Conrad Murray biography

In 2006, Murray expanded his scope and returned to the city where his father had made a name for himself to open the Acres Homes Heart and Vascular Institute.

"We have been so lucky to have Dr. Murray and that clinic in this community," Houston patient Ruby Mosley told People magazine. "There are many, many patients that thank God this man was here for them."

Those who've had financial dealings with the doctor, however, might feel otherwise. Unpaid debts, lawsuits,

and tax liens have followed Dr. Murray's life. More than $400,000 in court judgments alone were issued against his Las Vegas practice, and in December 2008 Dr. Murray, who has an unknown number of children, was ordered to cough up $3,700 in unpaid child support.

Treating the 'King of Pop'

In fact, it was Dr. Murray's debt situation that set the stage for his working relationship with Michael Jackson. The two men had first met in 2006 when the singer, a frequent Vegas visitor, had contacted Dr. Murray about treating one of his children for an unknown medical situation. Reports indicate that the two men soon became friends and, as Jackson began making plans for his upcoming 2009 concert tour, he hired Dr. Murray to be his personal physician for an astounding $150,000 a month.

Jackson's motivation to bring Murray aboard, though, may have had less to do with friendship and more to do with the singer's own complicated reliance on prescription medicine. Following Jackson's death, police discovered more than 20 prescriptions inside his rented Holmby Hills home, including methadone, fentanyl, percocet, dilaudid, and vicodin.

By all accounts, Jackson had become an insomniac and had pushed for the use of propofol, an anesthetic, to help him rest. Along with a mix of other drugs Jackson used to go to bed, he often referred to the concoction as his "milk" or "liquid sleep." But it was propofol he seems to have had a particular fondness for. Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse and nutritionist whom Jackson employed, told ABC News that the singer begged her to buy more of the drug for him. She refused.

"The problem with you telling me you want to be knocked out," Lee said she told him, is "you might not wake up the next morning. You don't want that."

Michael Jackson's Death

Dr. Murray, however, was another matter. While court documents showed he never actually purchased the drug for Jackson, over the course of the six weeks he worked for him, the doctor administered a nightly intravenous drip of propofol—despite his concerns that Jackson may be addicted to the drug.

That was the case on June 25, 2009, when Jackson, exhausted from a long rehearsal session at the Staples Center in Los Angeles that went past midnight, returned home and tried to get some rest. A familiar routine followed, with Murray hooking up his client to an IV in order to administer the propofol. Dr. Murray also gave Jackson lorazepam, an anti-anxiety medicine, and midazolam, a muscle relaxant.

According to records, the doctor then left Jackson's side for a few minutes to go to the bathroom.