White convicted of 2007 murder

Eighteen years after being charged for the murder of Julene Bryan, Haniyfa Reza White has been convicted of the crime.

It took a seven-female, five-male jury an hour and 45 minutes of deliberation before returning its decision in the No. 5 Supreme Court Thursday evening. White showed no emotion when the verdict was read, and was remanded to Dodds Prison pending sentencing.

The Sion Hill, St James resident was accused of murdering Bryan on May 14, 2007.

In outlining the State’s case, Acting Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Krystal Delaney told the court that the two women had previously been friends but had fallen out and that on that day, there was an altercation between White and another woman in a shop in their Six Men’s, St Peter neighbourhood, which resulted in White being injured. Bryan was present at the establishment at the time. The three women all went to their homes, but White later armed herself with a knife, went to Bryan’s home and threw a rock, hitting the house. Bryan came outside with a piece of stick or iron, and the two ended up fighting, during which White stabbed Bryan in the neck, severing her carotid.

White had told the court, from the witness stand, that Bryan and two other women constantly harassed her after their friendship ended. She said that on that day, after one of the other women struck her head with a wine bottle, she left the shop bleeding and went home. After not seeing her daughter, she took up a knife and went back outside to find her.

“My aim was not to hurt anybody. I thought that if I had the knife, they would not interfere with me,” White testified, stating that while looking for her daughter, Bryan came out of her house with a piece of iron.

“She told me she would burst my ***, and I told her ‘Come then’…. She started to beat me with the iron and I grab for the iron and we both fell on the ground and the knife drop and we started to fight,” she said.

White recalled that during the scuffle, they both fought for the knife, Bryan ended up on top of her, she felt blood, the deceased held up off her, and she ran away.

Defence counsel Safiya Moore represented White.

Madam Justice Pamela Beckles ordered a pre-sentence report and adjourned the matter until September 9.