People v. Murray
People v. Murray is the name of the American criminal trial of Michael Jackson's personal physician, Conrad Murray, who was charged with involuntary manslaughter for the pop singer's death on June 25, 2009, from a dose of the general anesthetic propofol. The trial, which started on September 27, 2011, was held in the Los Angeles County Superior Court in Los Angeles, California, before Judge Michael Pastor as a televised proceeding, reaching a guilty verdict on November 7, 2011.
The prosecutors in the case, David Walgren and Deborah Brazil, both Los Angeles deputy district attorneys, in their opening statement told jurors, "misplaced trust in the hands of Murray cost Jackson his life." Murray's defense counsel claimed Jackson, who was tired and under pressure from rehearsing, took eight tablets of lorazepam, a sedative. "When Dr. Murray left the room, Jackson self-administered a dose of propofol that, with the lorazepam, created a perfect storm in his body that ultimately killed him. The whole thing is tragic, but the evidence is not that Dr. Murray did it", Chernoff said. Testimony during the trial showed Murray stayed with Jackson at least six nights a week and was regularly asked—and sometimes begged—by the singer to give him drugs powerful enough to put him to sleep.
Murray told authorities Jackson was especially eager to be administered propofol, a surgical anesthetic that put him to sleep when other powerful sedatives could not. Testimony indicated that propofol, in conjunction with other drugs in Jackson's system, had played the key role in his death. In 2011, the jury found Murray guilty after about eight hours of deliberation, and he was sentenced to four years in prison, but was released after one year and eleven months on October 28, 2013, owing to prison overcrowding and good behavior.
Timeline of prosecution case
September 27, 2011: Day 1
Both sides made opening statements. The jury viewed a photograph of Jackson lying on a gurney, taken minutes after he was declared dead. The jury also heard a tape of Jackson's slurred speech near the end of his life.Murray's attorney told the court that Murray is not to blame for Jackson's death, that Jackson gave himself a dose of drugs that
killed him so quickly Jackson "didn't even have time to close his eyes." "What happened during that time frame is that the acts and omissions of Michael Jackson's personal doctor Conrad Murray directly led to his premature death at age 50," prosecutor Walgren said. "That misplaced trust in Conrad Murray's hand is the cause of
Michael Jackson's death." The first witness, Kenny Ortega, was called to testify.
September 28, 2011: Day 2
Michael Amir Williams, known as Jackson's personal assistant, testified.September 29, 2011: Day 3
Two former members of Jackson's staff, bodyguard Alberto Alvarez and Chef Kai Chase, took the stand. Alvarez was the first person into Jackson's bedroom after Murray raised the alarm. He indicated that Murray asked him to place vials from Jackson's bedside cabinet in a bag and remove an IV drip from its stand and what appeared to be a propofol bottle,, before Murray asked him to phone 911.September 30, 2011: Day 4
Bob Johnson, owner of a company that manufactures pulse oximeters, testified first. The next witness was a former patient of Murray's, Robert Russel from Las Vegas. The third witness was the first paramedic to enter Jackson's house and bedroom, Richard Senneff. The fourth witness was paramedic Martin Blount. Dr. Richelle Cooper, an emergency room physician at UCLA Medical Center, testified fifth. Although not pronounced dead until sometime after reaching the hospital, the paramedics never saw any signs of life from the time they first entered Jackson's bedroom.October 3, 2011: Day 5
Cooper continued testifying. According to Cooper, drugs including intravenous sodium bicarbonate, vasopressin, epinephrine, atropine, and dopamine were used during the attempted cardiopulmonary resuscitation of Jackson in the trauma bay of UCLA Medical Center. From the time Jackson was under the care of Cooper until Jackson's death was pronounced, continuous chest compressions and "bagging" were conducted via an endotracheal tube.Cooper testified that Jackson was clinically dead upon arriving at the hospital, and that Murray had told her he had given Jackson 2 mg of lorazepam sometime earlier that day, then another 2 mg, which caused the cardiac arrest. During cross-examination, Cooper was asked about the effect of propofol as a sedative. She said about a "milligram per kilogram" would be the starting dose on a patient and would be administered into the patient's arm through an injection port. The administration would take place over a period of "a minute to a minute and a half," and personnel would constantly monitor the patient. She further testified that sedation would be expected to last 10 minutes. When asked what effect "25 mg over 3–5 minutes" would have on a patient, she responded that she would not expect that to have any effect. When asked about administering propofol through an IV drip, she said that only occurs if the patient is intubated and the desired effect is deep sedation.
Next to the stand were employees from phone companies AT&T and Sprint Nextel, who were asked to guide the jury through the meaning of various data on Murray's phone records from June 25, 2009.
Dr. Thao Nguyen, a cardiologist from UCLA Medical Center, testified that she was paged on that day to help with the care of "a V.I.P. patient, named Michael Jackson." She was under the impression the patient was "coding," meaning resuscitation was partially successful. She further testified that when Murray arrived at the hospital, he was "desperate and devastated," and he told the staff: "Do not give up easily, try to save his life."
Nguyen's testimony then turned to the effects of Ativan, the drug that Murray claimed started Jackson's cardiac arrest. According to Nguyen, Ativan acts on the brain to "make you sleep" and can cause respiratory apnea. She testified that "you do not typically use narcotics to treat insomnia, they are used for sedation," but, when cross-examined, she admitted that it is one of its uses.
Testimony then turned to the use of flumazenil as an antidote to Ativan. Ativan would cause the patient to have slurred speech but propofol would not; it is "quick onset quick offset." Propofol is only to be used in a hospital, "not just any hospital room, but only in an intensive care unit or procedure room, by specialist personnel". Constant monitoring is required because "wouldn't be sure of the patient's tolerance threshold" to the drug and there should be a crash cart at hand. Nguyen also testified that Murray never mentioned propofol.
October 4, 2011: Day 6
Stacey Ruggles, Michelle Bella, and Sade Anding, each of whom was in contact with Murray on June 25, 2009, testified about their relationships with him. Anding, who prosecutors believed to be the person Murray was speaking to when he noticed Jackson was not breathing, said she heard coughing and mumbling after Murray stopped speaking on the call, which lasted "three or four minutes."Murray's girlfriend, Nicole Alvarez, was living with Murray in Santa Monica. She is the mother of Murray's son born in March 2009. They met in Las Vegas in 2005, where she was working in a strip club. She testified about visits to Jackson's home and her plans to travel to London with Murray for the concerts. She also told how she was accepting FedEx packages at her home in Murray's name. Prosecution provided FedEx receipts to the court and Alvarez testified that they were accurate and that her signature was on some of them. Alvarez was the person Murray called while he was in the ambulance with Jackson's body. He showed up at her apartment later that evening.
Tim Lopez, employed by Applied pharmacy services, liaised with Murray over purchases of propofol and Benoquin. He testified about orders Murray placed for propofol and for Benoquin cream, to use in the treatment of the disease vitiligo, from April to June 2009. Murray's propofol orders were being routed through his Las Vegas office and then shipped to Alvarez's apartment in Los Angeles. He was also ordering increasing quantities of propofol as time went on.
October 5, 2011: Day 7
Sally Hirschberg, a customer service and sales employee of Seacoast Medical, a pharmaceutical distributor in Omaha, Nebraska, was first called to the stand. Testimony included details of Murray's dealing with the firm: he opened an account December 2006; ordered various medical items during April 2009, including "safe site" IV set; and cancelled an order for condom catheters on June 26, 2009. On cross-examination, Hirschberg testified that the items Murray was ordering were not unusual for a medical practice specializing in cardiovascular treatment.Stephen Marx, a computer forensics examiner working for the DEA in Virginia during June 2009, testified next. He performed an analysis of Murray's iPhone and extracted screenshots, emails, and recordings from it. The emails pertained to medical handwritten notes for patients named Omar Arnold and Paul Farance, in which both names were aliases that Jackson utilized under Murray's care. One email asked Murray: "Is that him too?"
Emails pertaining to Jackson's insurance while in London were also shown. The insurance company confirmed that Murray was Jackson's only doctor since 2006, and that they wanted very thorough medical reports and records and a review of Jackson during rehearsals before agreeing to cover him, but that Jackson had refused authorization to release his medical records.
During the testimony, a recording was played of a conversation between Murray and Jackson from May 10, 2009. The recording featured Jackson's talking about healing the world and helping children because he did not have a childhood, in slurred, almost incomprehensible speech. The recording ended with Murray's asking: "Are you OK?" and with Jackson's replying "I am asleep."
Next to testify was Elissa Fleak, a Los Angeles County coroner for the past eight years. Her duties include investigating deaths and working with medical examiners to determine causes of death. Fleak went to UCLA Medical Center at 5:20 pm on June 25, 2009, to examine Jackson's body and get information surrounding his death. She examined the body in a private room, as well as notes and photographs, and looked for external wounds/injuries; any sign to signal the cause of death. None were found. She took four vials of Jackson's blood for toxicology testing and went to Jackson's house to perform an onsite investigation. While in Jackson's bedroom, she found an empty 20 ml propofol bottle and an empty 5 ml flumazenil bottle on the floor next to the bedside table. She also recovered other prescription drugs, such as diazepam, lorazepam, and tamsulosin, one bottle prescribed to Mick Jackson, and some medicines prescribed by Alan Metzger. Other drugs found were Benoquin, hydroquinone, lidocaine, and an oxygen tank beside the bed. Medical equipment recovered included alcohol prep pads, a 10cc syringe with the needle removed, an IV catheter on the floor under an Ambu bag, an aspirin bottle, a syringe box, catheters, a jug of urine, and an IV pole with a saline bag and tubing draped over it.
Three bags were recovered: a black bag containing a Starline blood pressure cuff box and 3 bottles of lidocaine; a blue Costco bag containing "medical debris" including a pulse oximeter, a lanyard, vials, an empty 20 ml propofol bottle, two bottles of midazolam, an opened IV administration set, a urinary leg bag, a wideband bag, two empty dressing bags, two empty catheter bags, opened alcohol prep pads, dressing backings, an empty syringe packet, four vial tops and a needle cap. Also the saline bag with a cut in it containing the "more or less empty" 100 ml propofol bottle that Alvarez recalls removing from the IV stand; and a light blue "baby essentials" bag, containing an array of bottles that included 100 ml propofol and 20 ml propofol bottles, lorazepam, flumazenil, lidocaine, and Benoquin. Murray's business cards from his Houston practice were also found.