Yesterday news broke that an Iowa-based doctor has been charged with the involuntary manslaughter of Slipknot bassist Paul Gray. Physician Daniel Baldi was found guilty of “unintentionally causing the death of Paul Gray by the commission of an act likely to cause death or serious injury, to-wit, continually wrote high-dose prescription narcotics to a known drug addict from 12/27/2005 until his death.”
Last night the band released their own statement on the case saying: “As the loss of our brother Paul Gray is still very fresh for us in the Slipknot family, this new development has us all in a state of anger and sadness. The fact that this person took advantage of our brother’s illness while he was in a position to help others has outraged everyone in our family. We can only hope that justice will be served so this can NEVER happen to anyone else ever again! Our thoughts go out to the families of the other victims. We plan to cooperate as much as we possibly can to ensure this tragedy is never repeated, and to make sure this man pays for what he has done.”
A postmortem examination found that Gray had excessive amounts of both morphine and fentanyl in his system as well as suffering from a very advanced heart condition. The court has decided that had Baldi not supplied the amount of drugs he did, Gray would still be alive.
The long-term Slipknot bassist was found dead in a hotel in Urbandale, Iowa, on May 24, 2010, aged 38. The band were shattered by the news, but after assessing their situation decided to push on, both for Gray and for themselves: curating their own festival, working on their new album, and recently releasing a best-of album.
