Day 9 of Court: Michael Jackson Was on a Drug Treatment for Two Months—Which Ultimately Killed Him
On Friday, a two-hour video of the police’s interrogation of the defendant Conrad Murray was shown to the jury.
This interrogation took place two days after Michael’s death on June 27. In the video, Murray says that Michael Jackson was not naturally able to sleep, and for that reason, for two months every night he gave him the anesthetic drug propofol so that he could rest.
Propofol is only permitted for use during surgery in a hospital and under the supervision of an anesthesiologist. During this interrogation, Murray informs the police about how he met Michael, the events of the day of his death, and the drugs he had been giving him.
In 2006, Murray had been introduced to Michael through the son of one of his patients. Michael wanted Murray to treat him and his children, who showed signs of influenza.
At that time, Michael had another personal doctor whom Murray did not personally know.
In 2009, Michael asked Murray to be his personal doctor for the This Is It tour, and his salary was to be paid by AEG, the company running the tour.
Murray says Michael wanted him to become his permanent doctor.
Murray explains that after injecting propofol into Michael every night for two months, he decided to reduce the amount of the drug he was giving him and then stop it. Over the three nights leading up to Michael’s death, he had replaced propofol with lorazepam.
The night before Michael died, Murray had treated him with a cream intended for patients with vitiligo.
When Michael returned home at 1:00 a.m. on June 25 after a successful rehearsal session, he was exhausted and couldn’t sleep.
At 4:00 a.m., Murray gave him a lorazepam pill. Then he connected an IV line to Michael’s knee and injected 2 milligrams of lorazepam. Michael fell asleep after 10 to 15 minutes.
At 7:30, Michael was still awake, and Murray injected midazolam into him.
At 10:00 a.m., Michael was fed up with insomnia.
“My doctor Conrad has to make me sleep. I have rehearsal tomorrow.”
Michael had threatened to cancel that day’s rehearsal session.
At 10:30, Michael requested that he be given propofol—which he referred to as “milk” because of its milky color.
Murray said that at 11:00 a.m. on June 25 he injected 25 milligrams of propofol into Michael, and he fell asleep calmly and quietly.
Murray says Michael knew that propofol was the only drug that would make him sleep. Michael had told him that before, this drug had also been given to him by his other doctors.
He told Murray that to be able to perform on stage, he needed to sleep for 15 to 18 hours. Michael said that on previous tours, doctors helped him sleep for 18 hours.
Dr. Adames (one of Michael’s former doctors) told Murray that working for Michael in Las Vegas earned $600,000 a year.
Murray says Michael told him he wanted to build a children’s hospital.
Murray also explained to the police how he realized Michael wasn’t breathing.
He said he left the room for a few minutes to go to the bathroom, and when he returned he saw that Michael wasn’t breathing. He felt Michael’s heartbeat and began giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and chest compressions.
Murray says he couldn’t pull Michael down from the bed alone, and with one hand he started giving chest compressions.
He said he couldn’t find a phone at home and didn’t know the address of the place, so instead of calling emergency services himself, he called Michael’s assistant Amir Williams, then went downstairs and asked the cook to inform the security officers.
During this interrogation, Murray told the police that he had tried to save Michael’s life for at least an hour and had done everything he could. He also says he exercised the utmost caution and conservatism to ensure Michael’s safety and health.
Murray says he had raised Michael’s legs so that blood would flow toward his heart. He also injected flumazenil, the anti-sedative, into Michael to neutralize the effects of the drugs.
Then he asked Alberto Alvarez to call 911.
Emergency services transported Michael to the hospital, and Murray asked them not to stop trying. They spent an hour trying to save Michael.
Murray says he requested an autopsy because the cause of Michael’s death was unknown to him.
During this interrogation, Conrad Murray did not say anything about his phone activities.
The continuation of this interrogation video will be shown in court on Tuesday. Monday in the U.S. is Columbus Day, Discovery of America Day, and an official holiday.
Another event from yesterday was that the toxicology expert, Dan Anderson, testified in the witness stand.
The defense attorneys tried to show that the lorazepam drug they claim Michael personally took was the cause of his death.
Anderson responded that lorazepam is an important drug, but not as important as propofol. He said that propofol is, in any situation, the most important drug we deal with.
In 2009, forensic medicine determined that the presence of propofol in Michael’s blood at a lethal amount was the main cause of his death.
Source: eMJey.com / CNN