COEUR d’ALENE — The man accused of feeding a lethal dose of methamphetamine to the grandson of a former Post Falls mayor appeared Thursday afternoon before Magistrate James Stow for a preliminary hearing.

Shaun Patrick Kelly, 43, is charged with second-degree murder and aggravated assault in connection with the death last August of 22-year-old Evan Mychal Larkin. Kelly is also charged with unlawful possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.

Kelly, arrested July 1 in Spokane, is alleged to have forced Larkin to eat the fatal dose of methamphetamine at gunpoint to prove he was not a police informant. Larkin is the grandson of Clay Larkin, who served as mayor of Post Falls for 13 years.

Evan Larkin was found unconscious Aug. 20 in his truck, which was running but parked, in the valet parking area of the emergency room at Kootenai Health. Witnesses reported seeing a second man driving the truck into the parking lot and then leaving in a second vehicle. Larkin never regained consciousness and died three days later. The cause of death was preliminarily determined to be anoxic brain injury as the result of methamphetamine overdose.

Police investigators, using surveillance footage at the hospital, were able to identify the man driving the vehicle as Josh Brown.

Brown reportedly told police investigators he and Larkin had gone to a residence in Post Falls to meet a man named Shaun so they could “get high.” Brown said the man, later identified as Shaun Patrick Kelly, told them to take their clothing off and took their phones and keys. He later pointed what Brown described to police as an “M16-style rifle” at Larkin and demanded that Larkin eat a “1.8 gram rock of dope.” Larkin balked but eventually ingested the drug, according to Brown. A short time later, Larkin began to “act strangely and overheat” and Brown told police he observed saliva and foam coming from Larkin’s mouth. The men tried to cool Larkin off in the shower, but his condition did not improve. According to the police investigators’ report, Brown and Kelly carried Larkin to his truck. Brown then drove Larkin to Kootenai Health. He told investigators that while on his way to the hospital, he called a friend who picked him up at the hospital.

Kelly’s preliminary hearing, when prosecutors work to establish probable cause to have the case moved up to District Court for a future trial, will continue today following three hours of witness testimony on Thursday.

Dr. Sally Aiken, the Spokane County medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Larkin, testified Thursday that the official opinion in the cause of Larkin’s death is hypoxia encephalopathy due to methamphetamine toxicity.

"The brain was swollen," Aiken explained to the court. "Microscopically the brain showed evidence of hypoxia or lack of oxygen."

Aiken said Larkin's blood samples, drawn Aug. 21 at Kootenai Health, showed he had 1,900 nanograms per milliliter of methamphetamine in his system. She said the concentration is high enough to believe it contributed to his death, but she could not say whether the concentration was taken over a period of time or in a single dose. She also said the amount of drugs that could cause a lethal overdose can vary depending on the person and is difficult to predict.

Before Aiken testified to the concentration of the drug in Larkin's blood, several witnesses were called to testify regarding the chain of custody of the blood samples. Det. Brad Maskell, a major crimes investigator with the Kootenai County Sheriff's office, said he learned of the suspicious nature of Larkin's death the morning of the autopsy and was going to Spokane to be present during the exam. As he was leaving town, Kootenai County's chief deputy coroner, Lynette Acebedo, met him on U.S. 95 near Kootenai Health and gave him three blood samples she had just picked up from the lab. Acebedo said the samples were sealed in tubes in a bag, so she grabbed a Styrofoam cup and filled it with ice to keep the samples cool.

"It is a little out of the ordinary," Acebedo said.

Acebedo said the blood would typically be transported with the body, but during the hearing it was brought up that the reason the autopsy was not done until four days after Larkin's death was because the Kootenai County Coroner's Office originally ruled the death as accidental.

After hearing testimony from Acebedo, Aiken, Maskell and the chemistry and processing supervisor of the lab at Kootenai Health, Magistrate Stow said while it is an unusual situation, it is the court’s opinion that a sufficient chain of custody was maintained.

The preliminary hearing is scheduled to continue at 8:30 a.m. today.