Fatal stomping caught on camera
Prisoner delivered 26 blows to cellmate’s head, court hears
An inmate who was supposed to be held in isolation killed a fellow Edmonton Remand Centre prisoner being held for jaywalking by stomping on his head 26 times, court heard Monday morning.
Justin Caldwell Somers, 25, stomped his cellmate to death in the middle of the night in front of a surveillance camera in an attack that lasted eight minutes while guards were unaware, according to an agreed statement of facts.
At the time, Somers suffered from hallucinations, delusions and was likely schizophrenic, court heard.
Somers was arrested on May 6, 2011, after RCMP found him drunk outside a Fort McMurray restaurant while he was under a court order to abstain from alcohol. After several days in custody, he was transferred to the Edmonton Remand Centre on May 10.
An intake nurse interviewed Somers for 15 minutes, according to an agreed statement of facts.
“He was quite paranoid, glancing around, making bizarre comments,” nurse Nicole Sorrell later recalled.
Somers asked if Sorrell could “hear the girl being killed” and asked for medication because he was dating the girl being killed, court heard. Sorrell could hear nothing. She recommended that he be housed alone in a unit for inmates with mental health issues.
There were no cells available on that unit, so Somers was put into a temporary “holding tank,” Crown prosecutor Lawrence Van Dyke said.
The next day, Somers told another doctor that “people in the ERC are getting tortured” and that his “friend is being raped.” The second doctor agreed that Somers could not be held among the general population.
Forensic psychiatrist Roger Brown testified that Somers suffered from hallucinations, delusions and likely schizophrenia exacerbated by alcohol withdrawal while in custody. At the time, Somers could not tell right from wrong and was not criminally responsible for his actions, Brown wrote after a dozen meetings between the two.
The day after Somers arrived, court heard, another inmate was placed with him. According to court documents, 59-year-old Barry Stewart was only supposed to be in custody for 24 hours after he refused to pay $110 in fines for trespassing and jaywalking. For the remainder of the day, the two were housed together peacefully.
That night, Stewart slept covered in blankets on a thin mat on the cement floor. For most of the night, a surveillance video shows, Somers paced around the small cell in apparent agitation.
Somers later told Brown he saw green smoke coming from Stewart’s body and believed he “was eating human heads.”
At 4:42 a.m., Somers stood on the bench, jumped and landed on Stewart’s head as he slept. For the next eight minutes, Somers repeatedly stomped and jumped on Stewart’s head as he walked around his prone body, delivering 26 blows. At one point, Somers grabbed at his own head before he continued the assault. Eventually, a pool of blood spread from under Stewart’s blankets and Somers tracked it around the cell.
Somers, a man with dishevelled hair and a bushy goatee, had no reaction as he watched the video from the prisoner’s box. He faces a charge of second-degree murder. His short trial will focus on whether he can be held criminally responsible for Stewart’s death.
Guards reached the cell only after they heard “banging on the door,” three minutes after Somers was finished attacking Stewart. The guards’ office was one cell away, according to the agreed statement of facts.
“Someone behind the wall told me to do it,” Somers told the guards.
The Solicitor General’s department, which runs the Edmonton Remand Centre, said it could not comment on the killing because of privacy issues regarding specific inmates.
“A fatality inquiry is standard procedure in the event of any inmate death,” said spokeswoman Michelle Davio.
Brown concluded Somers felt no anger toward Stewart when he stomped him.
Court heard that Somers’ mental state has since improved under the influence of anti-psychotic medication.
Closing arguments are scheduled for Tuesday morning.