Roseville police said Friday that a death tentatively ruled a homicide in August has been determined to be accidental due to falls.
Police were called to United Hospital in St. Paul on Aug. 13 to investigate the death of Jay Barron, 47. The Roseville man had been taken to the hospital because he was suffering seizures and was vomiting.
The Ramsey County medical examiner's office tentatively ruled the death a homicide, and police said Barron may have been injured in an unreported assault earlier in the week. Autopsy results eventually showed that Barron died of blood loss from "spleen lacerations due to falls," said Roseville Lt. Lorne Rosand, a department spokesman.
"Jay's lifestyle was ... not a lifestyle that probably most lived," Rosand said. "Chemicals played a role in his life."
There may have been some physical assaults between Barron and people who lived with him, but Barron had a history of falling, Rosand said. "I don't think it was one fall," he said. "It was a number of falls. He had fallen off of his riding lawn mower several times."
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