Evidence From Day Six Of Preliminary Hearing

A pharmacist testified Monday that the doctor charged in Michael’s death bought two hundred and fifty-five vials of a powerful anesthetic, in the three months before the singer died from a lethal combination of the drug and other sedatives.

Dr. Conrad Murray purchased four shipments of the anesthetic propofol, between April 6th and June 10th 2009, said Tim Lopez, owner of Applied Pharmacy Services in Las Vegas, where Murray has a clinic. Murray bought one hundred and thirty vials of propofol in one hundred milliliter doses and another one hundred and twenty-five vials, in the smaller dose of twenty milliliters, Lopez said. A coroner’s investigator previously testified that twelve vials of propofol, were found in the bedroom and closet of Michael’s rented mansion, after his death.

Lopez said Murray asked him to ship some of the propofol to an address in Santa Monica, California. The address belongs to the doctor’s girlfriend, although Lopez testified that Murray told him it was one of his clinics. Murray also bought other sedatives from Lopez, according to the testimony. Murray has told police he was concerned Michael was addicted to propofol, and that he was trying to wean the singer from it.

In other testimony Monday, a retired federal investigator said he had retrieved an e-mail from Murray’s cell phone, containing an exchange between the doctor and a London insurance broker handling a policy for Michael’s planned series of concerts.
The broker asked Murray on the morning of Michael’s death, to address press reports that Jackson was in poor health.
“As far as the statements of his health published by the press, let me say they’re all malicious to the best of my knowledge,” Murray replied.

Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor ruled before the hearing began Monday that the information could be introduced as evidence.

Murray’s defense attorney, Ed Chernoff, had described some of the data as brief voicemails. He also said there were twelve screenshots found on the phone. Judge Pastor said some of the information was protected by attorney-client privilege, but most is not. Prosecutors have used Murray’s phone records to help create a detailed timeline of the doctor’s actions on the day Michael died.

Prosecutors were poised to focus on the science of what killed him, during the second week of the hearing.

Paramedics and an emergency-room doctor with a combined fifty years of experience, also said they believed the singer died before he was rushed by an ambulance to UCLA hospital, where efforts failed to revive him.

Using phone records and testimony from police and Murray’s current and former girlfriends, prosecutors have developed the timeline that shows Murray was on the phone throughout the morning of Michael’s death on June 25th 2009, including after administering propofol to the singer.

They hope to convince a judge of several key points: that Murray was distracted when he should have been monitoring Michael, that he delayed calling 911, that he botched CPR efforts and that Michael was dead before help was summoned.

The remainder of the hearing was likely to take a clinical approach, with coroner’s officials, propofol experts and police who interviewed Murray taking the stand.

Pastor said that prosecutors told him they were ahead of schedule, although he did not indicate when the hearing may end. Prosecutors appeared to be at least halfway through presenting their case.

Defense attorneys rarely present witnesses or their own theories during preliminary hearings. In Murray’s case, they did not make an opening statement and have only hinted at potential arguments as they questioned witnesses.

Source: Associated Press & MJWN