A Mexican autopsy revealed Orange County lawyer Elliot Blair suffered injuries suggesting he had possibly been dragged, conflicting with the official conclusion that he died in a drunken fall from a third-story hotel walkway, his family said Thursday, Feb. 9.
The official autopsy report and photos, obtained by Blair’s family, showed scrapes or floor burns on his knees that are inconsistent with a fall, according to the family’s attorney, Case Barnett. Bruising on Blair’s left forearm could have been defensive wounds, Barnett added.
The autopsy file has been reviewed by the family’s expert, Dr. Rami Hashish, a Santa Monica-based specialist in body performance and injury who advised Barnett. Results of a private autopsy are pending.
The new revelations are fueling the family’s belief that the 33-year-old deputy public defender was murdered Jan. 14 outside his room at the Las Rocas Resort and Spa in Rosarito Beach. Blair had a blood alcohol level of 0.10, above California’s 0.08 limit for driving, according to a copy of the Mexican autopsy obtained by the Southern California News Group. Mexican authorities said he was in the hotel hallway in his underclothes late at night apparently shooing noisy pigeons.
His wife, Kimberly Williams — also a deputy public defender — said the story does not fit with Blair’s personality.
“A fall does not make sense,” Williams said in an interview Thursday with the Southern California News Group. “Elliot being drunk and chasing pigeons does not make sense.” She estimated Blair had five or six drinks over a six-hour period that day.
“I’ve never seen him stumble drunk. … I’ve never seen him not be able to take care of himself,” she said. “We weren’t down there to party. We were there to celebrate our (first) anniversary. Drinking wasn’t a priority.”
She added: “He was meticulous. Everything he did, he put his whole heart and soul into it.”
Police at the scene had initially told Williams…
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