GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands (CMC) — A Caymanian man has denied stabbing 32-year-old Marco Green, a Jamaican vendor who was selling at the Seven Mile Public Beach in the country in April last year.

In court on Wednesday,Romell Millwood, 34, denied stabbing Green as a result of a turf war between people selling refreshments to tourists on the beach.

Millwood claimed he was doing yard work in West Bay when Green was stabbed multiple times on the crowded beach.

But Green said he was “one million per cent certain” that his attacker was Millwood.

During a very short half-day trial before Justice Emma Peters, Green appeared via video link from Jamaica, as he left Cayman soon after the assault.

He told the court what happened to him on that fateful day, but Millwood vehemently denied the allegations when he took the stand, insisting that he had not even been to Seven Mile Public Beach since before COVID-19 and had never been a vendor there.

The stabbing came against the backdrop of significant public concerns that illegal vendors have been plying their trade along the beach, which is increasingly dominated during the week by cruise ship passengers, given the limited access to other beaches.

Green, who was one of several illegal traders on the beach said he had been issued a warning by officials about trading on the beach, but on the day he was stabbed, he returned, claiming this was for the first time since the warning.

Green said he “had bills to take care of” and so he went to the beach to help a friend, another Jamaican illegal vendor, to sell drinks and jerk chicken.

Green said that soon after he arrived and began selling drinks, he was approached by a man he knew as “Romell”, a vendor who lived in West Bay. Green told the court that Millwood approached him and said that the local vendors did not want any Jamaicans selling on the beach. Green said he did not want any trouble and was “just about the peace”. He then walked away.

However, he said that as he approached a tourist to collect money for a sale, Millwood returned, came close up into his face and threatened him. Green said that as he turned away, he felt the first sting after he was stabbed in the back. He said that his attacker stabbed or slashed him three more times in his arm, his face and scalp with a camouflage knife that had a six-inch blade.

Green said he ran towards the sea to get away because, although there were lots of people on the beach, no one helped or intervened. Feeling weak and losing blood, he managed to find his friend, who drove him to the hospital as he drifted in and out of consciousness.

Green was treated for blood loss and his wounds, all of which required stitches, but he was released later that evening.

Millwood told the court that he was working in a neighbour’s yard at the time of the stabbing, on the advice of his lawyer he answered “no comment” when he was questioned by the police and did not mention his alibi.

He was later charged with wounding but pleaded not guilty and opted for a judge-alone.

Green accepted that he was trading illegally on the beach but denied selling anything but soft drinks and chicken.