Hernell (Jeep) Jackson, who died last Saturday...

Hernell (Jeep) Jackson, who died last Saturday during a benefit basketball game of what appears to have been cocaine poisoning, passed three drug tests during the 1986-87 basketball season, according to Richard Burns, Texas El Paso’s interim athletic director.

The first was a routine test Oct. 14 for all UTEP athletes, and the next two were done in March as part of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.’s new drug-testing program for its postseason basketball tournament, Burns said. Jackson did not take a fourth test, after the season, because he had completed his eligibility.

Police investigating the death were awaiting laboratory tests that might confirm whether cocaine was a key factor. A 19-year-old woman, Michelle Lee Cabrera, earlier was arrested on drug charges after a witness signed a statement saying the woman had given Jackson cocaine the night before he died.