Michael Jackson laid to rest at sunset as homicide charge looms - mirror.co.uk
Michael Jackson will be buried as the sun sets today while police prepare to charge someone with killing him.
Prosecutors can move now the star’s death certificate has been amended to call it a homicide.
The wording is he died from “intravenous injection by another”.
A sworn police statement says Jackson’s personal doctor Conrad Murray told them he injected his employer with a powerful sedative, propofol, shortly before he died.
Dr Murray is the subject of a manslaughter investigation.
The death certificate was changed to reflect the LA coroner’s report that Jackson was a homicide victim.
The report says Jacko was killed by “acute propofol intoxication” and a contributing factor was the presence of anxiety and insomnia medications in his system, listed as “benzodiazepine effect”.
The first version of the certificate said recording the cause of death was deferred pending the coroner’s investigation and toxicology reports.
Jackson’s private funeral ceremony is expected to start at 7pm today.
He will be buried in Holly Terrace Grand Mausoleum at Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park, five miles from Hollywood.
Cameras will be banned from the 45-minute service limited to close friends and family.
Jacko’s pal Diana Ross will be there, as will Motown label founder Berry Gordy. Aretha Franklin will sing at the graveside.
Yesterday a judge granted a request by Jackson’s mother Katherine to have her son’s estate, controlled by two former advisers, pay for the cost of the funeral.
An LA court agreed with her lawyer’s claim that the expenses are “extraordinary”.
The tight security extends to encasing Jackson’s coffin in thick concrete to beat grave robbers.