By STEPHEN THOMPSON
The Tampa Tribune

CLEARWATER - The county’s top prosecutor has cleared seven Pinellas Sheriff’s deputies – some of whom used their Tasers – who subdued a suspect who later died.

Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe ruled the May 5 death of Daniel Bradley Young was an “excusable homicide,” according to a letter he wrote to Sheriff Jim Coats that was released late this afternoon.

Young, 33, was spotted May 5, at roughly 2:10 a.m., yelling at cars as they drove by him on Park Boulevard, according to McCabe’s letter. He was wearing only shorts and was carrying a large garbage can, it says.

Pinellas Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Bowers found him lying on the porch of a home at 7800 120 St. N., the letter says.

Young was in a fetal position, with his head inside a large planter pot, the letter says. Bowers told Young he was there to help him, but Young started making incoherent remarks about his mother and stating “Don’t Shoot Me,” the letter says.

Because Young was acting strangely and weighed some 240 pounds, Bowers waited for back-up from two deputies, the letter says.

Bowers also summonsed paramedics because Young appeared to be high from alcohol or drugs or some combination of both, the letter says.
Bowers and the other two deputies decided to remove Young from the porch, but Young did not cooperate, the letter says.

He flailed his arms and kicked one deputy in the leg, the letter says. A decision was then made to take Young into custody under the state’s Baker Act, which allows authorities to take a mentally-troubled individual into custody for psychiatric testing.

Young refused to be handcuffed, and, as he was so strong, the three deputies found themselves incapable of controlling him, the letter says.

That’s when Deputy David Antolini announced he was going to use his electric stun gun, the letter says. The single Taser shot allowed the deputies to take him from the porch to the front lawn, but then Young resumed flailing his arms and kicking, the letter says.

He knocked Antolini’s Taser from Antolini’s hand, and Antolini punched Young in the face and throat several times, the letter says.

Another Deputy, Bridget Morris, then deployed her Taser on Young, but Young still resisted, lifting whatever deputies clung to him off the ground and fighting them, the letter says.

Though Morris managed to get one handcuff on one of Young’s hands, and then a second set on Young’s other hand, she couldn’t clasp the two together, so she issued another Taser shot to Young, the letter says.

The three deputies asked for more backup, the letter says, and four more arrived.

One of them, Deputy Paul Giovannoni,  used his Taser on Young, and Morris deployed hers again, too, the letter says.
Young continued fighting.

Giovannoni used his Taser again.

Young stopped kicking long enough for the deputies to roll him on his stomach, but he continued to struggle, the letter says.

Antolini used so-called knee spikes to Young’s shoulders to get Young’s arms and hands free from underneath his body so he could be handcuffed, the letter says.

Then another deputy hooked his handcuffs to one of the handcuffs already on Young, and another deputy hooked her handcuffs to the other handcuffs already on Young and the four sets of handcuffs were finally hooked together.

Young was now subdued, face down on the ground and handcuffed behind his back, the letter says.

When he was rolled back over onto his back, deputies realized he was in medical distress, and the paramedics, who were already on the scene, responded to Young, the letter says.

The paramedics found Young was not breathing and did not have a pulse. Young was transported to Largo Medical Center where he was pronounced dead by an emergency room doctor.

Tiffany Castle, Young’s fiancé, told authorities he had abused alcohol and cocaine in the past, and that when he used cocaine, he becomes very violent and paranoid, McCabe’s letter says.

An associate medical examiner ruled Young’s death was the result of excited delirium syndrome caused by cocaine toxicity, with a contributing cause of death the blunt trauma brought about by the deputies’ efforts to restrain Young, the letter says.

The autopsy revealed Young had in his system high levels of cocaine, among other drugs.

“In this case, the use of force resulting in blunt trauma, including the use of a Taser or restraint, individually or collectively contributed to but did not cause the death of Daniel Young,” McCabe’s letter says.

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