FREEPORT, Grand Bahama – A distraught and angry family have to wait several more weeks for a jury to decide if criminal charges should be brought in the suspicious death of 25-year-old Desi Louigi McIntosh, whose body was found lying on the Grand Bahama Highway during the early morning hours of February 9.
A coroner’s inquest into McIntsoh’s death began March 31, and after multiple adjournments and postponements, McIntosh’s family continue to call for justice to prevail as they maintain that his death was no accident, but was caused by deliberate actions of Royal Bahamas Police Force officers.
Officers reported back in February that at around 3:10am, an unidentified female caller phoned police to say that she had run over what appeared to be a body on the Grand Bahama Highway.
When officers arrived on the scene, they discovered McIntosh’s body, which had sustained multiple and severe injuries.
The female caller was never located. But there was another similar report made to police.
Jessel McIntosh, 19, (the dead man’s cousin) phoned officers that morning to say that he, along with some of his friends were driving along the highway on their way home in East Grand Bahamas, when they ran over what they thought was a car tire.
Officers took the male callar back to the scene where investigations were continuing.
After preliminary investigations were completed, authorities ruled Desi McIntosh’s death as “suspicious.”
Several police officers were called to the stand during the inquest, including Assistant Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade.
The Rand Memorial Hospital’s chief pathologist Dr. Alfred Brathwaite also took the stand, as did his hospital attendants.
As testimonies continued, a number of significant inconsistencies were pointed out to the five man-2 woman jury hearing evidence in the inquest.
Marcus Garvey, a hospital attendant, testified that McIntosh’s body had been brought to the hospital on the morning of February 9, and upon receiving the body, he observed that the man appeared to have been previously fingerprinted.
Officer Shelton Roberts, meanwhile, testified that the day before the dead body was discovered, he had discovered McIntosh along with two other men in a marijuana field near the Grand Bahama Highway .
He gave a detailed account of the events that occurred at the alleged marijuana field, and testified that the men managed to evade police and were never apprehended at or near the scene.
Detective Corporal 406 Glen Thelusma, a Drug Enforcement Unit officer who also was at the marijuana field at the time, testified that upon and after his arrival, no suspects were apprehended by police officials.
As the officers’ testimony continued, it was determined that several key pieces of evidence were missing and unable to be presented to the court.
Hair samples as well as the clothing of the victim, which were taken into custody by police officers, were not located and were never turned over to the police forensics’ lab in New Providence.
In addition, key photos taken of McIntosh’s body at the Grand Bahama Highway scene on February 9 also went missing.
Constable 2524 Reo McPhee, a crime scene officer, testified that he had taken several photos at the scene that morning, but he said that another officer had taken multiple photos of the victim’s body. Mr. McPhee’s photos were entered into evidence, but the identity of the second photographer as well as the location of his photos were never determined.
Dr. Brathwaite, who was called to the stand twice, testified that in his medical opinion, McIntosh died as a result of massive trauma sustained after being run over by what he thought were at least two vehicles.
His autopsy attendant Laverne Grant testified to having observed a crack in McIntosh’s skull that she described as “unusual”.
Throughout the inquest, jurors questioned Dr. Brathwaite on the multiple injuries McIntosh sustained to determine whether the victim was already dead before being run over by a vehicle.
Dr. Brathwaite admitted that the victim could have died by means other than that of a vehicle, but he said that the evidence of that would have been “obliterated” because of the injuries the body sustained along the Grand Bahama Highway.
He also said he observed fingerprint material on the victim’s fingers before he began his autopsy, and during his testimony Tuesday, he said that he was unable to account for why both the clothing and hair samples were missing.
Assistant Commissioner Greenslade was also called twice to the stand during the inquest.
He was questioned on the number of inconsistencies appearing in the testimony of his officers.
Mr. Greenslade was also questioned on the missing photographs as well as the identity of the second police photographer said to have been at the scene on February 9.
During his first round of testimony on May 12, Mr. Greenslade said that as the officer in charge of this district, he was “very much satisfied” that his officers did their utmost in putting their investigative reports together.
Based on testimony given, Mr. Greenslade had given a letter to McIntosh’s family before the start of the inquest, saying that police officials had exhausted all avenues of inquiries and were thus prepared to conclude their investigations into the February 9 incident.
Mr. Greenslade explained that the letter he wrote was given out of “the respect he holds for the family,” and he said that such an action on his part is unprecedented in law enforcement.
On Tuesday, he was questioned regarding the missing hair samples, clothing and photographs, and he testified that he was unaware that those items were missing. He further testified that he was unable to speak to why those items could not be located, saying that such questions would be better put to the officers in charge of the departments involved in the McIntosh investigation.
Mr. Greenslade was also questioned on the presence of fingerprints on a person. He said that if a person were fingerprinted, it would possibly mean that that person had had some type of contact with police officials.
A trip to the Grand Bahama Highway scene by the jurors and attorneys in this case also raised questions regarding details presented in officer Shelton Robert’s testimony.
On Monday, Magistrate Subu Swain, who sits as the coroner in this inquest, stressed the need for the proceedings to come to a close.
Having continued over a six-month-period, Magistrate Swain urged Carlson Shurland, the McIntosh family’s attorney, and Neil Brathwaite, from the Attorney General’s Office, to wrap up proceedings for the sake of the family and the jurors.
The inquest has been adjourned to September 29, where final summations are expected to be given before jurors make their final ruling.
Sharon Williams
The Bahama Journal
11/09/2003
