‘Blood splatter’ found in 10-year-old boy’s bedroom: murder trial hears

BRAMPTON, Ont. – A Toronto-area court is hearing a forensics team found what appeared to be blood stains in the bedroom of a 10-year-old boy who died in the care of his father and stepmother.

Det. Peter Duivesteyn of Peel police says his team found “reddish-brown stains” on Shakeil Boothe’s mattress and sheets, on the baseboards of his room and on a boy’s T-shirt crumpled under his bed.

Forensics experts examined the family’s home in Brampton, Ont., for three days after paramedics found Shakeil’s lifeless body there on May 27, 2011.

His father, Garfield Boothe, and stepmother, Nichelle Boothe-Rowe, are both charged with second-degree murder.

Prosecutors allege Shakeil actually died on May 26 from a violent incident combined with months of abuse and starvation.

Duivesteyn says officers seized several items from the home, including belts, a strap, a computer hard drive and men’s clothes with spots “believed to be blood.”

“We had noted when we had gone in on the 28…some blood spatter in the victim’s room,” as well as just outside his door, the detective said.

Pictures shown in court also show Shakeil lying dead in his bed, with white foam coming out of his mouth.

There are cuts, bruises and abrasions — both fresh and scarred over — on much of the boy’s body.