Autopsy finds that Elliot Blair was ‘murdered’ in Mexico: attorney

The private autopsy for the California lawyer who fell to his death from a resort balcony in Mexico has determined that he was murdered — as it emerged that local cops shook him down just hours before his mysterious death.

California public defender Elliot Blair — whose death had been ruled an accident — had suffered bruising that did not match the account of local authorities in Baja California, his family’s attorney Case Barnett told “Good Morning America” in an interview that aired Thursday.

“The autopsy confirms that he, Elliot Blair, was murdered that night,” Barnett said, adding that the evidence suggests Blair may have been attacked by more than one man.

Meanwhile, a source close to the family told the Orange County Register that two cops in Rosarito stopped Blair and his wife, Kimberly Williams, for rolling through a stop sign just hours before he died at the Las Rocas Resort and Spa on Jan. 14.

Blair didn’t have the amount demanded during the alleged shakedown, but handed over $160 and was let go, the source told the paper.

“We’ve never been pulled over before,” said Williams, who confirmed the confrontation with the police to ABC News Thursday in her first interview since her husband’s death.

“We were both rattled, but at the same time we both had this feeling of thank God they didn’t do anything more to us,” she said.

Less than two hours later, Blair, 33, an Orange County deputy public defender, died after falling from the third floor of the hotel. His body was found clad in his underwear, a T-shirt and socks.

His family wants authorities to investigate the alleged shakedown and determine whether it had anything to do with Blair’s death, the paper reported.

“He was my rock in this world,” Williams told ABC News. “We bought our dream home, planned to have children together.”

Williams, also a deputy public defender, added: “Without him, I feel like I have nothing.”

She said she had been asleep when a security guard and the hotel manager woke her up, saying, “Excuse me, miss, excuse me, excuse me, is this your boyfriend down here?”

“I turned to the side, I didn’t see him there, so I ran out the front door and they’re pointing over the side of our front door area to the ground. Well, that was my Elliot down there,” Williams told ABC News.

The State Attorney General’s Office of Baja California has said in a statement that Blair’s death “was the result of an unfortunate accident due to the fall of the deceased from a third floor.”

Prosecutors said a toxicology report also found that there was a “considerable” amount of alcohol in his body. His cause of death was listed as severe head trauma.

But Barnett and Williams pushed back at the findings and maintain that Blair was the victim of a vicious crime.

His wife also said he likely consumed five or six drinks over six hours that fateful night and was not so drunk that he’d fall over a balcony by accident.

“In my nine years of being with him and knowing him, I can tell you, I’ve never seen him sloppy. I’ve never seen him not be able to stand. I’ve not seen him not be able to walk and care for himself,” she told ABC News.

Dr. Rami Hashish, an injury expert consulting the family, said he doesn’t “really think that there’s much evidence [to] point to the fact that it was an accident.”

“I think it’s relatively clear the injury pattern[s] just simply don’t add up with one another,” he told ABC News.

“There’s bruising marks on the body. There’s indications of potential being dragged on the front of the body. There’s fractures to the back of the skull. Nothing really points to the fact that it was necessarily an accident,” Hashish added.

Williams said authorities discussed several theories with her, including suicide and accident.

“Everything under the sun except for what I think happened: Someone did this to him,” she said.

“I just know it’s not an accident. I know he didn’t fall. I just know that,” Williams said. “I want to do everything we can to figure out what happened in that 45-minute, hour time span. Because that’s what Elliot deserves. And that’s the hardest part for me, is not knowing.”

The grieving woman also said investigators asked her if she and Blair had been quarreling.

“We’re here on our anniversary. What are you talking about?” she said she told them. “No, we’re not fighting.”

Williams said she is speaking out so her late husband won’t be forgotten.

“I want the world to know who my Elliot is,” she told ABC News. “I want people to know he’s not some drunk that stumbled off the front ledge of our hotel room.

“I want the world to remember the person he was — his smile, his heart. That’s one of the only things keeping me going right now — is the idea of doing this for him, for honoring his name,” Williams added.