45 minutes on his cell phone.

Murray's defense, however, may gain by the more personal view jurors get of the doctor without subjecting him to prosecution questioning.
The jury on Friday heard Murray's reasons for not immediately calling 911 for help, his explanation of his much-criticized CPR techniques, and his statement that he was trying to wean Jackson off a dependency on propofol.

Tuesday's interview playback will begin with Murray relating how Jackson's children "really were weeping, really weeping" when they were told doctors at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center were unable to save their father.
"I hugged them all, gave comfort to Paris, comfort to Prince, comfort to Blanket, which is the last little guy, because whenever they were sick, they would always ask for Dr. Conrad," Murray said.

Murray, who treated Jackson and his children for colds and minor illnesses when they visited or lived in Las Vegas, was hired as Jackson's full-time physician just two months before his June 25, 2009, death.
"After they cried and cried and cried, then his daughter uttered a lot of words of unhappiness and, you know, she will live alone without her dad and she didn't want to be an orphan," Murray said, referring to Paris.

"She asked me, 'Dr. Murray, you said you save a lot of patients. You know, you save people with heart attacks, and you couldn't save my dad,'" he told detectives. "I said, 'I tried my best.' And she said, 'I know that, Dr. Murray. At least I know. I know you tried your best. I know you tried your best, but I'm really sad. You know, I will wake up in the morning, and I won't be able to see my daddy.'"

Murray said he also was unable to explain Jackson's death to other family members gathered in a conference room at the hospital.
"Do you know why he died?" one of them asked, Murray told police.
"My answer was 'No,' and that's the reason why I was recommending to the family to have an autopsy, because I also wanted to know," Murray said.
Prosecutors contend Jackson died because of Murray's criminal negligence, including the use of the surgical anesthetic propofol in his bedroom, without proper monitoring equipment.

The Los Angeles County coroner ruled that Jackson's death was the result of "acute propofol intoxication" in combination with several sedatives -- all drugs Murray acknowledged in the police interview that he gave Jackson in the hours before his death.

But in the portion of the interview to be heard Tuesday, Murray points the finger away from him to other doctors.
"I was not aware of any other medications that he was taking, but I heard that he was seeing a Dr. Klein three times a week in Beverly Hills," Murray told police. "And he never disclosed that to me."

Defense lawyer Ed Chernoff contended at the start of the trial that Dr. Arnold Klein had addicted Jackson to Demerol, a narcotic pain reliever, during the singer's regular visits to his Beverly Hills dermatology clinic in the weeks before his death.

"His production team had said to me recently that his worst days in the set is when he had gone to Dr. Klein's office, which is about three times a week," Murray said in the interview. "And when he came back, he was basically wasted and required at least 24 hours for recovery."
Three earlier prosecution witnesses testified that they were aware of Jackson's frequent visits to Klein's office and that Jackson's speech would be slow and slurred afterward.

Toxicology tests did not find Demerol in Jackson's blood at the time of his death, but the defense contention is that it played a role because Jackson was unable to sleep because he was suffering from withdrawal from the drug.
Murray told police that Jackson was "showing signs of a withdrawal," but he suspected it was from propofol, which he said he was trying to wean Jackson off after two months of nightly use.

Jackson's death came after two nights of not using propofol. Murray said he gave him a series of three sedatives -- Valium, lorazepam and midazolam -- on the third night without getting him to sleep.
"It wasn't working," Murray said. "So, was he going through a withdrawal from that agent? Was it his mind that was forcing him to stay awake?"
After 10 hours of trying, Jackson begged him to give him propofol again, Murray said, which the singer called his "milk." He needed rest before an important rehearsal for his "This Is It" comeback shows.

"I've got to sleep, Dr. Conrad," Murray said Jackson pleaded to him. "I have these rehearsals to perform. I must be ready for the show in England. Tomorrow, I will have to cancel my performance, because you know I cannot function if I don't get to sleep."
By 10:40 a.m., Murray said, he gave in.
"I then decided to go ahead and give him some of the milk, so he could get a couple of hours sleep so that he could produce, because I cared about him," Murray said. "I did not want him to fail. I had no intentions of hurting him. And I was compassionate. But what I was doing, too, recognizing that Michael Jackson may have had a dependency to a substance. I was trying to wean him off."
On the recording, Murray insisted he kept a close watch on Jackson after he finally fell asleep. The physician never mentioned the long list of e-mails and calls that cell phone records later revealed.

The doctor said he left the room for about two minutes to visit the toilet. When he returned, he realized his patient had stopped breathing, Murray said.
"Immediately, I felt for a pulse and I was able to get a pulse in the femoral region," he said. "His body was warm. There was no change in color, so I assumed that everything happened quickly."

Murray told police he immediately started one-handed CPR on the bed alternately with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Jackson.
"I couldn't lift him off the bed by myself," Murray said. "What I did was to improvise. His bed is fairly firm, so I got my left hand under his body and I compressed with my hand not moving in place."
Jackson security chief Alberto Alvarez, the first person to join Murray in the effort, testified that he questioned Murray's knowledge of CPR techniques because he was trained to put a patient on a hard surface and use two hands.
Murray said he did not call 911 for help immediately because he expected answering the emergency operator's questions would take too much time away from the resuscitation efforts.

Instead, he ran down the stairs and shouted for the chef to summon help, and he placed a call to Jackson's personal assistant, Michael Amir Williams, to ask that he send a security guard upstairs, Murray said.
Murray said he tried his best to revive Jackson.
In the portion of the interview played Friday, Murray said Jackson told him that hiring him as his personal doctor was "divine guidance."
Murray said that when he agreed to be Jackson's personal physician for his "This Is It" shows in London, he had no idea he would have to give him regular infusions of propofol.
But it was a drug Jackson told him he had used for years to get elusive sleep, he said.

"I was a bit surprised of his pharmacological knowledge," Murray told police. "He explained that he used it frequently on his tours."
During his two months on the job, he gave Jackson propofol "30 days a month, every day, with the exception of three days leading up to his death," Murray said.

If convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Murray could spend four years in a California prison and lose his medical license.


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October 10, 2011
Conrad's contradictions


rom In Session correspondent Beth Karas

A long list of contradictions have emerged between what Dr. Conrad Murray said in his police statement to the L.A.P.D. and other evidence presented at the trial. Here's a look at some of the more important inconsistencies.

What time did Murray find Jackson unresponsive?

In the timeline Murray gives police, he found Jackson not breathing around 11 am. Cell phone records and the testimony of his ex-girlfriend Sade Anding indicate the time was closer to noon.

What drugs did Murray administer to Jackson?

In the interview, Dr. Murray admits to giving Jackson diazepam, lorazepam, midazolam, propofol, and flumazenil. However, Dr. Murray told ER doctors Richelle Cooper and Thao Nguyen, that he gave Jackson lorazepam—no mention of propofol. He also said that diazepam and flomax were Jackson’s regular medications. Furthermore, Dr. Murray told the paramedics that he gave him lorazepam–no mention of propofol.


How long was Murray out of the room after giving Jackson propofol?

In the police interview, Murray explains how he gave 25 mg of propofol, watched Jackson, then left for 2 minutes to go to the bathroom. When he returned, he found Jackson not breathing. Murray’s cell phone records and testimony from people who spoke to him that morning indicate he was probably out of the room for at least 45 minutes while he made three calls between 11:18 am and noon, the last being to his ex-girlfriend, Sade Anding. It seems that while on the phone with Anding he discovered an unresponsive Jackson around noon, perhaps a few minutes before that.

Did Murray witness the cardiac arrest of Jackson?

Dr. Murray tells police that he was out of the bedroom for such a short period, that he witnessed Jackson going into cardiac arrest. However, the timeline from the cell phone records suggests otherwise as does the testimony of Paramedic Senneff who said that Jackson was cool to the touch and that it didn’t comport with what Dr. Murray had told him. Senneff testified that Murray told him, “It just happened right when I called you.”

Did Murray have a watch or not?

Many times in the interview Murray says he looked at his watch. Emergency room doctor Thao Nguyen said on the stand that Murray couldn’t give her the times he administered the lorazepam or when 911 was called because he didn’t have a concept of time and didn’t have a watch.

Whose idea was it to try the intra-aortic balloon pump?

During the police interview, Murray says it was the emergency room doctor’s idea to try to the balloon pump. However, Dr. Nguyen testified that her attendant, Dr. Cruz, spoke to Murray and that Murray asked them not to give up easily; to try to save Jackson’s life. She testified there was nothing left to do after their efforts to resuscitate in the ER, but the balloon pump. Therefore, to show good faith, they tried to balloon pump even though they believed it would be futile. Dr. Nguyen said, “We made an agreement with Dr. Murray that this would be the last procedure.”

Did Murray give Jackson an injection of propofol then a slow drip to keep him sedated?

Dr. Murray told the L.A.P.D. that he gave 25 mg of propofol which he pushed slowly over 3-5 minutes. He also told detectives that the drug is fast-acting and that he set up a slow drip to keep Jackson sedated. Murray is expected to argue at trial that he did not set up the drip that night. The testimony of security guard Alberto Alvarez and coroner investigator Elissa Fleak regarding a 100 ml bottle of propofol inside a slit saline bag suggests that there was, indeed, a drip set up the day Jackson died. The State could argue that the crude IV drip malfunctioned and the bottle spilled into Jackson.

Did Murray take all precautions available to him?

Dr. Murray Murray told police he took all precautions available to him: oxygen and a pulse oximeter. ER doctors Cooper and Nguyen testified about the resuscitative equipment needed whenever a patient is given propofol. In addition, to needing far more equipment than Murray had in Jackson’s bedroom, constant monitoring at the patient’s side is an absolute requirement. The evidence suggests Dr. Murray left Jackson’s side for more than 45 minutes. More evidence is expected in the State’s case about the standard of care when using propofol.

Did Murray pull the IV out of Jackson’s leg?

Dr. Murray says that in the process of moving Jackson to the floor, the IV dislodged from his leg. Paramedic Richard Senneff said that Murray pulled it out.

Did Murray do chest compressions all the way to the ambulance?

In the L.A.P.D interview Murray says he continued CPR, epinephrine, atropine, chest compressions all the way into the ambulance. However, Paramedic Senneff testified resuscitative efforts did, indeed, continue all the way into the ambulance but Murray was still in the bedroom. When Senneff went back to the bedroom to get his equipment, he found Murray with a “deer in the headlight look” with a trash bag in his hands.

Whose decision was it to do an autopsy?

Dr. Murray told detectives that he recommended an autopsy, but Dr. Cooper testified that Jackson was her patient; she had a 50-year-old man who died. She didn’t know the cause of death so it was a coroner’s case, which means she referred the case to the coroner not Dr. Murray.

Was Murray asked to sign the death certificate?

Murray says in the police interview that the question was posed: “Well, is there a doctor who’s going to sign the death certificate?” He told police that he responded: “I wouldn’t want to sign the death certificate when I don’t know the cause of his death.” However, Dr. Cooper testified that she did not have a conversation with Murray about the death certificate and that it was her decision to refer to coroner for autopsy.

Did Murray assemble the social worker team to deal with the children and other family members at UCLA Medical Center?

Dr. Murray tells the police that he asked for a social worker team be brought in, but Dr. Cooper said that it was not Murray’s idea; that the social worker team was assembled earlier as part of UCLA protocol.

Is it true that Jackson did not eat well?

Dr. Murray says in the interview that Jackson did not eat well or drink much, but personal chef, Kai Chase, testified, Jackson liked natural juices (carrot/orange and beet/apple) and organic foods. He ate granola and almond milk for breakfast. Chase also testified that healthy eating was important to Jackson and his children.

Complete courtroom coverage of the Conrad Murray trial airs live on HLN from gavel to gavel. It’s also on In Session on truTV from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. ET every weekday.

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DR. CONRAD MURRAY SHIFTS BLAME
MJ Never Mentioned Other Docs

Dr. Conrad Murray told police ... he had no clue what medications Michael Jackson had been prescribed by other doctors -- and although he knew it was going on ... Murray says MJ never told him he was seeing other doctors.

In the police interview from June 27th 2009 -- two days after MJ died -- Murray cites Dr. Arnold Klein as one doctor who regularly prescribed MJ drugs behind Murray's back.

According to Murray, MJ's production team often complained about the singer's visits to Klein -- insisting Michael's worst days on set were after he had been to Dr. Klein's office ... about three times a week.

During the taped interview -- played in court today -- Murray told police ... "When [Michael] came back [from Klein's office], he was basically wasted and required 24 hours for recovery."

Murray claims the only evidence of doctor-shopping he saw was a smattering of prescription pill bottles by the singer's bedside, bearing other doctors' names.

But Murray insists ... Michael never spoke about it.

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MICHAEL JACKSON'S AUTOPSY DOC
MJ Didn't Kill Himself


The doctor who declared Michael Jackson's death a homicide claims it's extremely unlikely the singer killed himself with a deadly dose of Propofol -- insisting Dr. Conrad Murray is more likely to blame.

Dr. Christopher Rogers just testified -- Murray's description of the final moments leading up to Michael's cardiac arrest just doesn't add up.

Murray claims he left for two minutes to go to the bathroom -- and when he returned, Michael wasn't breathing. The defense will argue MJ self-administered a deadly dose of Propofol in that time.

But Rogers insists ... Murray's scenario is nearly impossible -- because in that two minute window, MJ would have had to wake up (under the influence of several powerful sedatives) and skillfully administer the deadly dose ... which would then have had to travel to his brain, causing him to stop breathing.

What's more likely, according to Rogers -- Murray administered several doses of Propofol in the hours leading to Michael's death without properly measuring them out ... resulting in an overdose.

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Conrad Murray trial: Detective questioned on propofol bottle
October 11, 2011


A defense attorney representing Dr. Conrad Murray on Tuesday questioned a Los Angeles Police Department detective about the agency’s early investigation into the death of Michael Jackson.

Attorney Ed Chernoff asked Det. Scott Smith, the lead investigator on the case, about how forthcoming Murray was during his police interview two days after the pop star’s death.

Smith, along with a second detective, spoke to Murray at a Marina Del Rey hotel. A recording of the interview was played over two days concluding Tuesday morning.

Conrad Murray witnesses: Who's who

“Did Dr. Murray make any statement about the things he didn’t want to talk about?” Chernoff asked.

“No,” Smith responded.

“Any question was wide open for you to ask?” the attorney asked.

“Yes,” the detective said.

Chernoff noted in his cross examination of Smith that even though the detective took meticulous notes of his investigation, documenting down to the milligram medications found at Jackson’s home, he never mentioned in those notes the state in which a key piece of prosecution evidence was found.
“You never do mention that a propofol bottle was found in an IV bag, is that fair?” Chernoff asked.

“That would be fair,” Smith said.

The bottle and the bag became a point of contention during the testimony of a coroner’s investigator, Elissa Fleak, who said the bottle was found inside the bag but she never photographed it or documented in her notes that the two items were found in that condition.

Chernoff also pressed Smith about the statements Jackson’s security guards and a personal assistant gave to police two months after Jackson’s death.

He noted the three men gave their most damning statements about Murray’s culpability only in the later interview and not on the day Jackson died.

Chernoff asked whether the interview of the assistant, Michael Amir Williams, and security guards Alberto Alvarez and Faheem Muhammad, had taken place four days after the coroner made public its finding that Jackson’s death had been a homicide and that he had died of propofol intoxication.

Smith said yes.

The attorney also asked the detective about why Jackson’s residence had remained unsecured after the day of Jackson’s death, allowing for others to go through items at the home before medical evidence of Murray’s treatment of Jackson was recovered four days later.

Smith said the decision was with the coroner’s office and that “given circumstances,” he was not surprised the house was not locked down.


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Michael Jackson's mother wept when told of singer's death

Katherine Jackson broke down in tears when she was told that her pop star son had died, a Los Angeles court heard on Tuesday

BY ALEX DOBUZINSKIS, REUTERS OCTOBER 11


LOS ANGELES - Michael Jackson's mother broke down in tears when she was told that her pop star son had died, and the singer's daughter Paris said she did not want to be an orphan, a Los Angeles court heard on Tuesday.

Katherine Jackson wept again in the courtroom as the manslaughter trial of "Thriller" singer's physician, Dr Conrad Murray, entered its third week.

Jurors heard Murray tell police in a taped interview about the dramatic hours at the hospital on June 25, 2009, where Jackson was officially pronounced dead.

Murray, who has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the singer's death, said he went with an emergency room doctor on that day to tell Katherine Jackson that her son had died.

"She broke down and began weeping. We stayed there, held her hand," Murray told police in the interview, recorded two days after Jackson's sudden death at age 50.

Jackson's sister Rebbie put her arm around her mother as Murray said on the tape that he had recommended an autopsy be conducted on Jackson to determine how he died.

Authorities later determined Jackson died from an overdose of the powerful anesthetic propofol combined with sedatives.

Murray has admitted to police that he gave propofol to Jackson as a sleep aid, but his attorneys have said that Jackson gave himself an extra, fatal dose of propofol that caused his death.

Murray told police he went into a room at the hospital with Jackson's manager, his personal assistant and a social worker, and found the singer's three children having a bite to eat.

The doctor said he did not remember who specifically informed the children their father had died, but that they began weeping.

"I stayed there, I hugged them all, gave them all comfort," Murray said on the tape. Paris Jackson, then age 11, said she did not "want to be an orphan," he recalled.

Murray sat in court looking at a blank projector screen as the tape was played for jurors. He could face up to four years in prison if convicted.

In other testimony on Tuesday, Los Angeles police detective Scott Smith admitted under cross-examination by the defense that his notes indicated a vial of the sedative lorazepam was found in an IV bag stashed in a closet at Jackson's mansion.

A coroner's investigator previously testified that it was a bottle of propofol that was found inside the IV bag.

Prosecutors say the evidence at trial will show that Murray placed Jackson on an IV drip of propofol after injecting him with the drug.

But defense attorneys argue that Murray only gave Jackson a relatively small dose of 25 milligrams of propofol, with no IV drip afterward.

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Michael Jackson's Kids Asked to See Singer's Dead Body

LOS ANGELES Oct. 11, 2011
A crying Paris Jackson asked to see the body of her father Michael Jackson one last time and sobbed that she didn't want to be an orphan.

"You know, I will wake up in the morning and I won't be able to see my daddy," Dr. Conrad Murray recounted to police two days after the king of pop's death.

"She [Paris] cried and was very stark and then she asked to see him," Murray said.

Jurors in Murray's manslaughter trial listened to a taped interview of Murray describing to police how Jackson's children, Prince, Paris and Blanket, reacted to the king of pop's shocking death.

When Murray, accompanied by Jackson's personal assistant and manager, told Jackson's children that the singer was dead, they weeped. Murray told police that he hugged the children to comfort them.

"After they cried and cried and cried, then his daughter uttered a lot of words of unhappiness...she will live alone without her dad and she didn't want to be an orphan," Murray told police in the July 27, 2009 interview.

Paris, then just 11 years old, asked Murray why he couldn't save her father.

"She asked me, Dr. Murray, you said you save a lot of patients. You know, you save people with heart attacks and you couldn't save my dad. I said, I tried my best," Muray told police.

Murray asked emergency room doctors at UCLA Medical Center to prepare the singer's body for his children to say goodbye to him. Murray also described the reaction of Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, to her son's death.

Katherine Jackson interrupted doctors as they broke the bad news by saying, "He's not dead is he?" Murray told police.

"She broke down and began weeping. We stayed there, held her hand. The doctor left. I stayed and then I asked for the social workers to come in," Murray says on the tape.

The taped interview of Murray was done two days after Jackson died of a drug overdose of the powerful anesthetic propofol on June 25, 2009. It was conducted by Los Angeles Police detectives in the presence of Murray's attorneys.

Katherine Jackson and her daughter, Rebbie Jackson, were in the courtroom today as the tape played. They showed little emotion. Jurors did not look at the family but were engrossed in reading a transcript of the interview.

Last week, jurors heard Murray's detailed account of the sedatives and propofol he administered to Jackson on the day he died. He and his defense team claim that Jackson himself took a lethal dose of propofol and another sedative without Murray's knowledge. Murray claims he was trying to wean the addicted Jackson off of propofol.

Propofol is an anesthetic that is typically administered in a hospital setting and is a milky substance. Jackson referred to it as his "milk" and begged Murray claims he begged for it on the day he died.

Prosecutors argue that Murray recklessly administered the drugs and when he should have been monitoring Jackson, he was instead talking to his girlfriend and working on his contract to be Jackson's personal physician on his comeback tour.

In addition to the details revealed about Jackson's family, Murray revealed details about the singer's health. Jackson, 50, had horrible eyesight and did not eat and drink regularly, Murray says on the tape.

"He don't drink and eat. He says all his life his mother has had to force him to eat. ..the foods that he eats when he eats are basically chicken and rice," Murray says to police.

In the months before he died, Jackson was having trouble urinating, Murray told police. When police asked Murray about rotten marijuana and empty cigarette packs found in a bedroom that Jackson didn't allow Murray or any one else to enter, Murray seemed surprised.

Murray said he didn't know the singer to smoke, but said he wore excessive cologne.


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" [I] never understood how he sprayed that much on…it could have been to dismiss any odor," Murray told police.

Detective Scott Smith helped conduct the police interview. He told jurors today that Murray appeared shocked when police revealed to him that they hadn't yet found his medical bags at the time of the interview.

"His eyes got bigger, wider as if he was surprised," Smith said.

Those three bags contained vials of propofol, saline bags and a blood pressure cuff.

Smith said that until the police interview, Murray had not told any one that he had given Jackson propofol.



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MJ Autopsy Photo Displayed As Defense Theory Takes a Hit

(CNN) – Michael Jackson did not self administer the lethal dose of propofol and his manner of death was homicide, according to Dr. Christopher Rogers who conducted the autopsy of the pop icon.



In captivating testimony this afternoon, Dr. Rogers dealt a blow to the defense’s claim that it was Jackson himself, not Dr. Conrad Murray, who delivered a fatal amount of the drug. The L.A. County Deputy Medical Examiner testified he thought the more likely scenario was that Dr. Murray miscalculated and gave Jackson too much of the anesthetic.
Later in Dr. Rogers’ testimony, prosecutors displayed a photo of a deceased Michael Jackson which was taken as part of the autopsy report. Our producer in the courtroom says that Jackson’s family was warned beforehand the photo would be displayed. One Jackson fan left the courtroom in tears when the photo was presented, though jurors displayed no outward emotion.
The autopsy was performed the day after Jackson died and Dr. Rogers said he couldn’t determine a cause of death at that time. After receiving the toxicology report and other reports from various specialists Dr. Rogers was able to draw his conclusions, including that Jackson died of acute propofol intoxication with contributory affects of benzodiazepines.
Dr. Rogers also testified that Jackson was in better health than the average 50-year-old man. He reported that at the time of his death, Jackson was 5’9″ and weighed 136 pounds.


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October 11

LOS ANGELES — A medical examiner, striking a major blow to the defense of Michael Jackson’s doctor, said Tuesday it is unreasonable to believe Jackson could have given himself a fatal dose of the powerful anesthetic propofol.

Dr. Christopher Rogers, who conducted the autopsy on Jackson, testified it was more likely that Dr. Conrad Murray overdosed the singer when he incorrectly estimated how much of the drug he was giving Jackson to induce sleep.


( Mario Anzuoni, Pool / Associated Press ) - Dr. Conrad Murray sits in court during his trial in the death of pop star Michael Jackson, Friday, Oct. 7, 2011 in Los Angeles. Jurors hearing the involuntary manslaughter case against Michael Jackson’s doctor on Friday heard the physician begin to describe his relationship with the singer in detail for the first time.

Rogers said Murray had no precision dosing device on hand in the bedroom of Jackson’s rented mansion.

“The circumstances, from my point of view, do not support self-administration of propofol,” said Rogers, chief of forensic medicine in the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office.

Rogers analyzed two possible scenarios for Jackson’s death. The first was the defense theory that while Murray stepped away to go to the bathroom, Jackson gave himself an extra dose of the drug he called his “milk.”

“In order for Mr. Jackson to have administered the propofol to himself, you would have to assume he woke up and although he was under the influence of ... propofol and other sedatives, he was somehow able to administer propofol to himself,” Rogers testified.

“Then he stops breathing and all of this takes place in a two-minute period of time,” Rogers said. “To me, that scenario seems less reasonable.”

“Less reasonable than what?” asked Deputy District Attorney David Walgren.

“The alternate scenario would be in order to keep Mr. Jackson asleep, the doctor would have to give him a little bit every hour, two or three tablespoons an hour,” Rogers said, noting that propofol is a short-acting drug that wears off quickly.

“We did not find any precision dosing device, so the doctor would be estimating how much he was giving,” the medical examiner said.

Murray told police he gave Jackson only 25 milligrams of the drug, a very small dose that usually would have kept him asleep for no more than five minutes.

Rogers said he examined evidence found in Jackson’s bedroom and noted there was an empty 100 milliliter bottle of propofol.

Rogers said the cause of death was “acute propofol intoxication and the contributing condition was the benzodiazepine effect.”

Two sedatives from that drug group — lorazepam and midazolam — were found in Jackson’s system after he died.

Rogers said he considered a number of factors in ruling the death a homicide. Among them were Murray’s statements to police and the lack of sophisticated medical equipment in Jackson’s bedroom, where the superstar had been receiving the anesthetic.

He said there was no EKG monitor, no resuscitation equipment and no precision dosing device present in the room.

Rogers also testified it would be inappropriate to use propofol outside a hospital or medical clinic.

Walgren illustrated testimony about the autopsy by showing a stark photograph of the singer’s body on an examining table with his genitals covered. He appeared thin but not emaciated. The doctor said he was 5 feet 9 inches and weighed 136 pounds.

“I believe he was healthier than the average person his age,” Rogers said, explaining Jackson had no fatty buildup in his arteries common to people his age.

Murray has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

Rogers’ testimony came after jurors heard the end of Murray’s June 27, 2009, recorded interview with police in which he first disclosed he had been giving Jackson propofol to help him sleep.

Prosecutors played the remaining 40 minutes of the interview, which included Murray’s description of informing Jackson’s mother and children that the entertainer was dead.

“After they cried and cried and cried, then his daughter uttered a lot of words of unhappiness,” Murray told detectives, saying Paris Jackson was afraid of being alone after her father’s death.

“’I know you tried your best, but I’m really sad,’” he continued, recounting her words. “’I will wake up in the morning, and I won’t be able to see my daddy.’”

Jackson’s mother, Katherine, dabbed her eyes with a tissue as the recording played. She and other members of the Jackson family left court and did not see the autopsy picture.

A police detective who helped conduct Murray’s interview told jurors that Murray seemed surprised when, toward the end of the interview, he learned that three bags of medical items had not yet been recovered from the star’s bedroom.

The recording ended shortly after the physician explained the items could be found in a closet.

The interview helped transform the investigation into Jackson’s June 25, 2009, death from a simple death inquiry into a homicide case.

Prosecutors were expected to call an expert on propofol as a witness later in the day.


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