‘Seats switched’

When a St Peter driver came across an accident along the Spring Garden Highway after hearing an “explosion” he saw a man “move across the centre console of the car
. . . to the navigator’s side”.

Roberto Roach gave the evidence in the No. 2 Supreme Court today as the dangerous driving trial against Mario Neptune, of Long Gap, Spooner’s Hill, St Michael continued before a nine-member jury.

Neptune is accused of causing the death of 32-year-old Samantha St Martin, of Cave Hill, St Michael on June 27, 2010 by driving in manner and at speed dangerous to the public.

Roach explained under questioning by lead prosecutor Principal Crown Counsel Alliston Seale that when he got to the car valet place along the highway he saw the accident, got out of his vehicle, went to the right side of the first car, looked inside and then went over to the other car.

He said the car containing the man was facing the service station and when he looked in from the right side to see whether the person was “good . . . I watch the person move across the console of the car”.

Through cross examination by Neptune’s attorney Ramario Straker, the Crown’s witness went on to say that the man was having difficulty moving but after he saw that “he was okay” he went over to the next vehicle involved in the accident and did not move until the ambulance came.

He said he did not know the man in the car and he had never seen him before but “when I glanced in the car he position himself and went over the other side and I told myself he good.”

The deceased woman’s mother also gave evidence today. Rose White told the sitting presided by Justice Randall Worrell that she last heard from her daughter two weeks prior to her death. She found out that St Martin had been in an accident and passed away through a phone call. She travelled to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) where she identified her daughter’s body in the Accident and Emergency Department and later in the mortuary.

St Martin’s death was due to “cervical spinal injury” commonly known as a broken neck, Consultant Pathologist at the QEH David Gaskin told the court. He said he conducted the postmortem on her body on June 29, 2010 and also found abrasions to her abdomen, right leg and buttocks.

The case continues tomorrow at 10:30