By Kadeem Joseph
The murder trial stemming from the alleged murder of Luciene Glennex Brodie by a fellow All Saints man on February 24, 2016, entered its second day on Tuesday with three witnesses taking the stand to give their testimony.
The accused, Kenroy “Kenny” Joseph and Brodie reportedly got into an altercation at Mack Pond in All Saints, which led to Joseph arming himself with a sharp object which he used to inflict wounds to Brodie’s head.
Joseph, who was 39 years old at the time, was charged with attempted murder, but that charge was elevated to murder after Brodie succumbed to his injuries on March 16 that year.
The prosecution first called a female villager to the stand who told the court that she was in her bed when she heard a commotion emanating from outside and she concluded it was cursing based on the noise and type of language she heard being used.
She noted that she was familiar with the accused, sometimes seeing him at least twice per week “especially if there is football in the pasture” and stated that even before drawing her curtains and opening her window, she could identify the voice as Joseph’s.
The villager said that from her vantage point “directly east of the field” she could see the entire pasture where the incident occurred.
She explained that after the initial uproar she went back to bed, but about three minutes later she heard the voice of a man who she identified saying, “don’t bother with that” when she went back to the window, admitting to the court that she did not know to whom he was speaking at the time.
The man would testify later that afternoon.
The woman said at this point, she went back to the window and looked out once more into the pasture.
She described seeing Joseph with a cutlass in hand over Brodie, swinging the sharp object down at him about three times towards his upper body.
“After I witnessed that I see when Kenny get up and walked away,” she continued.
She told the court that she then hustled to put on clothes and go over to the area where the fracas had occurred.
The woman explained that when she got there, she saw Brodie on the ground with blood around him but left because the sight of blood made her jumpy.
Attorney Lawrence Daniel, who is representing the defendant, cross examined the witness during which she said that peering through her window, she saw Brodie with a tool in his hand that he was using to remove grass from the field.
Daniel questioned the witness on whether she saw the deceased remove the stick from the tool, that was identified as a mattock, and swing it to hit the accused, hitting him in the chest and resulting in him bent over holding his chest, all to which she answered “no”.
The woman, however, agreed that she could have missed aspects of the altercation.
The prosecution then called another female villager to the stand, who explained that she knew both the Brodie and Joseph for several years.
The retiree indicated that she lived close to where the incident occurred and heard a loud noise from her home as she was taking her grandson to out to another house.
She said that she heard the accused cursing near the door to enter the field and questioned why he was making the ruckus, especially with bad words. She added that she also saw Brodie in the pasture digging grass.
The woman said she saw the accused approach the now deceased man but she could not hear the exchange between them.
She testified to seeing Joseph leave the field, going to his car and retrieving a cutlass that he placed in his pocket or waist, before approaching Brodie once more, later pulling it out and “hitting” the deceased with it.
“I decided to run to Brodie bawling murder, murder,” she said, adding that she later used his shirt to wrap wounds that he has sustained to the head in an effort to stop the blood.
During cross examination, she also denied seeing the deceased use the mattock to hit the accused during the incident.
The trial, which is the first being held in front of a jury since the Covid-19 pandemic, is expected to continue in the High Court this morning at 9 am.