Dr Conrad Murray profile

A closer look at the life of Dr Conrad Murray - the physician personally hired by Michael Jackson at the start of his ‘This is It’ comeback tour, who has been embroiled in the controversy surrounding his death in 2009 and then found guilty of involuntary manslaughter of the King of Pop.

Early life

Born on the poverty-stricken Caribbean island of Grenada on 19 February 1953, Conrad Murray came from humble beginnings. His mother spent her time island hopping between Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada in the hope of finding better paid work while Murray lived with his grandparents who were farmers. His father Rowle Andrews lived in Houston, Texas, at the time – working as a physician. The pair didn’t meet until Murray was 25.

The family moved to Trinidad and Tobago when Murray was seven where his mother found better work and he excelled in his studies.

Like his mother Milta, Murray worked hard to pay his way. After school he volunteered as an elementary school teacher in Trinidad, before working as a customs clerk and an insurance underwriter. Murray bought his first house at the age of 19 and subsequently sold it to pay for his university education in the United States.

Career

At 27, Murray enrolled at Texas Southern University where he studied pre-medicine and biological sciences. He then attended Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee before completing his residency in California. Murray performed medical fellowships in cardiology in Arizona and worked his way up as a highly successful cardiologist.

Once fully qualified, he started up private medical clinics in Las Vegas and Houston to help the cities’ poorer communities. It had emerged during the Jackson trial that Murray would happily treat those who were too poor to pay.

Financial problems

The financial costs of his student medical debts, unpaid medical supply bills, mortgage payments on his $1.2million mansion and child maintenance costs left Murray reportedly hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. According to reports, more than $400,000 in court judgments alone were issued against his clinic in Last Vegas, and in December 2008 Murray was ordered to pay $3,700 in child support. He reportedly filed for bankruptcy while living in Arizona in 2002.

[Latest news: Dr Conrad Murray]

Personal life

Murray married his first wife in 1984 but they were divorced four years later after he had an affair and a child with a mistress. At the time of Jackson’s death, Murray was married to his second wife Blanche – his medical school classmate – and living at their family home with two children. However, the Los Angeles court was told some sordid details of his private life, which has included paying for strippers and mistresses to be put up in Las Vegas hotel rooms.

Four of his girlfriends were called to the stand during the six-week trial – one was a cocktail waitress and another was an exotic dancer. His current girlfriend is Nicole Alvarez, an actress and mother of his two-year-old son. It is believed that Murray has fathered seven children by six women. He had previously faced charges of domestic violence, unpaid child care demands and fraudulent breach of trust, although he was never convicted.

Relationship with Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson trusted Murray to be his doctor and offered him $150,000 to be his personal physician for his upcoming ‘This is It’ tour. They met when Jackson took his daughter Paris to Murray’s clinic in Las Vegas in 2006. Reports suggest that Jackson and Murray soon became friends.

Death scandal

Conrad Murray was with Michael Jackson the night he died. He had apparently been administering nightly prescription of sedative propofol through an IV drip to the singer after complaints he wasn’t sleeping well.

On the night, Murray had also given an exhausted Jackson lorazepam, an anti-anxiety medicine, and midazolam, a muscle relaxant. Murray told investigators that he had found Jackson unconscious and performed CPR on him before he called an ambulance.

The role of Murray has been the subject of speculation since the star’s death in 2009. Murray told investigators that he was responsible for giving the pop singer a potent drug cocktail on 25 June, culminating with a dose of 25 milligrams of the prescription sedative propofol - the drug which was later ruled to have killed Jackson.

Authorities quickly honed in on Murray and searched his clinic in Houston for medical documents as evidence. Police also discovered more than 20 prescriptions at Murray’s rented home in Holmby Hills, including fentanyl, methadone, percocet, dilaudid, and vicodin.

On Monday 7 November, a Los Angeles jury unanimously decided that Murray was guilty of the involuntary manslaughter of Michael Jackson following a six-week-long trial. On Tuesday 29 November, Dr Conrad Murray was sentenced to four years in prison and could also be forced to pay restitution costs.