Autopsy Results Cite Injuries In Death Of Middlesex County Man

Autopsy results show a 27-year-old Piscataway man, who was in police custody last fall, died from blunt force trauma to the head and neck, authorities said.

The autopsy by the Middlesex County Medical Examiner’s Office also showed that David Yearby suffered an “acute angle insertion of coronary arteries,” which is a congenital heart condition, and that heart condition contributed to his Nov. 2 death, according to a news release from Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey.

It could not be determined how or when Yearby was injured, the news release said.

But the post-mortem report said he “was involved in several physical altercations prior to and during his incarceration’’ at the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center in North Brunswick, according to the news release.

He was arrested in Piscataway on Oct. 31 on charges of assault, assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest and obstruction of the administration of justice.

He punched a 16-year-old boy, then punched a police officer when she arrived at the scene, the news release said.

Yearby also was charged with contempt of a judicial order in connection with an unrelated incident.

He was sent to the county jail, with bail set at $100,000.

At the jail, he punched another inmate and struggled with corrections officers in separate incidents, the news release said.

He was placed in restraints, and during a routine check at 3:23 a.m. Nov. 2, he appeared to be in distress, so he was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, and pronounced dead shortly after 5 a.m., authorities said.

No charges have been filed in connection with his death.