Defence attorney Christopher Townsend mounted a fierce defence of his client Constable Noel Maitland on Tuesday as he used his closing arguments to convince the seven-member jury that the prosecution failed to present a solid case to convict the cop.

Maitland is on trial for murder and preventing the lawful burial of a corpse in relation to the July 12, 2022 disappearance of his 24-year-old girlfriend, Donna-Lee Donaldson.

Donaldson was last seen at the Chelsea Manor Apartments in St Andrew where Maitland lived.

Townsend said that at no point on Monday during the prosecution’s closing arguments did Director of Public Prosecutions Claudette Thompson ask the jury to return a guilty verdict. What she implored them to do was to return a verdict that aligns with the evidence in the case.

“He gave a long list of reasons why Maitland should not be convicted based on the circumstantial evidence on which the case rests.

Townsend pointed out that Maitland’s apartment was searched multiple times and forensic tests conducted. All that was found, he said, were “at least three samples of Donaldson’s blood” which, he argued, could have got there under circumstances other than murder. He said the prosecution failed to prove that Donaldson was murdered in Maitland’s apartment as has been the claim.

“They searched his apartment, they conducted tests and they said that they had confirmed at least three samples of Donna-Lee’s blood. What relevance must we place on this? I say none. Mr Maitland says to you that the only way he can account for Donna-Lee’s blood being in his area is in one instance, he was having sex with her and she had a miscarriage. She would have bled and he said she had miscarried in that apartment twice,” Townsend told the jurors.

“He said that that is the only way in his mind that blood could have got there. You have to remember that she is there all the time, which means it could have happened in several different ways. We don’t know. You have to remember too, that the scientist that the prosecution called said ‘I don’t know when that blood got there’. That blood could have been there a year before she went missing. You don’t know,” Townsend added.

Donaldson’s blood was found on curtains and a few other items including shoes in side Maitland’s apartment. Townsend insisted that there is no way to prove when the blood got there or what caused it to be there. What he was convinced of, was that it was not enough to categorically say that a murder occurred inside Maitland’s apartment.

“For all we know the curtain could have been right beside the shoes, thrown down. She could have cut her finger, flashed her hand and it flashed on the thing. The blood could have been there for over a year. That is what the Crown has proven to you.

“If they don’t know when it is that the blood got there, how are they going to say that it is significant as it relates to her disappearance? How? They can’t, and that is a major problem they have. They can’t tie down the time when that blood would have gone there. They can’t even tie down whether or not the blood got there when the curtain was hanged. The blood could have been there already and the curtain put up after,” Townsend said.

He added that the curtain could have been somewhere else when the blood got there and asked the jury, “Is that the kind of certainty you can find guilt on? I say to you to rubbish that. That has no significance. Use your common sense. I don’t know if that was their case because it is kind of shaky to me. Is it that they are saying Donna-Lee was killed inside there? I didn’t know because nobody has suggested that up until now. All they said is that somebody got injured.”

A carwash attendant who was one of more than 30 witnesses to take the stand in the trial had testified that Maitland brought a couch to the carwash where she worked on Lyndhurst Road in St Andrew and while she was washing it, she saw blood running from it “like rice grain”.

Townsend sought to rubbish that. He suggested that it could have been the dye in the fabric of the burgundy furniture that was running because degreaser was used on it at the carwash. He also tried to dismiss the carwash attendant’s claim that flies were following the couch, saying that restaurant as well as garbage bins were in close proximity to where the car was washed.

The attendant testified that she believed that someone might have been killed in the couch, based on the volume of blood-like substance that was running from the settee which was taken from Maitland’s apartment a day after Donaldson went missing. The attendant had told the court that she saw a bloodstain in the couch the size of a June plum.

“If somebody got killed inside there where blood a go run like rice grain out of a settee from a blood stain the size of a June plum, wouldn’t you see blood elsewhere in terms of on the ground and all over the place?” Townsend asked.

“They have something they spray on the ground and they use their light and it is supposed to show it up. Even if you wiped it so till you fool, the blood a go still show.

“They did that and there was no blood found and that is why the prosecution shied away from actually saying ‘Him kill her in the apartment’. What they did was used the few specs of blood and said ‘A must deh suh’. They ask you to make the giant leap to say he killed her in the apartment. As it relates to the apartment there is nothing presented that you can use. What is it that you are to do?

“They have proven to you that this blood had been there long before. What are you to do with that bit of evidence? So you are to blind your eye to that and say ‘Well, she was killed there’? Okay then, where is the rest of all of this blood then, this blood that was running like rice grain. None of it touched the ground at all and it started from something the size of a June plum? If something splashed on the curtain, where is then the rest of it? Why blood never deh pon the ground too?” Townsend asked, as he reminded the jurors that the forensic experts sprayed special chemical inside the apartment that would help them detect blood and there was no such finding.

The attorney implored the jurors to put aside all that they have heard and read in mainstream media, social media, and elsewhere and encouraged them to focus on the evidence in the case.

“You have to put all of the newspaper clippings out of your mind. You have to put the rumours out of your mind. You have to look at the evidence here today. You have to make your decision. You have to act fearlessly. When you leave here, if you make a decision in his favour, you have to go out there and face the relatives. You might have to face that but that is why you are up there. There comes a time when you have to make tough decisions and that is why you have a collective, to help Jamaicans and you have to do so fearlessly. You are not sitting there as individuals. The society rests on your shoulders. Justice in Jamaica rests on your shoulders,” Townsend said.

He described the case as hotchpotch and asked if the jury was willing to convict on such evidence.

“He stood there and he told you that ‘This is my girlfriend and I would never hurt her’. There is no evidence of him hurting her at all. Her mother came and there was absolutely no evidence coming from her that this man has ever hurt her for three years they were together. The prosecution will have you believe that because him and her had a quarrel about his baby mother that he just jumped up and killed her.

“Use your common sense. You have a quarrel with your baby mother about another woman, you can’t say nothing. You as a man, you know that. If it is true, you shut your mouth because if you open it, you know a more worries. You shut your mouth and you go sleep. If you shut your mouth long enough, she a go cool down. When she cool down you say ‘Baby, I am sorry’ and hope that inna di night everything will set back again. That could not be the reason to kill anybody. My friend is saying, use that as a motive. But use your common sense and dash that to the four winds. Rubbish!” Townsend said.

Trial judge Leighton Pusey began his summation on Tuesday and is expected to complete it on Thursday. The jury is expected to return their verdict on Thursday as well.

DONALDSON… has not been seen since July 12, 2022