Jackson doctor hid deathbed vials, as children sobbed
Dr. Conrad Murray AP FILE PHOTO
LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson’s doctor scrambled to hide equipment including a “milky white” liquid near the star’s bed minutes after he died, as his distraught children sobbed, a court heard Thursday.
Amid frantic scenes, Jackson’s daughter Paris screamed “Daddy!” as she saw doctor Conrad Murray pumping her father’s chest, as he lay eyes open but seemingly already dead, according to testimony at the medic’s trial.
Bodyguard Alberto Alvarez said Murray ordered him to help remove vials and a saline bag from an intravenous (IV) drip stand by the star’s bed, even before he had called 911 to rush paramedics to his Los Angeles home on June 25, 2009.
Murray is accused of manslaughter in Jackson’s death, allegedly by giving him an overdose of the powerful sedative propofol, which the singer referred to as “milk” to help him sleep.
“While I was standing at the foot of the bed, he reached over and grabbed a handful of vials, and then he reached out to me and said ‘Here, put these in a bag,'” Alvarez told the LA Superior Court, on the trial’s third day.
With paramedics not yet on the scene, the doctor then asked him to remove the saline bag and put it in another bag, Alvarez said. As he removed it, the bodyguard noticed there was a bottle inside the bag.
“There was what appeared to me like a milky white substance. I recalled seeing it at the bottom of the bag,” he said, before prosecutor David Walgren offered evidence that the bottle contained 100 milligrams of propofol.
The five-week trial opened Tuesday, when prosecutors laid out their case that Murray was guilty of “gross negligence,” while the doctor’s lawyers said the star caused his own death by taking extra drugs without Murray’s knowledge.
On the first day, jurors saw chilling images of Jackson’s dead body on a gurney and heard a haunting audio recording of the heavily drugged singer talking on the phone only weeks before his death.
Murray could be jailed for up to four years for involuntary manslaughter over Jackson’s death at his mansion in the plush Holmby Hills district of LA, where the star was rehearsing for an ill-fated series of comeback concerts in London.
On Wednesday, personal assistant Michael Williams recalled the last rehearsal on the night of June 24. “He was in good spirits,” he said, adding of Jackson’s last time on stage: “I thought it was amazing.”
In his testimony, Alvarez described the scene when he entered Jackson’s bedroom, to find Murray performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
“Paris screamed out ‘Daddy!'” he said, referring to Jackson’s daughter, who was there with eldest son Prince Michael. He then “ushered them out and said: ‘Kids, don’t worry, we’ll take care of it, everything’s gonna be OK.’”
The harrowing 911 call made by Alvarez was also played in court, in which the emergency operator advised him to move Jackson’s body from the bed onto the floor, because CPR needs to be performed on a firm surface.
Jackson’s head of security Faheem Muhammad then came in, at which point Murray, a trained cardiologist, asked “if anyone knew CPR.” Hearing this, “me and Faheem, we kinda looked at each other for a split second,” said Alvarez.
Alvarez then went to help Murray administer CPR, pumping Jackson’s chest while the doctor gave mouth-to-mouth breathing assistance.
“I recall that after a few breaths… he came up and he said ‘This is the first time I (have done) mouth to mouth, but I have to, he’s my friend,'” said Alvarez.
Later Thursday, the singer’s personal chef Kai Chase recounted how all three children sobbed and hugged as medics rushed to the house.
“The children were crying and screaming, and the next thing we did, we started hugging and we came together and we held hands and we started praying,” she said.
On Friday, paramedics Richard Senneff and Martin Blount, who accompanied Jackson’s body to the UCLA hospital, are expected to confirm that Jackson already appeared dead when they arrived at the mansion.
