Blind in one eye and scarred in the face from a stabbing incident that left her cousin dead, Wanda Small took the witness stand in the High Court yesterday to re-live the incident that unfolded in the compound of Richard Ishmael Secondary School more than two years ago.
On trial is 17-year-old Letitia Bowen of Plaisance, East Coast Demerara, who was indicted before Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire on a charge of manslaughter for the November 11, 2005 killing of Jacklyn Levius.
Led in her evidence in chief by State Counsel Ganesh Hira, Small recalled how she was injured on a day that began with taunts at the Georgetown school and ended in tragedy. She testified to leaving Craig, East Bank Demerara with a family contingent who went to the school on the day in question to follow-up complaints made by one of Small’s cousins, a student at Richard Ishmael.
Small, who did not attend the school, but had known the accused by seeing her prior to the incident, recounted to the jury how the knife-wielding Bowen stabbed Levius and that she (Small) was injured while attempting to intervene.
Under cross-examination by Senior Counsel Bernard DeSantos for the defence, bits of Small’s evidence were found to be conflicting with her testimony in the lower court. She was repeatedly shown statements she made during the Preliminary Inquiry and had to clarify whether the magistrate had falsely recorded what she had said. Small insisted that the magistrate had recorded incorrect information, prompting DeSantos to say that he would call the magistrate to the stand.
Small’s testimony was that she, along with six others, went to Richard Ishmael on that day after they received word that another relative was having trouble at the school. The group proceeded to the Head Teacher’s office and an older relative, Joy Smith, spoke with the Head Teacher. Bowen was subsequently summoned to the office, but she never went.
Small said she then left the group and went in search of Bowen. At the time, she said, she had no idea that Bowen was the person said to have been taunting her cousin. She recalled that she saw a group of students approaching her and had turned to rejoin her relatives when she heard someone belt out an expletive. This made her look around and she spotted Bowen and believed her to be the one who had cursed.
“I asked her what the problem was between she and the twins,” Small said. “And after that Jackie came up and asked her how she would feel if she [Jackie] pick on her. Then I saw a shiny object and Jackie pull me away.
“Then I see Letitia juking Jackie and I went in the middle to part them when she juk me and told me something.”
Under cross-examination, DeSantos suggested that Small had confronted Bowen when she met her in the schoolyard. He put it to the witness that she and a much older, physically bigger Levius were beating up on Bowen in the schoolyard.
Small then said that Levius had approached Bowen and asked her how she would feel if she (Levius) bullied her. Small said Levius had pushed her aside to speak with Bowen and was in the accused’s face while talking. DeSantos suggested that Levius and Small were choking Bowen’s head and attacking her during that time, but the witness said this was not so.
DeSantos challenged Small on her evidence relating to how many adult persons were really in the school compound that day and what she actually said to Bowen after seeing her. He also asked the witness whether she went into the school unafraid of meeting with the accused because she was prepared to face her and Small initially said no. After being shown her deposition from the lower court, she said yes.
The jury was then told that persons in the family contingent had expressed fear before they went into the schoolyard that day but Small had not since she was prepared to face Bowen.
Earlier in her evidence, Small had said that she did not have a weapon on the day in question, and as far as she was aware, neither had Levius. Small also said that she was now blind in one eye because of the injuries she sustained that day. She pointed to a scar that is left.
The trial is continuing.
