ISP: Inmate suffered from heart failure

SANDPOINT — More than a month after his death, Idaho State Police investigators announced Thursday that Bonner County Jail inmate Ward David Coble died of natural causes.

Coble, who died while in custody on June 18, was being held at the jail pending trial on a felony charge for eluding a sheriff’s deputy during a chase this spring.

An autopsy performed June 19 at the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office showed Coble, 50, died of heart failure. Upon the return of a toxicology report and the completion of post-mortem reports, the cause of death was further narrowed to dilated cardiomyopathy.

Most often diagnosed in middle age, dilated cardiomyopathy is a condition in which the heart becomes weakened and enlarged and cannot pump blood efficiently. Coble was also tested for 13 drug classes, all of which came back negative.

Coble died three days after pleading guilty to driving under the influence on April 26. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail with 28 days suspended and credit for two days served. However, he remained held on the eluding charge, which stemmed from an April 29 incident on Highway 41 in Blanchard.

He was also awaiting trial on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge for allegedly battering his terminally ill wife on a number of occasions in April.

Coble was served with divorce papers at the jail on June 2, court documents said. The woman cited “extreme cruelty” in her divorce filing.

The domestic battery and eluding charges were dismissed by the state because of Coble’s death, court records indicate.