Federal prosecutor insists Jasper death not murder

Alfred Wright's overdose death wouldn't normally draw the attention of federal prosecutors as well as the DEA, Texas Rangers, community activists and a U.S. congresswoman, but when Wright's mutilated and nearly nude body turned up last year in a storied slice of East Texas, there was a scramble for answers over whether the black man had been lynched.

Thirteen months after Wright's decaying remains were pulled from the brush, a top federal prosecutor said Thursday that the matter has been exhaustively probed and that he stands by the finding that Wright died of a drug overdose.

The only person charged in connection with the death is Shane Hadnot, a small-time Jasper drug dealer, also black, who pleaded guilty this week to peddling Wright a small amount of cocaine.

Conspiracy ruled out

Malcolm Bales, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, said he understands Wright's family has been angry - and has heard all manner of conspiracy theories involving Wright's death and allegations that he was actually murdered by East Texas law-enforcement officers, but that there was no truth to any of it.

"His family, specifically his parents and siblings, had some very strong ideas that they believed he was the victim of racial violence," Bales said. "Those things got as wild as believing that (Sabine County Sheriff) Tom Maddox and the Texas Rangers were involved in a cover-up, if not complicity in murder," Bales said. "But the fact is that he was not murdered."

Wright was a physical therapy assistant for a home health care company. He was last seen in November 2013 outside a convenience store along Texas Highway 87 near Hemphill. His truck apparently overheated there just before dusk, and he decided to try and jog to his destination.

His body was found two weeks later about a mile away in an area that already had been searched and had yielded only shreds of his clothing and a watch.

Two autopsies, including one sanctioned by Wright's family with a medical examiner they hired, determined his body contained cocaine, methamphetamine and Xanax, according to authorities.

His death was ruled an accident due to intoxication caused by a combination of drugs.

Bales noted widespread concern about the case, including an inquiry by U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat who represents part of Houston.

"The nature of the allegations were so sensational," he said. "It is not everyday that I get a congressional inquiry," he continued. "We wanted to be responsive to that inquiry and the pleas of the family and frankly, the requests of law enforcement for us to come in and evaluate, assess, and make some investigative and prosecutorial decisions."

Body ravaged by nature

Jackson Lee, who had no comment Thursday, has called on the Department of Justice to look into the case to see if Wright's civil rights were violated.

The dead man's father, Douglas Wright Sr., joined a demonstration outside the U.S. attorney's office in downtown Houston earlier this year to draw media attention to the case.

The father, who could not be reached Thursday, has said arresting Hadnot - who was charged in an extraordinarily detailed 20-page federal indictment filed in Beaumont - was just part of a cover-up to keep the public from learning the truth about his son's death.

Wright has said he was most concerned with the condition of his son's body.

"How did drugs cut his throat? How did drugs cut his tongue out? How did drugs cut his ears off?" Douglas Wright said. "If by chance drugs did get into his system, how did all of this happen to him physically?"

Authorities said the 28-year-old Wright's body had been ravaged by animals and insects, with its eyes, tongue and other parts eaten away.