Treatment centre death came after drug use, inquest hears

An inmate at the Algoma Treatment and Remand Centre died after doing drugs in his cell in the spring of 2014, a coroner's inquest into his death heard Monday in Sault Ste. Marie.

Trevor George Seaton, 28, was found, unresponsive and without vital signs in the early hours of May 22, 2014, in the cell he was sharing with his younger brother Caleb Seaton.

Six witnesses, including two city police officers, two corrections officers employed at the jail, a paramedic and a friend of the Seaton brothers, who was housed in a cell next to them, testified on the first day of the inquiry.

Under the Coroner's Act, an inquest is mandatory when a person dies while in custody.

Caleb, who was at the inquest, which is being held at the Delta Hotel, didn't wish to testify, assistant Crown attorney Mary Pascuzzi, a co-counsel for coroner Dr. David Cameron, told the jury of four men and one woman.

Instead, she played a video interview two city police detectives made with a distraught  Caleb at the remand centre a few hours after his brother's death.

In the 40-minute interview, which was difficult to hear, the sobbing and emotional young man talked about waking up after the pair was using drugs to find Trevor not breathing and lying on his back on his mattress on the cell floor.

Earlier, they had been doing lines of crushed up oxycontin and chewing fentanyl from a patch, he told Const. Sonny Spina.

When he testified, Spina described Caleb as "obviously upset, with good reason," and "overcome with emotion."

Caleb spoke about the fentanyl, and two 40-milligram oxycontin pills, the 15-year officer said.

Spina attended the post-mortem, along with city police identification officer Const. Nicole Magnan, who took photographs there and at the remand centre.

Magnan said she observed no injuries or signs of trauma on Seaton's body.

The pictures, shown to the jurors, included photographs of three packages removed from Seaton's rectum during the autopsy.

One contained two small baggies of pills of various sizes and colours, and another a green leafy substance that appeared to be marijuana, Magnan said.

Concealing such contraband to take into the jail is called "hooping," Spina explained to Daniel Mitchell, the coroner's co-counsel. 

Magnan told jurors about two cigarette butts, containing marijuana, and a match, found on top of the cell door's sill, and some drug paraphernalia, a homemade bong, constructed from deodorant containers, seized by guards from the cell the day before Seaton's death.

Trevor Seaton is pictured in this family photo.

Jayme Bellerose, the brothers' friend, who was in the cell next door, testified that he heard banging that night and after draining his toilet, which enabled neighbouring inmates to communicate with each other, spoke with a panicked Caleb.

"He was pretty rattled, shaken up, pretty emotional," because his brother wasn't breathing, Bellerose said, describing how he started banging on his cell door to attract the attention of a guard.

Bellerose testified that the range had been in a lockdown the day before, with inmates confined to their cells, because of contraband.

Jason Bruzas, an eight-year ATRC corrections officer, who was working the night shift, said he noticed something was wrong shortly before 2 a.m. when he heard banging on the top tier of the west wing of the remand section of the facility.

Bellerose pointed him to the Seaton brothers' cell, where Caleb told him Trevor wasn't breathing, and indicated he had taken "some oxies," Bruzas said.

The witness said he and another officer started CPR, and continued for about 15 minutes working on Seaton, who "at no time was responsive," until an ambulance arrived.

Paramedic Tyler Onofrio said he and his partner arrived at the jail at 2:17 a.m. where corrections officers were doing CPR on Seaton, who had no vital signs, and was on a mattress on the floor.

CPR is not effective on a mattress, so they moved Trevor onto a blanket and continued their efforts to revive the man, whose status didn't change, he told the inquest.

Seaton was transported to the Sault Area Hospital as they continued to administer CPR, Onofrio said.

The inquest is scheduled to continue through the rest of the week.