‘Not uncommon’: Inmate slides unknown item under cell door hours before overdose at South West Detention Centre

CTV Windsor’s Michelle covers Day 3 of the inquest into the death of an inmate at the Southwest Detention Centre.

An inquest continues into the death of Joseph Gratton, 31, an inmate who consumed a fatal quantity of fentanyl at South West Detention Centre on Oct. 29, 2019.

Warning: contains graphic content.

The jury has seen surveillance video from inside SWDC from that evening.

Around 7:17 p.m., two corrections officers enter a cell and ask an unidentified inmate to step out into the common area so they can speak with his cellmate.

The inmate walks directly to cell #4 – Gratton’s cell – and appears to speak to him and his cellmate, Blake Carter.

They slide something out of their cell to the common area.

After a brief conversation, the unidentified inmate takes that item and walks back towards his cell.

He picks up what appears to be cleaning solution left on the table, appears to speak to a jail officer and goes back to Gratton’s cell.

He places something on the ground, talks to Gratton and Carter, and walks away.

You can see in the video; the item being pulled into Gratton’s cell.

The jury has no evidence about what the item was.

“It’s not uncommon,” Staff Sgt Randy Mascarin testified Tuesday.

He told the jury inmates trade things like peanut butter packets or salt and pepper under their cell doors on a “quite frequent basis.”

Mascarin said the inmate – who he was directed to not identify – had been out of his cell for most the day and would have had plenty of other opportunities to smuggle contraband to Gratton or Carter during the day.

“I wouldn’t have had an issue with this,” Mascarin said while telling the jury he did not go and inspect what the items were.

In 2019, Mascarin said the unidentified inmate did not have a history of smuggling illegal drugs into the jail but that has since changed.

Mascarin agreed with the lawyer for the Ministry of the Solicitor General that a “simple thing” like peanut butter can mean a great deal to people who have so little choices in what they eat, how they live, who they talk to, when they shower or go outside.

Overdose timeline

The jury is starting to get a very clear timeline of the events that lead to Gratton’s fatal overdose.

After the 7:17 visit to his cell by an inmate, Mascarin and the other officer working with him on “inmate adjudication” visited Gratton’s cell to check on both.

There is no evidence about what they discussed.

The next surveillance video is from 8:15 p.m., during a “pill pass” by the jails nurse.

Jessica Chu told the jury she doesn’t specifically remember her interaction with Gratton’s cellmate Blake Carter.

Mascarin however testified Carter complained of vomiting in his cell toilet and asking for anti-nausea medication.

Carter, according to Mascarin, complained of eating bad food before throwing up again in the cell toilet.

Mascarin told the jury an inmate must have “proof” they are sick to get anti-nausea medication which Chu dispensed.

“I had no reason to believe it was anything other than being ill,” Mascarin told the jury.

Neither Mascarin nor Chu spoke with Gratton during the final medical check of the night and he appeared to be fine.

Corrections officers conduct cell checks every half hour in the unit where Gratton was held.

The jury has seen surveillance video of no issues on a check by Mascarin around 9:02 p.m.

He told the jury his colleague Christine Rogers had previous conflicts with Gratton so he agreed to do checks until lights out, to ensure Rogers and Gratton did not have interact.

The next surveillance video for the jury is 11:04 p.m., on a check by Rogers.

On her first lap of the ward, she kicks on the bottom of cell door #4 before carrying on.

She returns to the unit a minute later and goes directly to cell #4 and kicks the door again.

The silent video then appears to show Rogers speak into her radio.

Another officer attends and he too kicks the door.

It appears both try to get reaction from the inmates inside and when they don’t, it appears they try to open the door but the keys don’t work.

By 11:06 p.m. the main lights in the common area go on – and the lights in the cells go out – as two other officers, followed by Mascarin race into the unit and open cell #4.

The video ends when the officers get into the cell.

‘Extremely strange’ sight

Mascarin told the jury they found Gratton on his back laying with his feet closer to the toilet.

He had vomit on his mouth, and he was unresponsive.

Carter, however, Mascarin said was in an “extremely strange” position.

“I was caught off guard,” he testified. “It was unlike anything I’ve seen.”

Carter, according to Mascarin, was flat on the floor with his arm “draped” over Gratton’s body and blood on his mouth.

He felt it looked “staged”, not like two people who unexpectedly pass out from a drug overdose.

Mascarin and two other officers tried performed CPR on Gratton while they waited for paramedics.

Gratton and Carter were rushed to hospital, but Gratton was declared dead in the emergency room.

Mascarin said Carter turned to him in the hospital and said “Randy, looked how (expletive) up my face looks!” before admitting he might still have contraband hidden inside his body.

Carter, the jury has learned, survived the 2019 overdose.

When he returned to SWDC, Mascarin says Carter admitted he and Gratton had “consumed drugs all day”.

“I’m getting tired of this life,” Carter allegedly said to Mascarin.

The jury has learned Carter has since died.