'He would flee'! Cop in Donna-Lee Donaldson case denied bail

A court has rejected Constable Noel Maitland's application for bail, saying he would flee Jamaica to avoid being prosecuted for the murder of his girlfriend Donna-Lee Donaldson. 

In rejecting application, Supreme Court Justice Vinette Graham-Allen said if the cop was granted bail, there was a likelihood he would abscond bail, interfere with witnesses, obstruct the investigation or re-offend.
  
The judge said there are no conditions that can adequately militate against those actions.

Maitland, who has been in custody since July 27, is charged with murder and preventing the lawful burial of a corpse. The woman's body has not been found. 

Maitland is to return to the Home Circuit Court for a plea and case management hearing on February 9, 2023. 

The 24-year-old social media influencer was reported missing on July 13, two days after she was last seen at Maitland's Chelsea Manor apartment in St Andrew.

Prosecutors have disclosed that forensic analyses have established that bloodstains that were reportedly found on curtains and on a pair of sneakers inside Maitland's house belonged to Donaldson. 

The court also heard that on July 13, the constable took a red or brown couch to a car wash to clean, claiming his cousin had injured himself and had messed up the furniture. 

According to an attendant who had assisted Maitland, the couch had an alarming volume 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. 

READ MORE: 'Blood like rice grain'

Maithland had reportedly hired a truck driver to transport the couch and had also reportedly tried to trick his landlord into deleting CCTV footage at his apartment. 

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 the cop's cell phone was in the same location at the same time, prosecutors alleged. 
  
However, Maithland's attorney, Christopher Townsend has sought to downplay the evidence. 

The attorney, while describing some of the material as questionable, accused the Crown of grasping at straws in seeking to ground its narrative on circumstantial evidence.

Attorneys-at-Law Kaysian Kennedy-Sherman and Sanjay Smith also represent Maitland. 

- Tanesha Mundle

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