Jurors at Dr. Conrad Murray’s involuntary manslaughter trial Tuesday heard the physician describe the hours following Michael Jackson’s death, during which he broke the news to the pop star’s children and his mother.

Murray stared blankly ahead, expressionless, as the remainder of his June 27, 2009, police interview with two detectives was played in court. About two-thirds of the 2-1/2-hour tape was played for jurors Friday.

In the recording, Murray recounted how Jackson’s daughter Paris reacted to word of her father’s death.

“She cried and was very stark,” the doctor said in a steady voice in the tape. He said he told the girl he had tried his best.

“I know you tried you best, but I’m really sad,” Murray recalled Paris saying. “You know, I will wake up in the morning, and I won’t be able to see my daddy.”

"The singer’s mother, Katherine Jackson, “broke down” when a doctor told her Jackson had died, Murray also recalled.

Murray reacted with surprise at some of the medications the detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department asked about, and when they told him that rotten marijuana had been found at Jackson’s home.

He said the singer never disclosed to him the other doctors he saw or the medication those doctors gave him. He found out about the physicians and medication from seeing pill bottles at Jackson’s bedside, Murray said.

“I realized that he’s also seeing other physicians. But he does not disclose to me,” Murray said. The physician said he was told by people working with Jackson that after visits with one of those doctors, dermatologist Arnold Klein, the pop star would appear intoxicated.

“His production team had said to me recently that his worst days on the set is when he had gone to Dr. Klein’s office, which is about three times a week; and when he came back, he was basically wasted and required at least 24 hours for recovery,” he said.

Murray also reacted with surprise when detectives asked him where his bags of medical equipment were.

“Everything I use, I would put it quickly into the bags and just put it into the cupboard, because he wanted me to not have anything hanging around,” the doctor said.

Det. Scott Smith later said under questioning by a prosecutor that the doctor’s eyes grew wide and a look of surprise appeared on his face when the investigators said they hadn’t recovered the bags.

Smith also said the interview was the first time Murray disclosed he had given propofol, the anesthetic that killed Jackson, and that the doctor did not mention the numerous phone calls that records show he made the morning of Jackson’s death.

Also a photo of a dead Michael Jackson was shown in court today while the doctor who performed an autopsy on the singer told jurors that it would have been nearly impossible for Jackson to have given himself a lethal dose of drugs.

"The circumstances from my point of view do not support self administration of propfol," said Los Angeles Deputy Medical Examiner Christopher Rogers.

Rogers appeared to challenge the defense's theory that Jackson gave himself a lethal dose of drugs in the two minute time period that Murray claims he was away from Jackson in a nearby bathroom.

"In order for Mr. Jackson to administer the propofol to himself, you have to believe that he... woke up, although he was at least to some extent under the influence of other sedatives, he was able to administer propofol to himself," Rogers said.

Even if a drowsy, drugged Jackson was able to self-administer the propofol, Rogers said it still takes time for the drug to circulate throughout the body and for that all to happen in a two minute period would be difficult.

Jackson's propofol was being administered by IV drip into his leg. Rogers said that there was no white fluid resembling propofol in Jackson's throat, esophagus or stomach, debunking the possibility that the singer could have taken the propofol orally without Murray's knowledge.

Rogers said that Jackson's death is a homicide and that he died of acute propofol intoxication with a contributing effect from two sedatives also found in Jackson's system: lorazepam and midazolam.

In addition to the potentially damning testimony about Jackson's mode of death, Rogers revealed details about the pop icon's health issues at the time he died. Rogers said that Jackson's overall health was good. While he was extremely thin at only 136 pounds, his Body Mass Index was still in the normal range and his heart was in good shape.

The singer was suffering from an enlarged prostate and vitiligo, Rogers said. Jackson had some chronic inflammation and swelling in his lungs as well as arthritis and a polyp on his colon. The king of pop also had an extra rib, the medical examiner noted.
In rejecting the defense argument that Jackson took the drug without his doctor's knowledge, Rogers indicated that it was more likely that Murray accidentally overdosed Jackson.

"The ultimate scenario would be in order to keep Mr. Jackson asleep, the doctor has to give a little bit [of propofol] from time to time, which in this case is going to add up to two or three tablespoons per hour to keep him asleep," Rogers said. "Now we did not find any precision dosing device which means that essentially the doctor would be estimating how much propofol he was giving to come up with two to three tablespoons per hour, and I think it would be easy to estimate wrong and give too much propfol."

Murray told police in a taped interview that he had given Jackson sedatives and propofol to help him sleep, something that the medical examiner criticized on the witness stand.

"The problem Michael Jackson was having was that he couldn't sleep and it's not appropriate to give propofol in that situation," he said.


Source: LA Today/ ABC News/ MJackson.com