Death in Colorado
Larimer Taser death ruled a homicide
By Pamela Dickman
Times-Call News Group
The Larimer County,Colorado coroner ruled Timothy Mathis death a homicide Wednesday, but that doesnt mean it was murder.
Mathis, 35, died in hospice care Oct. 26 after he went into cardiac arrest while struggling with Larimer County,Colorado sheriffs deputies in Loveland,Colorado on Oct. 3. The deputies used a Taser, which shoots a debilitating electrical current, on Mathis at least three times during the altercation.
Mathis did not react to the stun gun, then after deputies arrested him using physical force, he went into cardiac arrest.
Three weeks and two days later, he died.
On Wednesday, Deputy Coroner Stephen Cina signed the death certificate: homicide.
Cina ruled homicide because someone other than Mathis caused his death, but he noted that the deputies did not intend for Mathis to die, said Greg Fairman, coroners investigator.
Sheriff Jim Alderden reiterated that view.
“The determination of homicide merely means that it was the result of one person involved with physical force on the other person,” Alderden said.
“It doesnt mean it was excessive. It doesnt mean it was illegal.”
In fact, the 8th Judicial District Attorneys Office deemed that the deputies used justifiable force and declined to file criminal charges. The Wednesday ruling wont change that, said spokeswoman Linda Jensen.
A Sheriffs Office internal review also cleared the deputies; supervisors ruled that they did not violate any policies.
The three deputies responded to South St. Louis Avenue near Colorado 402 after a resident reported a man had broken into a trailer. They also were told the man, later identified as Mathis, was bleeding and had stabbed himself with a stick.
The deputies physically subdued him using Tasers, batons and physical force including sitting on his abdomen, according to Cinas report.
As they were arresting him, Mathis went into cardiac arrest. The deputies resuscitated him, but he remained in a coma until his death from acute pneumonia and brain damage caused by the cardiac arrest.
However, Mathis likely caused the police altercation that led to restraint by recent methamphetamine use and excited delirium syndrome, Cina ruled, according to Fairman.
Excited delirium syndrome, which means a person is stronger and less sensitive to pain because of drug use, is offered in several studies as a cause for in-custody deaths.
It also is something on which Alderden plans to offer more training. However, the sheriff said, recent research recommends that officers deal with people suffering from the syndrome with a Taser and physical force.
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