The Michael Jackson Manslaughter Trial
against Conrad Murray Day #6
Michael
Jackson's doctor's
girlfriend mentions packages, pharmacist cites propofol
orders…
Alvarez, a 29-year-old actress, spoke at Murray's
involuntary manslaughter trial on October 4. The doctor served as Jackson's
personal physician in the months prior to his death on June 25, 2009. At that
time, he was also married to another woman.
Meanwhile, a pharmacist in Las Vegas, where the doctor
kept a clinic, said Murray had ordered from him 255 vials of propofol,
anti-anxiety drugs, tubes of the skin whitening cream Benoquin and saline IV
bags, but did not disclose Jackson's name or the identities of any other
patients to him.
Autopsy results have shown that Jackson died at age 50
on June 25, 2009 from an overdose of propofol, an anesthetic that he called his
"milk," and other sedatives. Murray, 58, has said he gave the singer a dose of
propofol as a sleeping aid on the day he died. He has pleaded not guilty to
involuntary manslaughter.
Murray faces up to four years in prison and the loss
of his medical license if convicted. The doctor's lawyers maintain that Jackson
drank propofol and consumed other medications on his own while the doctor was
away from his bedside at the singer's Los Angeles home, that the dose of
propofol Murray had administered was too low to be fatal and that he was trying
to wean him off the drug.
Alvarez said the doctor lived with her in Santa
Monica, near Los Angeles, and paid her rent. She said he often traveled to work
at his medical offices in Houston and Texas and never mentioned treating
patients in California, other than Jackson. Prosecutors say Murray did not
maintain an office in the state.
Alvarez confirmed that between April and June 2009,
packages addressed to Murray were delivered to her address. She said she never
asked him what was inside the boxes, which were usually taken to her apartment.
She said she would typically have to sign for them, but that they were sometimes
left in the lobby.
"(Murray said he) was going to be
receiving something, that if there was a knock at the door there was going to be
a delivery, that I could retrieve it for him," Alvarez said. "I would always
check the lobby to see if there was anything for myself or Conrad. I do recall
picking up a package in the lobby area."
Tim Lopez, who owned and managed a "specialty"
pharmacy in Las Vegas, testified that Murray contacted him for the first time in
November 2008 about acquiring tubes of the skin whitening cream Benoquin. He
said the doctor said the medication was for his "many African American patients"
who suffered from vitiligo. Lopez said Murray did not mention any names. He said
the doctor placed an order for 40 30g tubes of the cream in March
2009.
Lopez said Murray picked them up in person at the
pharmacy and then inquired about having them delivered to his Las Vegas office.
He said that on April 3, 2009, the doctor called and said he was "happy" with the results of the cream and also "asked me
specifically to find pricing and availability of propofol and normal saline IV
bags."
Lopez said that to his knowledge, his pharmacy had
never sold propofol before. He said that three days later, Murray made his first
order of the drug - requesting 35 vials, - including 10 containing 100 ml and 25
containing 20 ml, more tubes of Benoquin and 9 saline IV bags and had the
products delivered overnight via Federal Express. They arrived at his Las Vegas
office the following day.
Lopez said that when the courier arrived there, Murray
took him to a back room and removed several propofol vials from the box. The
doctor, Lopez said, "had the courier call me at my
office. Dr. Murray, speaking through the courier to me, (asked) if we can mail
the rest of the shipment to his other office in Los Angeles. He read the address
through my courier and it was an address in Santa Monica."
The place in question was Alvarez's apartment,
prosecutors say. One of Murray's lawyers asked him if medications must be
shipped to a clinic or an office, to which Lopez said he knew of no such
official regulation, but that due to the "nature of the medicine," he would sent
such drugs only to such locations.
Jackson, who was born to a black family but has
appeared white since the mid-1980s, suffered from vitiligo, which causes parts
of the skin to appear discolored.
The singer's assistant, Michael Amir Williams, had
testified on September 28 that while he was waiting at the hospital before
Jackson was pronounced dead, Murray asked that he be driven to Jackson's home to
retrieve a "cream" in the singer's room "that he wouldn't want the world to know
about." Search warrants have showed that 30 tubes of skin whitening cream were
found at Jackson's home after his death.
Jackson had confirmed that he had vitiligo but has
never talked about using such products.
Receipts from similar orders made by Murray, sent to
the Santa Monica address, were shown, ranging from April to June 15, 2009. Along
with additional vials of propofol, the doctor also ordered containers of the
injectable anti-anxiety drugs Lorazepam and Midazolam, as well as Lidocaine
cream, an anesthetic and antiarrhythmic drug often used to numb an injection
area, to be sent there as well.
Prosecutors say that between April and June 2009,
Conrad Murray ordered 255 vials of propofol, equalling 155,000 total mg, or 15.5
litres or 4.09 gallons. Lopez confirmed the number of vials ordered. He also
confirmed that Murray ordered from him 20 vials of Lorazepam and 60 vials of
Midazolam.
MURRAY CALLED GIRLFRIEND FROM
AMBULANCE!!
Alvarez said that beginning in about March 2009,
months before the singer's death, Murray left almost every night around 9 p.m.
to treat the singer at his house and return in the morning, between 6 and 8 a.m.
The doctor has said he would administer drugs to help the singer, who suffered
from insomnia, sleep and added that he was exhausted from his rehearsals for his
upcoming London tour.
Prior to his death, the singer was preparing for a
50-show residency at the city's O2 arena. Murray was set to be paid $150,000 a
month to become his doctor and accompany him on the tour. Alvarez said she was
preparing to travel with the doctor.
She said she did not recall saying in a previous
testimony that Murray's contract was faxed to her home, adding: "If it was in
the fax machine it was in the fax machine. "I'm not his secretary or his
assistant."
Alvarez said Murray sometimes brought her to Jackson's
home, adding: "Michael Jackson was very interested in
the baby. He saw my stomach grow with the pregnancy and he wanted to schedule
visits so he could see my son."
Sources close to the investigation of the singer's
death say that none of the fingerprints found in the bedroom or in Murray's
possession belonged to Jackson, which may deal a blow to the doctor's lawyers'
theory about the singer consumed extra propofol secretly, ABC News reported on
Tuesday, October 4.
Associates of the singer have testified that on the
day of Jackson's death, they saw Murray attempting to revive the singer in a
bedroom in his home before paramedics arrived. Two EMTS and two doctors have
testified that Jackson suffered a cardiac arrest and showed no signs of
life.
Murray insisted that Jackson be taken to UCLA Medical
Center, even after one of the paramedics was told over the phone by one of the
facility's doctors to pronounce the singer dead at his home. Jackson arrived at
the hospital 1:13 p.m. and was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. on June 25, 2009.
"Mr. Jackson was my patient and I
didn't really have an explanation for why he was dead," emergency room doctor
Richelle Cooper said on Monday. "In my mind it was a coroner's
case."
Thao Nguyen, a cardiologist, said Murray asked doctors
to "not give up easily" in their attempts to
revive the singer. She also said Murray was unable to tell her much time had
passed between the moment he discovered Jackson in a bedroom in his home, not
breathing, and the time 911 was called, adding: "He said he did not have any
concept of time, he did not have a watch."
Murray rode in the ambulance that carried Jackson to
the hospital and a paramedic had said that he made a cell phone call. Phone
records shown to the jury on Tuesday showed that Murray called Alvarez's home
number at 1:08 p.m. that day.
"I remember him telling me
that he was on the way to the hospital in the ambulance with Mr. Jackson and for
me not to be alarmed," she said.
She said she made attempts to reach Murray by phone
throughout the day but that she could not recall if they spoke. The doctor,
Alvarez said, showed up at her apartment that afternoon. She said she did not
know how got there..
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