St John’s, Antigua and Barbuda – The death of 23-year-old Jamaican national Chinlee Robinson at His Majesty’s Prison is now being treated as a homicide, after a post-mortem examination revealed he was strangled.
Robinson, who had been remanded in December 2024 over the alleged theft of a mobile phone, was discovered unresponsive in his cell just weeks later.
An initial assumption of natural causes has since given way to a full-blown criminal investigation following autopsy findings of trauma to the neck and cardiac arrest.
Superintendent of Prisons Trevor Pennyfeather confirmed the cause of death in a recent interview.
“It looks like anoxia, trauma to the neck, and cardiac failure… very possibly it’s strangulation,” he said, noting that the matter is still under police investigation.
The revelation has raised troubling questions about conditions and oversight within the prison. Robinson shared a cell with another inmate, believed to be the prime suspect, who has reportedly been released from custody—weeks before the autopsy results were made public.
The prison’s lock-off period begins at 4:30 p.m., and officers conduct routine nightly checks. However, Pennyfeather admitted that without electronic surveillance in each cell or a constant physical presence, detecting such an incident during the night would be difficult.
“Unless officers are stationed at every division or we have full electronic monitoring, we must rely on mobile checks,” he said.
Robinson was found during the early morning wake-up rounds, around 5:15 a.m.
The circumstances surrounding his detention have also drawn sharp criticism. Attorney Wendell Alexander, speaking on behalf of the family, said Robinson should never have been held in the first place.
“This man was in custody on remand for stealing a cell phone—something that may not even warrant a custodial sentence,” Alexander said. “He didn’t have a passport, and that was used as justification to deny bail. That is nonsense.”
Alexander said he has contacted the Commissioner of Police to formally request a homicide investigation and insisted that a coroner’s inquest should also proceed.
“If Chinley Robinson had been from a wealthy family, we wouldn’t be asking these questions. There’s a systemic problem here, and it’s time the entire criminal justice system—courts, police, prison—faced real reform,” he added.
As new recruits prepare to bolster the prison’s staffing, broader issues remain unresolved. For Robinson’s family, especially his brother, the search for justice is far from over.
One central question remains: Who killed Chinley Robinson—and why was no one there to stop it?
