‘Blood like rice grain’

A former car wash worker yesterday testified that the man who had brought a sofa to her workplace to clean, took over from her while she was power-washing a sofa and that she observed blood “like rice grain” seeping from the sofa.

The woman, who gave evidence via video link in the Home Circuit Court on Tuesday, told the court that the man, whom she referred to as “brown man”, took charge of washing the sofa shortly after sending someone for a bottle of vinegar.

“The guy came back with the vinegar and we spoke, and I told him to get two more bottles,” she recalled.

“He took over the gun from me and started washing it himself,” the witness said, referring to the power washer which she described as a gun connected to a hose and machine. She estimated she had spent less than three minutes cleaning the sofa before the “brown man” intervened.

Asked how long he had spent cleaning, she said she was not certain of the time, but knew that he washed it longer than she had.

The woman, when asked about the brown man, told the court that she would be able to recognise him if she saw him again. However, after scanning the courtroom during her testimony, she stated that the man was not present.

Returning to her testimony, she said it was during the brown man’s cleaning that she saw blood oozing from the right corner of the sofa.

“After he started washing, I saw a lot of blood, blood like rice grain,” the witness recalled.

The worker made the disclosure yesterday while giving evidence in the Home Circuit Court, where Constable Noel Maitland is on trial for the July 2022 murder and disappearance of his girlfriend, Donna-Lee Donaldson.

She told the court that she was “so frightened” because of the amount of blood she observed.

The witness recalled exclaiming, “Jesus!” when she first saw the blood coming out of the sofa.

She recalled that she stated, “Dis yah man must dead or him bleed out. Look like dem kill somebody inna it.”

The witness, however, said when she made the utterances, no one responded.

According to the witness, she knew it was blood because of its red colour and the “raw” scent that accompanied it.

However, defence attorney Sanjay Smith immediately objected to the woman’s assertion, arguing that she was speculating and not qualified to determine the substance.

But, Justice Leighton Pusey overruled the objection, stating that it was the witness’s observation and the defence would have an opportunity to challenge her account during cross-examination.

The worker said that on the morning of July 13, 2022, the “brown man” in a grey car visited the car wash around 9 a.m. He later returned in the same car, accompanied by two men with whom he had earlier visited, along with the sofa in a blue-and-white truck. She said the sofa was placed in the section normally used for car washing.

Before beginning the cleaning, she said she retrieved the degreaser and bleach but was told by the “brown man” not to use bleach. The witness stated that she initially began the cleaning process, but the man took over after the vinegar was brought to the location.

She told the court that she saw a dark spot on the sofa, about the size of a june plum, before washing began. The man left the sofa behind, after washing his vehicle, and drove off.

The following day, the witness said she observed that the sofa was still there, now swarmed by flies and that the place was “very raw”.

According to her, she never saw the brown man again after that day.

The car wash worker also shared that the car wash had a mobile unit which offered the service of cleaning mattresses and furniture.

Maitland is on trial in the Home Circuit Court on charges of murder and preventing the legal burial of a corpse, in connection with the disappearance of Donaldson.

Donaldson, 24, a social media personality, swimwear entrepreneur, and customer service representative, was reported missing on July 13, 2022.

Her mother, Sophia Lugg, had previously testified that Maitland picked up her daughter on July 11 and that she last spoke to her on the morning of July 12.

Attempts to reach her afterwards were unsuccessful.

Two delivery men previously testified that Maitland had hired them to transport his sofa.

The first one testified that he was hired to remove the sofa from Maitland’s Chelsea apartment and take it to a car wash off Half-Way-Tree Road. He shared that the constable had approached him, through a colleague, while they were at their workplace at a hardware store, where he is contracted to do deliveries.

He recalled being piloted by Maitland to the apartment, where Maitland, his friend, and ‘Carlos’, the deliveryman’s co-worker — now deceased — helped remove the settee from the apartment.

The second delivery man, who said Carlos had told him about the job, stated that he was at the hardware store when a car drove up and piloted him to a car wash on Lyndhurst Road in Kingston. There, he was instructed to take the settee to an upholstery shop in downtown Kingston.

The witness from the car wash will continue her evidence next week Tuesday, when the trial resumes.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com