A St Michael man accused of unlawfully disposing of his granddaughter’s body chose to remain silent when the options for giving his defence were read to him in the No. 4A Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Winfield Nurse, of Accommodation Road, Bush Hall, is accused of unlawfully disposing of Rasheida Bascombe’s body between January 2, 2002, and May 30, 2013. Bascombe was 12 years old when she went missing on January 2, 2002.
After Principal State Counsel Olivia Davis, who is prosecuting the case with State Counsel Tito Holder, closed the State’s case, the court clerk outlined Nurse’s options: to give evidence from the witness stand, to make an unsworn statement, or to say nothing.
Nurse stood in the dock and said: “I am not saying anything.” His attorney, Lennox Miller, then informed the court that the defence would not be calling any witnesses.
Justice Donna Babb-Agard adjourned the trial until Thursday, when closing arguments are scheduled to be heard.
Earlier during the morning’s proceedings, the nine-member jury heard evidence contained in two written statements from Bascombe’s mother, Hermena Straker, who is now deceased.
In testimony recorded on June 1, 2013, Straker said she had a close relationship with her father and her four children, and that Rasheida was never in the habit of running away from home.
“I strongly believe that the three months that my daughter was still missing and that she was still alive, she would have gotten into contact with me,” the statement continued, adding that the girl did not have a mobile phone.
In the account, Straker said that she found a paper with contact numbers after her daughter went missing and called two females and one male to ask if they knew where she was. She said that, to the best of her knowledge, her father was not in the habit of giving her children money, “especially Rasheida”.
The statement continued: “On Friday, May 31, 2013, I came to the Glebe Police Station… whilst there I had a conversation with Inspector Griffith who then directed me into a room where I saw my father Winfield sitting in a chair behind a desk. I sat in the chair in front of him and questioned him as to where Rasheida was. My father told me that Rasheida is dead. Being torn up and in pain, I started crying and asked him, ‘How you mean she dead?’ and he said to me Rasheida had asked him for money and she took out a knife pointing at him and the two of them started to scuffle which caused them to tumble to the ground and Rasheida get juck with the knife in her belly and she hit her head.
“My father also told me that he left her body there in Jackson, St Michael. My father did not specify the exact location he had left her. I also asked my father why he did not go to the police but he just stared at me and did not answer. When my father told me what had happened to Rasheida it was just both of us in the room. No officers were there.”
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