Erick Morillo was found dead in his Miami Beach home on September 1st – three days before he was scheduled to appear in court for a sexual battery case. The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner has now released a preliminary report in which acute ketamine toxicity is listed as the superstar DJ and producer’s cause of death.
According to the October 13th report obtained by Miami New Times, MDMA and cocaine use were contributing causes. The autopsy found that Morillo’s overdose was likely accidental, but the final autopsy report has yet to be released.
Morillo had been arrested in August in connection with a December 2019 incident in which he allegedly slept with a woman who was too inebriated to give consent. Miami police issued the warrant after a rape kit came back positive with his DNA, but he denied the sexual battery allegations.
A friend whose name had been redacted from police reports had gone to Morillo’s home on September 1st to check on him; they called 911 after finding him unresponsive. The individual reported last speaking to him on August 28th, noting that the “I Like To Move It” producer had a tendency to be reclusive and remain in his room for days.
After his passing, warm tributes to Morillo by the likes of Jamie Jones, Sven Väth and Carl Cox sparked outrage by members of the electronic music community who argued it was inappropriate to glorify an alleged rapist. In the days that followed, at least ten more people shared personal accounts of witnessing or enduring sexual misconduct from Morillo over the years.
Selector encourages anyone with information regarding incidents of sexual misconduct in the electronic music industry to email info@Selector.news with guaranteed confidentiality.
