Jury at coroner’s inquest in Iqaluit considers verdict

The late Adamie Nutaraluk, while serving out a sentence at the Baffin Correctional Centre in 2007, looks at photographs from the Hamilton Mountain tuberculosis sanatorium, where he stayed for several years as a child. An inquest that started March 12 in Iqaluit is looking at his Dec. 9, 2009 death inside an RCMP jail cell in Iqaluit. (FILE PHOTO)

The six members of the Iqaluit coroner’s inquest jury looking into the December 2009 death of Adamie Alariaq Nutaraluk, 56, broke shortly before 3 p.m. on March 13 to consider their verdict.

After hearing the testimonies of 10 witnesses, the jury of four women and two men went off to determine how Nutaraluk died, where he died and when he died, and to produce recommendations to prevent similar deaths from occurring.

“You may now retire to consider your verdict,” Garth Eggenberger, the former chief coroner of the Northwest Territories, told the members of the jury. “Try to be unanimous, but a majority will be sufficient.”

Evidence presented at the inquest, held in the Nunavut Court of Justice, said Nutaraluk died on the morning of Dec. 9, 2009 inside an RCMP jail cell in Iqaluit after being picked up for being intoxicated.

On March 12 the jury heard from the guard at the RCMP cell block, first responders and some of the RCMP members who were on duty that night while Nutaraluk was in custody.

On March 13 they heard from the RCMP members who were on call Dec. 8 and 9, 2009 at the RMCP detachment.

Cst. Tyler Smith and Cst. James Mearns told how Nutaraluk was extremely intoxicated, lying on the floor of a room, when they arrived to pick him up at building 660 and charge him with “mischief”.

Nutaraluk, who reeked of alcohol, swore at Tyler, saying “fuck you Qallunaaq [white man],” while telling Inuktitut-speaking Mearns “I love you.”

Later, although he’d managed to get into the RCMP van with assistance, Nutaraluk refused to walk into the cell block and had to be dragged in.

After that, Nutaraluk fell into a deep stupor on the floor of cell 9, and continued snoring loudly, according to witnesses at the inquest, until between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m..

The jury also heard from Sgt. Peter Pilgrim who said “Mr. Nutaraluk was dead” when he first entered the cell shortly after Cst. Ian Allen had found Nutaraluk unresponsive there.

“He was gone. He was deceased — yes,” said Pilgrim, noting that over his 20 years of service with the RCMP he’d seen many dead people.

“The gentlemen was deceased and there was nothing we could do.”

Blood and mucus had crusted like “dried gooey jam” between Nutaraluk’s face and the floor, a sign he’d been dead for a while, Pilgrim said.

Pilgrim discouraged Allen from performing resuscitation. Instead, Pilgrim took a photo of the Nutaraluk as they had discovered him and called the city’s emergency responders.

Before heading off to determine their verdict, the jury also received as evidence a transcription of an interview with Nutaraluk’s common-law wife.

She had seen Nutaraluk drink large quantities of vodka from a 60-ounce bottle before he was taken into custody in the early hours of Dec. 9.

And the jury heard that the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Nutaraluk determined that “acute ethanol [alcohol] intoxication” and “hypertensive heart disease” contributed to his death.

Nutaraluk’s blood level stood at .420 per cent alcohol while his urine contained .553 per cent alcohol. At that level, people suffer unconsciousness and death is possible.

Armed with that information, and the testimonies of 10 witnesses, the jury went off to discuss their verdict.

All deaths that occur in RCMP custody require such a coroner’s inquest.

But in this case, neither the coroner, the coroner’s lawyer, Michael Chandler, the lawyer for the RCMP, Rohan Brown, or the City of Iqaluit’s lawyer, Teresa Haykowsky, suggested any recommendations to the jury.

Haykowsky said the city’s emergency services responders arrived promptly answering a call about “a man who would not wake up” and continued their efforts to revive him until he was declared dead.

Rohan said many of the recommendations directed to the RCMP, which stemmed from last April’s inquest into the death of Elisapee Michael, 52, while in custody, have already brought changes to RCMP operations.

Recent improvements at the RCMP include video surveillance of cells, better visibility into cells, Inuktitut services and speed-dialing to emergency services.

A young man in the public audience section listened to the inquest’s March 13 proceedings: Joanasie Pillaktuaq, Nutaraluk’s nephew, who last saw his late uncle in the Qikiqtani General Hospital shortly after his death.

Pillaktuaq said he was representing his family at the inquest into his late uncle’s death, which shocked him and the other family members who came to the hospital that morning.