California lawyer Elliot Blair suffered a badly fractured skull and bruises across his body before he died at a Mexican resort, a family attorney says.
The Orange County public defender’s mysterious death at the Las Rocas Resort and Spa in Rosarito Beach on 14 January was initially ruled as a result of an accidental fall by Mexican authorities.
However, his wife Kimberly Williams believes he was murdered and requested a second independent autopsy be carried out in the United States.
Preliminary results have revealed that Blair, 33, had more than 40 fractures on his head mostly in the back of his skull and left side of his face, attorney Case Barnett told the New York Post.
Mr Barnett told the Post that the injuries suggest Blair was beaten by several assailants and that he may have been “hit and dragged”.
“It’s obvious to us and to the experts we have spoken to that this is foul play,” he said.
The second autopsy revealed several alarming inconsistencies from the account of his death put forward by Mexican authorities.
The fractures to Blair’s head were on the opposite side to where he had been found lying on concrete, Mr Barnett said.
And a large black mark on his arm could have been a defensive wound, Mr Barnett added.
Blair and his wife had been celebrating their first wedding anniversary with dancing and karaoke at the resort just south of Tijuana on the night he died.
Ms Williams has said that after leaving the Spash Baja bar and restaurant at about 7pm that two local police officers extorted them for money.
“The officer asked us where we were staying and what we were doing in Rosarito,” Ms Williams told ABC News.
“Elliot told him we were on vacation. He asked us again for cash. At that point, Elliot pulled out his Orange County Public Defender’s badge.”
Ms Williams, who is also an attorney at the Orange County Public Defender’s Office, said the officers continued to demand money from them, and Blair ended up handing over about $160.
She said they later returned to their resort and fell asleep next to each other just before midnight.
She woke about two hours later to the devastating news from hotel staff that her husband had died after falling from their fourth floor balcony.
The State Attorney General’s Office of Baja California has said that Blair’s death “was the result of an unfortunate accident” from a fall.
Mexican authorities said there were no indications that a struggle had taken place inside the hotel room, and according to a toxicology report, there was a “considerable” amount of alcohol in Mr Blair’s body, the State Attorney General’s Office of Baja California added.
The cause of death was recorded as severe head trauma in the initial autopsy.
Ms Williams has disputed that her husband was intoxicated that night.
