Snake-handling Ky. pastor dies from snake bite
Associated Press
Feb 17, 2014 3:27 AM (ET)
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20140217/DAC0SG0G1.html
MIDDLESBORO, Ky. (AP) - A snake-handling pastor who appeared on the
National Geographic television reality show "Snake Salvation" has died
after being bitten by a snake during a weekend church service in Kentucky.
Jamie Coots was handling a rattlesnake at his Full Gospel Tabernacle in
Jesus Name Church in Middlesboro when he was bitten on the hand Saturday
night, another preacher, Cody Winn, told WBIR-TV. After the bite, Coots
dropped the snakes, but then picked them back up and continued on.
Within minutes, Winn said Coots headed to the bathroom.
"He had one of the rattlers in his hand, he came over and he was
standing beside me. It was plain view, it just turned its head and bit
him in the back of the hand ... within a second," Winn said.
When an ambulance arrived at the church at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, they were
told Coots had gone home, the Middlesboro Police Department said in a
statement. Contacted at his house, Coots refused medical treatment.
Emergency workers left about 9:10 p.m. that night. When they returned
about an hour later, Coots was dead from a venomous snake bite, police
added.
The snake-handling pastor's son, Cody Coots, told the television station
his dad had been bit eight times before, but never had had such a severe
reaction. The son said he had thought the bite would be just like all
the others.
"We're going to go home, he's going to lay on the couch, he's going to
hurt, he's going to pray for a while and he's going to get better.
That's what happened every other time, except this time was just so
quick and it was crazy, it was really crazy," Cody Coots said.
In January 2013, Coots was caught transporting three rattlesnakes and
two copperheads through Knoxville, Tenn. Wildlife officials confiscated
the snakes, and Coots pleaded guilty to illegally wildlife possession.
He was given one year of unsupervised probation.
National Geographic said in a statement that it was struck by
Coots'"devout religious convictions despite the health and legal peril
he often faced."
"Those risks were always worth it to him and his congregants as a means
to demonstrate their unwavering faith," the statement said. "We were
honored to be allowed such unique access to pastor Jamie and his
congregation during the course of our show, and give context to his
method of worship."
Coots said in February 2013 that he needed the snakes for religious
reasons, citing a Bible passage in the book of Mark that reads, in part:
"And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they
cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up
serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them;
they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."
The pastor said that year that he took that passage at face value.
"We literally believe they want us to take up snakes," Coots told The
Associated Press at the time. "We've been serpent handling for the past
20 or 21 years."
In 1995, 28-year-old Melinda Brown, of Parrottsville, Tenn., died after
being bitten at Coot's church by a 4-foot-long timber rattlesnake. Her
relatives disputed accounts that the mother of five had been holding the
snake that bit her and disagreed with witnesses who said she refused
medical treatment as she suffered the effects of the venom for two days
at Coots' home.
The Bell County attorney at the time wanted to prosecute under a 1942
state law that made it illegal to handle or display snakes during
religious services. But the judge refused to sign the criminal complaint.
"If the court thought that a trial would act to deter future snake
handling in church, my decision would be different," Bell District Judge
James Bowling Jr. wrote to the county attorney. "But you and I both know
that this practice is not going to stop until either rattlesnakes or
snake handlers become extinct."
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