Conrad Murray | |
|---|---|
 Murray's 2010 mugshot following his arrest | |
| Born | Conrad Robert Murray (1953-02-19)February 19, 1953 (age 72) |
| Citizenship | Grenada (1953—1960) Trinidad and Tobago (1960—1971) United States (since 1980) |
| Alma mater | Texas Southern University (BS) Meharry Medical College (MD) |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1990—present |
| Known for | Personal physician ofMichael Jackson at the time ofhis death in 2009 |
| Criminal status | Released on October 28, 2013 |
| Spouse(s) | Yvette Bolick Murray (formerly) |
| Partner | Nicole Alvarez (2006—2011) |
| Children | 7 |
| Conviction | Involuntary manslaughter |
| Criminal penalty | 4 years imprisonment;paroled after one year and 11 months |
| Details | |
| Victims | 1 (Michael Jackson) |
| Date | June 25, 2009 2:26 p.m. (Pacific Daylight Time) |
| State | California |
| Location | Los Angeles |
| Killed | 1 |
Date apprehended | February 8, 2010 |
| Imprisoned at | Twin Towers Correctional Facility |
Conrad Robert Murray (born February 19, 1953) is a Grenadian-Trinidadian-American[1]physician and convicted felon. He was the personal doctor ofMichael Jackson on the day ofhis death in 2009. In 2011, Murraywas convicted of 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.[2] Murray served just under two years out of his original four-year prison sentence. He released a memoir,This Is It! in 2016.[3]
Conrad Robert Murray was born on February 19, 1953, and was raised by his maternal grandparents, who were farmers inGrenada. He later joined his mother, Milta, in Trinidad and Tobago when he was seven years old. He grew up poor inPort of Spain, the capital of Trinidad 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.[2]
In 1973, Murray moved toHouston, Texas, where his father worked, to attendTexas Southern University, and graduatedmagna cum laude with a degree inpre-med andbiological sciences. Murray continued his education atMeharry Medical College, inNashville, Tennessee, the same school his father attended, and the first medical school in theSouthern United States forAfrican Americans.[citation needed] He began his internal medicine residency at theMayo Clinic inRochester, Minnesota. Murray completed it at theLoma Linda University Medical Center in California. He then completed a cardiology fellowship at theUniversity of Arizona.[2]
Murray worked at theSharp Memorial Hospital inSan Diego as 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 daughterParis when she fell ill. Jackson hired Murray to be his exclusive personal physician prior to hisThis Is It concert residency in July 2009.[2][4] 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.[5][6] Murray and AEG agree that Murray was never paid.[7]
His medical licenses in California and Nevada had been suspended following his arrest.[8] Following his release from prison in 2013 for involuntary manslaughter, Murray's legal team filed petitions in Texas to have his medical license reinstated since it had been revoked earlier that year.[8]
In 2016,Inside Edition reported that Murray was "still visiting patients" in Florida, 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".[9]
In 2016, Murray released a memoir,This Is It!, which detailed his experience as Michael Jackson's physician and tells of having treatedMother Teresa.[10] Murray wrote,
However my most magnanimous and noble patient is also deceased. She was the world-renowned quintessential nun who is now a saint: Mother Theresa. I loved the way I dedicated my services to her, it was totally selfless because when I agreed to serve her, I literally had no idea then that she was widely known…
The A.V. Club called the book "literary poison with no antidote,"[11] andThe Daily Telegraph said that any revelations it contains are "mired in several thousand words of self-aggrandising, poorly punctuated and repetitive text."[10]
In 2022, it was reported that Murray is allowed to retain his medical license after a recent review by theNevada State Board of Medical Examiners.[12]
In May 2023, Murray opened his own institute entitled, "DCM Medical Institute" in El Socorro, a suburb ofSan Juan, Trinidad and Tobago.[13]
Murray is anaturalized American citizen.[1]
By 2009, Murray had reportedly fathered seven children by six different women.[14] He was inarrears on the mortgage for the Las Vegas home occupied by his first wife and children and owedchild support to 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.[15] Another relationship, with a cocktail waitress from Houston, was also reported.[16]
As of 2016, Murray lives in a luxury condo building nearFort Lauderdale, Florida with his dog, Sebastian.[9]
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.[17] 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.[18] Murray had filed forbankruptcy in 2002, in California.[19]
On June 25, 2009, months after hiring Murray, Jackson died due to a lethal dose ofpropofol administered 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.[20]
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 contributorybenzodiazepine effect 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.[18]
Murray said he worried that Jackson had become dependent on the drug to get to sleep and was trying to wean him from it.[20][21] Though any FDA-approved drug can be usedoff-label in a responsible manner that is medically appropriate for their patient,[22] 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.[23] 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 wasremanded 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.[24] After serving two years, Murray was released onparole on October 28, 2013.[25]
Jackson's father,Joe Jackson, filed awrongful death lawsuit against Murray in 2010[26] but dropped it in 2012.[27] 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.[28]
Murray is a naturalized U.S. citizen with children in the United States
