Six-week trial gave most detailed account yet of star singer’s last hours
Court has heard how Murray used operating-room anaesthetic for insomnia
He gave singer propofol to help him sleep as he prepared for concerts
Michael Jackson’s doctor was today jailed for four years for ending the life and career of one of pop music’s greatest entertainers. Judge Michael Pastor and prosecutors called Conrad Murray a ‘danger to the community’, slamming the 58-year-old for playing ‘Russian roulette’ with the singer and using him as an ‘experiment’.
Murray did not openly react as he was sentenced in Los Angeles, California, for involuntary manslaughter after a six-week trial giving the most detailed account yet of Jackson’s final hours.
‘Dr Murray engaged in a recurring, continuous pattern of deceit and lies,’ the judge said. ‘Dr Murray abandoned his patient.’
‘Dr Murray created a set of circumstances and became involved in a cycle of horrible medicine.
‘The practice of propofol for medicine madness, which violated his sworn obligation, for money, fame prestige and whatever else may have occurred.’
Judge Pastor said one of the most disturbing aspects of Murray’s case was a slurred recording of Jackson from the doctor’s mobile phone.
‘That tape recording was Dr. Murray’s insurance policy,’ Judge Pastor said. ‘It was designed to record his patient surreptitiously at that patient’s most vulnerable point.’
Outside court: Michael Jackson's sister La Toya Jackson
Murray blew a kiss to his family and supports as he was led out of court. The judge said his botched treatment of the star was ‘an insult to the medical profession’ and a ‘horrific violation of trust’.
‘This crime occurred on June 25, 2009 but we know that the defendant was playing Russian roulette with Michael Jackson’s life every single night (for two months),’ David Walgren, prosecuting, said.
Jackson’s three children – Prince, Paris and Blanket – said they lost their ‘father, best friend, and playmate’.
The children were not in the courtroom and their statement was read by lawyer and family friend Brian Panish ahead of the sentencing. He stressed they were not seeking ‘revenge’.
The trial left questions about Murray’s treatment of the star with an operating-room anaesthetic as he battled chronic insomnia.
Defence lawyers were pushing for probation for the cardiologist in Los Angeles, saying he will lose his ability to practice medicine and likely face a lifetime of ostracism.
Children: Prince, Blanket and Paris Jackson appear onstage at a 'Michael Forever' concert in October 2011
Defence lawyers were pushing for probation for the cardiologist in Los Angeles, saying he will lose his ability to practice medicine and likely face a lifetime of ostracism.Murray declined to testify in his trial but was in a documentary in which he said he didn’t consider himself guilty of any crime and blamed Jackson for entrapping him into administering the propofol.
Judge Pastor was enraged by Murray saying he felt betrayed by Jackson. ‘Yipes,’ he said. ‘Talk about blaming the victim. Not only is there no remorse, there is outrage and umbrage from Dr Murray.’
His attorneys contended throughout the case that Jackson must have given himself the fatal dose when Murray left the singer’s bedside.
Prosecutors cited Murray’s statements to advocate that he receive the maximum term. They also want him to pay restitution to the singer’s three children.
It’s unlikely that Murray can pay any sizable sum, including the $1.8million cost of his funeral.
He was deeply in debt when he agreed to serve as Jackson’s personal physician for $150,000 a month and the singer died before Murray received any money.
During Murray’s trial, a jury heard a slurred recording of Jackson found on Murray’s mobile phone.
The doctor or his attorneys never explained in court why he recorded the impaired singer six weeks before his death.
But it did reveal the ambition of the entertainer who burst on the scene as a baby-faced member of the Jackson Five in the 1970s.
We have to be phenomenal,’ he was heard saying about his ‘This Is It’ concerts in London.‘When people leave this show, when people leave my show, I want them to say, “I’ve never seen nothing like this in my life. Go. Go. I’ve never seen nothing like this. Go. It’s amazing. He’s the greatest entertainer in the world”.’Jackson’s comeback attempt came after he had been pushed into obscurity.
Despite his acquittal of child molestation in 2005, Jackson went into seclusion, leaving his lavish manor Neverland Ranch and moving to the Middle East and Las Vegas, where he first met Murray.
Murray showed no emotion when he was convicted. Prosecutors said the men’s relationship was corrupted by greed.
He left his practices to serve as Jackson’s doctor and look out for his well-being, but instead allegedly acted as an employee catering to the singer’s desire to receive propofol for sleep.
‘The defendant has displayed a complete lack of remorse for causing Michael Jackson’s death,’ prosecutors wrote in a filing last week.‘Even worse than failing to accept even the slightest level of responsibility, (Murray) has placed blame on everyone else, including the one person no longer here to defend himself, Michael Jackson.’Murray’s attorneys were relying largely on 34 letters from relatives, friends and former patients to portray Murray in a softer light and win a lighter sentence.
The letters and defence filings describe Murray’s compassion as a doctor, including accepting lower payments from his mostly poor patients.
‘There is no question that the death of his patient, Mr. Jackson, was unintentional and an enormous tragedy for everyone affected,’ defence attorneys wrote in their sentencing memo.
‘Dr Murray has been described as a changed, grief-stricken man, who walks around under a pall of sadness since the loss of his patient, Mr Jackson.’
Murray’s trial was closely watched by Jackson’s fans in the courtroom, on social networking sites and via live broadcasts online and on television.
Fan groups were at the courthouse vying for the few public seats made available for the sentencing
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