Ed Chernoff

In the Holmby Hills chateau where Michael Jackson lived his final months, Dr. Conrad Murray seemed a benevolent figure. The physician arrived at night dressed in scrubs or a neat blazer and slacks, offering a ready smile for the household staff, and sometimes, gifts for Jackson's children. Most of his time was spent upstairs in the singer's private quarters, but occasionally he sat at the dining room table chatting with the family in his lilting Caribbean accent. "They loved him," Kai Chase, the singer's personal chef, recalled last summer.

Michael Jackson's fingerprints were not on any of the syringes, vials or other medical paraphernalia that littered the scene of his death, attorneys said in court Thursday, undercutting the defense theory that the singer had given himself the drug that killed him. Attorneys for Dr. Conrad Murray have told jurors that while the physician wasn't looking, Jackson swallowed a sedative and gave himself the anesthetic propofol, a combination that killed...

A lawyer for Michael Jackson's physician attacked the testimony of an important prosecution witness Thursday, suggesting his damning account of the doctor's actions was physically impossible and influenced by offers of huge sums from tabloids. The witness, security guard Alberto Alvarez, is key to the prosecution's theory that Dr. Conrad Murray delayed calling for an ambulance for Jackson in order to hide evidence that the doctor had given the singer the dangerous surgical anesthetic propofol and other drugs.

Testimony drew to a close in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Michael Jackson's personal physician Tuesday as the doctor announced he will not testify in his own defense. Dr. Conrad Murray waited until the last possible moment to declare his intention not to take the stand, telling the judge as late as Monday afternoon he had yet to make up his mind. After the final defense witness completed his testimony Tuesday, Murray took his time responding to the judge's question about his final decision.

Prosecution witnesses testified Wednesday that Michael Jackson's personal physician covered up the pop star's health both before and after his death, misleading concert promoters and his entourage. Dr. Conrad Murray assured promoters that Jackson was in perfect health when in fact he was dependent on nightly doses of a dangerous surgical anesthetic to sleep, witnesses said. Jackson's personal assistant told jurors that when the singer stopped breathing on June 25, 2009, Murray called him to say that Jackson had had a "bad reaction.

Defense attorneys fighting to acquit Michael Jackson's personal physician of an involuntary manslaughter charge in the pop star's death faced what many legal experts said was a series of insurmountable obstacles. The lawyers had to overcome an incriminating interview their client gave detectives; contend with a victim loved by millions around the globe; and deal with a series of court rulings that limited their attempts to point the finger at another possible culprit: The King of Pop himself.

In the Holmby Hills chateau where Michael Jackson lived his final months, Dr. Conrad Murray seemed a benevolent figure. The physician arrived at night dressed in scrubs or a neat blazer and slacks, offering a ready smile for the household staff, and sometimes, gifts for Jackson's children. Most of his time was spent upstairs in the singer's private quarters, but occasionally he sat at the dining room table chatting with the family in his lilting Caribbean accent. FOR THE RECORD: Michael Jackson: A story in Monday's LATExtra section about Michael Jackson's personal physician said that at the time of his death, the singer had not performed in concert for a dozen years.

As the trial of the Houston cardiologist accused of causing Michael Jackson's overdose death gets underway Tuesday, the doctor's attorneys are preparing to argue that the blame should be pointed at the other person who was in the room: the King of Pop himself. Jackson may have injected the lethal dose, or drunk it, attorneys for Dr. Conrad Murray have suggested. It may have been out of financial desperation, pressure to perform or anxiety about his career comeback, they've said. Blaming the patient for his or her own death, legal experts say, is a common defense in the small but growing number of cases of doctors charged in connection with overdose deaths, where a patient's desperate search for drugs collides with a physician's responsibilities.

The verdict is in, the jury has been dismissed, and Dr. Conrad Murray sits behind bars, but one question about the trial of Michael Jackson's doctor remains: Who paid for the defense? Speculation about how the cash-strapped physician funded an expansive legal team focused Wednesday on a British documentary made with Murray's cooperation and purchased recently by NBC for broadcast on its cable network MSNBC this weekend. Representatives of Jackson's estate demanded the network cancel the program, entitled "Michael Jackson and the Doctor: A Fatal Friendship," in part because of unanswered questions about whether Murray was compensated for giving filmmakers interviews and allowing camera crews to follow him and his lawyers.

A lawyer for Michael Jackson's personal physician said Tuesday that the Houston-based doctor is in Los Angeles and prepared to surrender if authorities file charges against him in the pop star's death. "I don't have any specific information that leads me to believe he is going to be charged this week," lawyer Ed Chernoff said, "but if he is, we've made it clear he's available to turn himself in." The arrival of Dr. Conrad Murray and Chernoff, his lead attorney, from Houston set off a new round of speculation that authorities, who have been mulling a manslaughter case against the doctor since last summer, were about to file charges.