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Michael Jackson - Source: Reuters -
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The family of pop star Michael Jackson says it has full confidence in the American legal process, following revelations the late pop star died from a drug overdose.
Court documents show the singer was killed by a lethal dose of the powerful anaesthetic propofol given in a cocktail of drugs, leading authorities to suspect his doctor of manslaughter.
Jackson suffered cardiac arrest and died on June 25 at age 50.
Since then, an investigation by state and federal agencies has focused on Conrad Murray, Jackson's personal doctor who was at his bedside the day he died.
The findings, contained in a warrant to search Murray's home and offices, paint a picture of an insomniac pop star who could not sleep without heavy medication.
Jackson sought out propofol, routinely used to sedate patients
and anaesthetise them before surgeries such as a colonoscopy, and
called it his "milk."
"The Los Angeles Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner, Dr. (Lakshmanan)
Sathyavagiswaran, indicated that he had reviewed the preliminary
toxicology results and his preliminary assessment of Jackson's
cause of death was due to lethal levels of propofol (diprivan),"
the warrant says.
The document was unsealed and released by the Harris County District Clerk in Houston, where Murray has an office.
US agents raided the office on July 22.
In an affidavit seeking the warrant, Houston police officer E.G.
Chance said US agents had gathered "items constituting evidence of
the offense of manslaughter that tend to show that Dr. Conrad
Murray committed the said criminal offense."
The state search warrant says Murray gave Jackson range of
medication including a 25-milligram dose of propofol via an
intravenous drip at 10:40 a.m. PDT.
Murray, who had been treating Jackson for about six weeks leading
up to his death, was worried that Jackson was addicted to
propofol.
He was trying to wean him off the drug by giving him smaller
doses, it says.
In the early hours of June 25, Murray also gave Jackson doses of
anti-anxiety medications Valium and Ativan and sedative
Versed.
Jackson went to sleep after Murray gave him the propofol, and
Murray stayed by his side for about 10 minutes, then left "to go to
the restroom and relieve himself," the search warrant says.
Murray was out of Jackson's room for about 2 minutes and when he
returned, Jackson was no longer breathing.
