Conrad Murray’s girlfriend testifies in Jackson death trial

LOS ANGELES -- Dr. Conrad Murray's complicated love life became entangled with the life and death of his patient Michael Jackson, prosecutors suggested Tuesday as they called a parade of female witnesses who received phone calls from the doctor as Jackson was near death.

The evidence was designed to show that the doctor was trying to juggle his medical practice, personal life and superstar patient all at the same time and was so distracted he failed to give Jackson proper care.

Murray's phone records from the day Jackson died were displayed in court as a backdrop for testimony of those at the other end of the cellphone calls. Three of them were current and former girlfriends, and one was the manager of Murray's Houston office.

Nicole Alvarez, who lives with Murray and is the mother of his son, was a key witness. She said she received a phone call from Murray as he rode in an ambulance beside Jackson's lifeless body on June 25, 2009.

"I remember him telling me that he was on the way to the hospital in an ambulance with Mr. Jackson and not to be alarmed," Alvarez said. "He was worried I would hear about it."

Alvarez was depicted as an unwitting conduit for Murray's purchases of the anesthetic propofol, which Jackson craved as a sleep aid. The doctor is charged with involuntary manslaughter, accused of giving the star an overdose of the drug and failing to respond properly when he found him not breathing.

Murray has pleaded not guilty, and his attorneys contend Jackson took the fatal dose himself.

Alvarez recounted how she received many shipments of boxes for Murray in April, May and June 2009 but didn't open them and had no idea about their contents. The pharmacist who shipped them to her Santa Monica apartment from Las Vegas testified that he thought he was shipping to Murray's medical office.

Tim Lopez, the Las Vegas pharmacist who filled orders from Murray, testified that over four months he bought 255 vials of propofol, 20 vials of the sedative lorazepam and 60 vials of midazolam .

Alvarez, who had given birth to Murray's son in March 2009, recalled the doctor telling her that he was Jackson's private physician. The 29-year-old actress said she found it exciting.

"It was Michael Jackson!" she exulted . She said her romance with Murray began at a Las Vegas nightclub and drew her into the glamorous world of Jackson's inner circle.