Trinidad and Tobago: Girlfriend questions alleged suicide of inmate Kelvin Wallace at Port of Spain Prison

Trinidad and Tobago: The girlfriend of 35-year-old inmate Kelvin Wallace is questioning the official account of his death, which has been reported as a suicide at Port of Spain Prison on Sunday.

According to police reports Kelvin Wallace, of Flamingo Crescent, Pleasantville took his own life on December 14, 2025 after he was found hanging by a cell phone cord in his cell at the Port of Spain Prison.

Wallace was reportedly discovered by prison officers, as they conducted routine rounds where they saw him hanging in his cell, and immediately activated established emergency protocols.

They called upon Medical Services responders who administered first aid to his lifeless body, but all efforts to revive him were unsuccessful. Soon the District Medical Officer and the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service were notified and arrived on the scene.

Where an assigned Welfare Officer contacted Wallace’s next of kin, with prison authorities describing the incident as tragic, and extended condolences to his family and loved ones, while assuring citizens and Wallace’s family members that a full investigation into the circumstances of his death is underway.

However, Wallace’s girlfriend, who he met on TikTok claims a different story from the official account given by the authorities. As she claims that she was on the phone with Wallance moments before his death and the 35-year-old did not die by suicide, as she had heard him quarrelling and cursing before the line went dead.

Furthermore she noted of Wallace’s history with the law and prison guards, noting that months earlier Wallace had had an altercation with a prison officer where he was fatally beaten and had to seek medical treatment outside the prison.

Wallance has reportedly had a long and controversial legal history dating all the way back to February 19, 2013, as he was one of the 4 men who were arrested in connection to the shooting of Police Sergeant Hayden Manwaring, who was shot and murdered as he was responding to a robbery incident at Mom’s Diner on Cipero Street, San Fernando.

He was imprisoned, but in 2024, Wallace sued the State alleging that he was assaulted by officers inside his cell during a cell search, and was later beaten again with fists and batons in a toilet area by a prison officers at the Golden Grove Prison in Arouca, while he was awaiting to stand trial before a judge and jury.

The prison officers denied the allegations stating that  they found Wallace with a cellphone and as they attempted to take it back, he attacked them, and they had to use reasonable force to subdue him and take the cellphone away.

Justice Rahim, however, ruled in Wallace’s favour, leaving Wallace to walk away $75,000 in compensation after his win against the State, with the State also ordered to cover his legal costs.

Wallace’s case has drawn mass attention and public scrutiny from the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago with many calling for transparency surrounding the death behind bars due to his history with the law and prison guards.