LOS ANGELES – Images of Michael Jackson lying dead in a hospital, along with a recording of his voice made just weeks before his death, made for a heart-wrenching opening yesterday to the manslaughter trial of the doctor hired to care for him.
“We have to be phenomenal,” said Jackson with slurred speech that shocked the audience. “When people leave my show, I want them to say, ‘I’ve never seen nothing like this in my life … It’s amazing. He’s the greatest entertainer in the world.’”
In opening arguments two years after Jackson’s death by drug overdose of propofol and sedatives, prosecutor David Walgren told jurors the “misplaced trust in the hands of Conrad Murray cost Michael Jackson his life.
But Defence attorney Ed Chernoff argued Jackson “caused his own death” by giving himself extra medication in a bid to sleep.
He said Murray was trying to wean Jackson off of propofol and had been giving him other sleep aids to lull him to sleep, but after three days, the weaning still had not worked.
On June 25, 2009, the last day of Jackson’s life, he started begging for propofol, and Murray, in a recording of his interview with police detectives, acknowledged that he relented and agreed to give Jackson a small dose.
Chernoff argued that a frustrated Jackson, tired and under pressure to get the concerts ready, gave himself eight lorazepam anti-anxiety pills to sleep. When he still could not rest, he added propofol, creating “a perfect storm within his body that killed him instantly.”
Murray denies he is guilty of the involuntary manslaughter of Jackson, but admits giving the 50-year-old pop star a dose of the powerful anesthetic propofol as a sleep aid. He faces a prison sentence of up to four years if convicted.
The Texas cardiologist was paid $150,000 a month to care for Jackson, and Walgren pointed out that Murray had first asked for $5 million.
“There was no doctor-patient relationship … He was not working for the health of Michael Jackson,” said Walgren.
Walgren also said that the doctor was shipped more than four gallons of propofol, which is normally given in hospital settings.
Kenny Ortega, the co-director of series of 50 planned London comeback concerts titled This Is It, testified that Jackson was excited about the shows because he wanted his young children to see him perform.
But on June 19, six days before his death, Jackson turned up at rehearsals “chilled, lost and incoherent,” Ortega said.
Ortega wrote in an email to concert promoters hours later: “It broke my heart. He was like a lost boy … He is terribly frightened it is all going to go away,” Ortega put in the email.
In response to the email, Ortega clashed with Murray, who told him to stop playing amateur psychiatrist and doctor.
“He said Michael was physically and emotionally capable of handling all his responsibilities for the show,” said Ortega. “I was shocked. Michael didn’t seem to be physically or emotionally stable.”
Four days later, Jackson was back “full of energy, full of desire to work, full of enthusiasm,” Ortega said. Ortega hugged Jackson goodbye after another good day of rehearsals on June 24. On June 25, the director and choreographer said he got a call saying “We lost him.” AGENCIES
