The Michael Jackson Murder Trial Thread

Guard: Jackson doc collected vials before 911 call
By ANTHONY McCARTNEY - AP Entertainment Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — One of Michael Jackson's bodyguards had barely stepped into the singer's bedroom when he heard a scream. "Daddy!" Jackson's young daughter cried.
A few feet away, the singer lay motionless in his bed, eyes slightly open. His personal doctor, Conrad Murray, was trying to revive him when he saw that Jackson's eldest children were watching.
"Don't let them see their dad like this," Murray said, the first of many orders that bodyguard Alberto Alvarez testified Thursday that he heeded in the moments before paramedics arrived at Jackson's home in June 2009.
What happened next — after Alvarez said he ushered Jackson's eldest son and daughter from the room — is one of the key pieces of prosecutors' involuntary manslaughter case against Murray.
According to Alvarez, Murray scooped up vials of medicine from Jackson's nightstand and told the bodyguard to put them away. "He said, 'Here, put these in a bag,'" Alvarez said.
Alvarez complied. He placed an IV bag into another bag, and then Murray told him to call 911, Alvarez said
On the third day of the trial, prosecutors tried to show that Murray, who has pleaded not guilty, delayed calling authorities and that he was intent on concealing signs that he had been giving the singer doses of the anesthetic propofol.
Alvarez said he thought Murray might be preparing to take the items to the hospital, but didn't question him.
The bags never made it to the hospital, and prosecutors claim Murray repeatedly lied to emergency personnel and did not tell them he had been giving Jackson doses of the drug as a sleep aid.
If convicted, Murray, 58, could face up to four years in prison and lose his medical license.
Defense attorney Ed Chernoff questioned whether there was enough time for Alvarez to shield Jackson's children, survey the room and stow away the drugs in the brief period that phone records show he was in the home before calling emergency responders.
The bodyguard insisted there was, telling the attorney, "I'm very efficient, sir."
Chernoff was not convinced, questioning whether 30 seconds was enough time for the dramatic sequence to play out. Alvarez assured him it was.
The defense attorney also challenged Alvarez's recollection, asking whether the collection of the vials happened after paramedics had come and whisked Jackson to a nearby hospital. Alvarez denied it happened after he called 911.
Chernoff questioned why Alvarez didn't tell authorities about Murray's commands to bag up the medication immediately after Jackson died, but instead waited until two months after the singer's death. The bodyguard said he didn't realize its significance until seeing a news report in late June in which he recognized one of the bags detectives were carrying out of Jackson's mansion.
The burly Alvarez became emotional as the 911 call was played for jurors. Jackson's mother, Katherine, appeared distraught and her son, Randy, huddled next to her and put his arm around her. She did not attend the afternoon proceedings,

"Was that difficult to hear?" prosecutor David Walgren asked.
"It is," Alvarez replied.
After hanging up with dispatchers, Alvarez said he performed chest compressions on Jackson while Murray gave the singer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The doctor remarked it was his first time performing the procedure.
"'I have to,'" Alvarez recalled Murray telling him, "'because he's my friend.'"
Alvarez recalled seeing Murray at the hospital where Jackson was taken and sitting next to the emergency room.
"'I wanted him to make it,'" Alvarez quoted Murray as saying. "'I wanted him to make it.'"
Alvarez's testimony allowed Walgren to present jurors directly with a bottle of propofol that they've heard much about throughout the previous two days of the trial.
Jurors intently looked at the bottle, which appeared to still contain some liquid.
When he entered the bedroom, Alvarez said, he saw Jackson's eyes were open and was surprised to see the singer was wearing a condom catheter, a medical device that allows one to urinate without having to get up.
Alvarez testified that Murray only told him Jackson had a "bad reaction." Jackson's personal assistant, who testified Wednesday, said Murray told him the same thing.
Alvarez said it was a stunning scene, a far cry from the night before when the bodyguard stood backstage at Staples Center, sneaking peeks of Jackson performing during what would be his final rehearsal.
"He was very happy," Alvarez testified. "I do recall he was in very good spirits."
In another effort to cast doubt on the bodyguard's testimony, Chernoff asked whether Alvarez, another bodyguard, Faheem Muhammad, and Jackson's assistant, Michael Amir Williams, colluded before being interviewed by detectives two months after Jackson's death.
The three men, who were among the first to interact with Murray after Jackson stopped breathing, have denied the accusation.
Jackson's personal chef, Kai Chase, testified Thursday about seeing a panicked Murray come into the kitchen the day of Jackson's death and telling her to summon security and send up Jackson's eldest son Prince. The chef said she sent the boy upstairs, but didn't call security.
Five to 10 minutes after Chase said she saw Murray in the kitchen, the doctor called Williams, who dispatched security to Jackson's bedroom.
On Friday, jurors are expected to hear from a pair of paramedics who were dispatched to Jackson's mansion and tried resuscitation efforts.
The medics believed Jackson was already dead by the time they arrived, but Murray insisted the performer be taken to a hospital for additional resuscitation efforts.
Walgren asked whether anything good had happened to Alvarez as a result of his experience in Jackson's bedroom.
"No sir," Alvarez responded.
Media outlets offered him up to $500,000 for interviews, but Alvarez said he always refused. "It's caused a lot of financial problems," he said, starting to choke up. "I went from a great salary to hardly anything."

Michael Jackson was 'clinically dead' on arrival to hospital, ER doctor says
By Alan Duke, CNN

Los Angeles (CNN) -- The emergency room doctor who pronounced Michael Jackson dead testified Friday that the pop icon had "signs of a dying heart" when he arrived at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
"He was clinically dead," Dr. Richelle Cooper said. "He did not have a pulse."
Dr. Cooper was the 13th and last witness for first the week in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Dr. Conrad Murray.
Prosecutors argue Murray, who was Jackson's personal physician as he prepared for planned comeback concerts, was criminally responsible for his death because of medical negligence and his reckless use of the surgical anesthetic propofol to help the pop icon sleep.
Paramedic recalls when Jackson flatlined Paramedic 'felt he was dead' Patient says he was dumped by Dr. Murray Jackson's doctor admits propofol use
As Jackson was being rolled into the trauma center after an ambulance ride from his home, Dr. Murray told Cooper that he witnessed when Jackson stop breathing and his heart stopped beating.
Prosecutors argue that Murray was out of the room and had essentially abandoned his patient when Jackson's heart stopped.
Murray told Dr. Cooper Jackson's arrest came after he gave him two doses of Lorazepam, a sedative, Cooper testified.
He did not mention any other drugs, including propofol, which the coroner ruled played a major role in Jackson's death.
Cooper is expected to detail the unsuccessful efforts in the hospital to bring Jackson back to life when her testimony resumes Monday.
A Los Angeles County paramedic who responded to the delayed 911 call from Michael Jackson's home the day he died testified Friday that Jackson was "flatlined" and appeared dead when rescuers arrived.
Paramedic Richard Senneff and his partner Martin Blount both testified that at no time during the 42 minutes they were with Jackson did they see any signs of life in him.
Deputy District Attorney Deborah Brazil asked Blount, who drove the ambulance, about his initial assessment of Jackson's condition when he arrived.
"I felt he was dead, ma'am," Blount said.
Senneff testified that Murray told responders he had only given Jackson a dose of lorazepam to help him sleep and that he was treating him for dehydration and exhaustion, with no mention of the propofol.
Prosecutors contend one of the acts that makes Murray criminally responsible for Jackson's death was that he misled the paramedics by not telling them he had given his patient propofol before he stopped breathing.
The coroner ruled that Jackson's June 25, 2009, death was the result of "acute propofol intoxication" in combination with sedatives.
The judge imposed a gag order Friday, preventing lawyers for Murray from talking to reporters about the case. His order came after he learned Matt Alford, a law partner to lead defense lawyer Ed Chernoff, gave a TV interview to NBC's Ann Curry on Friday morning.
"The court wants to make it clear that the attorneys for the parties in this case are ordered not to comment to anyone outside of their respective teams, either directly or indirectly, on any aspects on this case," Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor said at the end of Friday's morning session.
Pastor has previously admonished lawyers not to talk to reporters, but until now there has been no official order preventing it.
In his testimony, paramedic Senneff said that when he asked Murray "how long the patient was down," the doctor responded "It just happened right when I called you," Senneff said.
Paramedic Blount recalled Murray saying Jackson was "down" just one minute before their arrival.
Earlier testimony indicated the emergency call was not placed for at least 15 minutes after Murray realized Jackson was not breathing.
"It meant to me that this was a patient we had a good chance of saving," since the paramedics arrived just five minutes after the 911 call, Senneff said.
The paramedic, however, said it "did not add up to me" because of Jackson appeared dead.
"When I first moved the patient, his skin was very cool to the touch, his eyes were open, they were dry and his pupils were dilated," Senneff said. "When I hooked up the EKG machine, it was flatlined."
At one point, Murray told paramedics he felt a pulse in Jackson's upper right leg, but their heart monitor showed no rhythm, Senneff said.
Day 3: Murray's attempts to save Jackson How Jackson's kids viewed his last hours Jackson's chef describes frantic scene Alvarez: Jackson was 'very light'
A doctor communicating by radio with the paramedics recommended at 12:57 p.m., a half hour after they arrived, that they cease efforts to revive Jackson and declare him dead, according to a recording of the radio traffic played in court.
Murray then took over responsibility for the effort and continued resuscitation efforts, Senneff said.
The defense appeared to make one important point in their cross-examination of Senneff. The paramedic said when he first walked into bedroom he saw Murray and a security guard moving Jackson off the bed and onto the floor.
That contradicts Thursday's testimony by Alberto Alvarez, who worked for Jackson, who said he helped move Jackson from the bed while he was on the 911 phone call at least six minutes before the paramedics arrived.
The timing is important because it could call into question testimony by Alvarez about when Murray asked for his help in collecting drug vials from around the bed.
Prosecutors argue Murray's medical care as Jackson's personal physician was so reckless that he should be held criminally responsible for his death.
Deputy District Attorney David Walgren said Murray abandoned "all principles of medical care" when he used a makeshift intravenous drip to administer propofol to put Jackson to sleep.
Murray acknowledged in a police interview that he gave Jackson propofol almost every night for two months as the singer prepared for comeback concerts that were set to start in London in July 2009.
The device Murray used to monitor Jackson's pulse and blood oxygen level while he used propofol to put him to sleep was the focus of testimony by the first witness Friday.
An executive with the company that made the Nonin 9500 pulse oxymeter said it was "designed for spot checking of vital signs" and was "specifically labeled against continuous monitoring."
The $275 device did not have an audio alarm, requiring someone to constantly keep an eye on the tiny screen, Robert Johnson testified. Murray would have been better equipped with his company's table top version that would cost $1,200, Johnson said.
Prosecutors argue Murray's lack of professional monitoring equipment was reckless and is one reason the doctor should be held criminally responsible for Jackson's death.
One of Murray's former patients testified Friday that Murray saved his life after a heart attack just months before Jackson's death.
Although Robert Russell was called by the prosecution, his testimony possibly bolstered the defense contention that Murray is a caring and capable cardiologist.
"The advice he gave me saved my life," Russell said, describing how Murray not only put several stents in the arteries near his heart, but he also took time to help him change his unhealthy habits.
"He gave me advice on exercise, on eating, just how to live my life, doing away with pressure and stress that I believe I thrived on in the business world," said Russell, a sales manager for an electrical distribution firm.
The prosecution called Russell as an example of how Murray left his patients without a doctor when he went to be Michael Jackson's personal physician in April 2009.

Jackson doctor's girlfriend talks calls, shipments

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dr. Conrad Murray's complicated love life became entangled with the life and death of his patient Michael Jackson, prosecutors suggested Tuesday as they called a parade of women witnesses who received phone calls from the doctor as Jackson was near death.
The evidence was designed to show that the doctor was trying to juggle his medical practice, personal life and superstar patient all at the same time and was so distracted he failed to give Jackson proper care.
Murray's phone records from the day Jackson died were displayed in court as a backdrop for testimony of those at the other end of the cell phone calls. Three of them were current and former girlfriends and one was the manager of Murray's Houston office.
Nicole Alvarez, who lives with Murray and is the mother of his small son, was a key witness. She said she received a phone call from Murray as he rode in an ambulance beside Jackson's lifeless body on June 25, 2009.
"I remember him telling me that he was on the way to the hospital in an ambulance with Mr. Jackson and not to be alarmed," Alvarez said. "He was worried I would hear about it."
Three more calls to her were recorded that day but she didn't remember the conversations.
Alvarez was depicted as an unwitting conduit for Murray's purchases of the powerful anesthetic propofol which Jackson craved as a sleep aid. Murray is charged with involuntary manslaughter, accused of giving the star an overdose of the drug and failing to respond properly when he found him not breathing.
Murray has pleaded not guilty, and his attorneys claim Jackson took the fatal dose himself.
Alvarez recounted how she received many shipments of boxes for Murray in April, May and June 2009 but didn't open them and had no idea of their contents. The pharmacist who shipped them to her Santa Monica apartment from Las Vegas testified that he thought he was shipping to Murray's medical office.
FedEx and pharmacy receipts displayed by Deputy District Attorney Deborah Brazil showed that they contained large amounts of propofol, sedatives and a skin whitening cream used to treat the skin disease vitiligo from which Jackson suffered.
Tim Lopez, the Las Vegas pharmacist who filled orders from Murray, testified that over four months he purchased 255 vials of propofol, 20 vials of the sedative lorazepam, 60 vials of midazolam and several tubes of lidocaine which was intended to numb injection sites. He also purchased saline solution in IV bags.
Alvarez, who had given birth to Murray's son in March 2009, recalled the doctor telling her that he was Jackson's private physician. The 29-year-old actress said she found it exciting.
"It was Michael Jackson!" she exulted when she recounted meeting the star. She said Murray surprised her, telling her he was taking her to meet someone and then they arrived at Jackson's home.
"I was speechless," Alvarez said. "I couldn't believe I was meeting Michael Jackson."
Alvarez smiled frequently and was often breathless during her testimony. She told of her romance with Murray that began at a Las Vegas night club and drew her into the glamorous world of Jackson's inner circle.
She said she and Murray met Jackson several other times. "Michael was very interested in the baby," she said. "He saw my stomach growing with the pregnancy. He wanted to schedule a visit so he could see my son."

Alvarez said she brought the little boy to Jackson's home twice for visits.
When they settled into her Santa Monica apartment, Alvarez said, Murray began keeping odd hours but she never asked why. He would leave at about 9 p.m. and not return until the morning. He would tell her he was "going to work," she said, and she presumed he was at Jackson's home.
She said she had plans to move to London with Murray when he toured with Jackson but those plans ended when the superstar died on June 25, 2009. "I never finished packing," she said sadly.
In opening statements, a prosecutor said Murray had received more than 4 gallons (15 liters) of propofol while working with Jackson, most of it sent to Alvarez's home. Murray told police after Jackson's death that he was giving the singer propofol as a sleep aid.