Heroin Killed Belushi, Pathologist Asserts

A dose of heroin triggered comedian John Belushi’s death in the midmorning hours of March 5, 1982, a pathologist testified Wednesday.

Dr. Michael Baden, a deputy medical examiner for New York City, was called as a prosecution witness in the fourth day of a preliminary hearing for Cathy Evelyn Smith.

Smith, 38, is charged with second-degree murder and 13 counts of drug furnishing in connection with the comedian’s death at Chateau Marmont Hotel in Hollywood.

Deputy Dist. Attys. Michael J. Montagna and Elden S. Fox contend that Smith alone provided Belushi with heroin and injected him with mixtures of that drug and cocaine in the final days and hours of his life.

Because they concede that Belushi obtained cocaine from other sources, the prosecutors must show that heroin alone was the likely cause of Belushi’s death in order to prove that Smith was responsible for it.

Smith’s attorneys, Howard L. Weitzman and Scott S. Furstman, maintain that Belushi himself was to blame.

In his testimony in the courtroom of Los Angeles Municipal Judge James F. Nelson, Baden initially said he agreed with the conclusion of Los Angeles County’s acting chief medical examiner, Dr. Ronald Kornblum, who testified last week that Belushi died of acute cocaine and morphine intoxication.

Heroin, a morphine derivative, breaks down into morphine almost immediately upon entering the bloodstream.

But in response to questions posed by Montagna, Baden said he believed that, but for the heroin, Belushi would not have died.

“The heroin was indispensable, essential, to his death at that time?” the prosecutor asked.

“Yes,” Baden replied.

“Can you say the same for cocaine?” Montagna asked.

“No,” Baden said.

Moments later, the doctor added, “I think the heroin was present in doses, and the usage of heroin itself was sufficient to cause death. I don’t think the cocaine in and of itself would have been sufficient to cause death.”

Baden was asked by prosecutors three years ago to analyze autopsy reports on the 33-year-old Belushi prepared by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office because of his expertise in the field of drug overdose deaths, Montagna and Fox said outside the courtroom.

The New York pathologist was one of the medical experts who testified before the Los Angeles County Grand Jury that indicted Smith, a Canadian citizen, in March, 1983. She voluntarily returned to Los Angeles from Toronto earlier this year after initially fighting extradition.

In some respects, Baden’s testimony conflicted with points made earlier by Kornblum. Baden, for example, estimated that Belushi died at about 10:30 a.m., give or take an hour, while Kornblum last week put the time of death at between 10 a.m. and noon.

Baden also testified that traces of morphine found in Belushi’s blood indicate that Belushi took the fatal dose of drugs within two hours of his death. Kornblum testified that the fatal dose could have come as many as four hours before Belushi died.

In an interview published by the National Enquirer in June, 1982, Smith is quoted as saying that she administered the fatal injection at 3:30 a.m. the day Belushi died. Both Kornblum and Baden said that an injection at that hour most likely would not have caused Belushi’s death.

The hearing will resume Monday, when Montagna and Fox will seek to introduce as evidence tape recordings purportedly made of Smith’s interview with two Enquirer reporters. The reporters have also been subpoenaed, but they are fighting efforts to make them take the stand.