Coroner: Nixa man bitten by cottonmouth might have died from something else

A Nixa man who died in his sleep after being bitten twice by a suspected cottonmouth snake also had a lethal level of the narcotic Oxycodone in his blood, a toxicology report revealed.

Christian County Coroner Brad Cole said Gilbert De Leon, 37, also was legally drunk and had a nonlethal level of the narcotic Hydrocodone in his blood, according to the toxicology report.

Cole said he hasn’t yet decided how to list De Leon’s official cause of death.

“The toxicology report wasn’t going to show anything related to his snake bite, but he did have a blood-alcohol level of .108 percent (.08 percent is the legal limit for intoxication in Missouri), and he also had the two prescription drugs come up in his blood as well,” Cole said. “The Oxycodone shows at a level that’s at the lower end of the lethal range.”

The toxicology analysis didn’t test for snake venom. But Cole said the alcohol and two narcotics in De Leon’s system would have exacerbated the respiratory distress De Leon already was suffering from the snake bites. De Leon was bitten on both legs May 22 while wading in the James River.

De Leon’s girlfriend reported that he refused to go to a hospital for the snake bites, and she woke up the next day to discover De Leon dead.

Cole said he has two options in stating De Leon’s cause of death on a death certificate.

“It is either an accident or a homicide,” he said. “If he had a doctor’s prescription for the Oxycodone, then it would be ruled as an accidental death. I will find out if he had a prescription. But if he didn’t, then obviously someone would have given it to him, and it could be ruled a homicide. I have no idea who that might be.”

Cole said his research into venomous snake bites since De Leon’s death pointed more convincingly that a cottonmouth bit him.

“In the water a cottonmouth can be very aggressive,” he said. “The snake was underwater when he was bitten, and every indication I found is that they normally bite when underwater.”

Cole said he hoped to have an official cause of death determined within a couple of weeks.