Waitress was on phone to doctor of dying Jackson
by Michael Thurston
LOS ANGELES, Jan 7, 2011 (AFP) - A cocktail waitress recounted
Friday how she was called by Michael Jackson’s personal doctor the day
the pop icon died and heard a “commotion,” apparently as the medic
struggled with the crisis.
Sade Anding, of Houston, Texas, was one of 11 people with whom the
physician, Conrad Murray, spoke by telephone in the hours leading up to
Jackson’s shock death on June 25, 2009.
In other testimony at hearings into whether Murray should stand trial
for involuntary manslaughter, the court heard that 12 vials of the
powerful sedative propofol which killed Jackson were found in a closet
at his home.
The waitress said she had met Murray in a Texas steakhouse in
February 2009. The pair had exchanged phone numbers, and she received a
call from the doctor on the morning of the fateful day.
“He told me that he was doing well,” she said, adding she had cut him
off and started talking, but realized five or 10 minutes later that
Murray was no longer on the phone.
“I heard a commotion... coughing, mumbling of voices,” she said,
adding that she was unsure if the mumbling was coming from Murray.
Anding said she stayed on the phone for about five minutes, saying it
was unusual for Murray to stop responding. “I just remember saying,
‘Hello? Hello? Hello? Are you there?’ Are you there? Are you there?’”
she said.
The waitress eventually hung up and tried to call Murray back and
send him text messages, but got no reply.
Prosecutors allege that Murray, 57, negligently administered an
overdose of the powerful sedative propofol to help Jackson sleep and
then tried to cover it up. The doctor denies the charge of involuntary
manslaughter.
Paramedics and emergency room doctors this week have said Murray
initially failed to mention having administered propofol, and that
Jackson appeared to have died at least 20 minutes before they arrived at
his mansion.
On Thursday paramedic Martin Blount said that when he arrived Jackson
seemed to have been dead for at least 20 minutes, despite Murray’s claim
that he had stopped breathing a minute before they were called.
Blount added that Murray initially denied having given Jackson any
medications, but said he saw the doctor holding a needle and spotted
three bottles of the anesthetic Lidocaine on the floor.
In new evidence Friday coroner’s investigator Elissa Fleak said she
found 12 vials of propofol in the wake of Jackson’s death.
One was found empty on the floor near the singer’s bed shortly after
his death, while the other 11 were discovered four days later in a
closet at his rented home.
Two had been opened and were found inside a dark-blue Costco bag,
while the other nine, some of them open, were found in another bag,
Fleak said.
Anding meanwhile said she heard nothing more until police contacted
her. She called Murray, who apologized for involving her, and urged her
to call his lawyer to be present if she met with detectives. Los Angeles
detective Dan Myers told the hearing that Murray had made or received 11
cellphone calls, totaling some 90 minutes of conversations, in the
roughly five hours leading up to midday on the fateful day.
These included a 32-minute call to his medical practice in Las Vegas
and an 11-minute call shortly before Murray called Jackson’s personal
assistant at 12:12 pm to say the singer had had a “bad reaction.”
Prosecutors allege that Murray “abandoned his patient” after
administering the propofol some time between 10:40 am and 11:00 am. |