Dr. Conrad Murray Pleads Not Guilty To Involuntary Manslaughter In Michael Jackson's Death
Jan. 25 2011, Published 3:35 p.m. ET
Dr. Conrad Murray pleaded not guilty to a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of pop icon Michael Jackson, during his arraignment in Los Angeles Tuesday, Breaking Celebrity News has learned.
The 57-year-old doctor was the King of Pop's live-in doctor when he unexpectedly died at 50 on June 25, 2009 with his official cause of death deemed acute intoxication of a powerful anesthetic complicated by other sedatives.
On January 11, Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Michael Pastor said there was enough evidence for the Houston-based cardiologist to stand trial on the aforementioned charges. Judge Pastor has forbid Murray from practicing medicine in California until the end of the trial.
Prosecutors said Jackson died from a lethal dose of Propofol, a strong anesthetic which Murray's admitted to administering to the Man In The Mirror singer to help him sleep.
"Michael is not with us today because of an utterly inept, incompetent, reckless doctor -- the defendant Conrad Murray," Los Angeles County deputy district attorney David Walgren said at the conclusion of the six-day preliminary hearings.
Murray's attorneys claim that the late Thriller singer might have drank or injected himself with the deadly dose while the doctor -- who'd just given him a dose -- was out of the room.