ALTADENA : Death in Fall Called Accidental, Not Murder

After interviewing nearly two dozen witnesses, detectives have concluded that a 20-year-old Cerritos College student whose death was reported as a murder in Altadena last week actually died when he fell out of a moving truck in a drunken stupor.

Initially, friends of Michael Anthony Sedillos told Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators that Sedillos was killed when a group of young men threw him from the back of a moving pickup truck after they beat him unconscious in the parking lot of a convenience store.

But Deputy Ron Riordan said Tuesday that the witnesses--all friends of Sedillos--later came forward and told detectives a different tale. They said the group was drinking in Eaton Canyon when one of Sedillos’ friends punched him in the face in retaliation for comments Sedillos made to a girl in the group. Because he was so drunk, Sedillos was knocked unconscious, Riordan said.

Sedillos’ friends put him in the back of the truck, but on the way to a hospital he awoke and was fatally injured when he fell out of the moving vehicle. An autopsy revealed that Sedillos’ blood alcohol level was 0.21%, Riordan said.