The Tribune

By PAVEL BAILEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

pbailey@tribunemedia.net

THE mother of Valentino Pratt, one of three men killed by police in Blair Estates in 2019, gasped as a pathologist described the estimated 28 gunshot wounds her son suffered as the Coroner’s Court inquest into the matter continued yesterday. 

Police were accused of killing Tony Jamal “Foolish” Penn Smith, Valentino “T-Boy” Pratt and Trevor “Coopz” Cooper on Commonwealth Avenue in the early morning of May 17, 2019. Fifteen officers, including three Defence Force marines, are the subject of the inquest.

Dr Caryn Sands, a pathologist at PMH, testified that she completed the autopsies of the three men between March 22 and 27, 2019.

 Dr Sands said that Pratt’s cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head, torso and extremities.

 Victoria Roberts, Pratt’s mother, became distraught and had to leave the courtroom as Dr Sands detailed her only child’s injuries with the aid of photos taken at the morgue.

 There was a gunshot wound to Pratt’s head after a bullet entered the right side of his face and exited just to the front of his ear.

 Another bullet went through the right side of his head  exiting at the top of his ear, causing bleeding to his brain. 

 Dr Sands said a bullet through the right side of Pratt’s chest went through his ribs, heart and left lung before exiting the left side of his back. 

 Dr Sands also described Pratt’s gunshot wounds to his thighs and groin area, with a wound to the proximal shaft of his penis. 

 She said the deceased suffered two fractured arms from bullet damage, and his right arm appeared deformed from the fracture. She also detailed that he had gunshot wounds to his buttocks, and bullets grazed his left forehead and right cheek.

 Dr Sands said she recovered bullets from the man’s right thigh and buttocks. 

 When K Melvin Munroe, the attorney who represents the officers in the inquest, asked if someone could be shot in the groin while lying on their stomach, Dr Sands said no.

 She also said it was unlikely for Pratt to get a gunshot wound to his chest while lying on his stomach.

 Ms Roberts had testified earlier that her son was shot on the ground as he tried to emerge from under a bed.

 Dr Sands clarified for Ciji Smith-Curry, an attorney for the estates, that a person’s chest must be facing an oncoming bullet for the entrance of a gunshot wound to be there. She said it was possible that the man was lying on his back instead.

 She agreed with Mrs Smith-Curry’s statement that Pratt suffered about 28 gunshot wounds. She also agreed that his arm injuries could have been caused by him raising his arms in a defensive position over his chest.

 In detailing Tony Smith’s autopsy, Dr Sands listed his cause of death as gunshot wounds to the chest. 

 She described how Smith had a gunshot wound to his right flank side closer to his back with a dark contusion around it. The bullet that made this wound passed through Smith’s lungs and heart and exited through the left side of his chest, going upwards. There were two exit wounds from where Dr Sands said the bullet fragmented.

 She said Smith suffered fractured ribs. She also said that a bullet entered the right side of his back and exited through his front chest just below his neck.

 Smith Sr’s 11-year-old son, Tony Jr, had previously testified that officers shot the deceased in the back as he attempted to surrender.

 Dr Sands told Mr Munroe that she could not say the exact position the deceased was in at the time of his death.

 However, when questioned by Romona Farquharson Seymour, another attorney for the estates, Dr Sands said the contusion on Smith’s side could have been caused by the muzzle of a gun being pressed right against his skin before it was fired as a contact wound.

 Consequently, she also said it was possible the contact wound was caused by the bullet passing through something before entering Smith’s body. 

 During Dr Sands’ testimony on Trevor Cooper’s autopsy, she said his cause of death was gunshot wounds to the head, torso and extremities. 

 She described how a bullet entered the top of Cooper’s head and then went through his scalp and brain before stopping on the right side of his anterior neck. An autopsy photo of this gunshot wound showed the bullet bulging almost out of his neck. Dr Sands said she recovered this deformed bullet after the photo was taken. 

 She also said Cooper had a fractured skull. She said the deceased had a gunshot wound to his face after a bullet entered the left side near his jaw and exited the right side under his chin.

 Another bullet also entered the left side of Cooper’s neck near his Adam’s Apple and went through his trachea before exiting the right side of his neck, slightly downward.

 Dr Sands said a bullet hit the deceased’s vertebrae and that a bullet was recovered from his left chest cavity.

 She also detailed how a bullet entered the right side of his abdomen and penetrated his stomach and liver before exiting through his left flank. A bullet also pierced his intestines.

 She said she observed gunshot wounds to his left shoulder, right buttocks, thighs and right arm. She also noted that Cooper had a laceration on his hands with a possible exit-entry wound near the exterior of his palms.

 She confirmed to Mr Munroe that none of the men had evidence of close-range discharge on their bodies. After explaining that close-range fire would be a couple inches to three feet away, she said there was no soot near Smith’s contusion that would indicate he was fired upon at close range.

 When questioned by Ryzard Humes, the last attorney for the estates, on the position of the gunshot wound to the top of Cooper’s head, Dr Sands said that it was unlikely that Cooper was standing up due to the trajectory of the bullet. She further said that if the man was standing up, a wound like that would only be possible if Cooper’s assailants were shooting from above him.

 Dr Sands explained to Mr Humes that this wound would have incapacitated Cooper, but would not have proven immediately fatal.

 Officers had previously testified that Cooper’s body was found slumped over a front seat in a bullet-riddled silver coloured vehicle in the mansion’s garage.

 Dr Sands could not say definitely whether the wounds to the man’s arm were from him raising it in a defensive position, but agreed that he suffered from about 17 gunshot wounds.

 Dr Cyprian Collie, a forensic toxicologist at the police lab, discussed the toxicology reports of the three men, which were prepared by the Miami Dade Medical Examiner’s Office in late 2019.

 Tony Smith’s blood and vitreous humour samples tested positive for ethanol and cannabinoids, indicating the deceased may have been drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana prior to his death.

 The toxicology samples of Cooper and Pratt also found traces of cannabinoids. 

 Dr Collie said that drugs could move from an area of high to low concentration in a person’s body post-mortem.

 Dr Collie will be cross-examined when his testimony continues later this week.