DIRECTOR of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Claudette Thompson on Monday asked the seven-member jury adjudicating Constable Noel Maitland’s murder trial to rubbish an explanation given by him last week during an unsworn statement that blood found in his apartment was due to a miscarriage his missing girlfriend, Donna-Lee Donaldson, had there.

Maitland is on trial for murder and preventing the lawful burial of a corpse in relation to Donaldson’s July 12, 2022 disappearance.

The DPP, in a lengthy closing argument, pieced together a mental jigsaw puzzle for the jury as she sought to convince them that every piece fits. She told them that the evidence pointed only in one direction, and added that during the investigation and the trial Maitland lied, deflected, and dismissed evidence presented against him.

Thompson stressed on the fact that a controversial couch that took centre stage in the trial is still yet to be found. The couch in question was removed from Maitland’s apartment and taken to a car wash on Lyndhurst Road in St Andrew to be power-washed.

A car wash attendant, who washed the couch, was one of the more than 30 witnesses in the eight-month-long trial. She testified that she saw “blood like rice grain” coming from the couch that was brought there by Maitland. She also told the court that she saw a lot of flies following the couch.

On Monday, a separate couch found in Maitland’s apartment was taken to court.

The DPP sought to establish that it remained in the apartment because there was no blood on it. Thompson also said that curtains, two different feet of shoes, and a cushion cover with blood on them remained in the apartment because Maitland did not notice them.

Thompson told the jurors to ask themselves what happened to the couch after it left the car wash.

“Noel’s strategy has been to deny, deflect, and dismiss. On the day that he went to the Half-Way-Tree Police Station when Miss Lugg went there to report her daughter missing, do you remember who he went there with? Kathy-Ann,” the DPP asked and answered.

Sophia Lugg is Donaldson’s mother.

“Do you remember who asked questions about Kathy-Ann’s car? Him, through his attorneys, him through the defence,” she asked and answered again.

“Do you remember who asked whether Kathy-Ann was in Jamaica or not? Him. A part of the strategy is him pointing fingers at somebody else. And him don’t just point fingers at any and anybody — the man wants to direct your attention to his babymother [Kathy-Ann]; that is who he is pointing at. But the policeman who investigated the case told you that he didn’t charge her because there was no evidence against her. It’s not she go pick up Donna-Lee at Miss Lugg house. Donna-Lee was not taken to her home. She was not seen at the car wash. She never called the truck driver and a ask him, ‘Weh dem tek weh your truck fah?’ and then sought to comfort him that, ‘You [would] soon get it back.’ The whole purpose of that call was for this policeman to find out what the police dem saying and doing. When you retire to the jury room, I want you to ask yourselves a number of questions,” the DPP told the jurors.

“Where is the long couch? Is him tek it out of him house with the assistance of the truck driver; he carried it go down to west Kingston with another driver. Him supposed to know where it is. Where is the iPhone? The one that come up on the screen that the officer was able to tell us all the details about? Why is it that what was handed over to us was a phone where the SIM card was welcoming him the day before police locked him up [July 27, 2022]?” Thompson said, telling the jurors that Maitland did not describe himself as a policeman during his unsworn statement because his actions were not those of a cop.

Thompson read out scriptures from the book of Proverbs to paint a picture of how the prosecution believes Maitland acted. She pointed to Proverbs 65 verses 16 to 19 which, she said, contained a number of things God doesn’t like such as a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed blood, a heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief and discord among brethren.

“A proud look. You heard him talk about the love triangle, something everybody else would keep on the down low. That is a man’s pride about him girlfriend or him babymother. That is pride, and the Lord hates it. A lying tongue, Him hate that too. Hands that shed blood. The same God hates it. A heart that devises wicked imaginations. He started pointing fingers at Kathy-Ann. Wicked!

“Then you hear about taxi man, human trafficking. Feet that be swift in running to mischief. The same man him was calling and calling and calling; the same man that allowed him into his apartment and had him looking at a monitor more than once; and him come here with him mischievous self to come cast aspersions on the man’s character,” Thompson said as she brought up Maitland’s reference last week to his neighbour who gave testimony against him.

Maitland had accused his neighbour of being a homosexual who did not like him. Thompson questioned why he went into a man’s apartment who he believed to be a homosexual.

“It was mischief when he called up the truck driver to find out what was going on. It was mischief when he came here come talk ‘bout miscarriage and sex on balcony. The Lord hates a false witness.

“The last one is discord among brethren. You remember that question to the investigator about who gave him instructions to charge who? The Crown’s evidence points in one direction and one direction only. This is a jigsaw puzzle where none of the pieces are missing. They all fit together. I ask, therefore, that you return a verdict that is true and just and aligns with the evidence that you have heard over these eight months,” Thompson said in her appeal to the jurors.

The trial continues today with Maitland’s lawyers delivering their closing arguments to the jury.

Trial Judge Leighton Pusey indicated to the jurors that they should reach the point of deliberation by Thursday.

DONALDSON… has been missing since July 12, 2022