Things aren’t looking too good for Dr. Conrad Murray, the man accused of killing pop icon Michael Jackson. After previously being accused of mishandling Jackson’s admission into the ER on the day of his death, Murray’s girlfriend has now testified during his manslaughter trial that Murray called her while Jackson was dying.
According to ABC News, three of Murray’s girlfriends testified on Oct. 4 that they had exchanged phone calls or text messages with the cardiologist on the day of Jackson’s death, June 25, 2009.
Murray’s former girlfriend, Sade Anding, a steakhouse waitress from Houston, Texas, testified that she’d received a call from her ex at 11:51 a.m., less than half an hour before Jackson became critically ill and Murray called for the pop star’s personal assistant and chef for help.
“What he said to me was, Hello, it’s Conrad Murray, and he said, How are you doing. I said, Hello, how are you?” said Sade Anding. “He just said, Well, and then paused.”
Anding explained that she talked for three or four more minutes before realizing that Murray was no longer on the phone with her.
“I realized he was no longer on the phone… I said, Hello, hello, and I didn’t hear anything, that’s when I pressed the phone on my ear and I heard mumbling of voices… I heard coughing and nobody answered,” she said.
According to Anding, the LAPD contacted her after Jackson’s death, much to the chagrin of Murray, whom she contacted before speaking with police.
“He told me, What, why, why are they calling you? I’m so sorry that they’re contacting you and now you know, now you’re in this. I’m going to give you my lawyer’s number and make sure before you speak to LAPD, you have my lawyer present,” Anding said.
Murray’s current girlfriend and the mother of one of his seven children, Nicole Alvarez, 29, said that she spoke on the phone with Murray as he rode in the ambulance with Jackson.
“I remember him telling me that he was on the way to the hospital in the ambulance with Mr. Jackson and for me not to be alarmed … because he knew I would learn this through the news,” she said.
In her testimony, Alvarez, whom currently lives with Murray, also explained to jurors that she began receiving packages for the physician in April 2009, packages that prosecutors believe contained propofol, the drug that killed Jackson, and other sedatives.
He said “that he was going to be receiving something, that if there was a knock on the door, it was going to be a delivery that I could retrieve it for him,” said Alvarez, adding that she never asked about the packages or opened them.
Another ex, Michelle Bella, claimed that she received text messages from Murray on the morning of Jackson’s death. The content of the messages were not revealed.
Tim Lopez, the owner and pharmacist of Applied Pharmacy Services, also appeared in court on Tuesday and told jurors that Murray ordered 255 vials of propofol and kept it hidden that the anesthetic was for Jackson. Murray also ordered numbing cream, 20 vials of lorazepam and 60 vials of midazolam, both sedatives.
“He asked me specifically to find pricing and availability of propofol and normal saline IV bags,” said Lopez.
Lopez claimed that Murray said the medicines were for his California medical practice. However, the Santa Monica,Calif., address where the medicines were sent to turned out to be the apartment owned by Alvarez, who claimed that her boyfriend only had medical practices in Texas and Nevada.
We’ll continue to update as this story develops. – nicholas robinson
