Nothing was out of place in the room at Cibolo Creek Ranch. Some clothes hung in a closet, others were neatly folded both outside and inside a piece of luggage. A pitcher of water sat on a table, a shaving kit on the bathroom counter and a closed briefcase on a recliner.
On the bed lay the body of Antonin Scalia, 79, under sheets up to his chin.
Presidio County, Texas, Sheriff Danny Dominguez gave these and other details on the Supreme Court justice’s death in a report posted Wednesday on The Washington Post’s website.
CNN has not obtained the document. But Presidio County District Attorney Rod Ponton confirmed its key details, including the conclusion that there was no indication of foul play.
Dominguez’s account does the same as well as refuting the suggestion that — as once was reported — a pillow lay over Scalia’s mouth.
Instead, according to the sheriff, “All seemed to be in order.”
Friend, ranch owner: Scalia said he felt tired
On February 12, Scalia arrived at the luxury hunting ranch in a remote swath of West Texas, about 35 miles southwest of Marfa. He had planned to spend the weekend there hunting, Cibolo Creek’s owner John Poindexter said, according to the sheriff’s report.
A government official has told CNN that Scalia indicated to friends he wasn’t feeling well when he went to bed that Friday evening.
There was no mention of how the jurist felt that night in the Presidio County sheriff’s report. Poindexter and one of the late conservative stalwart’s friends, identified in the report as Allen Foster, both said that, after supper, “Scalia had said that he was tired and was going to his room.”
An avid hunter, Scalia didn’t join his companions for breakfast the next morning or when they went out to hunt. Someone at the luxury hunting ranch eventually went to check on him and found him unresponsive.
This is where the sheriff’s report picks up. Poindexter called the sheriff’s office around noon that Saturday asking for help contacting the U.S. Marshals Service about a death on his property. He refused to identify the deceased, telling Dominguez that “this death was way beyond my authority and that it should go to the Feds.”
The Presidio County sheriff soon connected Poindexter with a U.S. Marshals Service official. But he also — before marshals arrived at the scene — headed out on his own to Cibolo Creek Ranch.
Pillow didn’t seemingly ‘inhibit Scalia’s breathing’
Once there, Dominguez met with Poindexter and Foster, then went to Scalia’s room. According to the report, the justice “was on the bed facing up,” with three stacked pillows elevating his head.
“(He) appeared to have fallen asleep in that position, indicating he died in that position as well,” the sheriff wrote in the report. “Both of Scalia’s hands were resting at his side.”
Reports — fanned by Donald Trump, the GOP presidential front-runner, among others — suggested that a pillow was over Scalia’s mouth when he was discovered. But the Presidio County sheriff indicated that wasn’t the case.
The top pillow case “appeared to have shifted at some point in the night due to the weight of his head on the pillow, causing the pillow case to slide down and cover his eyes,” Dominguez said in the report. “The position of the pillow did not seem to have inhibited Scalia’s breathing.”
The sheriff added, “The sheets and pillows that were being used by Scalia were still in the creased position from that day’s room service, indicating there was no struggle involved.”
Investigators at ranch deep into the night
According to Dominguez, “Nothing was out of place in the main room suite, the kitchenette area or the bathroom area.”
There was a breathing machine on a table, but it was switched off and its hose wasn’t connected to Scalia, the report said.
After learning the local justice of the peace was out of town, Dominguez contacted Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara. The two talked over the phone and — based on what the sheriff had told her — Guevara pronounced Scalia dead at 1:52 p.m. on February 13.
U.S. marshals arrived “a short time later,” with one official from that agency eventually flying to the ranch from El Paso by helicopter, the sheriff’s report said
The investigation continued through 10 that night. The FBI was contacted but “declined to get involved in the investigation after hearing the report of the circumstances of the death from the U.S. Marshals,” according to the report.
Employees from a funeral home arrived around 11:30 p.m. Within about a half-hour, they — accompanied by U.S. marshals — left the ranch with Scalia’s body.
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