Michael Jackson's Children Watched Conrad Murray Try to Revive Him

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 28, 2011 — -- Michael Jackson's children cried as they watched Dr. Conrad Murray attempt to revive the king of pop's lifeless body in the bedroom of Jackson's rented mansion, the head of Jackson's security team testified today at Murray's manslaughter trial.

Faheem Muhammad described to jurors the chain of events on the day Jackson died from a drug overdose, June 25, 2009.

Muhammad said that when he reached the Jackson home, he found a sweaty Murray in Jackson's bedroom hovering over Jackson, who was lying on the floor.

"He appeared to be administering CPR. He appeared very nervous," Muhammad said.

Jackson's "eyes were open and his mouth was slightly open," Muhammad said, adding that he appeared to be dead.

The security guard and driver said Jackson appeared dead. Muhammad asked if 911 had been called and was told that they were on their way.

"Immediately, I was shocked just seeing him. Shortly after that, I realized that his children were standing outside of his room … the two older ones," Muhammad said.

"Paris was on the ground balled up crying and Prince ... was standing there … and he just had a real shocked, just slowly crying type of look on his face," he said.

Muhammad said he grabbed the children and called for their nanny and moved them to a place where they couldn't see Jackson.

Murray showed little emotion in the courtroom as Muhammad recounted the frantic effort to save Jackson's life. Murray could face four years in prison if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the overdosing death of Jackson.

Muhammad's testimony followed that of Jackson's personal assistant, Michael Amir Williams. Williams told jurors that soon after Jackson's death, Murray requested to return to the Jackson home because "there's some cream in Michael's room in the house that he wouldn't want the world to know about."

Propofol, the powerful anesthetic found in Jackson's system at the time of his death, has a white, creamy appearance and is called "milk" by addicts.

Williams was the first to receive a call from a panicked Murray at 12:13 p.m. In his hurried message, Williams said, Murray screamed, "Call me right away. ... Please call me right away."

Murray told Williams that Jackson had suffered a "bad reaction." Unable to get to the Jackson home quickly, Williams asked Jackson's driver and head of security, Muhammad, to check on Jackson.

Murray never told Williams to call 911, a sign of negligence and abandonment, prosecutors contend.

Both Williams and Muhammad recounted locking Murray out of the Jackson home by telling him a lie that police had taken their keys from them.

Murray's Role as Jackson's Personal Physician

The testimony followed a morning of witnesses' describing how Murray came to be Jackson's physician. Murray was hired to be Jackson's doctor as the singer prepared to embark on a 50-night comeback tour dubbed "This Is It."

Attorney Kathy Jorrie negotiated Murray's contract and told jurors that she had questioned a request from Murray that his contract include a CPR machine.

The contract was drafted days before Jackson died and signed by Murray the day before Jackson died.

"I wanted to know why he needed that medical equipment so I asked him," Jorrie said. "He said that when Michael was performing at the O2 Arena [in London], he will be putting on an extraordinary performance. Because of that, given his age and the strenuous performance that he would be putting on ... he needed to be sure that if something went wrong he would have the CPR machine."

Attorney Jorrie testified that when she asked Murray why he would need the CPR machine because the O2 Arena likely had one, Murray told her that he didn't want to take any chances.

Murray repeatedly told Jorrie that Jackson was in excellent health and when she asked for Jackson's medical records, she said, Murray told her they would be thin because of Jackson's good health.

Jorrie also questioned Murray about his request for another medical professional, a nurse or doctor, to be on standby to fill in for Murray. Jorrie assumed Murray would be treating Jackson during the day and was unaware that Murray was administering propofol, a powerful anesthetic, to help Jackson sleep and staying up late at night to monitor Jackson.

Earlier this morning, Paul Gongaware, an AEG Live promoter who was helping sponsor Jackson's comeback tour, testified about hiring Murray.

He said Jackson had insisted that Murray be hired, despite Gongaware's urging that an English physician be hired because the concerts would be taking place in London.

Gongaware recounted Jackson pointing to his own body and saying, "this is the machine, we have to take care of the machine. This is what I want, I want Dr. Murray."

Murray originally asked for $5 million a year, Gongaware said. Gongaware said that that was a "ridiculous" request.

"I told him there was no way that was going to happen," he said. "Michael couldn't afford it."

Negotiations temporarily ended until Jackson told Gongaware to offer Murray $150,000 a month.

Murray originally refused that offer too until Gongaware told him that it was an offer directly from Jackson.