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Coroner defends delay in ruling House of Hope death
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House of Hope Center
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Dr. David Kennedy
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Jimmy Hughes
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning County Coroner David Kennedy said he’s “surprised” the Youngstown police chief is complaining about how long it took to rule the death of a North Side man a homicide.
“The ruling shouldn’t hold up the investigation,” Dr. Kennedy said Thursday. “The police department was certainly aware of how we were leaning and what was happening.”
Michael J. Lambert, who lived at House of Hope, died from “manual strangulation and homicide” Nov. 11, 2010, according to a June 3 coroner’s report.
Youngs-town Police Chief Jimmy Hughes questioned why it took nearly seven months for the homicide ruling.
“Why now are we getting a ruling?” Hughes told The Vindicator on Wednesday. “We were pleading with the coroner for a report” when Lambert was found dead.
In response, Dr. Kennedy said Thursday that he was “surprised [Hughes would] complain publicly without talking” to him.
House of Hope is a group home at 115 Illinois Ave. for about 55 people with mental impairments such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Lambert, 59, was found dead in a bathtub. On Nov. 13, an autopsy was performed.
Regarding the seven months it took for the autopsy results, Dr. Kennedy said the office “wanted to make sure we were right,” and “it was an unusual case.”
Dr. Kennedy said his office told the police department that it initially looked like a homicide.
Determining Lambert’s death was a homicide was more complicated than cases of those killed in a shooting or stabbing, Dr. Kennedy said.
Also, that those involved in the case are mentally impaired added to the difficulty, he said.
The police department investigated the incident when it occurred and is reviewing the case again. No arrests have been made.
Another resident “made several incriminating statements that were highly suggestive that a struggle of some type had occurred,” the autopsy report reads.
But Hughes said the “altercation” between Lambert and the other resident “didn’t appear to cause the death.”