Defence wants video of credit card being used after Donaldson’s disappearance
A CREDIT card belonging to missing social media influencer Donna Lee Donaldson was reportedly used at a popular hotel in Portland late last year by a female.
Donaldson, 24, went missing on July 13 last year after she was last seen at the home of her lover, Police Constable Noel Maitland, two days earlier.
Maitland, who was taken into custody two weeks later on July 27, was shortly after charged with murder and unlawfully disposing of the corpse. He has been in custody since, after being denied bail.
Yesterday, when he appeared in the Home Circuit court via Zoom for a plea and case management hearing, his lawyer, Christopher Townsend, asked the prosecution to secure footage of the alleged incident, the date of which was not stated in court.
“In the statement disclosed by the Crown, ... the credit card of the potential deceased was used at a particular hotel in the parish of Portland and therefore we want to see the footage,” the attorney said yesterday.
The prosecutor in response said the information was not accurate as it was not a credit card belonging to Donaldson. However, she was interrupted by the judge who instructed the prosecution to provide the footage.
In the meantime, the defence confirmed that the prosecution had made full disclosure. The prosecutor, however, indicated that both parties were unable to agree any of the statements or facts as the case is based on circumstantial evidence.
A trial date was subsequently set for April 7, 2025, and it is expected to last for two months before a jury.
Before that, however, a trial readiness hearing will be held on January 14 next year.
Maitland was subsequently remanded.
Prosecutors in the matter have disclosed that forensic analysis has established that bloodstains that were reportedly found on curtains and on a pair of sneakers inside Maitland’s Chelsea Manor, St Andrew apartment, were from the missing woman.
The court also heard that, on July 13, the constable took a sofa to a car wash to be cleaned, claiming his cousin had injured himself and had messed up the furniture.
According to an attendant who assisted Maitland, the couch had alarming volumes of blood.
“A whole heap o’ blood coming out the right side ... . Jesus, this man must dead. Him bleed out or this come in like dem kill somebody inna this,” the attendant is alleged to have remarked.
Maitland is also alleged to have hired a truck driver to transport the couch and had also reportedly tried to trick his landlord into deleting closed-circuit television footage at his apartment.
The prosecutor further revealed that a cell site analysis showed that Donaldson’s mobile phone was last located on the network on July 12 in the vicinity of Maitland’s apartment and that the defendant’s cell phone was in the same location at the same time.