OPP knew inmate had drugs hidden in body

When Peter McNelis arrived at the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre a day after being arrested in Delhi, police believed three plastic-wrapped packages of drugs that had disappeared during his arrest were hidden in his body.

Yet the 47-year-old, who had a history of packing drugs in custody, was placed in general population at the Barton Street jail, an inquest into his death heard Monday.

Five days later, on the morning of March 13, 2016, he asked to be moved to another unit for his safety — other inmates would later claim he’d been beaten in an attempt to access the hidden drugs.

Once moved, he immediately began acting bizarrely, walking around naked and defecating without using a toilet. He was moved once again to a cell on his own, where he immediately began banging his head on the wall and then the floor, as jail staff restrained him with handcuffs.

McNelis lost consciousness and, despite two shots of naloxone, was pronounced dead. An autopsy showed he died of drug toxicity from cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl. Heart disease was a secondary factor.

Three tied plastic bags filled with powder were found in his large intestine that later tested positive for cocaine, fentanyl and hydromorphone.

McNelis is among eight inmates at the jail whose drugrelated deaths are being examined as part of the large-scale inquest.

His mother, Mariea McNelis, who with her husband has attended nearly every day, spoke about the pain of losing her son, but also her hope for meaningful recommendations from the inquest jury that will be followed.

“Every day when we leave this inquest, my husband and I drive along Barton Street. We see that red brick building and I have to think and pray for the other mothers whose sons are being housed in an overcrowded, horrible place,” she told the jury.

“My son went in there for five days, five days and he come out in a body bag.”

Mariea McNelis described her son as kind, loving and very talented — a handyman able to fix just about anything.

“The nicest memory that he has left me was he landscaped the garden,” she said, adding the vast garden is now a place where she finds solace and feels the most connected with her son.

His mom called him a “lost soul” and her “boomerang” because, faced with mental illness, including bipolar disorder, he often came in and out of their lives.

McNelis had been arrested by Norfolk County OPP on March 7, 2016, after a dispute with a woman who accused him of stealing her backpack.

When he agreed to have his car searched as proof the backpack wasn’t there, officers testified they found drugs in the glove compartment. McNelis dove across the front seat when this happened, and four small plastic packages disappeared.

After his arrest, McNelis complained about chest pain and went to Norfolk General Hospital, where police told his doctor they suspected he had ingested or hidden drugs in his body.

At the hospital, McNelis refused most treatment that would have exposed the drugs.

“Unfortunately, because he was of sound mind ... my hands were tied,” Dr. Heather Braithwaite-Walton, an emergency room physician, testified, adding that she had no choice but to release him.

McNelis was taken back to the OPP detachment, where officers strip-searched him and found one of the packages of drugs. OPP Const. Anthony Mullen and Sgt. Howard Smits testified that they drove back to the hospital to show the doctor a photo of the package, but she was not able to identify the drugs.

OPP Const. Jeremy Renton, who arrested McNelis, said he saw him on surveillance camera repeatedly putting his hands in his underwear to his mouth. Renton said he walked over to ask McNelis what he was doing and was told he was trying to urinate.

The next morning, McNelis was transported to court and then later that day to jail in Hamilton.

The inquest is expected to continue Tuesday.