PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Dec 15, CMC – Police are investigating the circumstances that led to the death of on Sunday of a 35-year-old man, who had been on remand for the murder of a police officer in 2013.
Police said that the body of Kelvin Wallace was found dead in his cell at the Port-of-Spain Prison. He was one of four people arrested in 2013 for the murder of police sergeant, Hayden Manwaring, who was shot and killed while responding to a robbery in San Fernando, south of here, on February 19 of that year. Another officer was also injured during the shooting.
The court case against Wallace and the three others began in September 2018, and in 2019, senior Magistrate Cherril-Anne Antoine found there was sufficient evidence for the matter to be heard before the High Court.
Last year, Wallace was awarded TT$75,000 (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) in compensation for being beaten by prison officers at Golden Grove State Prison in Arouca, east of here. He had claimed then that he was in his cell with his fellow inmates when a group of prison officers arrived to conduct searches.
He said the officers beat him in the cell before taking him to the toilet area, where they beat him again with their and batons. The officers denied any wrongdoing.
But a High Court judge ordered TT$40,000 in damages for the pain, suffering, and humiliation that Wallace endured. The judge also ordered TT$35,000 in exemplary damages based on the conduct of the officers and ordered the state to pay his legal costs for the lawsuit.
CMC/ag/ir/2025