The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON ljohnson@tribunemedia.net THE MOTHER and grandmother of a 30-year-old woman who was sexually assaulted and murdered on a Friday morning two years ago broke down in Supreme Court during a pathologists' testimony. Christina Swain, mother of murder victim Chrishonda Swain, wailed after Princess Margaret Hospital pathologist Dr Caryn Sands described the extent of the injuries that caused the death of the victim, whose body was found on a track road in southern New Providence on August 13, 2010. During the afternoon session of yesterday's trial, Dr Sands told the court that the cause of the victim's death was the result of "blunt force injuries to the head, torso and extremities (hand and legs)". She explained that blunt force injuries are caused by the human body coming in contact with or "being hit by a hard surface or object". Referring to her autopsy report and the photos taken of the victim by police, the physician said that Chrishonda had received multiple cuts and bruises to her head, along with multiple skull fractures, muscle tearing and internal bleeding in the left eye and brain. When Dr Sands told the jury that the severity of the force injuries had caused her left temple bone to depress into the brain, the mother started wailing to the point that a lawyer assisting lead prosecutor Jillian Williams in the trial, left her seat and helped her from the court room. Two police officers assisted. Before the proceedings could continue, the grandmother also started sobbing. She too was escorted from the court on the suggestion of Ms Williams and defence lawyer Ramona Farquharson-Seymour. On her way out of the court, the distraught grandmother cried: "Chrissy! Lord dey do Chrissy bad! Why they do Chrissy like this?" Justice Bernard Turner, presiding judge over the murder trial of 29-year-old Philip McCartney, reminded the jury of their oath and that they were to "disregard any matters that do not come from the witness box." Dr Sands resumed her testimony and was then cross-examined by Mrs Farquharson-Seymour, who questioned the state of the victim's nails during the autopsy. The physician noted that she did not take specific notice of the nails, only recalling to have clipped them but she said the hands were "clean" and fingernails "intact". The defence attorney also questioned whether any "dust, debris, leaves or twigs" were found on her body during examination that would indicate that the victim was found on a track road. Dr Sands admitted that she did not notice those things and concluded that she had taken vaginal and rectum swab samples from the victim and put them in a special kit, along with other samples, for the police's forensic laboratory. The trial resumes today at 10am in Supreme Court, Ansbacher House on Bank Lane. McCartney, who is accused of the killing, is on remand at Her Majesty's Prison.