12 Jun 2011

Conrad Murray. Part III

It was really frustrating that transcripts of preliminary hearing of People vs Conrad Murray case were banned from internet - http://acoupleofthoughs.blogspot.com/2011/03/conrad-murray-part-ii.html. I wanted to analyse information that is available already to try to understand what really happened on 25 of June, 2009. The trial is postponed until late September, so now I still have plenty of time to try to aggregate all the available information from preliminary hearings and to make an effort to see the whole picture. Besides I have some free time and a bit of inspiration left, so this is Conrad Murray. Part III.
I have to rely mainly upon TMZ for the timeline, so I really hope that their reporters are not blind, deaf and mentally inadequate. Here we have TMZ coverage of preliminary hearings. I have the same hopes for all other reportes whose information I'm going to use. I will use articles from www.radaronline.com and this site - it's a fan site that gathered information about preliminary hearing as well.
I'll try to put down the timeline. My comments are in bold italics:
6 of April. Dr. Murray began ordering large quantities of Propofol according to Tim Lopez, a pharmacist at Applied Pharmacy Services in Las Vegas. On that date, he ordered 10 single dose vials.
Murray had the drugs sent to his girlfriend's Santa Monica home where he was living.
28 of April. Murray ordered 4 boxes and each of the boxes had 10 100 ml vials.
Later that month, Murray ordered 20 vials of midazolam and 20 vials of lorazepam.
12 of May. Murray ordered 4 boxes of Propofol, along with 2 trays of midazolam.
10 of June. Murray ordered 4 boxes of Propofol, and 2 20ml Propofol. (According to Radaronline the pharmacist of Applied Pharmacy Service in Las Vegas testified that Murray bought 130 vials of popofol at 100 milliliters each and 125 vials of the same anesthetic at 20 milliliters). Mathematics was not my favourite subject at school, that's why I have hard time trying to figure out whether these two sources of information have matching figures.
19 of June.  The singer showed up for a rehearsal at Staples Center seeming "lost" and too weak to perform according to Kenny Ortega, co-director of "This Is It".
20 of June. Ortega was summoned to a meeting at Jackson's mansion with the singer, his manager, the concert promoter and Murray. He said the doctor insisted that Jackson was emotionally and physically strong enough to perform and scolded Ortega for sending Jackson home — something he said he hadn't done. Ortega said MJ had the chills and was not well during the failed rehearsal the day before.
"Dr. Murray told me that this was not my responsibility and asked me to not act like a doctor or psychologist … and leave Michael's health to him," he said.
23 of June. "Two wonderful days of rehearsal" according to Ortega, and MJ was happy and healthy.
24 of June. "Two wonderful days of rehearsal" according to Ortega, and MJ was happy and healthy. This information was corroborated by Karen Faye, MJ's makeup artist, on her Twitter.
Time? Kai Chase, MJ's chief, prepared Tuscan white bean soup for MJ and Murray the night before Jackson died, but when she came to work the next morning the soup was untouched. She found it odd.
25 of June.
Around 10.20 AM. Alberto Alvarez, MJ's security guard, arrived for work.
11:51 AM. Recorded phonecall from Murray to Sade Anding. (Phone records show Murray made or received 11 phone calls over five hours while at the singer's home caring for Jackson. He had three back to back calls lasting 45 minutes exactly up to the time he realized Jackson had stopped breathing. On the stand, a phone company rep said Murray had five texts in those hours  including two in the moments prosecutors believe Jackson had stopped breathing). And here I encountered problems with my timeline! See 12.03.
12:03 PM. Murray sent a text message to Texas. Who was the recipient?
12.03 PM. Sade Anding - who was in Houston the day MJ died - testified she received a call from Murray at around 12:30 PM. If it is by Houston time, than it has to be 10.30 PM in LA, though perhaps in the reality it was in 12.03. But there is only one call in the phone records from Murray to Sade, and that's at 11:51 AM PT - according to TMZ. The question is when exactly did this call take place? Sade Anding herself might not remember the exact time, but why there are two different times that the sources of information give: 11.51 or 12.03? The time lapse is not that little - about 12 minutes. In a case like this it can matter a lot. Besides if 11.51 is correct how Murray can leave a voicemail for his patient at 11.54? He could have two phones (I don't know whether this information is available or not) and he could text someone while chatting on the other phone with his girlfriend, but I find it to be quite difficult to leave a voicemail simultaneously... Sade says Murray was asking her how she was doing and she started talking about her day.  She spoke for a few minutes (about 5 minutes) and realized Murray wasn't on the phone anymore. Sade then said she heard commotion, as if the phone was in his pocket, and heard "coughing and voices." She said she didn't recognize muffled voice as that of Murray. Who this voice belonged to? Is it possible that it was a housekeeper, the chief, one of MJ's kids or Alvarez? It is really very important here to learn when exactly all these events took place... Sade attempted to call Murray back and texted him, but there were no response.
12.04 PM. Murray sent a text message to Texas. Conrad Murray reminds me of Julius Caesar who had ability to do several things at the same time.
12:13 PM. Michael Amir Williams, MJ's assistant, received a voicemail from Murray. Williams said Murray's VM said, "Where are you? Get here right away, hurry." Hmm, looks like Murray realised that something is wrong with his patient. Though why to call MJ's assistant instead of calling 911?.. To ask what to do? Looks like Murray started to panic already.
Williams then called Alberto Alvarez, MJ's security guard, and asked Alvarez to walk to the front door. I don't know what was going on in Williams' head, but personally I in a situation like that would call back to Murray. And only in case Murray was unavailable I would call Alvarez to go and check what's going on. Williams says he heard Murray's voice in the background, then Alvarez hung up. Did Williams try to call and to find out what was going on? Did he pay serious attention to the incident? Does it matter? I don't know...
12.15 PM. Murray sent a text message. One more text message?.. In a state of panic? Hmmm. Who did he send this message to?
After 12:17 PM. According to this site Alberto Alvarez saw Murray upstairs in the hallway hanging over a railing. (According to Kai Chase and written down by TMZ) after Michael stopped breathing, Dr. Murray came downstairs in a panic and summoned Prince. Kai Chase told the boy: "Something may be wrong with your dad." Is it possible that that is why Murray was in the hallway when Alvarez met him? Why in hell did he summon Prince? Thinking something like MJ would wake up upon hearing Prince' voice? Hmmm... It is worth mentioning that later Murray ordered Alvarez to escort the kids from the bedroom. Alvarez walked into MJ's bedroom and saw Michael laying motionless with his eyes and mouth open. He seemed dead to Alvarez. Alvarez saw the doctor performing CPR with one hand on a bed. According to this site Murray performed CPR on MJ "on the bed with one hand on his back". On who's back?.. In case Alvarez saw MJ with eyes and mouth open he had to lie on his back. MJ's lower body was nude because he had a catheter. Murray told Alvarez Michael had "an allergic reaction," then ordered him to collect a bag of bottles and put them in a bag. Murray then instructed him to remove the IV bag containing a milky-white substance from the IV stand. There was a second IV bag - which contained saline - and Murray told Alvrez to leave it there. After the bottles and bag were collected Murray told him to call 911. Perhaps Alvarez had to call 911 without Murray's orders, but I guess he was in a state of shock or panic himself. I was a witness (and direct participant) of a situation when one man had a stroke. There were a lot of people besides me who witnessed it, but a simple and logical idea of calling paramedics came only to me. Was 4 minutes too much to collect IV bags and stuff and to decide to call paramedics?.. I don't know. 4 minutes is not that short period of time, though if people don't understand the situation and what to do... 
Faheem Muhammad, one of MJ's bodyguards, was also in Michael's room after Murray noticed MJ stopped breathing. Muhammad was sent to Jackson's bedroom by Williams as well. When did Muhammad appeared? MJ didn't appear to be alive to Muhammad too. Murray was on his knees doing compressions on MJ in a panicked state On his knees? Was MJ on the floor already or still on the bed?, when he turned to Faheem and another bodyguard Alvarez I believe and asked, "Does anyone in the room know CPR?"
Alvarez says at one point Jackson's children walked into the room and Paris screamed "daddy" and started to cry before Alvarez escorted them from the bedroom (Murray told him to do it not to allow them seeing their father like that). If Murray went downstairs to call Prince... Did he see Prince? Or asked Kai Chase or someone else to ask Prince to go upstairs? Did Prince (and Paris) go upstairs immediately?.. Where was Blanket?
According to Faheem Prince and Paris were near the room and Paris was on her hands and knees crying.  The nanny took them away. Was it after Alvarez escorted them from the room?
Did Faheem Muhammad witness Murray and Alvarez collecting stuff? Did kids witness it? Did they witness Murray performing CPR on the bed?
12:18 PM. Murray sent a text message. Huh???... What did he do?.. I'm texting all the time, it is quite a time- and effort-consuming process to some degree. Not something I would do in a state of panic unless... it is something really VERY important. Who did Murray send this text message?
12.21 PM.  911 call.
Alvarez said the 911 operator told them to move Jackson to the floor to administer CPR. There, Alvarez said, he did chest compressions while Murray gave the singer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He told Alvarez that he never did it before and that he is doing it because MJ was his friend. If he wasn't his friend (everybody wants to be considered MJ's friends!..) he wouldn't do it?.. Murray put a pulse monitor on MJ shortly before paramedics arrived. 
12.26 PM. Paramedics arrived on the scene. According to the EMT report MJ was on the floor, supine, Conrad Murray was performing CPR on him. There was IV in MJ's left leg. Richard Senneff, an EMT, says Michael was dead when he arrived, and it looked like he had been dead for a long time before Dr. Conrad Murray called 911. Seneff said he soon found Jackson's legs were cold and an EKG was mostly flat. MJ's open eyes dried out, and his hands and feet were turning blue. Senneff says he believes Murray must have waited at least 20 minutes (or even up to an hour) before calling 911. That means that MJ was already dead either on 12.06 when Murray was chatting with Sade Anding and texting to Texas simultaneously or even earlier, say at 11.20. And he wasn't noticing that something was wrong with his patient... The question is when did Murray notice that MJ was breathless? Was it between 12.04 and 12.13? It seems quite obvious, in case Murray noticed it earlier he could collect things without participation of Alvarez. But we have a little "but" here: Alvarez did not tell the police about collecting of IV bags right after MJ's passing... It is very possible that he didn't pay attention to it at the time and simply forgot about it... But it is really interesting whether someone would corroborate his testimony. Though there were a lot of evidences left in the house in any case. Besides all the drugs were in MJ's system - it is stupid to deny the obvious (or I do not understand something!) Martin Blount, another paramedic, said when he walked into MJ's room Murray was sweating profusely. Blount says Murray told EMTs he waited only one minute before calling 911. He said he saw Murray take three bottles of lidocaine from the floor and put them in a bag. When Senneff asked Murray if MJ had been taking meds, Murray told him only about lorazepam (Ativan). Murray also told Senneff Jackson had been "dehydrated." Dr. Murray claimed to feel a pulse and, as the senior medical person on scene, refused to pronounce MJ dead. Blount also said at one point Murray produced a hypodermic needle and wanted to use it on Jackson but paramedics refused. Also he suggested paramedics attempt a central line and magnesium. Senneff refused because he wasn't trained to perform the procedure and they didn't have magnesium. Martin Blount placed an endotrachial tube in MJ, but felt based on the temperature of his body he was already deceased. Three attempts were made to access a vein in MJ's hands and arms for an additional IV as the one placed by Murray for dehydration wasn't functioning properly. That is curiously. When did Murray place this IV to MJ's leg? Was it after he realised that MJ was breathless and probably dead? Did anyone witness it? Or was it the same IV that was used for adminestering propofol? Why it was not functioning properly? 
12:53 PM. Murray sent a text message. Once more??? To who?
1.00 PM. Vital signs were recorded.
Murray ordered the EMTs to take MJ to the hospital. I've read a theory somewhere that Murray insisted  on taking MJ to the hospital because otherwise his house would be a scene of death, sealed etc. Did he expect to return back and to destroy evidences? I have too little information to have an opinion on this theory. 
Williams arrived at the house when the ambulance was already there and helped put the children in a car to follow the ambulance.
1.07 PM. Paramedics left the house (with MJ). I want to note that paramedics spent about 40 minutes in the house.
1:08 PM. Phonecall from Murray to Nicole Alvarez from inside the ambulance. She was not asked about this call during preliminary hearing.
1.11 PM. 1 mg. of epinephrine was used by paramedics to restart MJ's heart. Negative result.
1.11 PM. Vital signs were recorded. Before or after epinephrine usage?
1.12 PM. Atropine was administered by paramedics. Negative result.
1.13 PM. 50 ccs of sodium bicarbonate was administered by paramedics to help restore alkalinity to the blood.
1.13 PM. Arriving to the hospital Rec. Facility - I guess it means hospital
Dr. Richelle Cooper testified when Jackson arrived at UCLA there was "no signs of life."
Cooper says Murray admitted giving Michael lorazepam, but made no mention of Propofol. Dr. Thao Nguyen also said that Dr. Murray denied giving Michael any sedatives or narcotics, other than the lorazepam.
Once at UCLA, Senneff said Murray was "spinning ... moving around, nervous, sweating, multitasking." Not surprising at all!
At the hospital Williams was in the room when the Jackson kids were told their father had died. Murray approached Williams and said Michael had some cream in his room that Murray knew MJ wouldn't want the world to know about. He wanted someone to give him a ride back to MJ's house to retrieve it. Williams told Murray he didn’t have a key to the house when in fact he did. He says he called the house and ordered that it be put on lock down and not to let anyone in. Wise! I wonder who was in the house in the morning of 25 of June?
After Michael was pronounced dead at UCLA, Dr. Murray told Faheem he was hungry and wanted to leave. Oh yeah, your extremely famous patient just died - it's time to eat! Murray seems to be a very healthy guy... Faheem said he told Murray to eat at the hospital, but Murray left. Faheem admitted though that Murray spoke with MJ's family and police before leaving.
Evening. Search of the bedroom where MJ died. As far as I understood it was not considered a crime scene yet.
27 of June. LAPD Robbery Homicide Detective Orlando Martinez conducted interview with Dr. Murray. Murray told him the night before Jackson died he was having trouble sleeping.  Murray said he was trying to ween Jackson off of Propofol - a drug he was giving MJ almost every night for two months. Jackson was begging for Propofol.  Murray claims he gave him a reduced dose, with Michael's help.  Murray said MJ liked to "push in the Propofol himself and that other doctors let him do it." Doesn't make too much sense to me. Arnold Klein stated once on his Twitter that MJ was needlephobic. I have no idea whether it is true or not, but a really needlephobic person certainly wouldn't like to push something in their veins! Besides propofol is a remedy known for it's rapid onset, so I'm not sure that a person would be able to inject enough propofol into themself before crashing out. Murray went to the bathroom for 2 minutes, came back and claims he saw MJ wasn't breathing.
29 of June. Search of the bedroom.
Elissa Fleak, an investigator for the L.A. County Coroner's Office, testified her office found 12 bottles of Propofol in Michael Jackson's home. She says two bottles were in the bedroom where MJ died, and the other 10 were in a nearby closet. One of the Propofol bottles found in the room by the nightstand was empty. Does it mean that all other bottles contained Propofol? Also investigators found lorazepam, diazepam, temazepam, trazodone, flomax, clonazepam, tizanidine, hydrocodone, lidocaine and benoquin. As well as used syringes and needles, a box of unopened hypodermic needles, IV catheters and vials.

When I decided to combine the all above information I had two goals: first of all, I wanted to figure out what was a chain of events which took place on 25 of June, 2009. There were some events before and after that, but I didn't pay too much attention to it since I was mostly using information that became available after preliminary hearings. There are a lot of other interesting information available, but it needs much more careful checking and analisys. Besides it is impossible to embrace the unembracable, that's why I decided to stop at one point. After putting all the events together in chronological order the picture became much more clear to me, though there are still some holes and questions. The second goal that I had in mind was to understand - or at least to form more defined opinion about whether Dr. Conrad Murray was just a greedy idiot or there is something more sinister behind the facade. I'm not a fan of conspiracy theories. I believe in human stupidity much more than I believe in conspiracies, but I like to take all the opportunities into consideration. What is my opinion now?.. Well, Conrad Murray and his behaviour on 25 of June fit into a frame of human stupidity and even more human confusion quite well.
But I still have questions to ask!

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