Former UCLA basketball player Tyler Honeycutt had marijuana present in his body at time of his death, report shows

Former UCLA basketball player Tyler Honeycutt had marijuana present in his body at the time of his death in July but did not test positive for any other drugs, according to the autopsy report released Tuesday.

Honeycutt’s mother told police that her son had been “sucking laughing gas for six months overseas and I think it scrambled his brain,” but the coroner did not run a test for nitrous oxide.

Sarah Ardalani, a public information officer with the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner’s office, said tests for nitrous oxide are not routinely conducted as part of autopsies unless requested by the deputy medical examiner. Since nitrous oxide has a half-life of only five minutes, Ardalani said, it would not be detected as part of toxicology tests unless the decedent had been ingesting the gas at the time of his death.

The deputy medical examiner ruled that Honeycutt, 27, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head after a standoff with police at his residence in Sherman Oaks. He had recently returned from playing professionally in Russia.