Conrad Murray

Conrad Robert Murray(born February 19, 1953) is a Grenadian-Americanformercardiologistand convicted felon. He was the personal physician ofMichael Jacksonon the day ofhis deathin 2009. In 2011,Murray was convictedof involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death for having inadvertently overdosed him with a powerful surgical anesthetic,propofol, which was being improperly used as a bedtime sleep agent.Murray served just under two years out of his original four-year prison sentence.
Conrad Robert Murray was born on February 19, 1953, and was raised by his maternal grandparents, who were farmers inGrenadauntil he joined his mother, Milta, inTrinidad and Tobagowhen he was seven years old. He grew up poor inPort of Spain, the capital ofTrinidad and Tobago. He did not meet his father, Rawle Andrew Sr., also a physician, until he was 25. Andrew, who died in 2001, was devoted to providing medical services to the poor. Murray finished high school and worked as a volunteer elementary school teacher inTrinidad. After teaching, he worked as a customs clerk and insurance underwriter to save up for college tuition.
In 1973, Murray moved toHouston, Texas, where his father worked, to attendTexas Southern University, and graduatedmagna cum laudewith a degree inpre-medandbiological sciences. Murray continued his education atMeharry Medical College, inNashville, Tennessee, the same school his father attended, and the first medical school in theSouthern United StatesforAfrican Americans.He began his internal medicine residency at theMayo ClinicinRochester, Minnesota. Murray completed it at theLoma Linda University Medical Centerin California. He then completed a cardiology fellowship at theUniversity of Arizona.
Murray worked at theSharp Memorial HospitalinSan Diegoas an associate director of its cardiology fellowship training program. In 1990, he opened a private practice inLas Vegas. In 2006, he founded the Acres Homes Heart and Vascular Institute in Houston. Murray met Michael Jackson in 2006, in Las Vegas, and treated his daughterPariswhen she fell ill. Jackson hired Murray to be his exclusive personal physician prior tohis tourin July 2009.Jackson insisted that Murray be employed by his show promoter,AEG Live, for $150,000 monthly. However, AEG later claimed that there was never a contract with Murray.Murray and AEG agree that Murray was never paid.In 2018, Murray released a memoir,This Is It!, which detailed his experience as Michael Jackson's physician and tells of having treatedMother Teresa. Murray wrote,
The A.V. Clubcalled the book "literary poison with no antidote"andThe Daily Telegraphsaid that any revelations it contains are "mired in several thousand words of self-aggrandising, poorly punctuated and repetitive text."
In May 2023, Murray opened his own institute entitled, "DCM Medical Institute" in El Socorro, a suburb ofSan Juan, Trinidad and Tobago.
Murray is a naturalized U.S. citizen.In May 2009, Murray began working as Jackson's personal physician.By that time, he had reportedly fathered seven children by six different women.He was in arrears on the mortgage for the Las Vegas home occupied by his first wife and children and owedchild supportto the mothers of children outside of his marriage, which he could not pay due to the amount of money he owed to Michael Jackson's family. He was married to Blanche, his second wife, whom he met at medical school, and helped pay rent for another woman, Nicole Alvarez. Murray met Alvarez at a gentlemen's club in Las Vegas when she worked as a stripper, and Alvarez gave birth to their son Che Giovanni Murray in March 2009.Another relationship, with a cocktail waitress from Houston, was also reported.
Murray was at risk of losing his California medical license due to unpaid child support to one of his children and owed $13,000 to a California woman, Nenita Malibiran.Murray was a defendant in numerous civil lawsuits (though none for medicalmalpractice). By 2008, he had accumulated over $600,000 in court judgments against him for medical equipment and unpaid rent for his practices in Texas and Nevada. He also owed $71,000 for student loans at Meharry Medical College.Murray had filed forbankruptcyin 2002, in California.
On June 25, 2009, months after hiring Murray, Jackson died due to a lethal dose ofpropofoladministered by Murray. Court documents released in August 2009 revealed that the coroner's preliminary conclusion indicated that Jackson overdosed on propofol. However, the coroner's office declined to comment on reports claiming that the death was ruled a homicide.
Several offices of doctors who were believed to have treated Jackson were searched. Based on the autopsy and toxicology findings, the cause of Jackson's death was determined to be acute propofol intoxication with a contributorybenzodiazepineeffect and the manner of death to be a homicide, eventually, so that the focus of the investigation shifted toward Murray. He admitted administering 25 mg of propofolintravenously, forinsomnia, on the night of Jackson's death. He claimed that he tried treating him with other drugs and that he only administered the propofol after Jackson insisted, according to a police affidavit.
Murray said he worried that Jackson had become dependent on the drug to get to sleep and was trying to wean him from it.Though any FDA-approved drug can be usedoff-labelin a responsible manner that is medically appropriate for their patient,the indicated use for propofol is for anesthesia—not as a sleep aid—and is therefore properly given in a hospital or a clinical setting with close monitoring. Accordingly, propofol is supposed to be administered on the orders of an anesthesiologist, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), critical care physician (intensivist), or an emergency medicine physician who received extensive training in the use and monitoring of anesthetics; Murray had no such specialty training.
In February 2011, Murray was formally charged with involuntary manslaughter.On September 27, 2011, Murray went on trial in Los Angeles and was convicted of involuntary manslaughter on November 7, 2011. His bail was revoked and he was remanded to custody pending his November 29 sentencing date. He received the maximum penalty of four years in prison. His Texas medical license was revoked, and his California and Nevada licenses were suspended.After serving two years, Murray was released onparoleon October 28, 2013.
Jackson's father,Joe Jackson, filed awrongful deathlawsuit against Murray in 2010but dropped it in 2012.Also in 2010, Jackson's mother,Katherine Jackson, and three children, filed a separate wrongful death suit against concert promoter AEG, claiming that the company was negligent in hiring Murray; the jury decided in favor of AEG in 2013.
In 2016,Inside Editionreported that Murray was "still visiting patients", although Murray claimed that he does not charge patients anything for his services, that he is only "providing a consultation" without prescribing medication, and that therefore he "is not breaking the law".