KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jurors in the trial of police constable Noel Maitland were on Wednesday told by Sophia Lugg, who is the first witness to take the stand in the Home Circuit Court matter that her daughter, Donna-lee Donaldson had requested that she tell Maitland she wasn’t there when he popped up at her home one day, shouting her name.

Maitland is on trial for the July 2022 murder and unlawful burial of Donaldson’s corpse.

During examination-in-chief, prosecutor Claudette Thompson asked Lugg if Maitland had ever entered her yard where she lived with Donaldson and her other children, and Lugg shared that he did so only once over the roughly three-year period her daughter had been involved with him.

“He came into my yard once. I heard Mr Maitland shouting ‘Lee, Lee” which was the name he gave to Donna. She got up from the couch in my room and she said ‘mummy, I am not here, I am not here’. She went to the back room, and I got up and pulled my bedroom door which leads to the verandah.

“I saw Mr Maitland pulling the grille to enter inside. I can’t recall the time. I said to him, ‘do you have a warrant?’ I asked him that because he was dressed in police clothes. He smiled and said ‘mum, a nuh nothing man. Mi a call her and she naa answer and mi know she deh here’. He had a soft voice. His mood was very calm,” she said.

Even though she said Donaldson told her to tell Maitland that she was not there, she still came out of the house to talk to him.

“Donna came out, and I left them and went back inside. I closed the door behind me. They were having conversation, but I did not hear,” Lugg told the court.

Thoughts of living without her daughter for roughly three years made Lugg break down and cry in court and as she left the court building, to the point where it appeared difficult for her to stand upright.

In court, Lugg shared that the relationship she and Donaldson had was more like sisters and not merely mother and daughter.