Nurse Tears Up Describing Michael Jackson’s Desperation for Sleep Drug

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Paul Buck / Pool / Reuters

Cherilyn Lee, a nurse who treated Michael Jackson for sleep disorder in early 2009, tears up as she testifies during Dr. Conrad Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial.

The defense case in the Conrad Murray trial continued Tuesday, and things got emotional as a witness was questioned about circumstances that may have led to superstar Michael Jackson’s death.

Cherilyn Lee, a nurse practitioner, told the court that Jackson had become frustrated with his inability to sleep in the months prior to his preparations to embarking on a comeback tour. Lee said Jackson first asked her for the anesthetic propofol in April 2009, saying that it was the only thing that helped him to sleep.

(MORE: The Conrad Murray Trial)

When she asked a doctor about the drug Diprivan (the name propofol is marketed under by AstraZeneca), she was told that it is not for home use. When she spoke to Jackson about it again, he told her that doctors had told him that it was safe if he had someone to monitor him. He’d also said he was given the drug during surgery and that it worked for him. “I know this will knock me out,” Lee testified Jackson told her.

She said she asked him, “What if you never wake up?” Then she began to cry. The judge gave her a few moments to breathe.

Jackson asked her for propofol again later in the evening, but she refused to give it to him. That was the last time she saw the singer, she said.

When the defense asked Lee if she ever gave the drug to Michael Jackson, she answered flatly “absolutely not!” She said she told Jackson, “No one who cares or had your best interest at heart would ever give you this.”

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Madison Gray is Homepage Producer at TIME.com. Find him on Twitter at @madisonjgray. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.