He killed The King of Pop.
A Los Angeles jury today convicted Michael Jackson’s personal physician of a single count of involuntary manslaughter, nailing Dr. Conrad Murray for The Gloved One’s shocking death two years ago.
The panel of seven men and five women deliberated for nine hours over two days before unanimously agreeing that Murray brought Jackson’s demise by recklessly doping him with dangerous levels of the anesthetic propofol and other sedatives.
There was a brief shriek in the courtroom when the verdict was read, while the large crowd cheered outside the courthouse.
Murray was cuffed and remanded into custody. He will be sentenced Nov. 29.
Murray, 58, could be sentenced to anything from probation to four years behind bars.
But even if LA County Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor hits Murray with the max, he would walk free in months.
Under new California guidelines targeting prison over-crowding, judges must send non-violent felons to local lockups rather than state pens.
And with LA County’s jail system also bursting at the seams, Murray could end up with a wrist slap. For example, a mid-term, three-year sentence might amount to less than six real months behind bars, several legal analysts said.
“He could also serve a sentence on house arrest, or other possible alternatives to incarceration,” said Julia Mezhinsky Jayne, vice chair of the Criminal Law Section of the California Bar.
Jackson was just 50 when he dropped dead inside his rented LA mansion on June 25, 2009.
Murray probably cooked his own goose two days later during a voluntary chat with cops, when he admitted giving MJ propofol at the singer’s home.
The jury heard from 49 witnesses, 33 for the DA and 16 for Murray. Testimony began Sept. 27 and ended last Tuesday, before jurors heard closing arguments on Thursday.
Phone records also showed that Murray was out to cover his backside as soon as he discovered MJ wasn’t breathing — first calling Jackson’s personal assistant, before a security guard finally dialed 911 eight minutes later.
“The fact he didn’t call 911 [immediately] told you all you needed to know,’’ Triessl said.
“My 5-year-old, I said to him, “If something’s wrong with mommy and she can’t get to a phone, what do you do?’ ‘Call 911.'”
If Murray had done his propofol-pushing quack work on someone not named Michael Joseph Jackson, he’d probably skate from all incarceration.
“Essentially, it’s the lowest `kill’ there is, involuntary manslaughter,” Jayne said. “Given how high -profile the case is, it’s likely he would get something more than a probation-only sentence.”
In the spring and early summer of 2009, Jackson struggled with insomnia as he prepared for a long string of London concerts. Jackson plucked the little-known cardiologist from Houston to be his personal physician.
Murray admitted to giving Jackson the powerful anesthetic propofol with no heart, blood-pressure or breathing monitors — a practice blasted at trial by a long line of expert witnesses put on prosecutors.
The defense tried to sell jurors that Jackson awoke from a deep propofol sleep and then dosed himself again with a syringe full of the milky anesthesia. This all happened while Murray was briefly away from MJ’s bedside for two minutes in the bathroom, the doctor said.
Murray’s defense pushed another theory, that Jackson swallowed eight pills of the anti-anxiety sedative lorazepam, which in combination with propofol, killed MJ almost instantly.
Jurors didn’t buy Murray’s tales and virtually labeled him a prescription drug pusher.
As if Murray’s reputation wasn’t already on the trash heap, this conviction could empower state regulators to pull the plug on his flat-lining medical career.
Judge Pastor suspended Murray’s California license on Jan. 11, as a condition of his bail. And now the California medical board could use this guilty verdict to revoke Murray’s license for at least three years.
Murray also faces two wrongful-death civil lawsuits linked to Jackson’s death, one each filed by MJ’s dad Joe Jackson and mom Katherine Jackson. Her civil complaint targets concert promoter AEG Live, arguing that the entertainment giant is responsible for Murray’s bad work.