Jackson’s son, 16, testifies
LOS ANGELES - Michael Jackson’s eldest son testified Wednesday that his father was excited about going back on tour before his death but wasn’t happy about the pressure that came with the ill-fated shows.Michael Joseph “Prince” Jackson Jr. told jurors his father wanted more time to rehearse and had several tense phone conversations with promoters of his “This Is It” shows that sometimes ended with his father in tears.
The 16-year-old said his father remarked after one of the conversations, “They’re going to kill me.” He did not elaborate.
The testimony came in a lawsuit claiming AEG negligently hired Conrad Murray, the doctor who was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter for giving Jackson an overdose of the anesthetic propofol.
AEG denies it hired the physician or bears any responsibility for the entertainer’s death.
Wearing a black suit with a dark grey tie and his long brown hair tucked behind his ears, Prince testified that he saw AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips at the family’s rented mansion in a heated conversation with Murray in the days before his father died. The teenager said Phillips grabbed Murray’s elbow.
Phillips “looked aggressive to me,” Prince testified. Michael Jackson wasn’t at home at the time and was probably rehearsing, Prince said.
Murray’s attorney Valerie Wass and AEG defense attorney Marvin S. Putnam later denied outside court that the meeting Prince described ever happened.
Putnam said Prince would be recalled to the witness stand during the defense case later in the trial.
“I think as the testimony will show when he is called in our defense that’s not what happened,” Putnam said. “He was a 12-year-old boy who has had to endure this great tragedy.”
For the first time, the teenager publicly provided details about the day his father died. Prince testified that he saw Murray performing CPR on his father, who was hanging halfway off a bed. It appeared his dad’s eyes were rolled up in the back of his head, Prince told jurors.
Prince’s eyes appeared red as he recalled being told by Murray at a hospital that his father was dead.
Prince said he never saw Murray’s treatments of his father.
“I was 12. To my understanding he was supposed to make sure my dad stayed healthy,” Prince testified.
Prince said none of the household staff was allowed upstairs at the mansion, and the singer kept his bedroom locked while receiving treatments from Murray.
During cross-examination, Putnam played a clip from a deposition of Prince in which the teen said he discovered the bedroom was locked when he and his siblings were playing hide-and-seek and couldn’t get inside. AP
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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