A forensic pathologist told the Supreme Court that he could not determine for sure what caused the death of Jevon Daniels, whose decomposed body was found on waste ground in Sandys.

Michael Pollanen, the chief forensic pathologist for the Canadian province of Ontario, said the decomposition of Mr Daniels’ body at the time of his autopsy had made it difficult to know what had killed him, but that he was able to rule out some possibilities.

“In terms of violence, we have no evidence of causes of death such as being shot, being stabbed, being beaten or being strangled,” he said.

“There’s no evidence of any of those things happening.”

However, he said he could not rule out that Mr Daniels had died from asphyxiation, stating it was possible that he had been suffocated, smothered or drowned.

Dr Pollanen said that while tests of Mr Daniels stomach and liver did not reveal anything significant, he said he could not completely rule out death by intoxication because blood testing was not an option.

He added that while he could not find any evidence of potentially fatal illness, he could not entirely rule it out.

“I found no evidence of disease,” he said. “There was no ready explanation for death by disease like disease of the heart.

“However, the body was quite decomposed so there are some conditions that I might not be able to exclude.”

Dr Pollanen told the court that the medical evidence could not rule out the possibility that Mr Daniels had been a victim of murder.

“It’s clear that this is a man who was nude, wrapped up in shrouds and deposited outside,” he said.

“That is greatly concerning and on the basis of circumstantial evidence and the possibility of asphyxial death, I have to say that homicide cannot be excluded.”

Dr Pollanen said he could not determine when exactly Mr Daniels had died but said it was a reasonable estimate that he had been dead for a few weeks before his autopsy.

Davin Providence has denied allegations that he murdered Mr Daniels between May 13 and June 17, 2016.

Mr Daniels was last seen on May 13 that year and the court heard his family became concerned after they had not seen or heard from him in 24 hours.

His body was discovered on June 17, 2016, near an area of waste ground adjoining Ireland Rangers Field on Ireland Island, Sandys.

The court heard earlier that Mr Providence and Mr Daniels were housemates who lived in separate apartments in a duplex on the Railway Trail in Sandys.

The mother of Mr Daniels’s child messaged Mr Providence two days after his last sighting to ask if he and seen or heard from Mr Daniels.

Mr Providence said that Mr Daniels had came by the Railway Trail property earlier that morning but added that he told the victim to leave and never come back.

Mr Daniels’s mother, Gloria Daniels, told the court on Thursday that she learnt from Mr Providence, whose parents owned the property, that he had kicked her son off the premises.

The trial, before Puisne Judge Juan Wolffe, continues and is expected to last three weeks.

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