These are summaries taken from the Official Court Transcripts
Kai Chase
(Chef)
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MS. BRAZIL
Ms Chase states she is currently a chef, and was employed by Mr Jackson since March of 2009 as a chef for him and his children. Her responsibilities were mainly to provide breakfast lunch and dinner. On occasion she was asked to prepare food for other people (guests, clients, friends and employees). Her typical daily routine would be coming in at 8am, preparing breakfast for the children, getting them ready for school and then getting lunch prepared, and then dinner. She was employed at his Carolwood residence. She did occasionally prepare meals for Conrad Murray and was able to point him out in the courtroom. She also states she prepared on a daily basis breakfast for Mr. Jackson, usually an organic meal, granola, juices things of that nature. He would either eat with the children or it was brought up to him – more recently and frequently by Conrad Murray.
Focus is brought to June 24, 2009. She was working as his chef on that date. She arrived between 8:00 and 8:30 that morning. She states it was her and the children, and she believed Mr. Jackson was at the residence, but she did not see him until that afternoon. She did see Conrad Murray that morning. He had come down to bring Michael juice before noon. She prepared lunch for Mr. Jackson and his children on that day. They ate at the dining room table. She did not see Dr Murray that day at lunchtime, as he had left around 10 or 10:30 am. She prepared Mr Jackson a snack for his rehearsals in the late afternoon, and that rehearsal was at Carolwood. She then prepared him dinner – a salad that he requested that he could take with him for a rehearsal outside of the home. She made dinner – a white bean soup for Mr. Jackson that she left in the refrigerator for after rehearsal. She left the residence at approx 10pm. She is asked if she is familiar with Conrad Murrays car, and she said yes. It was she believes a gray BMW 650 convertible. When she left the residence, she did not see his car.
Attention is then directed to June 25, 2009. She arrived at the Carolwood residence at approx 8:00-8:30 am. She came in through the service entrance on the side of the house, which was routine, which is near the kitchen area. She started preparing breakfast for the children and getting juices ready for Mr. Jackson and his breakfast as well. She did notice that the meal from the night before was still in the refrigerator untouched. She now begins to prepare lunch. She leaves to go to the market for about 30 minutes. She went to the market between 9:00 – 9:30 am. She returned approx 9:45 and began preparing lunch. Nothing was unusual up to this point. Normal lunch time for the children and Michael was 12:30 pm. She states Conrad Murray did not come down to pick up the juice that was customary on June 25th. She saw Conrad Murray for the first time that day between 12:05 and 12:10. She remembers the time as she had checked her clock to make sure she had lunch prepared by the usual 12:30 timeframe.
She begins describing the situation that happened next. She states Dr. Murray came down the stairs that led to the kitchen in a panic screaming to get help, to get Prince and to call for Security. She immediately dropped what she was doing, ran to the den where the children were to go get Prince. She tells Prince to Hurry, Dr. Murray is asking for you, I think there may be something wrong with your Dad. Prince went upstairs to Dr. Murray who was standing on the stairwell/stairs. She remained in the kitchen. She states that the housekeepers began to cry at this point. She went to the housekeepers and asked what the cause was, and they mentioned there may be something wrong with Mr. Jackson. She saw Prince as well at this time as he was back with his siblings in the same area (the foyer) with the housekeepers—on the first floor. It was her, the children, the housekeepers and a nanny in this area consoling one another. They also started praying and were crying at this time.
She states what happened next was Paramedics arrived, they had gone upstairs. She remained downstairs and did not go up. She stayed at the residence until 1pm, at which time security asked her to leave. She did not see the paramedics leave with Mr. Jackson. She is shown exhibits marked people 16 & 17 – photographs. She asks in exhibit 16 if that is the kitchen area of the Carolwood residence, and states it is. She uses a laser pointer to show where she was working when she saw Dr. Murray, and points to an area by the corner of the kitchen island closest to the counter area. She states the kitchen is on the first floor. She states she does not know where the stairs lead to – other than the 2nd floor, that she had never been up there. She shows with a laser how far Dr. Murray descended down the stairs indicating down to the 3rd or 4th banister in the photo. He was leaning over the banister when he called out to her. She is asked if she was instructed to call 911, and she was not. She does not know what Dr. Murray was doing when she went to go and get Prince, as she was not in the room.
She is instructed to look at exhibit #17, and explains this is also the kitchen are, where the staircase was where Dr. Murray was standing. She again points out where he was on the stairs. She also shows in which direction she left the kitchen to go to the den to get Prince.
She is asked if on the day Dr. Murray came downstairs at 12:00 – 12:05 if she had any difficulty understanding what he said to her. She states initially there was music playing and he has an accent so yes, but he shouted it several times. He never shouted Call 911 and she is certain of this. She states she never saw Dr. Murray on June 25th 2009 again.
Ms. Brazil ends her Direct.
CROSS-EXAMINATION
Mr. Low begins Cross
Mr Low introduces himself – as they have never met until today and states he represents Dr. Conrad Murray. He asks her again about her employment. She states she had worked for Michael Jackson there on Carolwood before June 25th 2009, but was let go in May and brought back in June. She worked roughly 5 or 6 months there, give or take. Her primary duties were to provide meals not only to Michael but other people that lived there such as the children. And occasionally people that came over for meetings if asked. Dr. Murray is one of them.
She is asked about Mr. Jackson’s particular diet. She states Mr. Jackson required healthy food; she was hired to cook healthy organic meals for Mr. Jackson and his children. She is asked if Dr Murray also contributed to what the diet should consist of, and she states briefly. She again states Mr Jackson required to eat well because of the upcoming tour and it was his request. He wanted to be healthy and wanted his children to eat healthy.
She is asked about the 2nd floor of Carolwood. That she stated she had never been on the 2nd floor, and she states Right. She is asked why, and she states there was no reason. Her area was the kitchen, she was the chef. She is asked why she never went any further and says she works for many high powered clients and her job is to be in the kitchen cooking. It is a professional relationship. And for privacy she does not go anywhere else, including the bedroom of Michael Jackson, ever.
She is asked if she has seen others have access to the 2nd floor, and she states yes, the children, and Dr. Murray had come down the stairs prior to June 25th 2009 almost on a daily basis. She is asked besides coming down for juice would he ever come down with anything else or go up with anything else. She says she saw metal black and green tanks with valves on top, and maybe hoses. She is asked if she knows how old Michael was, and she states she believes 49. She does not know if anything was going on with his health requiring him to have oxygen tanks.
She states during the course of her day, she uses the service entrance, and that it is always locked. Security would unlock or the children would answer the door from the inside. She did not have a key to the door and does not know who all had one.
Attention is again directed to the morning of June 25th. She states it is true the first time she realizes something is wrong is when Dr. Murray came down the stairs panicked. She is asked to explain what she see’s- to describe panic and what he looks like. His eyes are big, he is screaming, and looking panic stricken, like hurry, time is of essence. She knew what he was stating was of importance. She is told to get Security and Prince. He did not state why he wanted them, and she did not ask. She is not asked to Call security Conrad Murray goes back upstairs and does not say anything else to her. She drops what she is doing, and retrieves Prince. It takes her approx 2 seconds to do this. Prince and her run back into the kitchen and she continues doing her work. She is asked why she did not get security. She states Dr Murray was in a panic and Prince was in my eyesight, that the best thing to do was to get Prince instead of running outside to get Security. She is asked several times why she did not take Prince with her to get security or why she did not go and get them, and she repeats her answer. She had retrieved Prince, and brought him to the stairs where he met with Dr. Murray.
She is now asked to recall if she remembers seeing any other individuals this same day, someone by the name of Rosalind. She says, Sister Rose, yes. She was in the den with the children. She also saw Faheem Muhammad outside in the courtyard. She also saw Mr. Alverez in the courtyard and also in the home. She explains that in the kitchen her vision is limited to what she sees in the home. She states she did not see Mr. Michael Amir that day.
She is asked again about looking at the time – prior to Dr Murray coming downstairs (the time is on her cell phone). She is asked where she keeps her phone, and she states she wears a full chef uniform and it is in her apron in the right front pocket, it is between 12:05 and 12:10. The numbers are digital and it is in print (not a clock dial image) between 12:05 and 12:10. She is asked if her phone also reads out other numbers, she replies she was not looking at Dr. Murray when she looks at the time, and that she is estimating the time was between 12:05 and 12:10. That is was only a few minutes after she looked at her phone when she saw Dr. Murray. And she recalls it to be around 12:05 when she looked at her phone.
She is now asked using her same ability to recall time to estimate the amount of time that went by from when she saw Dr. Murray and when the paramedics arrived. She states the kitchen is not in view of where the paramedics would arrive so she could not say. She does not know who let the paramedics in.
REDIRECT BY MS. BRAZIL:
She is asked to clarify a couple of points. That she prepares breakfast around 8:00 – 8:30 and Mr. Jackson’s juice around the same time of 8:30. Dr. Murray usually comes down for the juice around 10:00. She repeats that she looked at her cell phone at 12:05. And that it was only moments later that she saw Dr. Murray on the stairs. She then states minutes not moments. Less than 5 minutes. That it was between 12:05 and 12:10. That she senses panic and urgency in Dr. Murray’s demeanor. That she immediately exits the kitchen, crosses the hall area to go to the den to get Prince. Prince immediately responds and goes and see’s his father. They both ran back to the kitchen where she is able to see Dr. Murray and they go upstairs to see his father. He had remained on the stair area from the time that he first directed her to get Prince and Security. The court asks her if it is to go get Security OR Prince or was it get Security AND Prince. She states it was Get Prince, Get Security no AND or OR, and she chose Prince as he was within eyesight.
RECROSS EXAM BY MR. LOW
She describes again, that there was urgency in Dr. Murray’s demeanor. She has come back to the kitchen and at some point she gathers with the children and begin to pray and cry. They do not start crying until they have seen an empty gurney and the housekeepers crying – she does not know what has happened at this point yet. There was an energy in the house that they could sense something was not right. Sensing something did not feel good. They were consoling each other. She states normally in the house it is happy, music playing, children and animals playing. This feeling was different. Sort of like a stand still. She is asked again what Dr. Murray is doing when she goes to retrieve Prince. She does not know. Dr Low states yet you testified that he stays on the stairs prior, so you have no way of knowing, and she states she does not.
RECROSS ENDS
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