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Dr. Conrad Murray’s involuntary manslaughter trial was suppose to be put on hold last week until at least Wednesday, to give the defense time to study new lab test results. The prosecution contends show Michael Jackson did not ingest a fatal overdose of sedatives. Testimony was also suspended last Thursday afternoon to allow the prosecution’s anesthesiology expert to attend a medical convention.
At the hearing on Monday Deputy District Attorney David Walgren revealed, that last Wednesday The Los Angeles County coroner tested Jackson’s stomach contents for the level of the sedative lorazepam at the request of the prosecution, but due to a death in the witness’s family, court was delayed, again Monday.
The testing was ordered after Murray’s defense contended that Jackson swallowed eight tablets of lorazepam, a sedative, in a desperate search for sleep the day he died.The results show “a much smaller amount of lorazepam in the stomach that is totally inconsistent with oral consumption of lorazepam tablets,” Walgren said.
Dr. Steven Shafer, an anesthesiology expert, is crucial to the state’s effort to prove Jackson’s death was caused by Murray’s gross negligence in using the surgical anesthetic propofol to help the pop icon sleep.The defense cross-examination of Shafer grew so heated and personal Friday that the judge called lawyers for a sidebar and ordered them to “cut it out!”
With the involuntary manslaughter trial of Michael Jackson’s doctor entering what could be its last week, Janet Jackson canceled shows in Australia to be with her family in Los Angeles.
Dr. Conrad Murray’s lawyers will use the next four days to challenge the prosecution’s contention that his reckless use of the surgical anesthesia propofol to help Jackson sleep makes him criminally responsible for the pop icon’s death.
