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Defense witness blames obesity, blocked arteries for man's death during struggle with deputies
By Ed Meyer
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Tuesday, Aug 05, 2008
An international expert in forensic pathology testified Monday that 28-year-old Mark D. McCullaugh Jr. had the heart of a man in his 80s and died from a ''haywire heartbeat'' brought on by his violent struggle with Summit County sheriff's deputies.
Werner U. Spitz, educated in Switzerland, Israel and the United States, has testified in congressional investigations into the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and has been a consultant in the JonBenet Ramsey case.
In an interruption of the prosecution's case, Spitz testified Monday that McCullaugh's morbid obesity, 75 percent blockage of coronary arteries and ''bad genes'' — combined with his psychotic behavior before the struggle — led to a rapidly accelerated heartbeat as the principal factor in his death.
Spitz said his conclusion was that McCullaugh died of ''natural causes.''
The testimony came in the sixth day of Deputy Stephen Krendick's murder trial in Summit Common Pleas Court before visiting Judge Herman F. Inderlied Jr., who is hearing the case without a jury.
Prosecutors have not finished presenting their case against Krendick, but Inderlied allowed the defense to call Spitz out of order because of conflicts with his schedule.
The fatal struggle with McCullaugh, which occurred inside an 11-by-7-foot cell in the mental health unit of the county jail on Aug. 20, 2006, was preceded by agitated, combative and threatening behavior toward the deputies, according to trial testimony and law-enforcement records.
Overloaded heart
McCullaugh had fouled his cell with feces, blood and urine and was throwing feces at the deputies at one point in the struggle, and those actions, according to Spitz, caused a rush of blood that overloaded McCullaugh's heart.
''First of all, you need to be aware of the fact that Mr. McCullaugh inherited from his ancestors . . . bad genes,'' Spitz said. ''He has coronary arteries, which are arteries that supply the blood to the heart muscle, that were 75 percent narrowed.
''That means three-quarters in a 28-year-old individual. This man had a heart of a 75- or 85-year-old individual — not a 28-year-old individual.
''You take a person that is that age, 75 or 85, and he's agitated because of his mental condition and all the irrational stuff that he does — throwing his arms and legs around attacking the police — and you're going to get the same result.''
Spitz, 81, also said he did not agree with the major findings in the Summit County medical examiner's autopsy. According to those findings, McCullaugh died of asphyxiation from the combined effects of chemical, electrical and mechanical restraints on his airways.
George C. Sterbenz, the county's chief deputy medical examiner, testified last week that the principal factor causing McCullaugh to choke to death was ''severe burns'' to his windpipe from a ''large amount'' of pepper spray.
McCullaugh died within ''minutes'' of inhaling fumes from the pepper spray, Sterbenz said.
'The sergeant's can'
According to testimony, Krendick used a tall black 16-ounce can of pepper spray known as ''the sergeant's can.'' It was kept in a sergeant's office at the jail.
Sheriff's Deputy Adam Crolley testified that Krendick made a remark just before shooting the pepper spray into the cell through a flap in the door. ''He said he was going to let him cook,'' Crolley said.
Sterbenz, in his testimony, demonstrated what he termed ''severe burns'' to the windpipe by using a series of minutely detailed autopsy photographs shown on a courtroom projection screen.
But Spitz said those were only ''superficial'' burns. Furthermore, the burns did not lead to asphyxiation, Spitz said, because there were no obstructions in the windpipe and because emergency room personnel at Akron General Medical Center were able to easily and successfully insert a breathing tube into McCullaugh's trachea.
That emergency procedure, according to Spitz, soon caused airflow into both lungs.
Emergency room personnel testified, however, that McCullaugh had no vital signs when he arrived at the hospital.
Other wounds
McCullaugh also suffered an anal injury — three bruises — indicative of ''sodomy-type injuries,'' Sterbenz testified.
But Spitz said those injuries were not a fatal factor and could have been caused by McCullaugh inserting his fingers and pulling out fecal matter.
From analyzing that portion of the autopsy, Spitz said he came to that opinion because the investigative evidence showed McCullaugh had ''painted the cell'' with blood and feces before the struggle.
Spitz said an object was not inserted into the anus because Sterbenz — in his own findings — was unable to determine a depth of penetration.
Spitz stated on his resume that he is a professor of pathology at Wayne State University in Michigan and an adjunct professor of chemistry at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada, and was the chief medical examiner of Wayne County in Michigan from 1972 to 1988.
A second defense expert, Michael Graham, chief medical examiner of St. Louis, also testified out of order, saying McCullaugh died from a condition he called ''schizophrenia-induced excited delirium,'' with heart disease as a contributing factor.
Excited delirium is a legal term for sudden death from an accelerated heartbeat in cases of suspects who resist being taken into custody.
Graham also disagreed with the Summit County findings about the pepper spray causing asphyxiation.
''If you had a high enough concentration,'' Graham said, ''you might get some bronchial spasm.''
Bronchial spasm would be accompanied by the presence of mucus, but there were no significant amounts of mucus in any of the evidence from McCullaugh's autopsy, Graham said.
Ed Meyer can be reached at 330-996-3784 or emeyer@thebeaconjournal.com.
An international expert in forensic pathology testified Monday that 28-year-old Mark D. McCullaugh Jr. had the heart of a man in his 80s and died from a ''haywire heartbeat'' brought on by his violent struggle with Summit County sheriff's deputies.
Get the full article here.
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