Custodial dad on trial for killing 10-year-old son (Brampton, Ontario, Canada)

Dad is identified as GARFIELD BOOTHE. See our past posts on this guy. The article below, like so many articles that deal with the actual trials, manages to avoid mentioning that this father stripped the mother of custody.

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/canada/archives/2014/02/20140203-151706.html

Ontario dad emotionless when told son, 10, dead, court hears

3:17 pm, February 3rd, 2014

TERRY DAVIDSON | QMI AGENCY

BRAMPTON, Ont. -- A father charged with killing his 10-year-old son appeared calm and showed little emotion when emergency personnel arrived to find the child dead in his bedroom, a jury heard Monday.

Garfield Boothe, 31, who's accused of abusing and neglecting his son, Shakeil, in the months leading up to the May 2011 death, led paramedics to the child, court heard.

They found the boy in his bed, cold to the touch and white foam oozing from his mouth, two paramedics testified.

Boothe and his wife, Nichelle Boothe-Rowe, have pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.

Peel paramedic Kristy Eastwood, who first arrived at the family's home with partner Michael Niffin, said Shakeil's body was cold and stiff, and that the boy had obviously been dead for some time.

Eastwood told the boy's father that his son had died.

"He said, 'OK.' He didn't really react at all... He seemed very calm," Eastwood told court.

Niffin testified Boothe showed no signs of grief and made no attempt to go to the child.

In her opening statement, Crown attorney Kelly Slate said Shakeil had suffered internal and external injuries "to almost every part of his body." He was malnourished and suffering from pneumonia.

Slate said that Boothe removed Shakeil from school and began chaining him to his bed, freeing him only for escorted trips to the washroom and when people visited.

Shakeil, Slate said, was also not fed properly.

She also alleged that Boothe at one point had "stomped" on Shakeil's chest after the boy ripped a page out of a Bible.