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Medical examiner rules Roxbury man died earlier this year from 1991 shooting, not more recent case of Covid-19

Boston Police report the state medical examiner has concluded that David Drayton died on April 15 not, as originally determined, from Covid-19, but from complications stemming from a 1991 shooting that left him paralyzed.

The medical examiner's conclusion means that if police find who shot Drayton multiple times at 134 Warren St., that person can be charged with murder. Police say that a suspect was taken into custody at the time, but did not say what happened to that person.

Drayton, 45, died just one day after his mother, Jacqueline died from of Covid-19, and he was initially ruled a Covid-19 victim as well. A Globe portrait described how she care for him for 30 years in their apartment after he was shot at 15. Drayton, who got around in an electric wheelchair, regularly gave inspirational talks to newly paralyzed patients at Boston Medical Center.

At the time of his shooting, the crime attracted little attention outside his family and the immediate area.

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Comments

Can anyone elaborate on this 'complications stemming from 1991 shooting'? Did he have CV-19? Would he have died that day, if he didn't? What a strange thing to conclude.

He was killed by a 29 year old shooting injury? So confused

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Long-term paralysis has a variety of health risks, including blood clotting and circulatory and respiratory problems.

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Adam, This technically adds to this years murder count.

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Is that how that works?

Anyways, they also ruled a 2018 case a homicide and announced that yesterday as well. That person did die in the same year as the incident causing the death, but months later.

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Theres no other way to rule it. It wasn’t a 1991 homicide. When you die is when you die. Sad.

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i hope david and his mother have peace now.

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RIP Sqeeky!!!

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If someone was charged with his shooting, do they go and update the charges? If he is already out how does this work?

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If the assailant were already tried and convicted (or acquitted, for that matter) for the initial act (as assault with a deadly weapon and/or attempted murder or something like that), I assume they'd be in the clear, given double jeopardy protections. At any other point in the process (including mid-trial, though I assume there'd be a little weirdness in that case), the charges would likely be amended.

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Also not a lawyer, but a quick search of The Google yields the term "delayed death exception" to double jeopardy, and a bunch of law firm websites with info about it, as well as this NYTimes article about a NY case in the 90's.

https://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/11/nyregion/court-upholds-murder-charge-...

And this more recent story from BuzzFeed, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/albertsamaha/a-matter-of-time

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