Pot plants removed from King's house

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RIALTO, Calif., June 18 (UPI) -- Police in Southern California said they removed marijuana plants Monday from the home of Rodney King, one day after he was found dead in his swimming pool.

Investigators also removed a pitchfork and a hoe at King's home in Rialto, Calif., the Los Angeles Times reported.

Authorities said they had seen no "outward signs" that alcohol or drug use may have played a role in King, 47, falling into the pool, the newspaper said. Investigators were evaluating statements by a neighbor of King's who said she heard him crying in his back yard from about 3 a.m. until 5 a.m.

The 1992 acquittal of police officers who were shown in a video beating King in 1991, led to riots in Los Angeles and a top-to-bottom shakeup of the city's police department.

King's fiancee, Cynthia Kelley, called 911 at 5:25 a.m. Sunday and told police she had found him at the bottom of the pool and had been unable to save him.

A Rialto Police Department spokesman, officer David Shephard, said King's death was still being investigated as an accidental drowning, but he said police were "looking into every lead."

An autopsy was to be performed Monday but San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Jodi Miller said the official cause of death was not expected to be made public for six to eight weeks, pending results of toxicology exams.

Police said there was no sign of trauma on King's body and no indication of blood in the water or the pool deck, the Times reported.