Posts tagged "manslaughter"

Michael Jackson's private physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, was convicted by a jury yesterday in a Los Angeles courtroom of involuntary manslaughter in Michael Jackson's death in 2009. He will be sentenced on November 29. He faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison. He will be jailed in the time prior to sentencing for his manslaughter conviction.

Murray is trained as a cardiologist, but his medical license has been suspended in California since he was charged with criminal negligence in Jackson's death. Prosecutors said that Murray was greedy and incompetent and his negligence played a significant role in Jackson's death. Murray had administered a powerful anesthetic to Jackson to help him sleep, but did so without the use of monitors and other equipment. The drug caused Jackson to go into cardiac arrest.

A man who has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a fatal chain-reaction DUI accident is scheduled to be sentenced in a California courtroom today. The 19-year-old man pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter last October.

The fatal accident occurred at about 4 a.m. on October 10, 2009. According to the California Highway Patrol, the chain-reaction accident began when a sedan rear-ended a Jeep Cherokee carrying four Marines on an overpass on I-15. The Marines exited their vehicle, and then the 19-year-old defendant's vehicle knocked one of the Marines off the overpass and onto Gopher Canyon Road below. The Marine died shortly thereafter in an operating room.

The prosecution against Michael Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray, moved forward this week with testimony from the late singer's bodyguard at a preliminary hearing. The bodyguard, Alberto Alvarez, gave the judge deciding whether Murray should be tried for involuntary manslaughter a firsthand account of the immediate aftermath of Michael Jackson's death.

Much of the prosecution's case against Dr. Murray has focused on propofol. A coroner's report indicated that propofol, a drug commonly used in anesthesia and sedating patients, caused Jackson's death. Two days after the death, Dr. Murray admitted to police that he had given Jackson, who suffered from insomnia, propofol to help him sleep.

Last June, a fatal taxi accident claimed the lives of a couple visiting from Cincinnati. The vehicle slammed into a freeway pillar at 40 miles per hour when the brakes on the Dodge Intrepid taxi failed. Because of the accident, the taxi driver has been facing criminal charges.

The cab driver picked up Dennis and Karen Marshall from San Francisco International Airport and he smelled smoke about eight miles into the trip and about four minutes before the crash. He continued driving another 3.7 miles before the car erupted into flames and crashed while exiting I-280.

Jim Leyritz is best known for his baseball exploits, hitting a famous home run for the Yankees against the Braves that propelled the Yankees to victory in the 1996 World Series. However, Leyritz, now retired and 46, has been in the news lately for off field troubles stemming from a 2007 alcohol related crash.

In December 2007, Leyritz had been celebrating his 44th birthday with friends in Fort Lauderdale when his SUV collided with Fredia Ann Veitch's vehicle, killing her. Allegedly, Leyritz was legally intoxicated at the time of the accident and had run a red light. As a result of the 2007 crash, Leyritz was facing DUI and manslaughter charges. The manslaughter charge carried a sentence of 4 to 15 years in prison.