Prosecutors Dismiss Murder Charges Stemming from Bar Fight in Downtown Stillwater

The Washington County Attorney’s Office has dismissed the second-degree murder charge filed last year against Eric Richard stemming from a bar fight at Smalley’s Caribbean Barbeque.

The medical examiner could not rule Adam McCloud's death a homicide, Washington County Attorney Pete Orput said Monday afternoon. After McCloud went through the intensive care unit at Regions Hospital, “he apparently rolled out of his hospital bed and landed on his head again." 

The complaint alleges that Richard and McCloud argued over a spilled drink, and that Richard was seen repeatedly punching McCloud in the face and head, causing him to fall and strike his head on the ground.

When police arrived at the bar just after 2 a.m. on Sept. 29, 2012, officers found McCloud conscious and lying on the ground, but friends told police he had been knocked out.

McCloud was transported to the hospital by medics, and at that time his injuries were thought to be “inconsequential,” police told Stillwater Patch last fall. “Over the weekend, the victim took a turn for the worse.”

According to the complaint, McCloud suffered several skull fractures and intracranial bleeding causing respiratory failure and, ultimately, his death on Oct. 4, 2012.

Staff at Regions Hospital was not immediately available for comment.

“There’s a real causation issue—and I can’t begin to say how frustrated I am, but there was—so it dropped it down to a first-degree assault, because the medical examiner can’t say that Richard punched him and therefore he hit his head and died,” Orput said.

Richard told police he was acting in self-defense after McCloud pushed him several times.

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As a part of the investigation, the medical examiner sent out a section of McCloud’s brain hematoma to a specialist in Tennessee, said Fred Fink, who heads the Criminal Division of the Washington County Attorney's Office. The specialist couldn’t determine whether the secondary hematoma was caused by the fall at the hospital or the incident at the bar.

Following the discovery, the charges were amended to first-degree assault, Fink said. The case is expected to follow the same schedule moving forward.

Fink said he has been prosecuting cases since 1975 and has never seen something like this happen.

“Effectively, there are intervening causes, which means it is impossible for the medical examiner to make a ruling on the cause of death,” Fink said. “It’s terribly frustrating, and my heart goes out to the victim’s family, but we can only do what the law allows us to do.”