FREMONT, Ohio -- An investigation has concluded an accidental, self-inflicted gunshot killed a 19-year-old northern Ohio man whose family challenged a ruling that it was a suicide.
State Attorney General Mike DeWine's office had investigated the March 2012 death of Jacob Limberios and had called a grand jury to consider testimony.
Authorities said Wednesday that the grand jury declined to bring charges against anyone in the case.
The Sandusky County coroner had ruled the death a suicide but also said the teen might not have known the gun was loaded.
His parents fought that ruling and hired their own forensic pathologist to do an autopsy.
He concluded the death was a homicide after the teen's body was exhumed last fall.
Below is the statement from DeWine's office:
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced today that the special grand jury investigating the death of Jacob Limberios returned no indictments and issued a report that the death was not a suicide. The BCI investigation gathered new evidence showing Limberios was likely holding the weapon at very close range when it fired accidentally without a trigger pull.
The Ohio Attorney General's Office was assigned as special prosecutors in the case in May. Special agents with the Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation were requested to investigate the incident by the Office's Special Prosecutions Section.
BCI special agent investigators found that the gun belonging to Jacob Limberios, 19, of Castalia, had a faulty safety mechanism. Under BCI testing, the safety failed 30 percent of the time, meaning the gun could fire without its trigger being pulled.
Foresnic analysis was also performed by Dr. Michael Baden, former Chief Medical Examiner for the City of New York, and Dr. Vincent DiMaio, former Chief Medical Examiner of San Antonio. Doctors Baden and DiMaio both found evidence of a gunshot wound on the right side of the victim's head which was caused by a gunshot fired at very close range.
The new evidence regarding the unsafe weapon and the nature of the gunshot, along with other BCI forensic analysis, corroborated witness accounts that Limberios was shot while he was holding the weapon despite having given no indication that he intended to shoot himself.
"What happened on March 2, 2012, was a horrible tragedy," said Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. "However, we believe that Jacob Limberios did not intend to kill himself. His gun can fire without a trigger pull, and that put him in mortal danger.
"Jacob Limberios did not commit suicide," DeWine stated. "He died in a horrible accident."
