Michael Jackson's eldest son Prince Jackson told a court that his
late father had feared the gruelling rehearsal schedule for his 'This Is
It' Tour would be the death of him.
Prince, full name Michael Joseph Jackson Jr, 16, told the jury in Los
Angeles that his father had been left in tears by talks with AEG Live
chief executive Randy Phillips days before his planned 02 comeback gigs.
“After
he got off the phone, he would cry. He’d say, ‘They’re going to kill
me, they’re going to kill me,” Prince said yesterday.
Prince
testified in a lawsuit accusing concert promoter AEG Live LLC of
negligently hiring Dr Conrad Murray, who was later convicted of
involuntary manslaughter for giving Jackson an overdose of the
anaesthetic propofol.
AEG denies it hired the physician or bears any responsibility for the entertainer's death.
Prince
claimed that he saw Phillips at the family's rented mansion in a heated
conversation with Murray in the days before his father died. The
teenager said Phillips grabbed Murray's elbow. Phillips "looked
aggressive to me," Prince testified. His father wasn't at home at the
time and was probably rehearsing, he said.
He said Jackson had
told Phillips he wanted more time to rehearse and was unhappy with
pressure to perform his 50 scheduled comeback concerts entitled This Is It.
Murray's
lawyer Valerie Wass and AEG defence lawyer Marvin S. Putnam later
denied outside court that the meeting between Murray and Phillips that
Prince described ever happened. Putnam said Prince would be re-called to the witness stand during the defence case later in the trial.
"I
think as the testimony will show when he is called in our defence
that's not what happened," Putnam said. "He was a 12-year-old boy who
has had to endure this great tragedy."
Prince's testimony began with the teenager showing jurors roughly 15 minutes of private family photos and home videos.
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