A defense witness testified in criminal district court Friday that Robert E. Dunn Jr. could have died as a result of being given "knockout drops" in a cocktail in a Vieux Carre night spot on Jan. 1.
The witness, Dr. Edgar Hull, professor of medicine and head of the department of medicine at the Louisiana State university school of medicine, added, however, that Dunn's "acute" heart condition was sufficient to cause his death.
Dr. Hull testified at a special hearing to record his testimony before criminal district court Judge Fred W. Oser. Dr. Hull is scheduled to leave for Italy Monday and will not be in New Orleans when two defendants go on trial Oct. 24 for the murder of Dunn.
Charged with administering chloral hydrate—''knockout drops" —in a drink served to Dunn, wealthy Nashville, Tenn., contractor, in the Latin Quarter night club, 427 Bourbon, are Carlo Quartararo and Lucille Caroline Cotta. Quartararo is former owner of the place and the Cotta woman formerly was employed there as a hostess.
Dr. Hull testified that he had studied a pathological report on Dunn's body made to Dr. C. Grenes Cole, former Orleans parish coroner, and from the report he had deduced that Dunn had died of a heart condition.
He said the report showed that the heart of Dunn was enlarged; that the arteries had become narrow, which prevented a sufficient supply of blood from reaching the heart, and that the muscles of the heart had deteriorated. He said that these conditions can cause sudden death.
Under cross-examination by executive assistant district attorney George J. Gulotta, Dr. Hull said, however, that an overdose of chloral hydrate could be fatal. But, he said, a man with a diseased heart can usually stand a larger dose of drugs that a man with a normal heart.
