During a serious bodily harm trial, an eyewitness testified that the complainant struck an accused with a scarf-wrapped object, which the other accused then used to stab the complainant in the leg.
Jhakira Matthews of Scotts Terrace, Grazettes, St Michael, and Jurdie Miller of Mile and a Quarter, St Peter, are accused of causing serious bodily harm to Glen Wilson with intent on May 31, 2021. The two also face the lesser charge of unlawfully and maliciously inflicting serious bodily harm on Wilson on the same date.
Senior State Counsel Maya Kellman is prosecuting, while the accused are self-represented.
Taking the witness stand in No. 5 Supreme Court, bar owner Julian Slater told the court that while at his business on the Princess Alice Highway, Miller, whom he knew as ‘Jesse’, was having a beverage and talking to other patrons, including ‘Baby J’, which is Matthews’ alias. He said he knew the two as patrons since opening the bar.
Slater stated that an argument started between Matthews and a ‘rasta guy’, identified as Wilson, when she asked him for a cigarette but only had 50 cents while the complainant was charging $1.25.
The witness recalled: “I said I would pay the remainder and she said no, he knows her. The two got into an argument and got into high words and they moved from under the tent by me to the tree in the bus terminal. I wasn’t listening to all the words but it just got loud and at that point they got close enough to where they probably could get physical. And that is when Jesse tried to intervene between them. I don’t know if somebody touched somebody. But I just know the two of them started to fight. That went into the bus terminal.
“Then bottles were thrown at one another. Jesse and the rasta guy were on the ground fighting and cuffing one another. But the guy had a scarf holding in his hand and he was hitting Jesse with it. I did not know it was a knife.
“Then Baby J was there next and whatever he was using, she saw it and she took it up. And after that she went to give him a lash and then the guy kicked her as she fell back, and then she started to juk him on his leg.”
He said that he did not see that the object was a knife as it was wrapped up, but when Matthews picked it up, saw “the motions and the blood and figured it was something sharp”.
The witness recalled that after the incident he went to close up his shop and saw the two accused by the counter and heard them say ‘this is the knife that belong to the rasta man’.
“I saw a knife with a white handle on my counter and I told them I closing up so they took up the knife and left.”.
Questioned by Matthews as to where she got the knife, Slater said: “I think you were taking it from his hand”. The witness also described Wilson’s movements in striking Miller with the scarf-covered object as “wild”.
Under cross-examination by Miller, the witness testified that he knew Miller to be “a passive guy looking to resolve matters”.
When re-examined by Kellman, Slater said he only knew Miller based on interactions in speaking to him at the bar as a patron and not personally.
Reading from a report compiled from her examination of Wilson after he was transported by ambulance to the Accident and Emergency Department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital that night, emergency medicine specialist Dr Keisha Drakes said that the wounds received were “life-threatening and possibly limb-threatening”.
The doctor said that wounds were observed on his right leg and the paramedic had reported massive blood loss at the site.
“He required suturing of two leg wounds and application of a compression dressing to his right leg to achieve homeostasis…An urgent request for blood products was made from the Blood Bank as it was anticipated that he would require transfusion of blood products. His body showed signs of severe stress and his initial hemoglobin level was indicative of signs of anemia at that time,” she said, adding that various medications were administered to increase Wilson’s blood volume and that Wilson received a transfusion to replace some of the blood he lost.
The witness testified that after stabilisation, three lacerations on his right leg were treated and dressed, one which was deep with fat and muscle exposed.
“His final AED assessment was hemorrhagic shock secondary to penetrating injuries to the right leg. He was referred to the orthopedic services on call for further assessment of the wounds,” she said.
Speaking on the degree of force used to give the complainant such injuries, Dr Drakes stated this was “significant enough to cause an injury that was sufficient enough to cause acute and severe blood loss”.
She told the jury of six women and three men that interventions were critical to slow Wilson’s severe blood loss, which could have led to death.
During cross-examination by accused Matthews, the doctor stated that while the patient had said that he had received blunt trauma to the head during the incident, there had been no visible signs of injury, adding that further tests would have been required to determine the effect.
(JB)
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