Maitland Accused Me of Avoiding Him, Says Truck Driver in Murder Trial

KINGSTON, Jamaica — A delivery truck driver hired by Constable Noel Maitland in July 2022 to transport a settee from his Chelsea Manor apartment to a car wash testified on Wednesday that the policeman became hostile toward him in the days following the job, accusing him of trying to avoid contact.

The driver took the stand as the latest witness in Maitland’s ongoing murder trial in the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston.

Maitland is charged with murder and preventing the lawful burial of a corpse in connection with the disappearance of his girlfriend, 24-year-old social media influencer and entrepreneur Donna-Lee Donaldson, who was last seen at his Chelsea Manor apartment on July 12, 2022.

Investigators say a range of circumstantial evidence points to Donaldson’s death at the hands of Maitland.

On the stand, the truck driver explained how he met Maitland at Phil’s Hardware on Constant Spring Road through a sideman named Carlos, who introduced them. Maitland, seated in his “hype” motor vehicle with another man, hired him to move a settee.

The driver said he followed Maitland to Chelsea Manor, where the policeman and his friend removed the settee from a second-floor apartment and handed it to the driver and Carlos, who loaded it onto the truck. They delivered it to a car wash on Lyndhurst Road, and he was paid $5,000 for the job.

However, the driver said Maitland called him several times afterward, growing increasingly impatient. On one call, the driver claimed Maitland accused him of avoiding him and asked if police had already “gotten to him.”

“The last call, Noel called me in a little more attitude. He said, ‘mi a talk to you and you nuh waa talk to mi, a wah? Like dem get to you already,’” the driver testified.

He recounted how police later seized his truck as part of the investigation, leaving him without a way to earn a living for about two weeks. During that time, he recorded one of his phone conversations with Maitland and eventually played the recording for police when he went to retrieve his truck.

He described the settee as “burgundy with flowers” and said it was “the long one.”

According to the witness, Maitland continued to call him even after police took the truck, suggesting the settee was still at an upholstery shop and asking if the driver planned to pick it up.

“I was a fool to this thing,” the driver said, admitting that only after reflecting on the events and showing police the recording did he fully grasp what was happening.

The witness is expected to continue his testimony when the trial resumes today