'Michael Jackson seemed at end of long illness'

US: The first paramedic on scene at Michael Jackson's home the day he died said Tuesday the singer looked emaciated and like someone at the end of a chronic illness.

On the second day of a trial pitting Jackson's mother against tour promoter AEG Live, paramedic Richard Senneff -- the first witness to be called -- said doctor Conrad Murray was "frantic, pale and sweating." "The patient was in pajamas. He looked very pale, very, very underweight," he said, recounting how he was called to the self-styled King of Pop's plush Holmby Hills mansion on June 25, 2009.

"He looked very ill .. To me, he looked like someone who was at the end stage of a long disease process," he added.

Murray -- who is serving four years in jail after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2011 -- "looked at me blankly at first," said Senneff, who was among witnesses who testified at the medic's 2011 trial.

"He was frantic, pale, sweating. He identified himself as a cardiologist," Senneff added, answering questions from Katherine Jackson's lawyer Brian Panish at the Los Angeles Superior Court, where the wrongful death trial started Monday.

"It just looked a lot more complicated than dehydration and exhaustion," Senneff testified.

When he asked Murray when the emergency had happened, Murray said: "Just this minute. Right when I called you," he told the court, adding that Jackson's eyes were dilated and his skin cool.

This suggested to him that the star had been dead for as long as an hour, he said.

The 50-year-old singer died from an overdose of powerful sedative and anesthetic propofol, administered by Murray to help the "Thriller" legend deal with chronic insomnia. AFP