Alm Was Legally Drunk Before Suicide

Jeff Alm of the Houston Oilers was legally drunk, the effects enhanced by a prescription barbiturate, when he committed suicide after a car crash that killed his best friend.

Alm’s blood-alcohol level was .14, above the .10 legal limit for Texas drivers, Joseph Jachimczyk, Harris County’s chief medical examiner, said Wednesday.

Jachimczyk added that the drug Fiorinal, a commonly prescribed muscle relaxant, was found in Alm’s blood. The defensive tackle was recuperating from a leg injury at the time of his death.

An Oiler spokesman said team doctors had prescribed two drugs for Alm--one for the leg fracture and another for an upper respiratory infection. He refused, however, to name the drugs.

Alm, 25, was driving his new luxury car shortly before 3 a.m. CST on Dec. 14 when he crashed into a barrier on a southwest Houston highway ramp. His best friend, Sean Lynch, 25, was ejected from the passenger seat and thrown down an embankment.

Jachimczyk confirmed an earlier report by police that Lynch’s blood alcohol content was .30, three times the legal limit.

He said each man probably drank about the same amount of alcohol, their sizes accounting for the differing alcohol levels. Alm weighed 291 pounds and Lynch 174.

Miscellany

The bubble-topped roof of the Carrier Dome remained deflated as snow squalls slowed the efforts of workers trying to clear nearly two feet of snow from the roof of the Syracuse, N.Y., structure, but the dome’s managing director said he expected the building to be ready in time for tonight’s exhibition basketball game.

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Walter Ray Williams Jr., who put together the best season in 15 years on the professional bowling tour, was a near-unanimous pick as the PBA player of the year for 1993.