Coroner said he thought Gilpin's death was 'horrible accident’

This from the Courier-Journal:

Jefferson County Deputy Coroner Sam Weakley testified Friday that there was no autopsy conducted on 15-year-old Max Gilpin because “at the time there was no talk whatsoever of malfeasance” in his death.

Weakley told jurors that after reviewing medical records and talking to Max’s family, he initially deemed the teenager’s death a “horrible accident,” and concluded as much in his cause of death ruling.

However, Weakley also testified that he did not interview players and other witnesses to the Aug. 20, 2008, practice at which Max collapsed from heat stroke.

“I may have missed something,” Weakley said on the ninth day of former PRP coach Jason Stinson’s reckless homicide and wanton endangerment trial.

Weakley testified that he is waiting for the outcome of the trial to decide if he will change his opinion on the manner of death in his coroner’s report...

In other testimony,

Terry Jones: The retired Louisville Metro Police detective, who led the investigation in the Stinson case, testified that he interviewed about 80 witnesses but acknowledged that he never talked to any medical professionals about Max’s death. Jones also said this was the first homicide case in his 21 years he could recall where an autopsy hadn’t been performed.

Brian Bratcher: A spectator at the soccer game next to the PRP football practice, Bratcher said he heard Stinson ask the team, “Who’s going to be the first to quit?” Bratcher said Max caught his eye as the teen appeared to be woozy, his legs shaking and nearly falling once before catching himself.

Heat Expert:

Max Gilpin would have survived if treated correctly

Max Gilpin would have survived if Pleasure Ridge Park’s coaching staff had treated his heat stroke correctly after he collapsed at a football practice last year, an expert on heat-related illnesses testified Thursday in Jefferson Circuit Court.

Doug Casa, the director of athletic-training education at the University of Connecticut, told jurors that though the 15-year-old’s body temperature reached 109.4 degrees shortly after he collapsed, his life would have been “guaranteed” saved if staff would have taken Max into the school’s locker room, about two minutes away, and put him into an iced whirlpool within five minutes of when he went down.

“If treated immediately and aggressively … it’s 100 percent survivable,” Casa told the jury. “No kid should ever die from heat stroke.”...