The preliminary hearings in the case against Dr. Conrad Murray, the physician charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson, continued yesterday in Los Angeles with some of its most outrageous testimony yet. For their 20th witness, the prosecution called Detective Orlando Martinez, one of the investigators who interviewed Dr. Murray for three hours just two days after Jackson's death, to detail Murray's own account of what happened the night Jackson died on June 25th, 2009. In short, Murray admitted to administering Jackson with Propofol the night the singer died, but only after various other methods -- rubbing Jackson's feet and back with skin lotion, meditation, and administering less powerful sedatives -- failed to help Jackson sleep the night after a "fabulous" rehearsal, the AP reports.
Instead, Murray told investigators that Jackson demanded his "milk," Jackson's playful term for Propofol, the powerful sedative used mostly for in-hospital and surgical use, because of its cloudy white appearance in its vial. According to Murray, Jackson even threatened to cancel his already-delayed This Is It run of 50 concerts at London's O2 Arena if Murray didn't help Jackson sleep. The physician placated Jackson by giving him a 25 milligram dose of Propofol, half the amount Murray had given Jackson six nights a week for two months. However, after administering the Propofol and taking a bathroom break that spanned a few minutes, Murray told investigators he returned to Jackson's bedroom to discover the singer had stopped breathing.
Last week, prosecutors presented evidence that Murray's "short bathroom break" was actually much longer, as phone records showed Murray spent nearly an hour making personal calls during a crucial time when he should have been observing his patient. When Murray finally did find Jackson unresponsive, a Jackson bodyguard previously testified that Murray blundered CPR efforts and failed to contact paramedics in a timely matter. Murray was also accused of hiding vials of Propofol and other evidence in the hours after Jackson's death; police later recovered 14 vials of the reported 255 vials of Propofol Murray had ordered from a pharmaceutical company.
Since this is only a preliminary hearing, a judge will ultimately decide whether the prosecution has produced enough evidence to bring Murray to a jury trial. Because the burden of proof is entirely on the prosecution in these proceedings, Murray's defense lawyers have just sat back at these hearings and listened to what the prosecution has against them. If Murray does go to trial, it's expected that his defense will revolve around his claim that, during that long bathroom break, Jackson actually administered the deadly dose of Propofol to himself.
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