RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - More than a year after the death of a North Carolina prison inmate left paralyzed after what he said was a beating by correctional officers, the state medical examiner hasn't completed his autopsy report.
Timothy E. Helms died in a Greensboro hospital on Sept. 5, 2010. His skull had been smashed following an August 2008 fire in his prison cell at Alexander Correctional Institution in Taylorsville. He was 49.
He was in a coma for two months after the incident, in which his medical records say he suffered blunt-force trauma.
A spokeswoman for state medical examiner says autopsy reports are usually completed in about six months. Spokeswoman Patricia Barnes says more testing of Helms' blood was ordered, taking more time.
State law requires autopsy reports to be made public.
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