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Austin Harrouff: No evidence face-biting suspect was under influence of bath salts or flakka

Posted at 6:29 AM, Nov 23, 2016
and last updated 2016-11-24 04:14:22-05

When deputies say that they came upon Austin Harrouff on top of John Stevens, one of his two alleged victims, he was biting him in the face and abdomen.  After his arrest, he was taken to the hospital.

“There were some preliminary tests done at the hospital not particularly revealing so we took that blood and submitted it to FBI specialists in Quantico," Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said.

The results showed no evidence of bath salts or flakka.

“We were surprised at the results of the blood work," said the Sheriff.

RELATED: More coverage of the case

The test did show that Harrouff had an ethanol level of .17.  There were also trace amounts of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.  Documents released earlier this month show Harrouff, when asked by a paramedic on scene if he had taken anything, told them he “had smoked some weed and drank some alcohol.”

The autopsy results on John Stevens show he had been stabbed 18 times.  The medical examiner says there were blunt force injuries to his chest and lung.

Right now, Harrouff remains in medical isolation at the Martin County Jail.

“I get briefings every week on state of corrections facility and he has not been mentioned one time so by all accounts he’s getting along in jail," said Sheriff Snyder.

A statement released by one of Harrouff’s attorneys said that “Austin is struggling with severe mental illness and the judicial process will bear all of this out in due time.”

Other documents detail the first interview with Jeff Fisher, the good Samaritan who tried to come to the aid of his neighbors.  Fisher tells detectives he first heard screams coming from across the street.  When he went to check out his neighbor's home on Kokomo Lane, he saw Austin Harrouff hitting a woman.  The woman was Michelle Mishcon.  Fisher said he never saw her husband John Stevens, whose body would be found in the driveway.

Fisher and Harrouff got into a brief scuffle and Fisher did realize at some point he had been stabbed.  When asked if he could pick out Harrouff in a lineup, he said he’d be willing to “because I want the son of a bitch to go down.”  He also said he saw Harrouff’s face once and Harrouff said to him, “you don’t want this, you don’t want to be a part of this.&