Dr. Steven Shafer concludes his testimony - Day 16 -

Anestesiologist Dr. Steven Shafer completed his testimony today.

Earlier in his testimony, the anesthesiologist eliminated all of the scenarios where Michael Jackson could have died by either ingesting or self-injecting himself with propofol.

Dr. Shafer concluded that, based on his calculations and simulations, Jackson could have only died while receiving a constant flow of the anesthetic through an IV drip.

Chernoff focused his questions for Dr. Shafer on what seemed to be arbitrary numbers that Dr. Shafer chose for his calculations. Dr. Shafer even admitted he pulled one number for a simulation out of thin air, but the number in question had no significance in his overall conclusions regarding Jackson's death.

Chernoff also dug into Dr. Shafer's knowledge of addiction and drug interaction. Dr. Shafer conceded that he has no special expertise in the field of addiction.

"I take care of patients who are addicts on a very regular basis," said Dr. Shafer. "As a trained physician, I'm familiar with forms of addiction. But I don't consider myself an addiction specialist by any means."

During his cross examination on Monday, Shafer told Chernoff it's hard to know the precise effect Propofol may have had on Michael Jackson because he had been given so much of it in the 2 months before June 25.

Shafer made the statement while being cross-examined by lead defense attorney Ed Chernoff, who noted the risk that Jackson would stop breathing should have been low after the first few minutes the drug was administered on the day he died.

Chernoff based that conclusion on models and research done by Shafer.

“In Mr. Jackson’s case, it’s harder to have that certainty,” Shafer replied. “There’s very little, almost no precedent for this level of propofol exposure.”

Shafer has said the only possible explanation for Jackson’s death based on the evidence was that Murray put him on an IV drip of propofol then left the room after Jackson appeared to be asleep.

MJFS - cnn