JURY CLEARS OFFICERS IN MAN'S DEATH

A Potter County grand jury decided not to take action Wednesday on two
Amarillo police officers who were involved in a case in which a man died
after he was pulled over in a traffic stop.

Carl Wheat, 24, died in September as Amarillo police officers were trying
to arrest him. Apparently, he tried to swallow a substance-filled plastic
bag during a struggle with the officers, according to reports after the death.

The grand jury was to have decided whether the officers - Darryl Wertz and
Jeffery Vanover - were responsible for his death.

Jurors were to have considered looking at four differing views from as many
pathologists as to how the man died, but the official autopsy report
concluded Wheat's death to be a homicide.

Autopsy and toxicology results in September led to a ruling of asphyxia - a
stoppage of breathing - Potter County Justice of Peace Jim Tipton said in
November. Tipton said the asphyxia could have resulted from any of three
factors - a restraint hold used by officers; physical blockage by the bag
in Wheat's throat; or poisoning by methamphetamine in Wheat's system - or a
combination of those factors.

Tipton had ruled the manner of Wheat's death undetermined after receiving
the final two pathologists' opinions requested by his office.

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. Rebecca King, 47th district
attorney, said Wheat had amphetamines in his body.

A Potter County grand jury was to have decided whether the pressure applied
to Wheat's neck was enough to kill him, whether he choked on the bag of
drugs or whether he overdosed.

"The pathology reports all agree that it was asphyxia caused by something,
and none of them can say exactly what it was; they all agree on much more
than they disagree," King said Wednesday.

"Asphyxia is simply stopping of air, and that can happen when your heart
stops, and your heart stops by whatever manner it would take to cause
that," King said. "There was a large quantity of drugs that had been
ingested by the deceased."

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