adminMurray, 58, sat emotionless through the sentencing. Just before being led out from the courtroom, he blew a kiss to an unidentified woman who shouted “we love you” to the convicted doctor.
“The defendant was playing Russian roulette with Michael Jackson’s life every single night,” said David Walgren, district attorney
Outside the courtroom, Jackson’s mother Katherine, who regularly attended Murray’s trial, said “the judge was fair”.
“Four years is not enough for someone’s life. It won’t bring him [Jackson] back, but at least he [Murray] got the maximum” sentence, Katherine Jackson told reporters.
Jackson, who rose to fame in the late 1960s and 70s as a member of the Jackson Five and had a stellar solo career in the 1980s, died of a drug overdose in June 2009, principally from the use of the surgical anesthetic propofol as a sleep aid.
The drug had been obtained and administered to Jackson by Murray at the singer’s rented home.
A jury convicted Murray of involuntary manslaughter, or gross negligence, after witnesses testified propofol should not be administered at home and, if it is, must be given only with the proper life-monitoring equipment on hand. It was not. Key to the sentencing were several factors including money — Murray had negotiated a $150 000 per month salary to care for Jackson ahead of a series of concerts in London — and a TV documentary made during the trial, but aired after it was over, in which Murray denied any feelings of guilt.—AFP.
Online Reporter