Jackson has voice echoes through Los Angeles court (Trial Day 1 )
By GalaTView Staff
Photo cortesy google
Los Angeles courtroom begun the trial of the doctor Conrad Murray accused of killingMichael Jackson. As a worldwide audience watched on TV and Jackson’s family looked on from inside the courtroom.
Defense attorneys countered that Jackson caused his own death by taking a drug dose, including propofol, after Murray left the room.
Prosecutors played the audio for the first time during opening statements as they portrayed Dr. Conrad Murray, 58, as an incompetent physician who used a dangerous anesthetic without adequate safeguards and whose neglect left the superstar abandoned as he lay dying.
Nothing the cardiologist could have done would have saved the King of Pop, defense attorney Ed Chernoff told jurors, because Jackson was desperate to regain his fame and needed rest to prepare for a series of crucial comeback concerts.
A number of Jackson’s family members were in the courthouse, including his father Joseph, mother Katherine, sisters LaToya and Janet, and brothers Jermaine, Randy and Tito. LaToya Jackson carried a sunflower, her brother’s favorite flower.
Murray, who arrived at court holding hands with his mother, is charged with involuntary manslaughter. If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison and the loss of his medical license.
Speaking for more than an hour, prosecutor David Walgren relied on photos and audio recordings to paint Murray as an inept and reckless caretaker.
Walgren showed a photo of a lifeless Jackson on a hospital gurney. He juxtaposed the image with those of Jackson performing. Walgren also played the recording of Jackson speaking to Murray while, the prosecutor said, the singer was under the influence of an unknown substance roughly six weeks before his death.
Jackson trusted Murray as his physician, and “that misplaced trust in Conrad Murray cost Michael Jackson his life,” Walgren said.
Jurors were told that it was a powerful anesthetic, not a sleep aid, and the prosecutor said Murray severely misused it.
“The evidence will not show you that Michael Jackson died because Dr. Murray gave him propofol. The evidence is going to show you Michael Jackson died when Dr. Murray stopped,” the attorney said. He said Murray was trying to wean Jackson off of propofol and had been giving him other sleep aids known as benzodiazepines trying to lull him to sleep.
On June 25, 2009, the last day of Jackson’s life, Chernoff said, he was in the third day of a weaning process and it didn’t work.
Murray, in a recording of his interview with police detectives, acknowledged that he relented and agreed to give Jackson a small dose of propofol.
Walgren said Murray’s claim that he gave the singer a minuscule dosage, enough to keep him asleep perhaps five minutes, was not true. He also accused Murray of deception when he hid from paramedics and hospital emergency staff that he had given Jackson propofol. He said they were desperately trying to revive him but didn’t know about the drug.
He returned repeatedly to the fee Murray was to be paid — $150,000 a month — and pointed out that he first had asked for $5 million.
Jackson’s family members appeared pained as Walgren described the singer as a vulnerable figure, left alone with drugs coursing through his body.
Following opening statements, Jackson’s choreographer and friend, Kenny Ortega, testified that Jackson was in bad shape physically and mentally less than a week before his death.
He said he sent a message to Randy Phillips, producer of the “This Is It” concert, telling him that Jackson was ill, probably should have a psychological evaluation and was not ready to perform.
