Michael Jackson’s personal doctor Conrad Murray will stand trial for involuntary manslaughter over his role in the singer’s death, a judge has ruled.
He is accused of giving the star a lethal dose of the super-strength anaesthetic propofol and delaying calling an ambulance when he fell ill.
At a preliminary hearing this week Murray, 57, pleaded not guilty and insisted that, although the dose he had given Jackson was large, it was not a lethal amount.
But Judge Micahel Pastor ruled there was ‘sufficient evidence’ for him to stand trial.
He also suspended the doctor’s licence to practice medicine in California “in the interest of public safety.”
Murray’s lawyer Joseph Low, who claims Jackson took the drug himself, said: “I do not believe Conrad Murray should be held responsible for killing Michael Jackson because he couldn’t breathe life back in to him.”
However prosecutors argued that even if Jackson had taken the drugs himself the manslaughter charge would still stand due to inadequate care taken by Murray.
He is alleged to have made a series of other calls before dialling 911, by which time the dinger was already dead.