LOS
ANGELES: The first paramedic on scene at Michael Jackson's home the day
he died said Tuesday the singer looked emaciated and like someone at the
end of a chronic illness.
On the second day of a
trial pitting Jackson's mother against tour promoter AEG Live, paramedic
Richard Senneff -- the first witness to be called -- said doctor Conrad
Murray was "frantic, pale and sweating."
"The patient was
in pajamas. He looked very pale, very, very underweight," he said,
recounting how he was called to the self-styled King of Pop's plush
Holmby Hills mansion on June 25, 2009.
"He looked very ill .. To me, he looked like someone who was at the end stage of a long disease process," he added.
Murray
-- who is serving four years in jail after being convicted of
involuntary manslaughter in 2011 -- "looked at me blankly at first,"
said Senneff, who was among witnesses who testified at the medic's 2011
trial.
"He was frantic, pale, sweating. He identified
himself as a cardiologist," Senneff added, answering questions from
Katherine Jackson's lawyer Brian Panish at the Los Angeles Superior
Court, where the wrongful death trial started Monday.
"It just looked a lot more complicated than dehydration and exhaustion," Senneff testified.
When
he asked Murray when the emergency had happened, Murray said: "Just
this minute. Right when I called you," he told the court, adding that
Jackson's eyes were dilated and his skin cool.
This suggested to him that the star had been dead for as long as an hour, he said.
The
50-year-old singer died from an overdose of powerful sedative and
anesthetic propofol, administered by Murray to help the "Thriller"
legend deal with chronic insomnia.
At the time of his
death, he was rehearsing for a series of 50 shows in London, organized
with AEG, in an attempt to revive his career and ease his financial
woes.
On Monday the lawyer for 82-year-old Katherine
Jackson accused tour promoter AEG of sacrificing the troubled star in a
"ruthless" pursuit of profit in the months before his death.
But
Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) lawyer Marvin Putnam argued the mega
pop star had hidden the evidence of his addiction and health woes from
everyone, including his family and the concert promoters.
Putman
said evidence to be presented during the trial, likely to last at least
three months, would show that Jackson began using propofol to help him
sleep as far back as the 1990s, but concealed it from almost everyone.
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