Alcohol may have killed Johns Creek teen

By Larry Hartstein and Mashaun D. Simon

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Alcohol may have been what killed a 19-year-old Johns Creek man found in his basement early Sunday, said police.

Sergio Cortez-Garcia was found unconscious in his home on Brooks Bridge Crossing in the Colony Glen subdivision around 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning after family members returned from a party.

Although the 911 caller reported the man had been shot, police found no gunshot wounds.

There were neither gunshot wounds nor any signs of trauma on the teenager, said Rosemary Taylor, a police spokeswoman.

“Cortez-Garcia was pronounced dead on the scene and transported to the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office,” said Taylor.

Preliminary autopsy results show the cause of death to be the result of consuming high levels of alcohol.

An Associated Press analysis of federal records found that 157 college-age people, 18 to 23, drank themselves to death from 1999 through 2005, the most recent year for which figures are available. The number of alcohol-poisoning deaths per year rose from 18 in 1999 to 35 in 2005.

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