PATHOLOGISTS GIVE TIPTON FOUR OPINIONS IN MAN'S DEATH

Grand jurors will be faced with opinions from four pathologists about how
Carl Wheat died in September while in the hands of Amarillo police officers
who were trying to arrest him.

Potter County Justice of the Peace Jim Tipton finished his inquiry into
Wheat's death Tuesday and ruled the manner of Wheat's death undetermined
after receiving the final two pathologists' opinions requested by his
office.

Amarillo police officers Darryl Wertz and Jeffery Vanover wrestled with
Wheat over a bag of drugs he apparently tried to swallow after he was
pulled over on a traffic stop on Sept. 21. Wheat died after the struggle.

On the death certificate, Tipton wrote Wheat's immediate cause of death was
asphyxia with neck compressions and intoxication by methamphetamines as
conditions leading to the immediate cause.

A Potter County grand jury will have to decide whether the neck
compressions were caused by officers trying to restrain Wheat and pull from
his mouth a bag of drugs he was trying to swallow, or whether he choked on
the bag of drugs.

The original autopsy, conducted by Dr. Robert Lyon at the Lubbock County
Medical Examiner's Office, showed that Wheat died of neck compressions.

"Based on all of the available information, it is my opinion that Carl
Glenn Wheat died from compression of the neck during physical restraint,"
Lyon wrote in a summary issued Nov. 3. "It cannot be determined if choking
on the plastic bag occurred and contributed to his death."

Lyon wrote that intoxication by methamphetamines was a contributing cause
in connection with Wheat's death. Lyon noted that a lateral neck vascular
restraint was used by one of the officers to try to control Wheat. He said
the restraint "is a known lethal hold."

Three days later, Lyon amended the autopsy to include that, in his opinion,
the manner of death was a homicide. That amended version triggered a
succession of responses by three pathologists, one of whom responded in
writing to Tipton's office the day the autopsy was amended.

On Nov. 6, Dr. Jerry D. Spencer of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's
Office wrote Tipton to clarify his position on the autopsy results.

"My actual opinion was that the cause of death was asphyxia with
amphetamine intoxication as a contributing factor," Spencer wrote, adding
that "it cannot be determined how the asphyxia occurred."

Spencer was in Lubbock Oct. 5 for a lecture and was asked by Dr. David
Hoblit, who owns the private company that conducts autopsies in Lubbock
County, to review Wheat's death investigation. Spencer, Hoblit and Dr.
Rodney Tucay reviewed the investigation before the Nov. 3 report was
issued. Only Spencer took issue with the Nov. 6 amended report, according
to the case file.

Tipton sought the opinions of two other pathologists, Dr. Randall E. Frost
of Boerne and Dr. Glen R. Groben of Boise, Idaho, after Lyon's amended
report, Tipton said.

"I believe that Mr. Wheat's death was due to a combination of factors,
specifically asphyxia and methamphetamine intoxication," Frost wrote
Sunday. "The relative contribution of one factor over another cannot be
reliably determined based on evidence available at this time."

The Potter-Randall Special Crimes Unit mailed unspecified evidence to Frost
for his review. He went on in the letter to explain that in cases where a
combination of factors might have caused a person's death, local customs
come into play when trying to determine a manner of death.

"In our jurisdiction, we certify such deaths as homicide based on the fact
that the decedent was struggling with another individual, and the struggle
may have contributed to death in some fashion, regardless of intent," Frost
wrote. "Other jurisdictions may certify such cases as accident."

Groben wrote Tipton on Monday after reviewing the autopsy report that the
most likely cause of death was a complication of methamphetamine poisoning
exacerbated by airway obstruction and physical confrontation.

"In my opinion with a markedly elevated methamphetamine concentration and
the presence of a plastic bag in Mr. Wheat's airway, there is no way the
cause of death can be attributed solely to the neck compressions," Gorben
wrote.

Gorben cited two cases from the textbook Disposition of Toxic Drugs and
Chemicals in Man where people died from overdoses with four times less
methamphetamines in their systems than toxicology reports showed in Wheat's
system.

All four doctors attribute some sort of blocking of the airways coupled
with intoxication in their reports. However, each doctor uses different
phrasing or wording to describe how Wheat died, giving more weight to one
cause over another.

Tipton ruled Wheat's death as undetermined as a result of the slanting
views and defended his decision to ask for two extra opinions in connection
with Wheat's death.

"I had those other doctors look at it because I had too many opinions
(after Nov. 6), so I wanted other opinions," Tipton said. "I just wanted a
bunch of opinions on this."

Vanover, Wertz and two other officers were placed on a mandatory three-day
leave of absence after Wheat died and are to face a Potter County grand
jury. Tipton said he would ask for several opinions even if it weren't
police officers taking the stand.

The police department declined to comment about the autopsy results pending
the grand jury investigation.

"It would be inappropriate for us to comment on it and give our opinion
until after the grand jury saw it," APD Col. Robert Francis said.

While the grand jury is waiting to hear the case, Wheat's family has hired
Dallas lawyer Marc C. Lenahan of Adrian Crane and Associates. They think
that the officers were responsible for Wheat's death, father Charles Wheat
said.

Lenahan said he is preparing information to request indictments from the
grand jury. Lenahan has hired a local private investigator to probe Wheat's
death.

Wheat said his son was no saint. He called him an "outlaw" and said his son
had spent 15 months in a penitentiary. But Wheat said police officers were
continually looking for his son.

"(Carl) said if it weren't for guys like him, these (officers) wouldn't
have a job," Wheat said. "It's hurt me real bad. I've laid awake at night
thinking those officers killed my son."

Carl Wheat had three daughters, all under the age of six, his common-law
wife Shawna McDonald said. McDonald said she is pregnant with Wheat's
fourth child and is due in February. She said she has been wrangling with
the Social Security system since Carl Wheat died, trying to get money to
help raise her children.

"(The officers) should really have to pay for what they did," McDonald
said. "Regardless of whether the law does anything about it, they're going
to pay on judgment day. I mean, I'm not judging them. I just pray that God
takes care of it the way it's supposed to be taken care of, because my
children are going to have to do without because of it."