The High Court trial of Junior Barton who killed his reputed wife during an argument a few years ago at Kuru Kururu commenced yesterday before Justice Dawn Gregory-Barnes.
He was indicted for the murder of 24-year-old daycare worker Lisa French, on September 2, 2004. Lisa French was brutally stabbed and died within a few minutes of the attack that occurred some time during that night.
State Counsel Dionne McCammon called several of her relatives to the stand yesterday including her father, Edward French. The man recalled that his daughter, her two children and the accused were at his home a few hours before she was killed and that when they left she had indicated they were going home.
He said Lisa lived with his sister and her husband and that she had moved out of the home she shared with Barton two months before her death. In response to a question posed during cross-examination by defence counsel Vic Puran, French said his daughter was living with his sister because her home offered more protection.
The man said while Lisa was at his home she was laughing and talking and so was Barton. “She seemed happy,” he added. But a while after she left the home he heard something and rushed from his home. French said he later saw his daughter lying motionless on the ground and covered in blood.
One of the witnesses who testified before French said he was at home with his wife when they heard a scream and upon investigating they saw Lisa lying a short distance from where they lived. She was bleeding at the time. The man said he rushed to get transportation but when he returned to the scene, she appeared to be dead. He said the police arrived shortly after.
Paula French, the deceased’s aunt also testified yesterday. She said Lisa was residing at her home and that she met and spoke with her niece on the night she was stabbed.
Paula French said she went home and after watching a soap opera on television she retired to bed leaving Lisa and her husband. She was later awakened by a relative and rushed out of the home to find Lisa lying on the ground a short distance away.
Puran put the suggestion to Paula French that she was making up a story for the jury so as not to address the allegation that her husband murdered her niece. To this, the woman said no. The trial is continuing.
