Jury Hears Michael Jackson's Slurred Speech in Recording

Los Angeles - Prosecutors in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Michael Jackson's personal physician played for jurors today a recording the doctor made of the singer about 1 1/2 months before his death, slurring his words and sounding heavily sedated.

On the recording, a portion of which was played during opening statements of Dr. Conrad Murray's trial last week, the singer's barely recognizable voice is heard describing his hope that his planned "This Is It" concert series would be "phenomenal."

"We have to be phenomenal," Jackson says on the recording, which was recovered from Murray's iPhone and was made on May 10, 2009. "When people leave this show, when people leave my show, I want them to say, `I've never seen nothing like this in my life. Go. Go. I've never seen nothing like this. Go. It's amazing. He's the greatest entertainer in the world."'

His speech slurring, Jackson goes on to describe how he wants to use proceeds from the concerts to fund a "Michael Jackson's Children's Hospital."

"Gonna have a movie theater, game room," he says on the recording. "Children are depressed. The -- in those hospitals, no game room, no movie theater. They're sick because they're depressed. Their mind is depressing them. I want to give them that. I care about them, them angels. God wants me to do it. God wants me to do it. I'm gonna do it, Conrad."

"... I'm gonna do that for them," Jackson says on the recording. "That will be remembered more than my performances. ... I love them (children). I love them because I didn't have a childhood. I had no childhood. I feel their pain. I feel their hurt. I can deal with it. `Heal the World,' `We are the World,' `Will You be There,' `The Lost Children,' these are the songs I've written because I hurt, you know, I hurt."

At the end of the recording, Jackson could be heard saying, "I'm asleep."

Deputy District Attorney David Walgren contended during his opening statement last week that the recording was indicative of Murray's treatment of the singer, showing that Jackson was regularly under heavy sedation.

Stephen Marx, a computer forensic examiner who was working for the Drug Enforcement Administration but has since retired, testified that he found the recording under the iTalk application on Murray's iPhone, which was turned over to authorities on July 28, 2009.

The prosecution witness said he also discovered a June 20, 2009, voice mail on Murray's iPhone in which a man identifying himself as Jackson's manager, Frank Dileo, says, "I'm sure you're aware he had an episode last night. He's sick ... I think you need to get a blood test on him. We (have) got to see what he's doing."

Marx also confirmed that an email was sent by Murray at 11:17 a.m. the day Jackson died to an insurance company, in which the doctor denied media reports that the singer was suffering from a variety of medical ailments.

"As far as the statements of his health (published) by the press, let me say they're all fallacious to the best of my knowledge," Murray wrote in the email sent just over an hour before paramedics were summoned to treat his famous patient.

Murray, 58, is charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with Jackson's death from acute propofol intoxication on June 25, 2009. He faces up to four years in state prison if convicted of the felony count.

When Jackson died at age 50, the cardiologist was working for him at a rented mansion in Holmby Hills, where the pop star was staying while rehearsing for his 50 sold-out concerts in London dubbed "This Is It." Prosecutors contend Murray gave Jackson propofol and then failed to monitor him, leaving his bedroom for at least 45 minutes to make phone calls and send emails.

Defense attorneys maintain that Murray was weaning Jackson off the medication and that he gave him only a small amount of propofol, but Jackson "self-administered" a larger dose, killing himself instantly after the doctor left the room.

In court Tuesday, a pharmacist testified that Murray ordered 255 vials of propofol between April and June 2009.

Tim Lopez told the seven-man, five-woman jury that the doctor did not specify who the propofol was intended to be used for and that Murray never disclosed to him that he was Jackson's physician.

Murray's initial order of 35 vials of propofol on April 6, 2009, was his smallest, with the amounts increasing to 65 vials in orders on April 28 and May 12 and the largest order of 90 vials on June 10, Lopez testified.

Through a courier, Murray directed that most of the first shipment that had been delivered to his Las Vegas office instead be redirected to an address in Santa Monica, where the subsequent shipments were also sent by Applied Pharmacy Services, Lopez said.

The pharmacist said he verified with Murray through the courier at the time of the first delivery in Las Vegas that the medications would be under the doctor's control and that they would be shipped to a medical office.

Lopez said he offered to bring one