without a lawyer after his son was pronounced dead at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

Det. Con. Calvin Smith -- who was the first officer to arrive at the hospital after the death of two-year-old D'shun Dill in 1994 -- testified yesterday during Darrell's Supreme Court trial.

Darrell, of Hamilton Parish, has pleaded not guilty to unlawfully killing his son on December 14, 1994. The trial comes after a Coroner's Inquest last February.

Det. Con. Smith yesterday told the seven-man, five-woman jury that while questioning Darrell at the hospital his sister Catherine interjected and advised him not speak to the Police.

"She joined us and told Mr. Darrell that he should say nothing to me,'' Det.

Con. Smith recalled, "and he should wait till his lawyer came.'' Ms Darrell also asked the officer if her brother had to answer any questions and was told he did not.

"She again instructed him to wait till his lawyer came,'' Det. Con. Smith said. "Mr. Darrell said: `That's ok, I just want to know how my son died.' He was crying.'' During his brief conversation with Darrell, Det. Con. Smith said the father told him that D'shun had been sick the week before.

And the day before D'shun's death the toddler had been vomiting, Darrell told the officer.

"He said he had given the child some medicine and said the child had been vomiting the day before all over the house in the kitchen and on the cupboards,'' Det. Con. Smith said.

"On the fourteenth he said he had been home alone with D'shun. And he thought the child had asthma and that he tried everything that he could.'' After examining Darrell's apartment and collecting D'shun's clothing with vomit on it, Det. Con Smith testified that he had no further involvement with the case.

The trial will continue tomorrow due to the absence of the Crown's next witness who is ill.

Paul Darrell