As Michael Jackson’s lifeless body lay on a bed in his palatial mansion, a bodyguard obeyed a frantic doctor’s instructions to bag up medicine bottles and intravenous bags and shield the Jackson children from seeing their father — all before being told to call emergency services, court testimony revealed on Wednesday.
Alberto Alvarez said he was the first security guard to reach Jackson’s room after word came that something was wrong. He described a shocking scene.
The King of Pop was on his bed connected to an intravenous tube and a urinary catheter. His eyes and mouth were open, and Dr Conrad Murray was leaning over him doing one-handed chest compressions to try to revive him. Alvarez said he was “frozen” at the sight.
“I said, ‘Dr Murray, what happened?’ And he said, ‘He had a reaction. He had a bad reaction,”’ Alvarez recalled. The testimony came during a preliminary hearing to determine if Murray, the singer’s personal physician, will be tried on a charge of involuntary manslaughter.
Authorities contend Murray gave Jackson a lethal dose of the powerful anaesthetic propofol and other sedatives in the bedroom of his rented mansion before he died on June 25, 2009. Deputy district attorney David Walgren said in his opening statement that Jackson was already dead when Murray summoned help and tried to conceal his administering of propofol, ordering the bodyguard to collect items before paramedics were called. —AP