Michael Jackson Manslaughter Trial: Defense Rests as Conrad Murray Refuses to Take Stand

Defense expected to rest following testimony of final witness, who will make her way to the stand today; Conrad Murray will also be asked in open court if he wants to testify in his own defense

UPDATE 11:40 a.m.: The defense has rested. Court adjourned early to allow both sides to prepare their closing arguments, which will begin Thursday morning at 9:00 a.m. PT.

UPDATE 11:15 a.m.: Prosecutors recall Dr. Steven Shafer to the stand as a rebuttal witness for White's testimony. He said that Jackson didn't necessarily die at noon, and that it could have easily been earlier. "Michael Jackson could have died at any time with the drug contraception continuing to be high in his blood...The serious risk from propofol is you stop breathing. That is the main cause of injury of propofol." He also, once again, rebutted the hypothesis that Jackson could have self-administered the fatal dose.

UPDATE 10:25 a.m.: Despite plans to call Ornelas to the stand, the defense says they will not be calling the Ph.D student and, as no other witnesses remain, will rest. But not before Murray himself was reminded of his constitutional rights and asked by Judge Michael Pastor if he would be taking the stand: "My decision is that I would not testify," he said.

Before the midmorning break was called, Dr. Paul White finished off his testimony, and noted that the final fatal dose of propofol Jackson took had to have included lidocaine. "I've never mixed propofol and lidocaine for an infusion," he said. "If you gave the whole syringe, my estimate is that there would be virtually no lidocaine present at 12 p.m. You would expect to have no measurable lidocaine in the blood at the time of autopsy."

Call it Conrad Murray's last stand.

The Michael Jackson manslaughter trial continues to wind down, with the defense set to call just one more witness to the stand today—Dr. Gabriela Ornelas—and they promise her testimony will be "brief." Since lawyers' words are as good as gold (ahem), we're sure the end will come any minute now.

As for Ornelas, she's the USC Ph.D student who's provided Murray's team with the graphs propofol expert Dr. Paul White was questioned about today. The prosecution is also set to recall Dr. Steven Shafer as a rebuttal witness today, and Murray will finally be asked in open court by the judge if he wishes to take the stand in his own defense.

As always, E! Online will be livestreaming the proceedings all day long, once they kick off at the slightly later start time of 9:30 a.m. PT.