ALASTAIR GRANT/AP
'Beat It' singer Michael Jackson was due to play 50 comeback concerts before his death in 2009.
After five months of testimony that exposed many secrets of Michael Jackson's personal life, jurors started deliberations Thursday to decide whether concert promoter AEG Live should be held liable for the King of Pop's bizarre overdose death.
Ten deputies were sworn in to escort the jury of six men and six women around the Los Angeles courthouse during their partial sequestration with catered lunches.
A lawyer for Katherine Jackson had the last word in her billion-dollar wrongful death case earlier Thursday and portrayed AEG as a callous corporation that refuses to accept any responsibility for the alleged negligent hiring of Dr. Conrad Murray.
Murray, a Las Vegas cardiologist, is now serving four years behind bars after a different Los Angeles jury found him criminally responsible for giving Michael the surgery-strength anesthetic propofol that killed him in June 2009.
"How dare (AEG) come up here and accept no responsibility," Katherine's lawyer Brian Panish fumed in his two-hour rebuttal after AEG's final presentation Wednesday.
"Michael paid the ultimate price. He's not here," Panish said. "Sure he took propofol, but remember, every time he took propofol, he didn't die until one thing happened: an unfit, incompetent doctor in a conflict of interest situation did it in an inappropriate setting."
RELATED: 'MICHAEL JACKSON'S DEATH WAS CAUSED BY HIS OWN CHOICES,' AEG LIVE LAWYER SAYS
AEG Live has denied any wrongdoing in the case, saying Michael hired Murray way back in 2006 and never mentioned his use of propofol as a sleep aid as he negotiated to pay Murray's $150,000-per-month tour salary with an advance from AEG.
In dueling closing arguments, both sides accused the other of flawed logic.
Panish said AEG lawyers are contradicting themselves when they claim Michael "demanded" Murray on tour and "wouldn't take no for an answer" but then argue the doctor's contract wasn't binding because Michael never consented with his signature.
AEG lawyer Marvin Putnam claimed Katherine's side wants it both ways in saying Michael became an "emaciated" and "deteriorating" mess as he cracked under the pressure of his 50 comeback concerts but still would have gone on to earn more than $1 billion from multiple world tours had he lived.
Katherine, 83, was in court Thursday with daughter Rebbie, 63, and grandsons Taj and TJ. She hugged tearful fans as she left but did not speak to the press.
The trial that began last April has laid bare the "Thriller" singer's long history of opiate dependency, failed drug interventions by his relatives and the depths of his staggering personal debt.
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