Trial of Noel Maitland for Donna-Lee Donaldson's murder to begin tomorrow

The murder trial for Constable Noel Maitland, who is implicated in the 2022 killing of his girlfriend Donna-Lee Donaldson, will begin tomorrow in the Home Circuit Court after the court gave permission for three witnesses to testify remotely.

The proceedings will open with the empanelling of the jury.

The trial was scheduled to start on April 28 but had been delayed by the special measures' application by the prosecution in which the court's permission was being sought.

Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Claudette Thompson had indicated that the outcome of the application would determine whether the trial proceeds.

Maitland, who has been in custody since July 27, 2022, is charged with murder and preventing the lawful burial of a corpse.

Donaldson, a 24-year-old social media influencer, went missing on July 13, 2022, after she was last seen at Maitland's home two days earlier.

Prosecutors have disclosed that forensic analysis established that bloodstains reportedly found on curtains and on a pair of sneakers inside Maitland's Chelsea Manor, St Andrew, apartment were from the missing woman.

The court also heard that on July 13, the constable allegedly took a sofa to a car wash to be cleaned, claiming his cousin had injured himself and had messed up the furniture.

According to an attendant who assisted Maitland, the couch had alarming volumes of blood.

"A whole heap o' blood coming out the right side... Jesus, this man must dead. Him bleed out or this come in like dem kill somebody inna this," the attendant is alleged to have remarked.

Maitland had reportedly hired a truck driver to transport the couch and had also reportedly tried to trick his landlord into deleting closed-circuit television footage at his apartment.

The prosecutor had further revealed that a cell site analysis showed that Donaldson's mobile phone was last located on the network on July 12 in the vicinity of Maitland's apartment, and that Maitland's cell phone was in the same location at the same time.

Attorneys-at-law Christopher Townsend, Chadwick Berry, Sanjay Smith and Kaysian Kennedy Sherman are representing Maitland.

- Tanesha Mundle

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