After over a month-long break to enable administrative matters to be sorted out, the murder trial of Constable Noel Maitland resumed on Monday in the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston with a crime scene investigator employed to the Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom) continuing his testimony.

The examiner explained that he had gone to Maitland’s Chelsea Manor apartment in St Andrew in July 2022, to scope for evidence following the disappearance of Maitland’s social media influencer and entrepreneur girlfriend, 24-year-old Donna-Lee Donaldson. She was last seen alive at the apartment complex where her policeman boyfriend lived.

Using a range of circumstantial evidence detectives said they had grounds to believe that Donaldson was dead. Maitland was subsequently charged with murder and preventing the lawful burial of a corpse.

During examination-in-chief led by the prosecution on Monday, the crime scene investigator explained for the seven member jury how he packaged and stored evidence related to the case, including curtain drapes found at Maitland’s apartment which had what he said were several stains resembling blood.

From Maitland’s apartment, he also secured a pillow cushion. The investigator also spoke of how he secured a toothbrush which belonged to Donaldson that was taken from her mother’s house in St Andrew. The toothbrush and the other items were swabbed for DNA evidence.

“I collected the package [the brown curtain] and placed it in storage which is our exhibit room or vault at Indecom headquarters in Kingston. At that time, I alone had access to that room. I collected it from the exhibit room and carried it with me here to court. It was intact. It was unopened.

“When I delivered the [cream pillow cushion] to the Institute of Forensic Science and Legal Medicine, it was in the same condition. On the 11th of July, 2024, I took it from the lab and carried it back to Indecom headquarters and stored it in our exhibit room or vault. I last saw it this morning. The package is intact and unopened,” he said.

“I wrapped [the toothbrush] in sterile paper and took it to the Institute of Forensic Science and Legal Medicine. I last saw it 11th July, 2024. The item was intact and sealed. I collected it from the government forensic lab and I carried the exhibit to Indecom headquarters and I placed it in the exhibit vault for storage. I saw it this morning as well as the previous court date, May 28, 2025. The package contains one motorised toothbrush. It was handed over to Indecom by Miss Sophia Lugg, the mother of Donna-Lee Donaldson,” he added before being asked to identify photographs taken of the toothbrush and certain areas of the apartment complex where Maitland lived.

He was specifically asked to identify cameras in the photographs and the direction in which they were pointed.

It is expected that today when he returns to the witness stand he will be shown photographs of the inside of Maitland’s apartment to identify the curtains which he said had what appeared to be bloodstains on them.