KINGSTON, Jamaica — A supply truck driver employed by Constable Noel Maitland in July 2022 to move a sofa from his Chelsea Manor house to a automobile wash testified on Wednesday that the policeman turned hostile towards him within the days following the job, accusing him of making an attempt to keep away from contact.
The driving force took the stand as the newest witness in Maitland’s ongoing homicide trial within the Dwelling Circuit Courtroom in downtown Kingston.
Maitland is charged with homicide and stopping the lawful burial of a corpse in reference to the disappearance of his girlfriend, 24-year-old social media influencer and entrepreneur Donna-Lee Donaldson, who was final seen at his Chelsea Manor house on July 12, 2022.
Investigators say a variety of circumstantial proof factors to Donaldson’s demise by the hands of Maitland.
On the stand, the truck driver defined how he met Maitland at Phil’s {Hardware} on Fixed Spring Highway by means of a sideman named Carlos, who launched them. Maitland, seated in his “hype” motorcar with one other man, employed him to maneuver a sofa.
The driving force stated he adopted Maitland to Chelsea Manor, the place the policeman and his buddy eliminated the sofa from a second-floor house and handed it to the driving force and Carlos, who loaded it onto the truck. They delivered it to a automobile wash on Lyndhurst Highway, and he was paid $5,000 for the job.
Nevertheless, the driving force stated Maitland known as him a number of instances afterward, rising more and more impatient. On one name, the driving force claimed Maitland accused him of avoiding him and requested if police had already “gotten to him.”
“The final name, Noel known as me in slightly extra angle. He stated, ‘mi a chat to you and also you nuh waa speak to mi, a wah? Like dem get to you already,’” the driving force testified.
He recounted how police later seized his truck as a part of the investigation, leaving him with no technique to earn a dwelling for about two weeks. Throughout that point, he recorded certainly one of his telephone conversations with Maitland and finally performed the recording for police when he went to retrieve his truck.
He described the sofa as “burgundy with flowers” and stated it was “the lengthy one.”
In line with the witness, Maitland continued to name him even after police took the truck, suggesting the sofa was nonetheless at an upholstery store and asking if the driving force deliberate to select it up.
“I used to be a idiot to this factor,” the driving force stated, admitting that solely after reflecting on the occasions and exhibiting police the recording did he totally grasp what was occurring.
The witness is predicted to proceed his testimony when the trial resumes at present
