SAN JOSE -- The Santa Clara County medical examiner has found that Tasers fired 20 times by two San Jose police officers trying to subdue a suspect contributed to the man's death.

It is the second time this year that the county coroner's office has listed Tasers as a "contributory cause of death."

Christopher Happy, the Santa Clara County medical examiner, wrote in his report that Jorge Trujillo-Hernandez, 34, of San Jose, died from head and body injuries suffered in two separate beatings, one by yet unidentified suspects and another by San Jose police, all in the same day on Jan. 25.

While it appears unlikely from Trujillo's multiple skull fractures, intracranial hemorrhages and brain injuries that he would have survived the first assault with baseball bats and second flogging with police batons, Happy, nonetheless notes that Trujillo's being zapped repeatedly with 50,000-volt stun guns did play a part in causing his death.

It remains unknown exactly how many times the Tasers struck Trujillo since the weapons only record the number of times fired and length of discharge, and not whether the throngs actually grabbed onto their target. According to the report, the two Tasers were fired 12 and eight times each over a period of 50 seconds to nearly two minutes.

Trujillo, a husband and father, was pronounced brain dead at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center a day after his ordeal.

The coroner earlier this year listed police Tasers as a contributory factor in the November death of Jose Angel Rios.

Police encountered Trujillo when responding to a report of a man attempting to break into cars in the 1200 block of Woodborough Place. When police arrived, they spotted a bloodied Trujillo reportedly smashing cars with a 6-foot garden hoe. In an attempt to arrest him, police say Trujillo became combative, prompting officers to strike him with their batons and Tasers.

About an hour-and-a-half earlier that day, a group of men were seen beating Trujillo with baseball bats near the intersection of South 22nd and East San Fernando streets.

The latest report could add fuel to local Taser opponents who claim that Taser stun guns are dangerous weapons that need to be further regulated, as they become increasingly common in police arsenals.

San Jose became one of the first major cities in the nation to equip all its officers with the allegedly less lethal weapons after the department first adopted them in May 2004.

Concerns since then prompted the department last year to modify its Taser policy, restricting use on children, elderly, pregnant woman and handcuffed people.