1984 Death of AIDS Patient Under Probe

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office has opened an inquiry into the 1984 death of an AIDS patient who may have been aided in committing suicide, a department official said Thursday.

Philip R. Spada, a supervising coroner’s investigator in charge of the department’s special investigations unit, said he is looking into the death of Ron Weigart, 31, who is listed as an AIDS fatality in county records.

“Under state law, we’re mandated to investigate whether a homicide was committed,” Spada said.

On Aug. 28, The Times reported the story of two Los Angeles men who claim to have aided in the death of Weigart, who had been given a terminal diagnosis by his doctor. The two men, AIDS counselor Marty James and Joe Perez, Weigart’s lover, said they gave Weigart pills to commit suicide on Dec. 31, 1983.

The two men said that the next morning, they discovered that Weigart was still alive. James said he slipped a plastic bag over Weigart’s head and secured it with a belt, hastening Weigart’s death.

Weigart’s death certificate indicates that he was cremated.

Spada said the coroner’s office also plans to review the circumstances surrounding the death of Keith Lower, 28, who died last Nov. 18. James has said that he also aided in Lower’s suicide. On Aug. 18, after a four-month investigation, the district attorney concluded that no charges would be filed against James because investigators had not been able to prove beyond his own statements that a crime had been committed.

“We plan on going back through our files,” Spada said of the Lower case. “We might re-evaluate that one entirely.”

Michael H. White, James’ attorney, said he was not surprised by the coroner’s decision, adding that neither he nor James had been contacted. He added that James has received favorable response in calls from AIDS patients. “Most everything we’ve heard has been positive support for Marty,” he said.