During their closing arguments in the Constable Noel Maitland murder trial, the prosecution on Monday raised the question of why the policeman was so busy trying to get rid of a couch shortly after his 24-year-old girlfriend Donna-Lee Donaldson went missing.

Maitland is on trial in the Home Circuit Court in Kingston for murder and preventing the lawful burial of a corpse in relation to the July 12, 2022 disappearance of Donaldson. Donaldson, a social media influencer, call centre employee and an entrepreneur, was last seen alive at the Chelsea Manor Apartment complex in St Andrew where Maitland lived.

Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Claudette Thompson reminded the seven jurors in the case that July 13, 2022 the day after Donaldson went missing, was when Maitland decided to carry the couch to the carwash for cleaning.

The police did not get access to the controversial couch throughout their entire investigation.

The prosecution highlighted that even to this day, the couch has not been found and therefore, no testing for biological material was ever done on it.

“While the mother [of Donaldson] is upset about Donna-Lee being missing, Mr Maitland on the morning of the 13th was busy getting rid of the settee. That’s what he did. That was his goal. The witness speaks of a three-seater settee. The 13th was the day he decided, when his girlfriend can’t be found, to get busy moving settee from the house.”

“Cyber forensics tell us that at 9:45 am that day, Mr Maitland’s phone connected to the Lyndhurst cell tower. The carwash attendant [on Lyndhurst Road] told us that he came there after 9:00 am. He came there first thing that morning and having used his phone at 9:45 am, it connected to the Lyndhurst cell tower,” the DPP said.

Thompson reminded the jurors that the last place Donaldson was seen was at Chelsea Manor.

The DPP pointed out that a friend of Donaldson told the court that when she spoke to her at 1:00 pm on July 12, 2022 she heard what sounded like motor vehicle traffic in the background. Throughout the cross-examination of a close friend of Donaldson in 2025, Maitland’s defence team slanted some of their questions in a way that formed the idea that Donaldson could have been on the road when the friend said she last spoke to her and not at Chelsea Manor.

The DPP made the point to the jurors that the Chelsea Manor Apartments are located in close proximity to Chelsea Avenue which is a high traffic area. She also reminded them that Donaldson’s brother had spoken to her on a call in the afternoon on July 12 using the FaceTime call application, and he said her background did not look familiar while he spoke to her.

“The friend said in her statement that when she spoke to Donna-Lee sometime after one o’clock, she heard the noise of traffic. Madam foreman and your members, you have seen the apartment at Chelsea, inside out. Is it at all possible that even while inside Mr Maitland’s house, talking on the phone, you could have heard the noise of traffic?

“The Crown is saying that Donna-Lee was still there after one o ‘clock. Her brother said when he spoke to her he did not recognise the background. He said it was not the house we all grew up in and had been living in. In fact he identified this exhibit as the background he saw when he spoke to Donna-Lee on her iPhone,” Thompson said as she pointed the jurors to a screen showing Maitland’s living room.

“Mr Maitland, when the missing person’s report [for Donaldson] was being made [at the Half-Way-Tree Police Station], mention was made about Donna-Lee getting money from her father and her father had said it was after 1:00 pm him talk to her. Mr Maitland jumped into the argument and said he was aware of it and he heard the conversation. Even though the friend heard traffic noise, the Crown is saying that Donna-Lee was still at the apartment on Chelsea Avenue. The brother said he saw the brown curtain and the yellow wall and it was not their [family] home.”

Thompson said that, depending on who Maitland was speaking to at any given time, he would change his argument regarding the time that Donaldson left his apartment on July 12, 2022.

“Mr Maitland would have us believe, because he is talking out of both sides of his mouth, depending on who he was talking to, that Donna-Lee left from after 10:00 am or after 11:00 am. Cyber forensics has her there up to late afternoon. I can tell you why you can trust cyber forensics,” she said.

“Mr Maitland tells you where he went on the 13th and the cyber forensics supports it so you can trust it. While [Donaldson’s] mommy was getting anxious about where Donna-Lee was and making the phone calls, do you remember how many times Mr Maitland called her on the 12th after she left after the argument?” the DPP asked the jurors, before outlining that on the day, he made a total of 22 phone calls but only one was made to Donaldson at 7:11 pm.

The DPP continued, “This was on a day that he made 22 calls, not from the banger that his father handed over to the police but from the iPhone that none of us have seen. The iPhone grew legs and disappeared. On the 13th Mr Maitland called Miss Sophia Lugg [the mother of Donaldson] and asked her for Donna-Lee.”

Thompson pointed out to the jurors that Maitland had been encouraging Lugg to report her daughter missing, instead of doing it himself as the last persons to have seen her. Thompson’s theory was that Maitland wanted people to believe that he had nothing to do with her disappearance.

“He was trying to protect himself. It’s the natural thing to do. Donaldson’s friend has now come to accept that Donna-Lee is missing. She suggested it and not the policeman [Maitland] and not the loving boyfriend and then now he is nudging mom to do it.”

Alluding to Maitland’s unsworn statement from the dock last week, Thompson said the constable claimed he allowed the police into his apartment more than once to investigate and allowed them to examine motor vehicles connected to him or the mother of his child.

She said while pointing to a small couch in the courtroom that Maitland made much of the fact that no blood was found in the piece of furniture. Thompson emphasised as she reminded the jurors that Maitland had a longer settee removed from the apartment and taken to a car wash. She pointed out that even before the settee could dry properly, he went back to pick it up and allegedly took it to west Kingston after which no one is reported to have seen it again.

READ: Maitland claims miscarriage, not murder, caused blood in his apartment

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“There is a reason the long couch was removed. The smaller one was left there and the witness [from the carwash] is saying there was ‘blood like rice grain’ on the missing one but the one that we found that was still in the apartment, no biological material was found. We still carry it come show you. Just like how nothing was seen on the curtain, that is why it was left there,” Thompson said in reference to the curtain in Maitland’s apartment which had blood on it.

“Nothing was seen on this couch so it was left there. The police go there, see it and cut it opened to see what they could find and they found nothing. We are not seeking shelter from that truth because facts is facts. Where is the long couch? Bring it! Donna Lee’s blood was found on the curtain, on the Puma shoe and on the Croc and on the cushion cover. Somebody, as the scientist has said was injured in that house and the Crown was saying that it was Donna-Lee,” Thompson said.

The DPP asked the jury to look closely at the fact that on July 27, 2022 when Maitland was arrested, he did not hand over his iPhone to the police. Instead, his father handed over another branded phone to cops with a SIM card that was purchased the day before on July 26.

“It is what some people might call a banger, a BLU branded phone. When it was handed over by his father, the police officer made the enquiry and Noel agreed that that was his phone. I cannot stand up here and tell you that that was not his phone,” she said, continuing, “What I will say to you though is that the SIM card that was found in that phone, it was on the 26th, on the day before that that SIM card start use. Flow sent him a welcome message.”

“Cyber forensics said he got a message from flow saying that ‘Flow welcomes you to our family of valued customers. Thank you for choosing us as your service provider. We look forward to your combined support’. Flow don’t know Mr Maitland and don’t know nothing bout Donna-lee. Cyber science is telling us that he was using an iPhone. We know the science is real. Where is the iPhone?” Thompson queried.

“Him come mek him father hand over this little Blu phone when the SIM card welcomed him the day before. That is another piece of the jigsaw puzzle,” Thompson said as she encouraged the jurors to arrive at the right verdict when they go to deliberate later this week.

In court Tuesday, Maitland’s attorneys are expected to deliver their closing arguments in the case, then trial Judge Leighton Pusey is expected to give his summation thereafter. Following the summation the jurors will deliberate and return with their verdict.