It could be weeks before the official cause of death is released in the death of Jonathan Sanders, who died July 8 following an altercation with Stonewall police officer Kevin Herrington, the attorney for Herrington, Bill Ready Jr., said.

    An autopsy of Sanders, who was 39, was completed July 10, but the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which is handling the case, has not yet released the autopsy results.     

    Ready said he has not heard from the MBI when the medical examiner’s report will be made available.

    Ready said from his legal experience it could be a couple of weeks before any more information is released by the MBI because a toxicology report is likely to have be completed in this case.

    “My experience in criminal cases has been that they (the MBI) want all the lab work completed before a final report is issued,” Ready said. “I know toxicology reports take time.”

    Meanwhile, Sanders’ body has been released to his family, with his funeral set for today at 11 p.m. at the Family Life Church in Quitman, according to C.J. Lawrence of Lumumba Associates in Jackson, who along with Chokwe Antar Lumumba, is representing the Sanders family.

    Ready, a Meridian attorney, said he was contacted by Herrington this week seeking legal representation.

    “The young man said he needed help,” Ready said. “I agreed to help him.”

    Herrington, 25, has been on the Stonewall police force between two and three years and is married.

    Thursday afternoon, Mississippi 10th Judicial District Attorney Bilbo Mitchell said he would present the case to the Clarke County grand jury. The next grand jury for Clarke County is set to begin Aug. 31.

    Lumumba told the Associated Press that Sanders made his living from buying, selling and training horses. Sanders was riding a horse in a two-wheel buggy on the night he died, the AP reports.

    Officials have released few details about the incident other than to say there was an altercation between Herrington and Sanders.

    Ready said Friday the only previous contact Herrington had with Sanders was over a suspected drug transaction.

    Sanders had served time in state prison for selling cocaine, and had been arrested for cocaine possession earlier this year, the AP reports.