Justice of the Peace Pct. 3 Pat Cole, foreground, walks into an area cordoned off by police Thursday night after a dead man was found inside a residence at 1112 Ave. K. Del Rio police are investigating the death as a homicide. (Photo by Karen Gleason)

NEWS — Justice of the peace speaks about death investigations

By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times

Justice of the Peace Pct. 3 Pat Cole has ordered an autopsy of the body of a 72-year-old man who was found dead inside his home Thursday by Del Rio police.

According to a press release issued by the city’s public

Justice of the Peace Pct. 3 Pat Cole, pictured in her office on the second floor of the
Alicemae Fitzpatrick Building, the county courthouse annex, on Friday. Cole spoke about
the role she and the county’s other justices of the peace play in the investigation of local
deaths. (Photo by Karen Gleason)

information office on Friday, a concerned citizen went to the police department at 4:33 p.m. Thursday and asked officers to conduct a “welfare check” on a relative whose home was located in the 1100 block of Avenue K.

Officers who arrived at the residence were not able to contact anyone there, but saw “what appeared to be blood on the living room floor” through a small window, according to the city press release.

The release said officers forced entry and found the man lying dead, “with multiple injuries to the face and body.”

An investigation into the circumstances surrounding the man’s death was launched, with police officers cordoning off the entire 1100 block of Avenue K for several hours late Thursday afternoon and well into the evening.

Officers and members of the police department’s evidence processing unit at the scene concentrated their efforts on a residence at 1112 Ave. K, the south unit of a duplex of sand-colored brick. The duplex itself is located at the corner of Avenue K and 10 th Street.

Police on Friday declined to identify the dead man, citing necessary notifications of his next of kin.

Cole was called to the scene to begin an inquest into the death.
Cole spoke to The 830 Times Friday about the role she and the county’s three other justices of the peace play in local death investigations.

Cole explained that in Texas counties that do not have a coroner or a medical examiner, justices of the peace fulfill that role.

She said inquests refer to the investigation of a death. “If there is a death that occurs in a nursing home or someone is on hospice, and they have the documentations for that, the JP does not go. If there is a death in the hospital less than 24 hours after the person has come to the hospital, then an inquest has to be accomplished. Most of the doctors – not all of them, but most – agree to sign the death certificate. If a person was in the emergency room, for instance, and the doctor can specify the cause of the death, and the doctor is willing to sign the death certificate, we don’t go,” Cole said.

If the doctor is unsure what caused the death, Cole said, a JP is called, and an autopsy is ordered.

The body is then transported to the Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office in Laredo, which has a contract with Val Verde County to perform the autopsies.

“The official definition of an inquest from Texas law is an investigation into the cause and circumstances of the death of a person and a determination made with or without a formal court hearing as to whether the death was caused by an unlawful act or omission,” Cole said.

She added one misconception is that a justice of the peace pronounces someone dead.

“That’s a common mistake, but it makes sense when you think about it, because a judge should only be called when it’s known that the person is, in fact, dead,” Cole said.

She added that some of the confusion arises because the judge needs to state a time of death in the death certificate.

She noted inquests are not necessarily criminal proceedings, but added the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure outlines eight situations in which an inquest is required.

Cole said she was notified about the death at the Avenue K residence at 7 p.m. Thursday.

She said she arrived at the scene about 7:30 p.m. and set the time of death of the deceased at 7:45 p.m.

Before she entered the residence on Avenue K, Cole met with officers at the scene to glean information about the situation.

“I start documenting when the phone rings, and what I want to know, and I write this in my report; the time of the call, which, in this case, was 7 p.m., the date of the inquest and where it’s going to be held, so I indicate it’s at the decedent’s home or what location this inquest is going to be, and then I need to know who the officers are on the scene and who is going to be the officer taking charge of the investigation,” Cole said.

She said she also asks for the name of the deceased person, his or her date of birth, social security number and any medications confiscated by officers at the scene.

Cole said officers will gather any medications found at the scene, as those can sometimes provide clues about a person’s death.

“I ask if we know about an attending physician, and if they’re not in a hospital or other facility, the last time they were seen by their physician. I also ask about the position of the body at the scene, in what area of the home the body is located,” Cole said.

Cole said she also documents any circumstances surrounding the death, if known, the name of the person who found the body, the names of any witnesses, the next of kin and the next of kin’s address, phone number and relationship to the deceased.

“Then, at the end, once I have all that information, I determine whether an autopsy is necessary or not, and I did determine an autopsy was necessary in the case last night,” Cole said.

Cole noted the body of the man found inside the Avenue K home was transported to Laredo Friday morning for the autopsy, and the body was taken to Laredo by the funeral home on call.

Cole said one of the tasks she is required to perform at the site of the death is to view the body. She said this is, and continues to be, one of the most harrowing aspects of her job as a justice of the peace.

“It’s extremely difficult. When I took this job, back in 2010 or 2011, what I feared most when I took office, was having to deal with the death of a child. That was something that weighed heavily on me,” Cole said.

Cole’s fears were realized, she said, because the first death she was called to after taking office was a suicide involving a teenage girl she had seen in her courtroom for truancy proceedings and whom she had been trying to help.

Cole said when an officer at the scene realized the judge knew the girl, he told her he knew it would be hard for her to see the body and asked if she wanted him to call another judge to handle the case.

“And I said no. I’ve been elected to do this job. I’ve accepted the job, and I will do my job, no matter how difficult it is,” Cole said, adding, though, she has relived that experience again and again in the years since.

“It was a horrible thing to see,” she said.

Cole said that mindset, of having a job she was elected to do, has seen her through other difficult inquests.

“I’ve seen the deaths of people I’ve known since they were kids, family friends, many children, a tiny baby, but I’m committed to doing the very best job that I can, and that’s what keeps me going,” Cole said.

Cole said she also tries to speak with family members as part of her inquest, and, in the cases where she determines an autopsy is needed, to explain why.

She said once an autopsy is completed, the medical examiner will send the autopsy report narrative and photos taken during the autopsy back to her, and Cole sends the information to the state through a computer reporting system. A report is then automatically sent to the funeral home, and the funeral home completes additional information before sending their report to the city of Del Rio, and the city generates a death certificate, she said.

At that point, Cole said, her role in the death investigation is complete.

The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .

Joel Langton

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