>>>
in the trial of
michael jackson
's doctor, more of the interview with police.
jeff rossen
, good morning.
>> reporter:
good morning to you. when you listen to those
audio tapes
it is heartbreaking to picture the scene at
ucla medical center
in california the moment
michael jackson
died, his kids all gathered around crying, even asking to see their father's body just to say good bye. beyond the audiotapes more drama in court on tuesday, including bombshell testimony from the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy, you'll hear that in a moment plus a graphic new photo of
michael jackson
that was so disturbing one
jackson
fan in the courtroom ran out in tears. it was a shocker in
open court
, prosecutors showed the photo of
michael jackson
's skinny, lifeless body, perhaps the most private man in
show business
laid bare for the jury and the world to see. a final humiliation for the singer, who complained when police photographed him nude in
1993
after accusations of child,.
>>
it was the most humiliating ordeal of my life, one that no person should ever have to suffer.
>> reporter:
years later his children would suffer. the day
michael
died, dr.
conrad
murray
was at the hospital and in a taped police interview described the moment prince, paris and blanket learned their dad had died.
>>
after they cried and cried and cried, then his daughter uttered a lot of words of unhappiness and, you know, she will live alone without her dad and she didn't want to be an orphan, and she asked me, "dr.
murray
, you said you
save a lot
of patients, you know, you save people with heart attacks and you couldn't save my dad? you know, i will wake up in the morning and won't be able to see my daddy."
jackson
's mother was in shock, too
>>
and she said well he's not dead, is he? i said yes and she broke down.
>> reporter:
they found other drugs in the singer's mansion.
>>
surprise, surprise.
>> reporter:
murray
blamed
jackson
for hiding drugs he got from other doctors.
>>
how about valisone?
>>
no.
>>
we found a small portion of marijuana in his room. did you know him to be a smoker?
>>
no. but he used excessive cologne.
>> reporter:
when the tape ended prosecutors weren't done yet calling l.a.'s deputy medical examiner to the stand.
>>
what was the manner of death?
>>
the manner was homicide.
>> reporter:
and the defense theory that
michael
injected himself with propofol he calls unreasonable. how damaging is that to
murray
's case?
>>
you can't get any more damaging than having the official medical exercise, the one who actually conducted the autopsy on
michael jackson
come back and say it is unreasonable that the propofol was self-administered.
>> reporter:
then prosecutors took it even further.
>>
let's assume self-administration of propofol. under those facts, where dr.
murray
leaves his patient with apparently the drugs accessible and no monitoring equipment,
et cetera
, isn't it true you'd still deem it a homicide?
>>
yes.
>> reporter:
prosecutors could rest their case later this week, matt, and the defense takes
center stage
and lays out
murray
's case. the big question remains here, will
conrad
murray
take the stand and testify himself? no one knows. still unclear.
>>
jeff rossen
in l.a. for us or
los angeles
for us this morning, thank you. nbc's
martin bashir
spent eight months with
michael
in
2002
-
2003
2002
-
2003
. good morning to you.
>>
good morning, matt.
>>
i want to get back to the photo in court, it was shocking, meant to shock the jurors but in reality, martin, does it have anything to do with guilt or innocence in this case?
>>
not really but remember the medical examiner looking at this man said he had the body obviously he's 50 years old but as a 50-year-old he was pretty healthy. what he was trying to suggest was that there were no other residual existing reasons for why this man would suddenly die.
>>
martin, you could go into any manslaughter case and no matter what, if you put a picture up on a screen of the deceased, you're going to get an emotional reaction from the jury but i'm not sure that's what the law is about. it's not about emotional reaction from juries, it's about presenting real hard evidence.
>>
the other question is mr.
conrad
murray
's testimony or police interview has now become his courtroom testimony. people are saying what's that got to do with the law? is that a statement in court? no. it's not.
>>
i was going to get to that later but since you bring it up, so we hear
conrad
murray
describing the children's reaction when they learn of their father's death, how they cried and cried. any parent dies, the children are going to be heartbroken. i'm not sure that connects him to the death.
>>
no, but what
conrad
murray
was doing was revealing the proximity of his relationship to
michael
, his relationship to the children, and the fact that he tried to assure them that he tried to save the man. and the reality is, what
conrad
murray
was doing there was describing a
personal relationship
of friendship. the problem with that is
michael jackson
didn't need a friend. he didn't need a lover. he needed a doctor and this man didn't behave like a doctor.
>>
this is a dynamic we've seen not only in this case but other cases in the past that involved mega stars and doctors. doctors are supposed to be the adult in the room and oftentimes they are as
swept away
by the fame of their clients as anybody else would be.
>>
that's why the
hippocratic oath
and the commitments that they make as covenants to this profession are supposed to sustain them, and the problem is, they don't. i spent time with
jackson
in
las vegas
as you know and also in
berlin
, and when i was in
berlin
in that horrendous scene where he held young blanket over the balcony there was a doctor with him, a doctor called dr. alex farjian. i don't think i can remember an evening in
berlin
where dr. alex farjian who halz from florida and runs some unorthodox, he was lost completely in the glaze of this man's glory and greatness, and of course it affects doctors. the point is, that isn't what dr. farjian or dr.
conrad
murray
applied themselves to do. these people have the right to prescribe, they have the license to get and administer drugs and that's why they have an oath that's supposed to up seed some
personal relationship
or infatuation they may feel about the patient they're treating.
>>
martin bashir
, interesting perspective. catch
