Fears about Michael Jackson’s health just before he died as he geared for a comeback two years ago loomed yesterday over the trial of his doctor, charged with causing the pop icon’s death.
After Tuesday’s opening day of courtroom drama in the trial of doctor Conrad Murray, witnesses on the second day began with Paul Gongaware, co-chief executive of AEG Live - which was organising the shows.
Mr Gongaware recalled his relationship with Jackson over the This Is It series of 50 planned concerts in London, which the King of Pop was rehearsing for at the time of his death on June 25, 2009.
“It was a business relationship (but) it was very friendly,” he told the trial at Los Angeles’ Superior Court, where supporters of both Jackson and Dr Murray again demonstrated outside before the hearings resumed. In a haunting moment on Tuesday, a recording of Jackson’s voice speaking with Dr Murray only weeks before his death at the age of 50 floated across the courtroom. The jury was also shown a picture of Jackson’s body lying on a gurney covered in a white sheet and gown.
Mr Gongaware said Jackson told him at one point that he wanted to hire Dr Murray as his personal doctor for the tour, and the doctor initially asked for $5 million for a year.
“I told him there’s no way that’s going to happen,” said Mr Gongaware, adding that the doctor was offered $150,000 a month to treat Jackson.
The second witness to take the stand was Kathy Jorrie, a lawyer who drafted a contract for AEG between Jackson and Dr Murray about the terms of the doctor working for the star on the planned concert series.
Jackson family members, including his mother Katherine, again made no comment as they arrived for the second day. On Tuesday she and father Joe were in court along with siblings Jermaine, Janet, LaToya, Randy, Tito and Rebbie.
Dr Murray’s manslaughter trial opened on Tuesday with a haunting photo of Jackson’s body draped in white on a hospital gurney and an audio recording of the star, slurring and apparently heavily drugged, two months before his death.
But the court also saw a video of Jackson rehearsing The Way You Make Me Feel days before his death, and heard that he had plans for a world tour and a feature film version of his famous Thriller video.
Dr Murray’s lawyer Ed Chernoff argued that Jackson died “instantly” of a massive overdose after taking two different drugs while the doctor was out of the room at the star’s Holmby Hills mansion on June 25, 2009.
Mr Chernoff said Jackson took eight two-milligram lorazepam pills – enough to put six people to sleep – without his doctor’s knowledge, and then gave himself an extra dose of the powerful sedative propofol.