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Wayne will have a few comforts of home while he's away. He will be able to watch network television — not cable, however. And he'll be able to watch DVD movies. He told Rolling Stone recently he plans to take an iPod in with him assist with writing music, but a source close to the prison facility told MTV News that would not be allowed.Reid, who worked at Rikers Island for 21 years as an officer and an investigator, said Wayne's days would continue to be regimented, but in a much different way. He suggested the rapper may have to succumb to some work conditions, whether in sanitation or the mess hall, for example. Reid also noted that different wings of the prison carry different types of criminals, but guessed that Wayne would be housed in a dormitory area and not even be confined to a cell.
"Like a hospital, where there's maybe 20 to 25 beds in an open ward, or it maybe bunk beds," Reid said of Wayne's possible lodgings. "Where he has a nightstand to keep his personal belongings."
Murray, who was treating Jackson as the singer geared up to launch a series of comeback concerts in London, told investigators that he administered the surgical anesthetic propofol, as well as other tranquilizers, to Jackson several times in the hours leading up to his death. The coroner has ruled that the singer died of lethal levels of the drug. Murray obtained propofol legally, according to the AP, but is accused of negligence in the administration of the drug, a stance prosecutors came to after speaking with more than 10 medical experts.
The complaint says that Murray told investigators he gave Jackson propofol at 11 a.m. on the day of his death and then left the room to use the bathroom. The chain of events that followed are disputed. While Murray told officials he returned from the bathroom to find Jackson no longer breathing and that he tried to revive the singer, a call to 911 was not made until 12:21 p.m. During that time, Murray made many non-emergency calls. Murray's lawyer, however, says that Murray misspoke during his interview with prosecutors and that the doctor did not discover Jackson until about 12 p.m.
Murray is expected to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. PT. According to TMZ, bail will be set at $25,000. Murray is expected to arrive before the arraignment with lawyers and a bail bondsman.
Another complicating factor will be finding a jury to try the case, which Chapman Holley said might actually be the most time-consuming part of the trial, which she predicted would likely last a month. "I'm not a doctor, but based on what I've heard, [what Murray did] sounds crazy. A jury won't know either, so you'll have these doctors coming in to testify of the risks of doing this, and while his experts will say there was not a tremendous risk, the DA's experts will say there was," she said. "Obviously, it did cause his death, but that's not the question here. You have to look at what the person did and what they knew at the time. It's almost like the outcome [of Murray's actions] are not irrelevant, but not really important to the case. Plus, everyone loves Michael Jackson, so it will be tough to find a jury without bias."
The sight on Monday of a large portion of the Jackson clan going into the courtroom to watch the charging, coupled with the much-derided trip Murray took last week to mourn near Jackson's grave in what was seen as a blatant plea for sympathy, will also likely make things hard on a defense team looking to change the tarnished image of the doctor.
Facing a possible two to four years in prison, Murray will probably be sentenced to the lesser term, Chapman Holley said, but she doubted he would emerge from the trial without serving some time. "He could get probation, but it doesn't sound like there will be a plea in this case," she said, noting the intense pressure on the Los Angeles District Attorney's office to put together a very strong case in light of such difficult celebrity cases as the O.J. Simpson trial and the two Robert Blake murder trials.