Coroner rules death of Wichita man after drunken fight in September a homicide
The death of a 46-year-old Wichita man in September has been ruled a homicide by the county’s coroner and medical examiner, according to the man’s autopsy report filed in Sedgwick County District Court last week.
Raul Rodriguez was found dead in a living room chair at his home on Sept. 26 — a day after he was pushed by someone during a drunken argument, fell to the ground and hit his head, his autopsy report says. A Wichita police blotter from the time shows officers logged the case as a home accident involving a fall.
Rodriguez’s autopsy report says the fall left a cut on his head. He also had a number of bruises on his scalp and tongue, a skull fracture and brain hemorrhages.
Emergency Medical Services went to his home after the altercation and suggested he go to the hospital for treatment, but Rodriguez refused, the report says.
Someone found him unresponsive in the chair the next afternoon. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The autopsy determined Rodriguez’s cause of death to be “blunt force injuries of the head” and noted “hypertensive cardiovascular disease, chronic ethanol abuse, and cirrhosis” as other significant conditions Rodriguez had.
His manner of death is listed as “Homicide.”
The death is among those investigated by Wichita police this year but not considered what the agency calls a criminal homicide.
Criminal homicide, a new term the Wichita Police Department started using in public statements this year, does not include any death at the hands of another person that’s deemed the result of self defense or an accident.
It also doesn’t include any police-involved killings that are considered justified.
Wichita police spokesman Officer Charley Davidson said the department began using the term to be “more accurate” with the public about the nature of a killing when a crime is involved.
“There’s a difference. ... We’re just trying to be more clear,” he said.
Wichita police spokesman Kevin Wheeler said by email that the investigation involving Rodriguez’s death was presented on Oct. 7 to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office, which decided against filing criminal charges in the case.
In an emailed response to questions, D.A. Marc Bennett said that “the matter was not charged given the inability to establish all the elements of a crime.”
“When the case was presented for charging, it was clear that a pre-existing medical condition could not be ruled out as substantially contributing to the death of Mr. Rodriguez,” Bennett wrote.
As of Tuesday, the Wichita Police Department has investigated a total of 36 homicides this year, 29 of which it considers criminal. Rodriguez’s death is not included in the criminal homicide count, Wheeler said.
This story was originally published November 26, 2019 at 11:44 AM.
