Michael Jackson doctor guilty
<p>Michael Jackson's brother Jermaine Jackson and his wife Halima Rashid arrive at the Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles, Monday.</p>
<p>Dr. Conrad Murray listens as the jury returns with a guilty verdict in his involuntary manslaughter trial Monday in a Los Angeles courtroom. Murray was convicted Monday of involuntary manslaughter after a trial that painted him as a reckless caregiver who administered a lethal dose of a powerful anesthetic that killed the pop star.</p>
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Michael Jackson's doctor was convicted Monday of involuntary manslaughter in the pop star's death for supplying an insomnia-plagued Jackson with a powerful operating-room anesthetic to help him sleep as he rehearsed for his big comeback.
Dr. Conrad Murray, 58, sat stone-faced, his chin held high, as he heard the verdict that could send him to prison for up to four years and cost him his license to practice medicine. He was handcuffed and immediately led off to jail without bail to await sentencing Nov. 29.
The verdict marked the latest chapter in one of pop culture's most shocking tragedies - the 2009 drug-overdose death of the King of Pop at age 50 as he was about to mount a series of heavily promoted concerts in London that he hoped would turn his career around after a slide prompted by child-molestation allegations and years of bizarre behavior.
A shriek broke the silence in the packed courtroom when the jury's decision was read, and the crowd outside the courthouse erupted in cheers. Jubilant Jackson fans sang "Beat It" and held signs that read "Guilty" and "Killer." Drivers honked their horns.
Members of Jackson's family wept, and his mother, Katherine Jackson, said, "I feel better now." His sister La Toya said she was overjoyed and added: "Michael was looking over us."
Members of the jury were escorted from the building and not available for comment. Murray's lawyers also left without saying anything.
The jury deliberated less than nine hours after a six-week trial that depicted Jackson as a tormented genius on the brink of what might have been his greatest triumph but for one impediment - extreme insomnia.
Prosecutors portrayed Murray as an incompetent doctor who administered propofol - an extremely potent anesthetic normally used during surgery - in Jackson's bedroom without adequate safeguards and botched his care when things went wrong.
Murray, who did not testify, told police that he administered only a small dose on the day Jackson died. And his lawyers blamed Jackson for his own death, saying the singer gave himself an extra, lethal dose while Murray wasn't watching.
Prosecutors said that theory was crazy, and in any case, they argued, Murray should not have left Jackson alone.
The jury was not asked to determine whether Murray actually gave Jackson the fatal dose, only whether he was primarily responsible for the singer's death.
Deputy District Attorney David Walgren extended his sympathies to the Jackson family, who "lost not a pop icon, but a son and a father."
In Las Vegas, a former Murray patient and current friend, Donna DiGiacomo, sobbed and said the jury was under "overwhelming pressure to convict."
"This man didn't deserve this. They needed a scapegoat," said DiGiacomo, a former Long Island, N.Y., teacher's aide who said she didn't believe Murray did anything to intentionally harm Jackson.