Richard Matt — one of two convicted murderers who escaped from a New York prison in June — was drunk at the time of his death, toxicology reports show.
Matt had a blood alcohol content of .18% when he was shot and killed in upstate New York not far from the Canadian border, the New York State Police said Wednesday in a news release.
This BAC is more than double the national legal limit of .08% for driving a car.
According to the State Police, an autopsy on Matt’s body was conducted at Albany Medical Center the day after he was shot and killed by an officer with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Tactical Unit.
Dr. Michael Sikirica determined that Matt died of severe skull fractures and brain injuries because of gunshot wounds to the head.
An investigation revealed that the Customs and Border Control member discharged “several rounds from a semi-automatic weapon, striking Matt in the head three times,” the news release said.
Matt was killed three weeks after he and fellow inmate David Sweat escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York.
Sweat was shot and captured alive two days later, 16 miles north of where Matt was killed.
Alcohol was one of the reasons Matt and David Sweat had to split, according to a law enforcement official briefed on Sweat’s interviews with investigators.
After being captured, Sweat told investigators that Matt was out of shape and hitting the bottle too hard after they broke into a cabin, a law enforcement official said.
As reported by CNN