Jury Hears Conrad Murray's Police Interview

Los Angeles - Michael Jackson's doctor told investigators two days after the singer's death that he left the singer's side for only about two minutes after giving him the powerful anesthetic propofol, and he was "stunned" to find the pop superstar had stopped breathing by the time he returned, according to a taped interview played for jurors on Friday.

On the audiotape, which was played publicly for the first time, Dr. Conrad Murray described for investigators what happened in the hours leading up to Jackson's death from an overdose of propofol on June 25, 2009.

Click here to read the transcript of the conversation now.

Murray, who is charged with involuntary manslaughter, told investigators in the June 27, 2009, interview at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey that Jackson returned to his rented Holmby Hills estate shortly after midnight the day he died. Jackson had been at a rehearsal for his planned London concerts dubbed "This Is It."

Murray said that after he exchanged greetings with the singer, Jackson showered and changed.

"He came back to the room, and I would put some cream on his body for him, lotion," Murray said on the tape, saying the lotion was for Jackson's skin problems.

Murray said he hooked up Jackson to an IV tube with a saline drip for hydration.

"We talked a little bit, and then I gave him medication to help him sleep," Murray told the investigators.

He said Jackson had already taken a valium pill, and Murray administered a small amount of lorazepam. When Jackson didn't fall asleep after about an hour, he gave him a different medication called midazolam but, "It didn't work. He was wide awake."

"I said, `How about if you try to meditate?"' Murray told the investigators. He said he dimmed the lights in the room and turned down the music that was on. Eventually, Jackson's eyes closed.

"I was grateful for that," he said.

But Jackson woke up about 10 minutes later.

Murray said the hours kept passing, and Jackson "was wide awake." With 5 a.m. approaching, Jackson started to complain, Murray told investigators.

He said Jackson told him, "I've got to sleep Dr. Conrad" and "You know I can't function if I don't get the sleep."

Murray said he stayed with the singer, but Jackson still could not fall asleep. He said he checked his IV line to ensure the medication was getting into his system.

"Where is this medication going? Why is this man not responding?" Murray said.

Murray said he gave Jackson another dose of midazolam around 7:30 a.m., to no avail.

Just after 10 a.m., Jackson was still awake, and "now he's really complaining that he cannot sleep."

At that point, Jackson said he wanted his "milk."

"Please, please give me some milk, so I can sleep," Murray quoted the singer as saying.

"It's just a medicine he was familiar with. It's called propofol," Murray told the investigators.

He said Jackson complained again that he would have to cancel that day's rehearsal if he could not sleep. Murray said he then agreed to give him a 25-milligram dose of propofol, infused over about three to five minutes, beginning at about 10:40 a.m.

Murray said he used precautions, including a pulse monitor and oxygen.

"I'm monitoring him ... and he fell asleep," Murray said.

"I sat there, watched him for a long enough period that I felt comfortable," Murray said. "Then I needed to go to the bathroom. So I got up, went to the bathroom."

Murray told the investigators he was gone for about two minutes.

"Then I came back to his bedside and was stunned in the sense that he wasn't breathing," Murray told the investigators.

Murray said he "started immediately to perform CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation."

He said he was using one hand to compress the singer's chest, and also tried to raise his leg in hopes of giving him "an auto-transfusion." He also said he gave the singer a dose of flumazenil, which he called an "antidote" that could reverse the effects of the lorazepam, midazolam and propofol he had given him.

Murray also noted in the interview that none of the telephones in the house worked. He said that while using one hand to compress Jackson's chest, he grabbed his cell phone and called Jackson's assistant and told him to send someone up to the room.

"To speak to a 911 operator would be to neglect him," Murray said.

When nobody came immediately, he said he ran out of the room and called down toward the kitchen, telling somebody to get help.

A security guard, Alberto Alvarez, then showed up in the room, and Murray said he told him to call 911.

Prosecutors allege that the 58-year-old cardiologist administered a large dose of propofol to Jackson, then left him unattended to make phone calls and send emails. Previous witnesses have testified about being on the phone with Murray that morning, or about emails the doctor sent from his iPhone during the same time period, despite the doctor's assertion that he only left Jackson's side for a few minutes.

Defense attorneys maintain that Murray was weaning Jackson off propofol -- which the singer used to help him sleep -- and gave him only a small amount of it but that Jackson "self-administered" a larger dose, killing himself instantly after the doctor left the room.

The singer was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. He died from acute propofol intoxication, according to the coroner's office.

Under questioning from the investigators in the June 27, 2009, interview Murray said he had administered propofol to Jackson "30 days a month," but added, "I tried to wean him off that medication."

Murray -- accompanied by two of his attorneys to the interview -- told LAPD Detectives Scott Smith and Orlando Martinez that he first treated Jackson in 2006 after being referred by a patient who was a security guard.

"It was a family flu illness between himself and his children," Murray can be heard telling investigators in the interview.

Murray told police detectives that he intermittently treated Jackson after that time and had been caring for him for "a little over two months" before Jackson's death.

The doctor told the investigators that he was called by Jackson's personal assistant, who informed him that Jackson wanted Murray to be involved in his planned concert series in London.

Smith testified that he was notified about 3:30 p.m. June 25, 2009 -- just over an hour after Jackson was pronounced dead -- by his supervisor about the singer's death and that he first went to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where Jackson had been treated.

Smith said he obtained video footage showing Murray walking out of the hospital into a parking lot at 4:38 p.m. and back in a different lobby of the hospital at 5:02 p.m.

The police detective said he had a "very brief" conversation at the hospital that day with Jackson's personal assistant, Michael Amir Williams, and an "extremely brief" discussion with Jackson's director of logistics, Alberto Alvarez.

Authorities had still not ascertained information about what caused Jackson's death when he went to Jackson's rented Holmby Hills estate at about 7:15 to 7:30 p.m. the day of the singer's death, Smith said. He said the county coroner's office was the lead agency in what was at the time a "death investigation" and that police were there to "assist and support them in any way that we could."

Once authorities were done at the home that evening at about 9:30 p.m., the house was released at the request of Jackson family members to security personnel on scene, the police detective said.

Police returned to the house the next day after being notified that Ed Winter -- assistant chief of the coroner's office -- had been given some items that were recovered by the family, he testified.

Those items included what was initially believed to be tar heroin but later determined to be rotten marijuana that was located with a shaving kit, some lotion, paper, a FedEx envelope and assorted debris, according to Smith. Police also recovered a prescription ointment container and two empty prescription pill bottles, with the labels indicating that they had contained lorazepam prescribed by Murray to Jackson and a container of diazepam that had its label partially removed, he said.

He noted that the master bathroom -- where the ointment and the two empty pill bottles were found -- was "extremely messy."

Murray faces up to four years in state prison if convicted of the felony count.