Murder accused claims she was attacked before fatal struggle

Murder accused Haniyfa White told police she was beaten with a piece of iron before a violent struggle for a knife ended in the death of Julene Bryan.

White, of Sion Hill, St James, is on trial for the May 16, 2007 murder. Her statement to police was read into evidence by retired Station Sergeant Johnathan Seale, the lead investigator in the case, as the trial continued before Justice Pamela Beckles in the No. 5 Supreme Court on Monday.

In the account, White, who was 28 at the time, said she had been walking home when she passed Bryan and Jenine Harvey on the street near “Stanley’s shop”. She went into the shop to get a top-up for her phone, and while she was checking her bag for a pen to write her cell number, the two women entered the establishment laughing.

While writing her number in the diary, she heard a noise, as if the wine bottle she had placed on the counter had dropped. She looked back and told the two women, “I am going to walk away from you two again.”

“Julene then came up to me pushing me, telling me, she gine **** me up. I say ‘Julene stop’. She then started cuffing me. I then pushed her, and Jenine came up to me with my wine bottle, beating me in my head with it,” White told police. “While Julene was cuffing me, Stanley told them to stop, but they refused. I started to scream and hold my head down. There was a lot of blood coming from my head. Stanley came out of the shop. I ran and left my phone, handbag and a plastic bag with toilet paper behind.”

White said she went home, took up a knife and went back to retrieve her belongings from the shop and to get her daughter,” White’s statement read.

“I took the knife because I did not want them to interfere with me. I say ‘I barely went to buy a phone card and y’all troubling me, and I ain’t trouble y’all’. Searching for my daughter, I went into the shop and saw Stanley packing my things. I walk past the shop, saw Julene by the door with a piece of iron in her hand. At this point, I didn’t see my daughter. When I went cross I say to Julene, ‘I come out here to get a phone card and you troubling me. Every time I pass you troubling me’.

“Julene then start to step down from her door with the iron in her hand, and I said ‘Come’. She started to beat me with the iron. I try to grab the iron and ended up on the ground. I had the knife in my hand. It drop. Julene then had it. I try to get it from her, and the handle come off. We continue to struggle on the ground and Julene held up and saw blood. On seeing the blood, I ran home and called 211.”

In cross-examination, defence attorney Safiya Moore asked the witness whether the knife blade and handle were tested for fingerprints. Seale said they were not, as he did not consider it necessary.

Earlier, general practitioner Dr Jasmine Crump testified that Bryan’s lifeless body was found on the ground, in front of her house, in Six Men’s, St Peter. The doctor described a six-inch laceration to the right side of the neck, two inches below the jaw, exposing subcutaneous tissue.

“There was blood on her right arms, neck and blouse. There were no exit wounds that I could identify at that time. In addition, there was a small vertical laceration on her chin,” Dr Crump told the court.

She also examined White.

“When I saw Ms. White, she had a one-inch laceration to the left palm of her hand, which I cleaned and dressed. She had also a minor laceration about half an inch to the right forehead above the hairline that was also cleaned and dressed. She also had a soft tissue injury to the forehead,” the doctor testified.

Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Krystal Delaney is prosecuting the case.