Guard: Jackson Doctor Took Medication Out of Singer's Room

A security guard has testified that Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's personal physician grabbed vials from a nightstand and directed him to usher the singer's children out of the room where their father was lying motionless before asking him to call 911.

The guard Alberto Alvarez testified today in Murray’s involuntary manslaughter trial at Los Angeles Superior Court.

The singer died on June 25, 2009. Prosecutors claim Murray gave Jackson the powerful sedative propofol and then failed to monitor him, leaving the singer's bedroom for 45 minutes to make phone calls and send emails.

Alvarez testified that after Murray found the singer unconscious, he told him they needed to get Jackson to a hospital and told him to summon an ambulance to the rented Holmby Hills home. Alvarez said he was reaching for his phone when the singer's oldest children, Paris and Prince, came into their father’s bedroom.

“Paris screamed out, 'Daddy!’” Alvarez said, noting that the girl was crying and that Murray told him, “Don't let them see their dad like this.”

Alvarez told the seven-man, five-woman jury that he escorted the two children out, then returned to the bedroom and asked Murray what had happened.

“He said he had a bad reaction,” said Alvarez, who was Jackson's director of logistics.

Murray began collecting vials while kneeling near a nightstand next to the bed and told him to put them in a bag and then put the bag inside another bag, Alvarez said.

“He pointed towards the IV stand. He pointed to a bag and said ‘Now grab that and put it in a blue bag,” he said.

Alvarez said he saw a bottle inside the IV bag, saying that it appeared to be a bottle of propofol that was later collected by police.

Deputy District Attorney David Walgren walked by the jury box three times, first showing the panel an IV bag seized by police and holding it open to show jurors a slit in the bag, then showing them the bottle of propofol and finally putting the bottle inside the IV bag.

Alvarez said he complied with the doctor's request to collect the items because he believed that Murray had the best intentions for Jackson and thought they were packing to get ready for Jackson to be taken to the hospital.

Alvarez testified that Murray told him, “Call 911,” and he did as instructed.

Jurors heard a recording of the 9-1-1 call, in which Alvarez is heard saying that Jackson was “not breathing” and “not responding to anything.”

He and Murray followed the instruction of emergency operator and moved Jackson to the floor, Alvarez said. He then saw the doctor take what he believed was a heart monitor from the bed and clip it to Jackson's finger.

When Jackson's security chief came into the room, Murray asked if anyone knew CPR, Alvarez said, adding that he turned to assist Murray by giving chest compressions to Jackson as the doctor began mouth-to-mouth efforts to try to revive the singer.

“After a few breaths, (Murray) said, `This is the first time I do mouth-to-mouth, but I have to, this is my friend,’” Alvarez said.

Alvarez said he had initially seen Murray doing one-handed chest compressions on the singer after being summoned inside the house by Jackson's personal assistant, who had gotten a call from Murray telling him that Jackson had a bad reaction and to get someone there right away.

He said he saw Murray at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center - where 50-year-old Jackson was pronounced dead 50 - and the doctor told him, “I wanted him to make it.”

Murray is reported to specialize in internal medicine and cardio vascular diseases. He served his residency at Loma Linda University.

Under cross-examination from defense attorney Edward Chernoff Alvarez insisted he was not confused about the timeline and that it was not possible for the vials to have been collected after the paramedics arrived to treat Jackson.

Murray's lawyer showed jurors phone records indicating that Alvarez had an 88-second phone call with Jackson's personal assistant, Michael Amir Williams, starting at 12:18 p.m. Chernoff suggested that Alvarez did not have enough time to do everything he said he and Murray did before calling 9-1-1 at 12:20 p.m.

Alvarez insisted, however, that he was accurately relaying what took place in the room.

“I'm very efficient, sir,” he said.

Alvarez conceded that he didn't tell authorities that he and Murray collecting vials in the room until two months after Jackson's death. He said he went to police after seeing a CNN report about the singer's death that showed footage of detectives carrying bags from the home and discussing propofol.

“When I saw that report, sir, is when I realized I had touched something that resembled that milky white substance," he said.

During his testimony, Alvarez said he’s been turned down offers of up to $500,000 to speak to the media, but he went from “a great salary to hardly anything'' for sporadic security jobs.”

Murray, 58, faces up to four years in state prison if convicted of the felony charge. The cardiologist was working for the singer in his rented mansion, where Jackson was staying while rehearsing for a series of 50 sold-out concerts in London dubbed “This Is It.” The singer died of acute propofol intoxication.

Defense attorneys insist Murray was weaning Jackson off the medication, but the singer “self-administered” a larger dose of the drug that killed him instantly after the doctor left the room.

City News Service