Opinion ID: 2831232
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Barnes’s Death and Autopsy

Text: At some point during the struggle, Deputy Sims called emergency medical services. A part-time firefighter and licensed paramedic was the first emergency medical responder to arrive at the scene. The paramedic entered the house and found evidence of a struggle: “There was . . . broken glass on the ground and like some furniture discombobulated around. And there was a male who was in the prone position with handcuffs behind his back.” Barnes was breathing but nonresponsive, and the paramedic asked the deputies to remove 6Carter testified that Barnes was kicking, but this testimony is inconsistent with Hulsey’s recollection that Barnes was limp on the kitchen floor. 10 Case: 13-20388 Document: 00513171159 Page: 11 Date Filed: 08/26/2015 No. 13-20388 Barnes’s handcuffs so he could check for a pulse. Initially, Barnes had a pulse, but his breathing rate was inadequate so the paramedics administered supplemental breathing. When an ambulance arrived to take Barnes to a hospital, Barnes suffered a full cardiac arrest. Barnes’s pulse stopped in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, and he was pronounced dead at Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital soon after he arrived. A Harris County medical examiner performed an autopsy and ruled the manner of Barnes’s death a homicide. The cause of death was listed as “[s]udden death during schizophrenic psychotic delirium following physical restraint.” The toxicology findings revealed no alcohol or drugs in Barnes’s blood stream and faint traces of ziprasidone, an antipsychotic medication. The pathological findings indicated blunt- and sharp-force injuries including: multiple contusions, subcutaneous hemorrhages, abrasions, and “superficial lacerations/incisional wounds of the head, torso and extremities”; puncture wounds on the chest, neck, left flank, and upper extremities, suggesting a “history of ‘Taser’ probe applications”; intramuscular hemorrhage of the right tongue, focal hemorrhage of the strap muscles of the anterior neck; and a right frontal intrascalp hemorrhage. The medical examiner’s “homicide” finding reflects a specific medical definition rather than the common, colloquial meaning of the word. In the comments section, the medical examiner explained the “mechanism of death . . . is likely related to autonomic stimulation during [a] psychotic episode. The manner of death derives from the events leading up to the death; the actions of others, regardless of intent, clearly exacerbated the psychotic delirium.” “Therefore, but for the actions of others,” the examiner concluded, “it is unlikely this man would have died at the time he did. The manner of death will be listed as homicide.” 11 Case: 13-20388 Document: 00513171159 Page: 12 Date Filed: 08/26/2015 No. 13-20388