Something's queer about the coroner's logic.
If they hadn't stabbed him, he wouldn't have needed the surgery that killed him. What, the savage beating he took didn't raise his blood pressure enough to aggravate the aortic aneurism?
How are they not responsible?
I agree. I don’t know how many times that an assault charge has been upgraded to murder because the comatose victim has died years or decades later.
Apparently, the surgery preceded the attack. It may be hard to say if he would have lived absent the attack, but it is possible that the attack did not contribute (significantly?) to his death.
My legal training consists of watching Law and Order, but as I understand it, if a person dies as a result of a medical mistake made in treating an attack, the attacker is still guilty of murder. If someone gives you a black eye, and the doctor in treating your black eye kills you, the doctor is guilty of malpractice, but the attacker is guilty of murder. The coroner is claiming that that is not the case here.