A forensic pathologist told the High Court on Tuesday that two of the multiple stab wounds inflicted on a 39-year-old man had punctured his lungs and caused fatal bleeding, as testimony continued in the murder trial of a St Michael man.
Dr Shubhakar Karra Paul told the No. 4 Supreme Court that all but one of the 13 wounds found on Vincent Watson’s body were caused by a sharp object.
He was testifying as the murder trial of Ramon Doyle continued before a seven-woman, five-man jury and two alternates on Tuesday.
Doyle, of Leinster Road, Waterford, St Michael, is accused of murdering Watson, 39, formerly of Lower Deacons Road, on December 3, 2021, at 1st Avenue, Godding Road, Station Hill.
He is represented by Senior Counsel Angella Mitchell-Gittens, while acting Director of Public Prosecutions Alliston Seale SC, Principal State Counsel Rudolph Burnett and State Counsel Paul Prescod are prosecuting.
Outlining his findings during the autopsy, Dr Karra Paul said there were stab wounds “all over the body”.
He indicated that lacerations were found on the back of the neck, back, chest and right arm, as well as several stab wounds on the chest, back and hip, and an abrasion to the left ankle.
The pathologist concluded that two of the stab wounds to the back had proven fatal, causing haemorrhage and death as they had entered the chest cavity and perforated the lungs, resulting in the accumulation of 75 millilitres of blood in the left chest cavity and 1.5 millilitres in the right.
Giving his evidence earlier in the proceedings, Station Sergeant Curtis Murray, who had been the lead investigator in the case, said that during his interview, Doyle told police that he did not know Watson.
Asked if Watson had instructed him to leave Godding Road, he said: “A man told me to leave where I was. I don’t know who he was.”
Doyle told police that another man was also present with two rocks in his hand.
“When I was getting up to move, I feel a lash in the back of my head … I was light on my foot and I put out my hand to stop the rocks and juks. I was taking some lashes with some rocks and some juks, then I went unconscious. It was too much to handle,” the accused said, adding that he did not know who had been throwing the rocks or ‘juking’ him.
According to Murray, Doyle also gave ‘no comment’ responses to several questions, including those as to whether he had been present at 1st Avenue, Godding Road; whether he had left the block and returned; whether he had been armed with a knife that day; and whether he had stabbed Watson.
During cross-examination, the lawman stated that a blood sample had been taken from the accused for DNA testing, but that it was never done. He also said that the knife identified by two witnesses as the one allegedly used to stab Watson was never submitted for testing.
The trial, which is being presided over by Justice Laurie-Anne Smith-Bovell, continues on Wednesday.
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