Conrad Murray trial: Jurors to hear more of police interview

Jurors at the trial of Michael Jackson’s physician are expected Tuesday to hear the doctor recount the moments when the singer’s children and mother learned of his death.

The scene at the hospital after Jackson’s death in 2009 is one of several topics Dr. Conrad Murray discussed two days later in a police interview. Prosecutors began playing the 2-1/2 hour recording at Murray’s manslaughter trial Friday and are to conclude Tuesday morning.

In the section jurors have yet to hear, Murray told detectives that he helped inform the singer’s three children of his death.

“After they cried and cried and cried, then his daughter uttered a lot of words of unhappiness, and you know, she will live alone without her dad and she didn’t want to be an orphan,” Murray said. “Real sad. Real sad. She’s like my daughter. And I told her, we will take care of her.”

He also described how an emergency room physician told Jackson’s mother, Katherine, that attempts to revive him had failed.

“He’s not dead, is he?” he quoted the family matriarch as asking. “And the doctor said, ‘Yes.’ And she broke down.”

Other witnesses have testified that Murray abruptly left the hospital, but in the interview, the physician claimed he asked Jackson’s brother, Jermaine, if there was any reason for him to stay.

“I said, ‘Is there anything else I can do around here?’ He said, ‘No.’ I was tired. I said, ‘OK. I’m going to try to make my way home,’” Murray told police.

Murray also told detectives he had stored medical equipment related to his care of Jackson in a cupboard in his mansion. Prosecutors allege Murray ordered a security guard to help him conceal vials of propofol, a syringe and other paraphernalia after Jackson stopped breathing, but the doctor said it was normal practice to put the equipment in the cupboard.

Jackson “wanted me not to have anything hanging around,” he said.

The singer died from an overdose of propofol, a surgical anesthetic Murray was using to treat chronic insomnia. The doctor’s defense contends Jackson gave himself the final, fatal dose. Murray faces a maximum of four years in prison if convicted of involuntary manslaughter. His trial is entering its third week.

-- Harriett Ryan