‘I come for you son, get up’

WHEN Rawle Chambers saw the lifeless body of his son Akiel Chambers lying at the side of the James’ swimming pool, he cried, “I come for you son, get up.” Rawle kept talking to the dead body for about five minutes  as it lay at the side of the pool on the morning of May 24, 1998.

Rawle’s brother Earl Joseph told the Coroner’s Inquest yesterday that he was present at the James’ residence at 23 Balata Terrace, Haleland Park, Maraval, when the police fished Akiel’s body from the swimming pool, the day after the boy went missing. In his evidence yesterday, Joseph said he was troubled by what he saw. The red and white swim trunks found on Akiel’s body was not that of an 11-year-old boy, but rather of an adult. The trunks were too big around the waist, and reached Akiel down  his knees. Joseph was the only witness to give evidence before Coroner Sherman Mc Nicolls in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates’ Court. The Coroner is inquiring into the circumstances surrounding the death of 11-year-old Akiel Chambers whose body was fished out of the pool on May 24, 1998. Desmond Allum SC, Dr Kenneth O’Brien and Donna Prowell are looking after the interest of the Chambers’ family, while Sgt Kenneth Cordner is prosecuting. Hearing resumes on November 12.

Joseph, a craftsman at WASA, lives at Upper Marylands, Morvant. He said on May 24, 1998, together with his brother Rawle, he went to the Port-of-Spain CID office around 7 am to report that his nephew Akiel had gone missing after a pool party the day before. They then proceeded to the James’ house around 9 am with several police officers. “The police told Mrs James that they had come to investigate the missing Akiel Chambers. The police started looking. I was looking in the pool. I walked around the pool, I looked in the pool. It was clear and I could see the bottom. The sides of the pool were cloudy....a little bit.” Joseph said he did not see anything in the pool at the beginning. Minutes later, he told the police that he observed something dark in the pool. “The police searched the pool and came up with a body. I think there were two police searching the pool. The police were searching the pool with a stick and a net. A policeman was the first to see the body...I can’t remember who it was...it could have been Alvarez.” Joseph continued, “when I saw something dark in the pool, I did not think it was anything. Rawle and I were on one end of the pool when the police said ‘look, we find the body.’”

Joseph said the police were searching the pool for about ten minutes before they found the body. “Rawle and I walked closer to the pool. I saw two police pull the body from the pool. One was holding the hands and the other one was holding by the waist.” Joseph identified the body as that of Akiel Chambers. The body, he added, was in a crouched position. (Witness demonstrates to the court). Joseph said when Akiel’s body was fished out, one side of the nose and the top of the lip had a reddish bubble. He said Akiel was wearing a red and white pants, but pointed out that the garment was not that of a toddler. The pants, he added, was way below Akiel’s knees. He said Akiel’s body was placed at the side of the pool in the same crouched position. The doctor came and inspected the body. “I didn’t see him do anything really. Me and my brother were holding each other and crying. For about five minutes, Rawle was there talking to Akiel ‘I come for you son, get up.’” Joseph said the body was placed on a stretcher and taken away. He did not go with the body to the mortuary, but instead went to the Maraval Police Station where he gave a statement. The following day, Joseph said he went to the mortuary where he saw Akiel’s body after the post-mortem.

Joseph said he was at Nella’s Funeral Home when a second post-mortem was performed by Dr Hughvon Des Vignes. He attended his nephew’s funeral service and the burial at the Western Cemetery, St James. Mc Nicolls then asked Joseph if he had anything further to tell the court. Joseph replied, “when you asked Patrick Young who had asked him to supervise the children, he (Young) said he took it upon himself to do so because he was a father and he had a son there. After his son bathe, my nephew asked him to borrow some trunks. He lent him. I can’t see the sense in that, knowing that Akiel was one of two children not bathing. “When I saw the body come out of the pool, that couldn’t be an 11-year-old’s pants. I know that pants couldn’t have been an 11-year-old’s pants. He was in the papers saying that it was his son’s pants. I can’t understand that.” The witness was shown a photograph of Akiel’s body on the ground near the swimming pool. According to Joseph, the body was not in a crouched position in the photograph...the body was stretched out...and the reddish bubble by the nose was not there....there was froth over the face. This prompted Dr O’Brien to ask the Coroner to inspect all the negatives of the photographs taken by the police photographer that day. The Coroner agreed and asked the court prosecutor to retrieve the negatives....and the photographer for the next hearing.

Joseph could not remember if Akiel’s body was taken away in the same position when he saw it next to the pool. When Joseph completed his evidence, the Coroner inquired about two missing witnesses Trevor Craigwell and his son Christopher. Cordner informed the court that these witnesses were living in the United States and no one has yet made contact with them. Mc Nicolls noted that the Craigwells and the investigator PC Clive Alvarez were the only witnesses still to give evidence. The Coroner said Alvarez will be the next witness when the inquest resumes on November 12.