Coroner Delays Ruling in Boy’s ‘Mercy Killing’

Cook County’s medical examiner said Friday he has not declared a homicide in the death of a toddler whose father is charged with murder for removing the comatose boy from a hospital life-support system.

Dr. Robert Stein said that for now he has ruled the manner of Samuel Linares’ death “undetermined” while declaring the immediate cause to be a lack of oxygen to the brain caused by the boy’s choking on a balloon last summer.

The termination of mechanical life support was a contributing factor, but not the immediate cause of 16-month-old Samuel’s death, Stein wrote on the death certificate following an autopsy.

The doctor said he would amend the certificate later to include the manner of death, but refused to say when that might be. The other possibilities are homicide, accident, natural causes and suicide.

Lawyers for Rudolfo Linares, the boy’s father, said Stein’s action bolstered their defense.

“I’ve never come across a case where if the medical examiner did not determine there was a homicide, you could come up with murder,” said Kevin Smith, one of three public defenders representing Linares.

State’s Atty. Cecil Partee could not comment on the case because the county grand jury investigation is still under way, said spokeswoman Kiki Kryiakopoulos.

In another development, the Illinois Department of Public Aid said that Linares removed his son from the breathing apparatus about three weeks before the state was set to cut off public assistance that had covered about $105,000 in medical costs for the child.

Kathy Kustra, assistant director of the agency, said Linares’ wife, Tamara, was notified in mid-March that she was no longer eligible for public assistance because she had failed to cooperate with an investigation into her eligibility.

Last week, Linares pulled out a gun in his son’s hospital room and kept hospital staff and police at bay for about 45 minutes while Samuel died in his arms.

He was charged with murder and is free on bond.