Autopsy says heart attack; Tchula police chief says homicide

Tchula police are charging five men with second degree murder even though the autopsy on the victim shows he died of natural causes.

As of Tuesday night, three of the five were in custody, Tchula Police Chief Kenneth Hampton said.

Clarence Blue, 44, a double amputee who used a wheelchair, was found by his mother and his son in a pool of blood in the street near his home in Tchula in late May, said his mother Essie Blue.

Kamechie Coffer, 18, Devonte Pepper, 17, and Kajarius Anderson, 18, were in custody as of Tuesday morning. Hampton said he's still looking for Aavon Coffer, 20, and Daqurius Lockett, 16.

Officials from the Department of Public Safety say an autopsy from the Crime Lab shows no trauma except a laceration to the front of his head, and that Blue died of "coronary artery atherosclerosis" or heart disease. Holmes County Coroner Dexter Howard, who didn't see the body, could only say Blue died at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, and that the autopsy results came back as natural causes.

Essie Blue said that when she found him, he had "holes" in the back of his head, and he told her, "I can't believe my friends would do this."

"He was laying in a puddle of blood, and he didn’t have any pants on," she said. "The only thing he had on was his shorts, that’s the only thing he had on was his shorts. I hated to see him like that."

"As far as addressing the autopsy report, it’s a load of crap. I’m not going to sugarcoat it," Hampton said. "Either they examined the wrong body, or they examined the wrong body."

To read the rest of this story, visit the Jackson Clarion-Ledger.

This story was originally published June 30, 2016 at 11:48 AM with the headline "Autopsy says heart attack; Tchula police chief says homicide."