Ex-Enron chief executive Skilling's son found dead in apartment

The son of former Enron Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Skilling, 20-year-old John Taylor Skilling, died in California.

The death was related to medication the younger Skilling was taking, Daniel Petrocelli, a lawyer for Jeff Skilling, said yesterday in a telephone interview.

“This was tragically accidental,” Petrocelli said. “There is no indication of foul play and no indication of suicide.”

J.T., as he was called, was the youngest of Jeff Skilling's three children and a sophomore at Chapman University in Orange, California, Petrocelli said. Santa Ana, California, police found him dead in his apartment on Feb. 1, said John McDonald, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner Department.

An autopsy was inconclusive pending the results of toxicology tests, which are several weeks away, McDonald said yesterday in a phone interview.

Jeff Skilling is serving a 24-year sentence in federal prison after he and former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay were found guilty of deceiving investors about the financial condition of what was the world's largest energy trader.

Skilling is seeking a new trial after the U.S. Supreme Court determined last year that prosecutors used an invalid legal theory to convict him.