On Thursday, the sister of the teenager accusing Michael Jackson of child molestation told jurors that she saw Jackson take her brother into a bedroom at a Miami resort and shut the door, leaving the two of them alone together for 15 to 30 minutes. She said that this scenario was repeated a few times during the course of the day where the accuser and the entire family were staying in Jackson’s suite.
Asked how her brother was acting that day, she told jurors, "He was just very hyper, very talkative, running around, playful," adding that he was also "more jumpy and stuff."
The boy’s sister was answering questions prompted by the prosecution and Jackson’s defense attorneys did not have the opportunity to cross examine the 18 year old college freshman before court was adjourned.
She also told jurors that she and her mother, as well as her brothers, were abused by their father. Asked how many times she had seen her father hit her mother, she answered, "Too many to count. So many." Asked how many times she and her brothers had been hit, she said, "Lots."
Earlier, jurors watched a video tour of the ranch's main residence, including the two-story master bedroom suite where Jackson is accused of molesting the teenager two years ago. The footage was taken by Albert Lafferty, a videographer for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department, to show how the property looked before investigators executed a search warrant on November 18, 2003.
The video showed Jackson's cluttered bedroom with many ornate objects as well as cardboard cutouts of the likes of Shirley Temple and Elizabeth Taylor, while the pop star himself watched the video contemplatively along with his brother Jackie and mother who accompanied him to court on Thursday.
Jurors were also shown a room which was referred to as the “doll room†which contained hundreds of dolls some life sized and another room, dubbed the "toy room" by prosecutors, was filled with life-sized toys based on movie characters, including Batman and C-3PO and Darth Vader from "Star Wars.