The death of Michael Jackson was homicide due to intoxication by anaesthetic, an LA coroner has said.

The singer died in June from cardiac arrest at his home in Los Angeles.

The powerful anaesthetic Propofol and Lorazepam, a sedative, were the “primary drugs responsible for Mr Jackson’s death”, the report said.

Police have interviewed his doctor, Conrad Murray, but he has not been named as a suspect. He has strenuously denied any wrongdoing.

The manner of death has been ruled: Homicide,” it adds. In the US, the crime of homicide includes manslaughter.

A cocktail of drugs – including Midazolam, Diazepam, Lidocaine, Lorazepam and Ephedrine – were detected in his body, the report said.

The full toxicology report remains sealed, at the request of the LA Police Department and the city’s district attorney. Read on…

So Michael death has been confirmed as a homicide. But why isn’t Conrad Murray a suspect? The situation during that fateful afternoon certainly seems suspicious, and the excuses he made for not calling 911 immediately did seem a little flimsy.

If Michael Jackson died from a lethal level of the powerful anesthetic propofol, then his personal physician would have had to inject much more of the drug than he reportedly told police, medical experts said.

That opinion is based on court records unsealed in Houston on Monday in which Los Angeles police detectives recount Dr. Conrad Murray’s statement to them after the pop star’s death.

Murray said he had been giving Jackson 50 milligrams of propofol a night, and that he gave Jackson 25 milligrams of propofol on the night of his death, according to documents – far below the dosage required to anesthetize someone and keep him asleep, several experts said.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” said Dr. John Dombrowski, a member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. “I cannot believe that was the number that was given. Such a small amount won’t tip anyone over in terms of respiratory depression.”

More likely, he said, is that the numbers in the documents are in error.

Toxicology reports cited in court records said “lethal levels” of propofol were in Jackson’s blood. Murray said nothing he gave Jackson should have led to his death and that he truthfully answered detectives’ questions. (source)

Interesting. This doctor just can’t seem to get his name out of the (very) unwanted spotlight.

In a raid on a Las Vegas pharmacy earlier this week, investigators found documentation that proves that Murray, Jackson’s personal physician, purchased the anesthetic Propofol there, which he later administered to the King of Pop. They’re building a paper trail that might bury Murray on those manslaughter charges that police are reportedly issuing to him.

From the article:

According to the search warrant (now posted on TMZ) for the Las Vegas pharmacy raided on Tuesday, authorities were looking for credit card receipts and other documents related to drugs purchased by Murray on May 12, specifically mentioning a type of propofol that was found in Jackson’s home.

A law enforcement official confirmed to The Associated Press that officials removed evidence on Tuesday that proved Murray bought the propofol from Las Vegas’ Applied Pharmacy Services and that he administered the drugs from that purchase to Jackson in the hours before his death.

Michael Jackson’s personal physician left the performer alone and under the influence of a powerful anesthetic to make telephone calls the morning the pop singer died, according to three people familiar with the investigation.

By the time he returned, Jackson had stopped breathing, the sources said.

Wow- what a rough way to start a morning! That’s an excerpt from an LA Times blog piece,  which goes on to describe how Dr. Conrad Murray frequently administered the King of Pop with the dangerous anesthetic Propofol. Since landing a $150,000/month job as Jackson’s personal physician this fall, Murray helped Jackson acquire the drug, which the singer used as a sleep aid. Whatever happened to trying a warm glass of milk? This stuff is dangerous- it’s used to prep patients for surgery.

The investigation into Jackson’s death is still ongoing, so this information comes from unnamed sources. Hopefully they’ll tie up all the loose ends soon and make sure that justice is served.

The article continues:

Dr. Conrad Murray, identified in court records as a suspect in a police manslaughter investigation, legally acquired the operating room drug, propofol, from a Las Vegas pharmacy and gave it to Jackson as treatment for insomnia, said the sources, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because the investigation is ongoing.

In an interview with Los Angeles police detectives two days after Jackson’s death, Murray acknowledged obtaining and administering the medication, the sources said. He reportedly told police that the singer had returned to his rented Holmby Hills mansion in the early hours of June 25 exhausted from a lengthy concert rehearsal but was unable to sleep.

According to the unnamed business associate, Jackson’s behavior on a trip in Dubai was so bizarre that those around him questioned him about his drug usage, and Jackson admitted to using a substance with a description matching Propofol.

Michael Jackson’s propofol abuse could have started as early as 2005, according to sources with longstanding relationships with the singer.

“He went to Dubai in 2005 and when he was there, people around him started to grow concerned. He was acting bizarre, and everyone knew he was using,” said one business associate. “Finally he was confronted and all he’d say was ‘It’s stronger than Demerol, it’s something you can only get at the hospital.’ Now, looking back, it sounds like it could have been propofol.”

“He described it to me as ‘something to sleep that completely puts you out, that you get in hospitals,’ ” said another source who was in talks to start a new tour with Jackson during the Dubai trip, which followed the singer’s acquittal on child molestation charges.

“His behavior was strange enough that it was good reason to not continue talks of a tour, at least until he got help,” the source said. “He was an addict. He admitted so himself on television. But now that we know about the propofol, there’s a lot of us thinking that was why he was so weird in Dubai — maybe it was propofol.”

(From MSNBC)

Applied Pharmacy Services was searched this morning, as investigators looked for documents that might give them some insight about how the King of Pop acquired different drugs. A previous warrant executed on Dr. Conrad Murray’s home and office described Michael Jackson as a drug addict.

This is from the LA Times:

Drug Enforcement Administration agents are assisting the LAPD in executing a search warrant at a Las Vegas pharmacy tied to the Michael Jackson death investigation.

Authorities arrived at Applied Pharmacy Services on Flamingo Road this morning to look for documents, including computer files, said Michael Flanagan, the special agent in charge of the DEA’s Las Vegas office. The search should take about an hour.

The warrant and the accompanying affidavit, which are similar to the ones executed last month at the home and office of Jackson doctor Conrad Murray, are sealed, Flanagan said. He declined to comment further on their contents.

We’re slowly putting together all the news about Jackson and his connections to drug use. Earlier reports indicated that Jackson used up to 19 aliases to get access to new prescriptions, and his demand for drugs grew noticeably in the last months of his life. A handful of doctors and health specialists who spoke with Jackson this spring indicated that the singer was struggling with the demanding rehearsals for his planned O2 concert series. He even offered huge sums of money in exchange for drugs like propofol and demerol. What a mess!

Jackson, who was due to play at London’s O2 Arena, allegedly begged British medic, Dr Susan Etok, to get hold of a list of drugs, including powerful painkillers Diprivan (Propofol) and Demerol, in the U.K. because he “couldn’t trust” doctors in America.She tells Britain’s Sunday Mirror newspaper, “He kept saying, ‘Are you going to do it for me, you are going to do it for me, aren’t you?’ He was desperate, like a child begging his mum for sweets. Then he said, ‘I don’t care what it takes, I don’t care how much money it takes – if it costs half a million, that’s fine.’

“Then he said there were medications he took in the States that he needed. He said the names but they didn’t mean much to me. The one name I recognised was Diprivan. I knew it was something to do with anaesthetics and thought that seemed strange. But Michael kept saying, ‘They’re just routine’.”

Erok emailed Jackson to tell him that she couldn’t help him – he replied five days later saying he would find an alternative way of getting hold of the medication.
She adds, “He told me not to worry – he would get someone else to help out.”

(More here.)

The Guardian reports that the insurance policy for Jackson’s planned 50-show concert covered a lot of things, like cancellation due to death, but it did not cover illicit drug use. So, if the tox reports show that Jackson had illegal drugs in his system, the Jackson estate won’t be able to cash in on the huge policy. Apparently, the insurers knew about Jackson’s history with prescription drug use. This could be a huge blow for the Jackson estate, which is still wading through the huge sums of debt that Michael Jackson accumulated while he was alive.

The insurance policy for Michael Jackson’s cancelled O2 residency will not apply if the late star is found to have taken illegal drugs, the Associated Press has confirmed. Though the policy covers cancellation resulting from death, the insurers are exempted if Jackson was involved in the possession or “illicit taking of drugs”.

The policy’s payout of millions of pounds may therefore hinge on Jackson’s autopsy results, which have twice been delayed. There are numerous reports linking Jackson’s alleged use of propofol, a powerful anaesthetic, with his death on 25 June.

According to the Associated Press, Jackson and AEG Live took out the insurance policy in April. The document only covers the first 13 gigs in the epic 50-show run – bolstering reports that promoters had been unable to insure the full residency. A March estimate showed the 50 concerts required more than £300m in insurance cover.

(Guardian)

AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, File

The sedatives, commonly given to patients before surgery, could be lethal if administered improperly or combined in risky doses with other drugs. Dr. Murray, who is not an anesthesiologist, insists that his treatment of the Thriller singer was within normal medical practices.

The late Jackson’s tox screen has yet to be released, so investigators can’t pin down Dr. Murray, though they reportedly believe that Jackson’s untimely death is linked to the propofol that the doctor gave Jackson.

More here:

Hours before Michael Jackson’s death, his doctor administered multiple sedatives along with a powerful anesthetic the pop star used to sleep, according to a law enforcement official. It’s a safe combination if done properly; potentially lethal if not.The official said the type of sedatives Dr. Conrad Murray gave Jackson were benzodiazepines, often used to calm patients before surgery. Murray told investigators the doses were within normal medical guidelines, said the official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Even at acceptable levels, benzodiazepines can intensify how the anesthetic propofol depresses breathing, so strict monitoring and careful dosing is required. The balance can be tricky, a slip-up disastrous.

Murray, who administered the drugs to Jackson in a room at the pop star’s rented mansion, told investigators Jackson stopped breathing the morning of June 25 and he was unable to revive him. The doctor is the central figure in what police term a manslaughter investigation, but authorities have not classified him a suspect.

To top it off, Murray’s not the only doctor tied to the Jackson investigation. The warrant also indicates that police want to communicate with seven different medical professionals about Jackson’s health. Was Jackson abusing the system by getting multiple prescriptions from multiple doctors? The police continue to dig for more information.

Authorities investigating Michael Jackson’s death alluded to the singer as an “addict” and were seeking evidence related to the powerful anesthetic propofol, according to search warrants released Thursday.The documents show investigators have cause to believe several California Business and Professions codes had been broken, including “excessive prescribing,” a misdemeanor punishable by a fine or imprisonment for up to 180 days.

Los Angeles police and federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents spent much of Tuesday at the Las Vegas home and business of Jackson’s personal doctor, Conrad Murray, who is the focus of a manslaughter investigation. The raids sought evidence supporting that charge, as well as code violations, including “prescribing to an addict” and “unprofessional conduct.”

From the AP.