Expert says Jackson probably killed himself

LOS ANGELES – A leading anesthesiologist on Friday told jurors in the trial of Michael Jackson’s personal physician that the singer probably caused his own death by injecting himself with a dose of the drug propofol while his doctor wasn’t looking.

In his testimony, defense expert Paul White directly challenged the theory put forth by the government’s main medical witness, Dr. Steven Shafer. The prosecution expert testified that the only plausible scenario was that Dr. Conrad Murray had left a large intravenous drip of the anesthetic propofol running into the singer’s bloodstream for three hours, even after …

LOS ANGELES – A leading anesthesiologist on Friday told jurors in the trial of Michael Jackson’s personal physician that the singer probably caused his own death by injecting himself with a dose of the drug propofol while his doctor wasn’t looking.

In his testimony, defense expert Paul White directly challenged the theory put forth by the government’s main medical witness, Dr. Steven Shafer. The prosecution expert testified that the only plausible scenario was that Dr. Conrad Murray had left a large intravenous drip of the anesthetic propofol running into the singer’s bloodstream for three hours, even after he stopped breathing.

On Friday, White said Shafer’s theory was ruled out by the level of the drug found in Jackson’s urine at autopsy. Given the urine levels and evidence at the scene, the more likely explanation was that the singer gave himself the drug, said White, one of the first U.S. researchers to study the drug.

“You think it was self-injection of propofol … between 11:30 and 12 o’clock?” defense attorney Michael Flanagan asked.

“In my opinion, yes,” White said.

White’s statement is the first evidence the defense has put forward to support a theory it has argued all along: that it was Jackson, not Murray, who administered the lethal dose of propofol that killed the pop star. Shafer testified that blood levels of the drug found at autopsy did not support self-injection – something he said was a “crazy scenario.”

White offered no defense to what several medical experts called by prosecutors have told jurors – that even if Jackson gave himself the drug, Murray was still responsible for the singer’s death for leaving him unattended. At the beginning of his testimony Thursday, he acknowledged he could not explain away Murray’s conduct.

The concession suggested Murray’s defense planned on admitting the doctor made missteps, but that he did not directly cause his famous patient’s death.

The anesthesiologist’s testimony also supported a second defense contention: that the singer swallowed several tablets of the sedative lorazepam. That drug, combined with the propofol they say Jackson gave himself, caused a “perfect storm” that killed the star instantly, they have told jurors.