BRAMPTON, Ont. – A woman charged with murder in the death of her stepson told a court Tuesday that she took photographs of the 10-year-old boy chained to a bed as proof the boy’s father was abusive.
Nichelle Boothe-Rowe said she meant to send the photos to Shakeil Boothe’s birth mother, who lives in the U.S., but she never did.
She and Shakeil’s father, Garfield Boothe, are both charged with second-degree murder in Shakeil’s death.
Boothe-Rowe said she “should have done more” to protect Shakeil but worried her husband – who she said had a history of domestic abuse – would turn his anger on her or their infant son.
“I had fear of it coming back to me,” said Boothe-Rowe, dressed in a black suit over a pink collared shirt.
She said Boothe would chain Shakeil to the boy’s bed “sporadically” in the fall, but just a few months later, it became a daily routine.
Boothe would shackle his son in the morning before leaving for work and left the keys with his wife “in case of emergency,” she said.
The stepmother said she tried to talk him out of it several times but it became easier to simply free Shakeil once his father was gone.
Boothe took great pains to keep the practice hidden, though his mother-in-law once saw the boy in chains, Boothe-Rowe said.
“When there would be visitors in the household, Garfield would unchain Shakeil,” she told the court.
The photos show a young person lying on the floor and chained by the ankle to a bed, while covered from the face to their knees by what looks like a blanket.
The pathologist who examined Shakeil’s body analysed the photos in court and said the body shape and size, as well as injuries seen on the shins, were consistent with what he saw on Shakeil during the boy’s autopsy.
Shakeil was found dead in his bed on May 27, 2011, though paramedics have testified they think he had been dead for some time.
Prosecutors allege he had been abused, deprived of food and kept chained to his bed in the months before his death.
They say the boy’s father and stepmother knew Shakeil was dead for a full day before calling 911, and accuse the pair of trying to cover their tracks.
Court has heard autopsy results showed widespread internal bleeding that overwhelmed Shakeil’s body, already weakened by malnutrition and severe infection.
On the stand Tuesday, Boothe-Rowe admitted she once struck Shakeil with a looped belt, but said her husband insisted on disciplining the boy himself after she made it clear she wouldn’t hit him again.
He would beat Shakeil with a looped belt “once or twice a week,” she said.
Boothe-Rowe said she wanted to take Shakeil to the doctor in the days before he died, offering to have him tag along when she brought the baby for his eight-month checkup.
But her husband refused, she said.
“I believe Garfield wasn’t taking Shakeil to the doctor because of what he had done to him and the injuries and stuff that he had,” she said.
Court has heard the couple’s relationship was tumultuous from the beginning. They met in Florida when Boothe-Rowe was 17 and it wasn’t long before the teen was sneaking out of her father’s home to meet up with him, she said.
Over the years, the couple broke up and reconciled repeatedly as Boothe became more violent, his wife said.
It didn’t take much to set him off, particularly when he was drinking or smoking marijuana, she said. A poorly cooked meal could trigger an argument that would quickly turn to blows, she said.
She recalled a 2004 incident in Florida in which Boothe held her and her sister “hostage” with a machete and pressed the blade against her neck. Though she eventually called police, no charges were laid because she believed Boothe had mental health issues, she said.
“Garfield was my first love, I didn’t know any relationship but Garfield,” she told the court.
Things didn’t improve once the couple moved to Canada in 2005, she said.
Boothe was constantly suspicious that she was cheating on him, and his fears only intensified when Boothe-Rowe went back to school a few years later, she said.
He would strip her down and “check” her to see if she’d “slept with anyone else” when she got home, Boothe-Rowe said.
Police were frequently called to the house by Boothe-Rowe herself or by the couple’s neighbours, but Boothe typically ran away, she said.
Boothe-Rowe said she stopped calling police after the baby was born because she feared for his safety.
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