Bodyguard says Jackson doctor removed medicine

LOS ANGELES,  (Reuters) – Michael Jackson’s doctor  asked a bodyguard to grab vials of medicine and a saline bag  from the singer’s bedroom on the morning he died, a Los Angeles  court heard today in the manslaughter trial of Dr. Conrad  Murray.
Bodyguard Alberto Alvarez also said he saw a “milky white  substance” in the saline bag that Murray asked him to stash  into a bag moments before an ambulance was called to attend to  the lifeless singer.
“While I was standing at the foot of the bed he (Murray)  reached over and grabbed a handful of vials and then he said  ‘here put them in a bag’,” Alvarez testified on the third day  of Murray’s trial on a charge of involuntary manslaughter for  being responsible for the “Thriller” singer’s death.
Alvarez, testifying for the prosecution, said Murray then  pointed toward an IV stand by Jackson’s bed and told him to  grab one of the saline bags hanging there and take it away.
The bag had “what appeared to me like a milky white  substance. I recall seeing it at the bottom of the (saline)  bag,” Alvarez said.
Prosecutors say the milky substance was the surgical  anesthetic propofol, which authorities have deemed to be the  principal cause of Jackson’s death on June 25, 2009.
Murray admits giving Jackson, 50, propofol as a sleep aid  but denies involuntary manslaughter. He could face up to four  years in prison if convicted.
PARIS SCREAMS FOR DADDY
Alvarez was one of the first members of Jackson’s staff on  the scene the day the 50-year-old pop star was discovered not  breathing in his bedroom at his Los Angeles mansion.
“He was laying on his back, with his hands extended out …  his eyes were slightly open and his mouth was open,” Alvarez  said. As he followed Murray into the bedroom, two of the  singer’s children followed.
“Prince and Paris came behind me. Paris screamed out  ‘Daddy!'”
Alvarez said Murray told him Jackson had a “bad reaction”  and that he saw the doctor giving the singer chest compressions  on the bed with one hand.
Alvarez said he noticed an IV stand, oxygen tubing around  Jackson’s nose and a device attached to his penis that he later  learned is used to collect urine while a person is sleeping. He  saw no heart monitor, blood pressure monitor or other  monitoring equipment.
It was only after the vials and the saline bag were placed  in bags that Alvarez called for an ambulance, about one minute  after first entering Jackson’s bedroom.
Asked why he complied with Murray’s request to remove the  bag and vials of medicine, Alvarez told the court, “I believe  that Dr. Murray had the best intentions for Mr. Jackson, so I  didn’t question his authority at the time. I thought we were  packing to get him ready to go to the hospital.”
Murray’s defense team has argued that Jackson gave himself  sedatives and extra propofol when the doctor was out of the  room, and that additional dose was what killed him.
Prosecutors say Murray failed to monitor Jackson properly  and tried to hide evidence before and after his death as he was  in rehearsals for a series of London comeback concerts.