Michael Jackson's death caused by powerful sedatives

The Los Angeles county coroner has ruled that Michael Jackson's death was caused by a lethal combination of powerful sedative drugs.

Jackson's personal doctor, Conrad Murray, is the target of a manslaughter investigation led by Los Angeles police, according to the Associated Press.
Murray, a cardiologist who treated Jackson for insomnia, told a Los Angeles police official that he had injected Jackson with Propofol in the hours before his death on 25 June in a rented mansion in Los Angeles.

In a sworn affidavit, Los Angeles detective Orlando Martinez said that Murray admitted to giving the 50-year-old Thriller singer a veritable cocktail of drugs to help him sleep the night before he died.

Murray had been Jackson's personal physician for about six weeks, and told investigators that another doctor had introduced Jackson to Propofol.

Martinez said that the Los Angeles county chief coroner, Dr Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, reported Jackson had a lethal level of Propofol in his blood.
Murray told police he used the drug to help Jackson sleep, and that he worried that the singer had become addicted to it. He said he tried to wean Jackson off the drug. Murray said Jackson had injection marks on his hands and feet.

He told investigators that he had monitored Jackson's pulse and oxygen levels as he administered the sedatives during the night, and that Jackson remained awake despite several injections of drugs. He said Jackson had requested and demanded an injection of Propofol.

Murray told investigators that at about 10.30am on 25 June, he left Jackson for less than two minutes to use the bathroom, and that Jackson was not breathing when he returned. He began CPR, injected more drugs and another aide summoned help.

Murray has increasingly become the focus of police efforts to establish the cause of Jackson's death. Two offices and a pharmacy connected to him have been searched by police, as has his home. Federal drug enforcement agents were unable to find records of Murray's purchase of Propofol and have sought medical records from a handful of other physicians who had treated the singer.

Martinez also said that in April, Jackson had offered to pay another doctor any price to obtain Propofol. The physician declined.

Murray has gone into virtual hiding since Jackson's death. In his only public statement, he said in a video posted on YouTube that he had told the truth and "the truth will prevail".