Court hears about Kadooment stabbing

Evidence regarding an initialed knife and the contents of a medical report form came into question as the trial of Shamar Norville continued today.

Norville, a St George resident, faces charges of unlawful wounding and wounding Kelly Stephens with intent.

Outlining the case Acting Senior Crown Counsel Rudolph Burnett noted that on Kadooment Day 2015, Stephens attended the event down Spring Garden Highway, now Mighty Grynner Highway, with his girlfriend. They walked past a group of men standing at the side of the road. Norville made a rude remark towards Stephen’s girlfriend and Stephens condemned the disrespect shown to his girl. Norvillle rushed at Stephens pushing him to the ground, during the fight, Norville pulled a knife and stabbed Stephens several times about the body.

Police Constable Veronica Carrington, said in evidence, that she was the first officer at the scene.

She recalled being on foot patrol along the left hand side of the highway going in the direction of Bridgetown. The fight, she said, was on the right hand side. She spoke to another officer and the two went to the area where they separated Stephens and Norville.

She saw that Norville had a black-handled knife with a jagged blade and the complainant said he was stabbed before she noticed injuries along his left side, chest, neck and hand.

The officer revisited the statement he gave police where Norville said he was standing talking to others when a lady approached him to buy cigarettes. He told her she looked nice and asked “you got a licence for that bumper” and that was when Stephens came out of nowhere “poking” him, punched him, they scuffled and he [Norville] grabbed the knife and “stabbed at him”.

Today, Norville, in his unsworn statement to the court, said he never told the girl anything disrespectful and he was the one who acted in self defence after Stephens “rushed at” him.

The defence later raised some questions when a doctor said she could only recognize her signature on a medical report form but not some of her handwriting.

During questioning by Senior Crown Counsel Oliver Thomas, Dr Neisha Alleyne said she saw Stephens and made a report in respect of her examination on August 4, 2015. She noted five stab wounds.

When defence lawyer Michael Lashley Q.C. questioned whether she wrote “mild force” in the contents of the form she said it was not her handwriting.

“The signature is mine but the top part is not my…handwriting. I do not write like that…the part that says “stab wounds to neck, anterior and posterior chest” does not look to be my handwriting or the part that says “assault”. And [her name] is spelt wrong. That is not how my name is spelt and I don’t think I would misspell my own name but the signature is mine,” Alleyne said.

Alleyne said it was protocol for doctors to fill out the form and she was taken aback because it questioned her professional integrity.

When the court asked whether it was a case where the officers filled out the form and handed it back to her to sign she said no. The back is signed by officers and the front is filled in by the expert.

In respect of the knife allegedly used in the incident, the complainant Kelly Stephens claimed that the initials JH on the knife were his. He told the court that he sometimes initialed using those letters, which represented his mother’s name Jacklyn Hamlin.

A police constable gave evidence today and identified the same JH initials as his own, his name is Justin Henry.

The case continues tomorrow in the No. 3 Supreme Court before Justice Carlisle Greaves.