Court Local News ‘No scuffle before stabbing’ Jenique Belgrave13/06/20240805 views There was no exchange of words, no argument and no scuffle between two Branchbury, St Joseph friends on the morning one stabbed the other in the chest, the No. 5 Supreme Court heard on Wednesday. “All I saw was a blade,” Jelani Layne said as he told the jury his former friend Shakeem Ryan Dawson stabbed him in the chest. Layne said he left home that morning around 7 a.m. to buy a lentil patty and drink from a house in his neighbourhood. He passed a neighbour, Corey, and told him he would be back shortly. He went by the side door of the home which sells the patties and called to a man inside. “By the time I look round, I see Shakeem Dawson,” Layne said. “He stab me. I then try to run back to the road and back down the gap to Corey residence. When I look back Shakeem Dawson behind me running coming. Corey come out and help me.” He told Principal State Counsel Olivia Davis, who is prosecuting the trial with State Counsel Eleazar Williams, that he was stabbed in the left side of his chest with a blade that was around five inches long. The complainant said he had not seen Dawson before the alleged incident that morning. Layne said he and the accused man had been friends in both primary and secondary school, but “from there, I couldn’t deal with he, so I keep in my corner”. He was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where he underwent surgery and was discharged a week later. During his cross-examination by attorney Simon Clarke, who along with Dr Lenda Blackman represents Dawson, the complainant denied that he had started swinging at the accused man first, and started the altercation. He also rejected that he had been the one armed with the knife and that the two of them had gotten into a fight. Dawson has pleaded not guilty to unlawfully wounding Layne with intent to do serious bodily harm or to maim, disfigure or disable him on August 4, 2020, and to unlawfully and maliciously wounding him. Police photographer Nicole Taylor presented four photos that were entered into evidence. Justice Pamela Beckles presides.