At yesterday’s commencement of the trial into her daughter’s killing, Carol Kennedy recalled seeing the accused, Jermaine Maynard reaching for a gun with which he shot Carlisa Matthews to the back of her head.
Maynard, Matthews’ former boyfriend, is on trial for her murder before Justice Navindra Singh and a 12-member mixed jury at the High Court in Georgetown.
The allegation against him is that between December 31, 2013 and January 1, 2014, he murdered Matthews. He has pleaded not guilty to the indictment.
Prosecutor Siand Dhurjon in his opening address said that on old year’s night 2013, Matthews was standing outside the Water Street KFC outlet when the accused approached and asked to speak with her.
He told the court that Matthews was at the time in the company of her mother, other relatives and friends waiting to celebrate the break of the New Year when Maynard showed up.
According to the prosecutor, moments later Kennedy saw the accused pull out a gun and shoot Carlisa to her head.
The court was told that the accused then walked away from the scene and was later arrested and charged. Matthews meanwhile, was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) where she died while receiving medical attention.
In her testimony, Kennedy said that her daughter, 20, and Maynard shared an abusive relationship which she decided to end some six months prior to the incident. Kennedy said that on old year’s night at about 11:50; she, her daughter, other relatives and friends were liming in front of KFC waiting to celebrate the break of the New Year.
She told the court that just about that time, Maynard came up and asked Carlisa to speak with him to which she acceded. Kennedy said that she stood about eight feet away from the two, watching them while they spoke for about five minutes.
She said that when the conversation ended, she saw Maynard use his right hand and whip out a gun from inside the sack of a hand strap he wore on his left hand which had been injured in an accident.
Kennedy described the weapon as being a “nickel silver-grey gun.” She said she saw Maynard point the gun to the back of her daughter’s head and then heard a loud explosion from what appeared to be a gunshot after which Carlisa stumbled and fell beside her.
The woman related that as she attempted to pick up her injured daughter from the ground, Maynard kept the gun pointed over her, squeezing the trigger three more times, though it did not go off.
She said that as she advanced towards the man to hold onto him, her fiancé Collis Bruce “shouted to me not to—he gon shoot you.”
“I hear the gun click three more times when he squeeze the trigger,” Kennedy said.
She told the court it was at this point that the accused walked away from the scene and she followed behind up to the Avenue of the Republic and Charlotte streets area. She said she later stopped a mobile police patrol and reported what had happen.
Asked under cross-examination by defence attorney Adrian Thompson whether she had been told by a little boy that someone had shot Carlisa, Kennedy repeatedly emphasized that she did not have to be told anything by anyone since she was there that night and saw for herself everything that transpired.
She disagreed with counsel’s suggestion that she was blaming his client for her daughter’s death just because she wanted closure. “I saw Jermaine Maynard shoot my daughter,” Kennedy resolutely maintained.
Asked if firecrackers and squibs were being fired off at the time of the incident, the witnesses answered no.
Bruce who also testified at yesterday’s hearing, recalled rushing the injured Carlisa to the GPH where she later succumbed. He said that the doctor on duty showed him a wound at the back of the young woman’s head which contained a “shine metal.”
Bruce’s account of the sequence of events leading up to the shooting was similar to Kennedy’s testimony.
Questioned by Thompson as to whether he, Carlisa and others in their company had been consuming alcohol at the time of the incident, the witness said no. Asked if squibs and firecrackers were being fired at the time, Bruce said yes, but it was not in the vicinity where they were liming at KFC.
He stressed that he heard such sounds in the far distance.
Also testifying was Carlisa’s aunt, Vanessa Scott, who was moved to tears as she recalled being present when her niece’s remains were identified to Dr. Nehaul Singh who performed a post- mortem examination.
In his testimony, Inspector of Police Philip Bowman recalled putting the murder allegation to the accused on January 3, 2014 to which he denied, saying, he did not shoot anyone.
Asked by Thompson if he had swabbed Maynard’s hands or clothing for gunpowder residue, Bowman said no, stating that since it had been three days after the incident, “no residue would really be there, because it would have been cleaned off.”
The state’s case is being presented by Dhurjon in association with prosecutors Narissa Leander and Michael Shahoud.
The trial continues this morning at 9.
