Jurors: Drugs caused man’s death

Jen Lawson

Monday, March 8, 2004 | 9:28 a.m.

A Clark County coroner's inquest jury determined that a 25-year-old North Las Vegas man died in December from drugs he had ingested and not as a result of excessive force.

The seven North Las Vegas Police officers who were involved in a struggle with Daryl Hicks testified at the inquest Friday that Hicks was uncontrollable and had great strength, possibly from the PCP that was later found in his system.

Hicks' mother, Joyce Hicks, told the jury she saw officers kick and beat her son as they tried to get him medical care.

But a medical examiner said the only injuries on Hicks' body were small abrasions and contusions on his wrists and forearms, consistent with the struggle as police tried to handcuff him.

Hicks died of asphyxiation and PCP intoxication, and his running through his neighborhood and fighting with police caused his heart to race and metabolism to skyrocket. Consequently, the carbon dioxide in his system rose while his oxygen level dropped, the medical examiner said.

The incident occurred Dec. 16 after Joyce Hicks called 911 because Daryl Hicks was sweating heavily and complaining that he didn't feel well.

Police accompanied Southwest Ambulance personnel because the Hassell Avenue neighborhood is known as a high-crime area.

Officers found Hicks running through the neighborhood making "odd squealing noises, jumping over chain link fences, completely naked," Officer Leonard Cardinale said.

Hicks ran into his grandmother's house and officers saw him punch her in the face several times. He emerged from the house and growled at the officers, police testified.

Officers grabbed Hicks and pinned him against a parked car trying to get cuffs on him but he continued to resist. A shot of pepper spray seemed to make him even more enraged, police said.

Once the officers cuffed him, they placed him face-down on a gurney but Hicks continued to thrash around. He began vomiting and paramedics used a tube to help him breathe but they weren't successful, Southwest Ambulance personnel testified.

As paramedics tried to administer a shot of Valium to calm him, he stopped struggling. He was pronounced dead at University Medical Center.

The jurors took about 25 minutes to determine that Hicks caused his own death.