KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – A High Court judge Friday dismissed a no case submission filed by the attorneys of a police officer, who is charged with murdering his girlfriend, Donna-Lee Donaldson, in 2022.
Constable Noel Maitland is also accused of preventing the lawful burial of a corpse arising from her disappearance in July 2022.
Justice Leighton Pusey, after hearing oral submissions from the prosecution and the defence on Thursday, ruled that the police officer has a case to answer in the disappearance of the 24-year-old social media influencer, who was last seen at the Chelsea Manor apartment complex in St Andrew, where Maitland lived.
She was reported missing on July 12, 2022
As a result of the judge’s ruling, the case will now proceed before a seven-member jury, with Justice Pusey expressing the hope that Maitland’s defence team will be ready to proceed on Monday when the matter resumes.
During the trial, which began in May last year, the prosecution led evidence from 36 witnesses, including Donaldson’s mother, who testified that her daughter was last seen alive on July 11, 2022, when Maitland reportedly picked her up from her home in St Andrew. The mother also testified that she spoke with her daughter on the morning of July 12.
Donaldson’s brother testified that he had spoken with her via video call on the evening of July 12, and that she appeared to be in a location with a yellow background and brown curtains.
Prosecutors are basing their case mainly on circumstantial evidence, including blood belonging to Donaldson that was found in Maitland’s apartment.
In a statement given to the police on July 15, 2022, Maitland said Donaldson walked out of his apartment on the morning of July 12 after an argument over a photograph of the mother of his child, which he had hanging on the wall.
Maitland claimed that Donaldson wanted him to take down the picture, but he refused, saying he would not shun his child’s mother.
and then 