SORRY, KIDS, DAD IS DEAD
Tearful Jacko son relives awful day
IN EMOTIONAL testimony Wednesday, Michael Jackson’s teen son described harrowing scenes from the King of Pop’s last moments and laid bare the family’s heartbreak over his untimely death.
Prince Jackson, 16, said he was called upstairs the morning his father died at their Los Angelese home on June 25, 2009, and saw Dr. Conrad Murray attempting CPR.
“My dad was hanging half off the bed, and his eyes kind of rolled in the back of his head,” Prince said, his voice quavering slightly as he spoke publicly about his father’s death for the first time.
“My sister came upstairs, but we kept pulling her downstairs. She was screaming the whole time saying she wants her daddy.”
Prince said he was in tears when the paramedics arrived and rushed the 50-year-old “Thriller” singer from the family’s rented mansion to UCLA Medical Center. He said relatives followed the ambulance to the hospital and hoped for the best.
“I told my sister something that my dad always told us, that angels were still watching over him, and there had to be angels on Earth,” he recalled.
He said that eventually, Murray returned and told the family their dad didn’t make it.
“Sorry, kids, Dad is dead,” Murray said, Prince testified. The doctor blamed a heart attack, he said.
“We just cried,” Prince said Wednesday, his otherwise measured voice breaking.
He said the loss of his father still haunts him.
“Nothing will ever be the same,” he said. “I can’t sleep at night. I have a hard time sleeping. For a while after he died, I became emotionally distant from a lot of people.”
He said his sister Paris, 15, who recently attempted suicide, also has suffered greatly.
“Out of all my siblings, she was probably hit the hardest because she was my dad’s princess,” he said. “It really hurt her a lot. She definitely is dealing with it in her own way.”
He said Blanket, 11, “doesn't have a father to guide him.”
Earlier in his testimony, Prince identified himself and siblings Paris and Blanket in more than a dozen family snapshots from happier times.
He recalled his father as a doting dad who instilled a strong work ethic in him and a love of film. He said he now has a 3.68 grade point average in high school and wants to study film and business at the University of Southern California.
He recalled his father feeling “excited” about his planned This Is It tour but also frustrated with AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips and another manager, Tohme Tohme.
Prince also recalled Michael offering Murray money to pay for essentials and seeing his father finish a phone call with either Phillips or Tohme that left him “upset.”
“He would cry sometimes after he got off the phone,” Prince said. “He would say, ‘They’re going to kill me. They’re gonna kill me.’ ”
Prince also re- called Phillips visiting the mansion once when his father was out and speaking privately to Murray. “He was talking to Dr. Murray and he was grabbing his elbow and it looked aggressive to me,” Prince testified.
Prince is the first family witness to testify in the wrongfuldeath trial pitting his grandmother against AEG Live. After court ended for the day, family y lawyer Brian Panish said it was “tough” for Prince to “relive the memories of that tragic day.”
“He was relieved ieved to get it over with but he was strong,” Panish said.
He said it “has not been decided” if Paris will testify. “There are other issues and factors . . . she’s doing the best she can,” Panish said.
Jackson family matriarch Katherine Jackson is suing AEG Live for damages estimated at more than $1 billion, saying the promoter behind Michael’s ill-fated tour put its desire for “massive profits” ahead of Michael’s health and safety.
Katherine, the co-guardian of Michael’s three children, claims AEG hired a debt-ridden Murray in May 2009 and then made it clear the doctor would forfeit his $150,000-a-month salary if Michael failed to perform. Murray is now serving four years for recklessly providing a deadly dose of the anesthetic propofol to Michael as a sleep aid.