More than two years after Michael Jackson's death, the manslaughter trial of his personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, opened in a Los Angeles courtroom Tuesday (September 27). Murray, who was working on a $150,000 a month retainer, faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical license if found guilty.
In addition to laying out story lines the prosecution and defense teams will follow, the trial quickly provided a shocking opening chapter when prosecutor David Walgren kicked off the proceedings by showing a previously unseen, graphic image of the 50-year-old pop icon's body on a hospital gurney following his death.
According to TMZ, Walgren meticulously set out the people's case against Murray, a cardiologist who was hired by Jackson to be his personal physician in the lead-up to the "Thriller" singer's planned 50-show This Is It comeback attempt.
Walgren told the just-seated jury that Jackson put "misplaced trust" in Murray's medical skills and that the prosecution planned to show that Murray repeatedly acted with gross negligence and incompetence. He pinned the cause of death as an overdose of the powerful surgical anesthetic propofol, which he claimed was administered by Murray, who had made arrangements with a pharmacy to purchase very large quantities of the drug that chronic insomniac Jackson allegedly used to get to sleep.
In addition, Walgren said more than a month before Jackson's death, the doctor made a voice recording on his iPhone in which Jackson, heavily slurring his words, is clearly under the influence of "unknown agents," which he said proved Murray knew the star's state and what the drugs were doing to his client.
"He died rapidly, so instantly he didn't even have time to close his eyes," Chernoff said of Jackson's quick demise from the alleged combination of tranquilizers and propofol taken without Murray's knowledge.
Jackson was described as cold, shivering and rambling in the weeks before his death, but Walgren said the doctor continued to give him propofol and, when Jackson was clearly struggling in his final moments.
Among those attending the first day of the trial were Jackson's father and mother, Joseph and Katherine Jackson, as well as siblings Janet, Jermaine, Randy, Tito and LaToya.
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