Lay died of natural causes, coroner says

Details on Ken Lay's death are slowly trickling in, including early word that he did die of natural causes, according to preliminary autopsy results. That deals a blow (admittedly, a tiny one) to the conspiracy theories Houstonist has been hearing all day.

Also, the Chronicle has posted its Lay obit, which rehashes some of the information that's already been released: An ambulance was called to Lay's Old Snowmass, Colo., house at 2:41 a.m. today, and he was pronounced dead at an Aspen hospital at 4:11 a.m. "Apparently, his heart simply gave out," Lay's pastor, Steve Wende, said.

As for what will happen to Lay legally and to his estate financially, that's unclear at this point. Needless to say, he no longer has to worry about his fraud and conspiracy convictions in connection with the Enron failure, which he was planning to appeal. It's likely that the conviction will be vacated, meaning it'll be as if he were never charged. Rest in peace, Ken. But the government could continue its efforts to seize Lay's assets — just Friday, prosecutors filed a motion to get $43 million from Lay. Though he testified during his trial that he was $250,000 in the hole, prosecutors said last week he had a $6.3 million investment that would have become available to him this month, and it sounded as though they figured he might have had other assets hidden away, too. Neither prosecutors nor Lay's attorney, Mike Ramsey, commented Wednesday. Lay's co-defendant in the Enron trial, Jeff Skilling, is "devastated" by Lay's death, attorney Daniel Petrocelli said.

We're sure there will be lots more news regarding Lay, and we'll keep up with it. In the meantime, the Chron has put together a roundup of blogs' reactions to Lay's death that's worth checking out.