Two paramedics who responded to a 911 call from Michael Jackson's bedroom on the day the superstar died will take the stand Friday after a day of powerful testimony from a bodyguard who ran into the bedroom and saw Michael Jackson motionless on a bed as his children watched.
Trial Timeline: Summary of Witness Testimony | Live Video: Available When Testimony Starts
During the third day of testimony in Dr. Conrad Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial, Jackson guard Alberto Alvarez -- one of the prosecution's most important witnesses -- testified that he escorted Jackson's older children from the room after the superstar's personal physician yelled, "Don't let them see their dad like this." He returned to the room and Murray handed him several drug vials, which the doctor told him to place in a bag, Alvarez testified.
Alvarez was the first guard to enter the bedroom on June 25, 2009. In court Thursday, he identified a propofol bottle inside an IV bag as the same items he saw in Jackson's bedroom on the day he died.
Prosecutors also played audio of the guard's 911 call.
"I need an ambulance as soon as possible, sir," Alvarez told the operator. "We have a gentleman here that needs help. He's stopped breathing. He's not conscious, sir. He's on the bed."
The dispatcher can be heard telling Alvarez to move Jackson to the floor. Alvarez said Murray had been administering chest compressions while Jackson was on the bed.
"I was bracing myself to pick him up because I thought he was going to be very heavy," said Alvarez. "I picked him up and he was very light."
Two paramedics who responded to that call are scheduled to testify Friday.
Under cross-examination, the defense used phone records in an attempt to prove that Alvarez could not have performed all the actions he claimed. He was questioned several times about whether he was confused about the timeline.
"Do you think you could have performed all these events in half a minute?" defense attorney Ed Chernoff said, using phone records to indicate how much time the defense claims passed during Alvarez's encounter with Murray and the time he made the 911 call.
"I'm very efficient," Alvarez responded.
Defense attorneys also questioned whether Alvarez did not call 911 right away because he was distracted by the sight of Jackson's children.
During opening statements Tuesday in the long-awaited trial, prosecutors made it clear they plan to show that Murray administered propofol, a powerful anesthetic, to Jackson, then failed to properly monitor his patient.
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Defense attorneys countered by saying it was Jackson who self-administered the fatal dose of propofol. That, combined with lorazepam, created a "perfect storm" inside the King of Pop's body that led to his death, the defense claims.
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