He's remanded for the September murder of shopkeeper Inez Leal but today Jermaine Pascascio was nearly killed while in police detention.
"In police custody" you might think it's the last place for a savage knife attack but think again as Pascascio was butchered to within inches of his life. Alfonso Noble visited him today in the hospital to hear his story.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
Every single mark on 20 year old Jermaine Pascasio's body, and by our count there are 15, is the result of stab wounds he received this afternoon in police custody at what's supposed to be a safe place: the queen street police station cell block area. Pascascio who was at the cell block waiting to be taken to Magistrate's Court for a preliminary inquiry into the murder of Inez Leal, says he was attacked for no reason.
Jermaine Pascascio, Assault Victim
"I had just come from court and someone hollered for me. Then I went to the back and someone approached me from behind first with no shirt on and stabbed me first here [indicating stab wound on left eye]. Then a guy in a yellow shirt, I couldn't make out his face, came."
Alfonso Noble,
"So two men attacked you?"
Jermaine Pascascio,
"Yes and then I managed to escape. Managed to get out of my shirt and things and reach to the front. Then when I got to the front the two officers were already coming to the back."
Alfonso Noble,
"Any policemen were in the area where you were?"
Jermaine Pascascio,
"Yes. 2 officers..."
Alfonso Noble,
"...And none of them stopped the stabbing?"
Jermaine Pascascio,
"No."
"The corridor was full of inmates and somebody hollered for me from by the bathroom area. And then went behind there is when they attacked me. I do not know who they are."
And while Pascascio does not know who they are, his outraged mother Gilda Jones says that the attack on her son was permitted to happen.
Gilda Jones, Victim's Mother
"If he had gotten a 3 or 4 stabs but come on - 9 times? All in his face and under his eyes - that is unfair. Those police meant to do that."
Jermaine Pascascio,
"I don't know...first of all how they got the tools in the cellblock area like that you know...I got like a total of 12 stab wounds. The only way they could have brought something in was if the police allowed them to. 'Cause how first of all can someone get an ice pick?"
Gilda Jones,
"Those police tolerate crime because I know they didn't have to stab my son so many times because that police station...especially between 12 and 1 it is always crowded with police. They allowed that to happen to my son."
Police Press Officer G. Michael Reid disputes that. He says the police do all they can to secure prisoners but there are ways that they smuggle boras into the cells.
G. Michael Reid, Police Press Officer
"These young men...and make no mistake they are quite ingenious when it comes to concealing items, it wasn't a very big article. It was a small article and many times there are searches but it is not a perfect science and there are times when things will get by."
Alfonso Noble,
"This young man could have been killed today and at the police station."
G. Michael Reid,
"Well I mean there the case can be made indeed but certainly you can do the best you can and there are times when again it is not a perfect science, it is not an exact science and there times when these things will occur. We have done everything we can to put in place the proper...uh...equipment necessary to prevent this."
Those efforts proved futile today as this young man almost lost his life in what's supposed to be a secure holding area.
Who stabbed Pascascio? Well he's not saying but police believe that the incident may have some involvement from Ernest Heinz who is also charged for the Leal murder. The story as told by Pascascio's mother is that police forced a statement out of Pascascio to implicate Heinz. But he never consented to and he never signed the statement but apparently word got out that he would testify against Heinz and that may have caused the violence.