The Tribune

By CELESTE NIXON

Tribune Staff Reporter

cnixon@tribunemedia.net

A SUPREME Court jury was told yesterday that a witness heard murder-accused Jessie Williams telling her husband to stop choking her just before he was killed.

The female witness then testified that she saw the accused twice make stabbing motions with a knife toward the victim.

As the trial continued before Justice Vera Watkins, prosecutor Neil Brathwaite called Sherice Major, who testified that she witnessed the incident.

Williams, 45, of Nassau Village is charged with the July 31, 2010 murder of her 45-year-old husband, Sylvanus Williams.

Mr Williams died in a vacant parking lot between the Green Parrot Bar and the Bahamas Air Sea Rescue Association (BASRA) headquarters on East Bay Street.

On Wednesday, the court heard the victim arrived at about 9pm for his work shift as a security guard at the US-based firm American Bridge.

It is claimed a woman approached him and stabbed him a number of times. He died at the scene.

His wife, an American citizen, is alleged to be the culprit. She denies the murder charge.

Mrs Major said around 9.30 o'clock that night, she was in the Green Parrot and BASRA parking lot sitting in her truck with her two children when a man and woman in a red jeep pulled up at a high speed, around 20 feet away from where she was parked.

She said the woman in the passenger side was throwing her hands about shouting "stop choking me, stop choking me."

Mrs Major told the court the woman got out of the passenger seat, walked around to the front of the jeep to the driver's window and said: "Why didn't you stop choking me?" then raised her hand and made a stabbing motion.

The victim then got out of the car and said "look what you did to me," with his shirt covered in blood, Mrs Major said.

She said the victim walked a few steps towards the woman, fell on the hood of the car, then took a few steps back towards the driver's seat where he collapsed.

According to Mrs Major, the woman said "get up, get up" and asked the witness to call for help - which she said she had already done.

She said the woman pressed against the victim with a towel.

Mr Brathwaite asked her how long the police took to arrive and what the woman was doing at the time.

Mrs Major said the police took 15 minutes to arrive and the woman was standing over the victim, pressing the towel against his body and crying.

When Mr Brathwaite asked Mrs Major to identify the woman, she said it was the accused - Jessie Williams.

During cross-examination, defence attorney Godfrey Pinder asked whether Mrs Major actually saw the knife, and about the colour of the handle.

Mrs Major said she saw a silver blade but could not say what colour the handle was, because it was in the woman's hand.

The witness said she did not see the knife while the towel was being pressed against the victim's body.

An exchange followed between the witness and Mr Pinder concerning where she was parked in the lot and whether there were allocated parking slots.

Mrs Major said the parking lot does not have designated slots and that she was parked on the western side.

Mr Pinder asked if she saw the knife when the woman was in the car and on which part of the body the victim was stabbed.

Mrs Major said she did not see the knife in the car, nor did she see the victim choking the woman, but heard the woman say "stop choking me, stop choking me".

Mr Pinder suggested the fact that Mrs Major assisted the accused indicates the witness was not afraid.

Mrs Major said she did assist, giving the accused a shirt, but was afraid at first when Williams came to her to call someone for help with the knife in her hand.

She noted that just after this, the accused went to the passenger side of the jeep to get the towel.

The defence attorney then suggested the witness was lying about ever seeing a knife.

She denied this, but Mr Pinder pressed the witness, claiming the knife was a "figment of your imagination".

She again disagreed.

Asked about the light in the area at the time, Mrs Major said the light was good and came from a blue building in the parking lot.

Mr Pinder asked how the witness called for help. She replied she was standing by her truck and used her cell phone to call the police.

Mr Pinder asked: "Did you notice a video camera?" Mrs Major said that she did not.

Asking if the police showed her a knife, Mr Pinder suggested officers told her it was the knife used in the incident. He claimed she only saw it for the first time in a photograph in the prosecutor's office.

Mrs Major denied this, insisting she did see the knife at the scene, and again in a photograph during a 10 minute meeting with the prosecution.

The trial was adjourned to July 2 at 10am.