3 girlfriends of Michael Jackson’s former physician, Conrad Murray, took the stand yesterday in the disgraced doctor’s manslaughter trial.
Nicole Alvarez (pictured above), a former stripper who lives with Murray, gave a memorable performance on the stand. The mother of one of Murray’s 7 children described her body as her “instrument” and said she was “speechless” when she met Michael Jackson in 2008.
“As a professional actress, my daily duties consists of maintaining my instrument,” said Alvarez on the witness stand. When asked by the prosecutor what she was referring to as her instrument, Alvarez said “myself.”
She testified that Murray called her from the ambulance while Jackson was being rushed to the hospital.
“I remember him telling me that he was on the way to the hospital with Mr. Jackson, and for me not to be alarmed,” she said.
Sade Anding, a Houston cocktail waitress, provided the most damning testimony against the married 58-year-old. Anding said she was on the phone talking with Murray at 12:05 p.m. on June 25, 2009 when he should have been monitoring Jackson who was receiving an infusion of a surgical strength anesthesia.
She said Murray suddenly stopped talking, and as she pressed her ear to the receiver, she heard voices mumbling and someone coughing.
“I heard mumbling of voices. It sounded like the phone was maybe in his pocket or something. And I heard coughing,” said Anding.
Anding added that she wasn’t sure if the person coughing was Jackson.
Prosecutors argue that Murray was distracted on the phone with at least two of his girlfriends while Jackson lay dying in his bedroom. Paramedics who responded to a 911 emergency call from the rented Holmbly Hills mansion say Jackson was cold to the touch when they arrived, indicating he may have been dead for longer than an hour.
Murray’s long suffering wife has not made an appearance in the courtroom during the trial.
