Jurors Hear about Drugs Recovered from Michael Jackson Home: MyFoxLA.com
Los Angeles - A Los Angeles County coroner's investigator testified today that she retrieved 12 vials of the anesthetic propofol, along with a variety of prescription drugs, lotions and medical supplies, from Michael Jackson's rented Holmby Hills estate after the singer died. Jackson died June 25, 2009, from an overdose of the powerful sedative at age 50. Testifying in the involuntary-manslaughter trial of Jackson's personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, Los Angeles County coroner's investigator Elissa Fleak said she went to Jackson's home the night he died, and found various medications on a nightstand and glass table next to the singer's bed. She said she also found a largely empty 20-milliliter bottle of propofol on the floor under the nightstand. Fleak testified that she also discovered prescription bottles of drugs including diazepam, Flomax and Lorazepam, several types of lotions and creams, oxygen tanks, latex gloves, alcohol swabs, an IV stand, catheters and a jug of urine, along with a syringe with the needle missing. Fleak told the seven-man, five-woman jury that she went back to the home on June 29, 2009, after Murray had been interviewed by police, and found three bags on the top shelf of a cabinet in the bedroom closet. The coroner's investigator testified that she found a largely empty 100-milliliter bottle of propofol that was inside a saline bag when she opened one of the bags -- a blue Costco bag -- along with a 20-milliliter bottle of propofol that was essentially empty. In a light blue and brown Baby Essentials diaper bag, she found two 100-milliliter vials of propofol that appeared to be full and seven smaller 20-milliliter vials -- three of which were opened, Fleak testified. Under questioning by Deputy District Attorney David Walgren, the coroner's investigator agreed that one of the open vials was about 20 percent full, another was a little less than half full and a third was 15 to 20 percent full. She told jurors that she also found numerous other medical supplies inside the bags, including five of Murray's business cards from his Houston clinic, a pulse oximeter, a plastic bag containing empty medical packages, three bottles of Lidocaine and two more bottles of Lorazepam. Thirty-six tubes of prescription lotion were also found in the cabinet, she said. Fleak -- who is due back on the stand Thursday for more questioning -- said she also collected a saline bag and IV tubing from an IV stand in Jackson's bedroom on June 29, 2009, that she had seen four days earlier. One of Jackson's employees, Alberto Alvarez, testified last week that Murray grabbed vials from a nightstand and directed him to put them in a bag and then put that bag inside another bag. He also testified that Murray directed him to retrieve an IV bag from the IV stand and to put it into a blue bag, noting when he was shown a bottle of propofol in court that he believed it was the one he had seen inside the IV bag. Paramedic Richard Senneff, who treated Jackson after 911 was called, testified that he saw Murray with a bag in his hand, picking up items from the bedroom floor near a nightstand as paramedics were preparing to take Jackson to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where the singer was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. Another paramedic, Martin Blount, told jurors he saw Murray scoop up three bottles of Lidocaine from the bedroom floor and put them in a black bag. When Jackson died at age 50, the cardiologist was working for him at the rented mansion in Holmby Hills, where the pop star was staying while rehearsing for his 50 sold-out concerts in London dubbed "This Is It." Prosecutors contend Murray gave Jackson propofol and then failed to monitor him, leaving his bedroom for at least 45 minutes to make phone calls and send emails. Defense attorneys maintain that Murray was weaning Jackson off the medication and that he gave him only a small amount of propofol, but Jackson "self-administered" a larger dose, killing himself instantly after the doctor left the room.
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