Bodyguard: Instructed by Murray to Hide Meds In Bags [Updated]
[Updated | Sept. 29, 5:30 p.m. PDT: During testimony, Alberto Alvarez teared up while listening to the 911 call he made the day Michael Jackson died.]
The prosecution's sixth witness testified that after escorting Jackson's children out of the bedroom, he returned and asked Dr. Conrad Murray what happened.
"He said he had a bad reaction," Alvarez testified.
Then Murray proceded to collect vials in a bag and then put them in another bag, according to Alvarez's testimony.
The defense questioned Alvarez's timeline. However Alvarez maintained that he was not confused about the timeline under cross-examination who asked if Murray collected the vials after the arrival of paramedics. Murray's attorney used phone records to argue that Murray didn't have enough time to collect the vials before the arrival of paramedics.
Jackson's personal chef, Kai Chase, also testified saying he seemed normal in the days leading up to his death. She was in the kitchen of the mansion the day Jackson died. Murray came down the stairs "in a panic" between 12:05 and 12:10 p.m.
"His energy was very nervous and frantic and he was shouting," Chase testified.
After she went to get Prince, Jackson's eldest son, she went to join the other workers in the house who were crying in the foyer. Jackson's children joined her and the housekeepers while paramedics rushed to help Jackson. In cross-examination by defense attorny J. Michael Flanagan, she kept Prince with her because he was in sight. The chef said she wasn't sure if security officers would be in their trailer outside the home.
"You never told Dr. Murray that you were not going to get security?" Flanagan asked.
"No," she said.
Michael Jackson's former bodyguard, Alberto Alvarez, was on the stand Thursday to tesitfy in the involuntary manslaughter trial against Dr. Conrad Murray.
Alvarez is said to be the first person to have reached the pop star's bedroom after Murray, 58, summoned him for help on June 25, 2010, the day Jackson died of acute propofol intoxication at the age of 50.
Murray was the singers's personal physician hired to accompany Jackson during his sold-out London tour, "This Is It."
On the third day of trial, Alvarez testified that Murray instructed him to hide vials that were in Jackson's bedroom, inside bags.
"He said here put these in a bag," said Alvarez.
Alvarez said before making the 911 call, Jackson's daughter Paris "screamed out daddy." He also testified that he observed an IV bag connected to the singer that had an unknown substance inside.
So far Alvarez's testimony matches that of the previous witnesses, attorney Kathy Jorrie, Faheem Muhammad and Michael Amir Williams.
Prosecutors are accusing Murray of giving Jackson a lethal dose of the anesthetic propofol, and leaving him unattended for 45 minutes to make calls and send emails, leading to the singer's death. If convicted Murray could face up to four years in prison.
The physician has pleaded not guilty to the involuntary manslaughter charges in connection to Jackson's death. His lawyers say the singer gave himself the lethal dose of propofol that led to his death.
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