SOURCE- DAILY OBSERVER- The murder trial of Brittany Jno Baptiste began yesterday with witnesses revealing chilling details surrounding the 2021 killing of Jane Finch, a long-time Piccadilly resident.
The accused was reportedly discovered in Finch’s home on October 4, 2021, the same time the 66-year-old was found dead there.
Finch was discovered after apparently making a distress call to the Dockyard Police Station and posting a plea for help on Facebook claiming an intruder was attempting to break into her property.
Law enforcement reportedly found Finch’s body riddled with stab wounds.
The accused, who is in her 20s, pleaded not guilty to murder a few months ago, prompting the start of her trial before an 11-member jury.
One of the witnesses in yesterday’s trial, a taxi driver, testified about a bizarre journey with Jno Baptiste on the night of the incident.
The witness testified that he was at a bar in Liberta when Jno Baptiste- whom he knew from the village — requested a ride to Old Road. Despite being initially reluctant to travel the full distance, he agreed to take her as close as possible.
What followed was a journey that can be likened to a wild goose chase.
They first stopped at Ras Freeman, where Jno Baptiste spoke with some individuals. At another location close by, she engaged in a discussion with a man about her ex-partner and requested cocaine, but was denied.
The driver said he repeatedly asked her about her destination but did not get an answer so he passed Roman Hill and headed to Follies. At Follies, she suddenly instructed him to turn back, and when pressed again, she shouted, “You know who me be. Me a Medusa daughter!”
The witness described her as visibly angry and seemingly on the verge of attacking him. Feeling threatened, he offered her his food and drink, which she accepted.
Apart from that, he noted that she appeared calm.
Continuing to Piccadilly, he kept questioning her intentions. Near his home, he stopped and insisted she specify her destination. Jno Baptiste exited the vehicle and walked in a westerly direction towards Cobb’s Cross, a 30-minute walk from the victim’s home.
During cross-examination by defence attorney Wendel Alexander, the witness clarified that the ‘Medusa’ was a nickname for the accused’s mother, “because of how she behaves and looks sometimes”.
Alexander then suggested to the witness that he was taking the accused home with the intention of having sexual intercourse with her. The witness denied this claim.
He explained that he didn’t wish to take her all the way to Old Road because of an 8pm curfew that was in place at the time.
The next witness was a constable with approximately 11 years of professional experience. He testified that he was stationed at the Dockyard Police Station at the time and was on patrol when he received a call from an officer in the station.
He stated that he and the fellow officer proceeded to Finch’s residence and called out to her, but no one responded.
The witness then recounted that the accused subsequently emerged from the house as if she was “trying to run away”, at which point he apprehended her and a physical struggle ensued.
He noted that he observed blood on her hands and later recalled that during the same night, in the presence of other officers, the accused exclaimed, “mommy is me do um, mommy is me do um”.
According to his testimony, her behaviour and the words she uttered suggested that she was not in the “right state of mind”.
A man who had short relationship with Finch in 2019 also testified to seeing her at a bar in Liberta on the night of the incident.
Other witnesses include two decades old friends of Finch.
The first friend described being awakened by a phone call that prompted her to check Facebook, where she discovered a disturbing post. She reported going to Finch’s house, where she encountered police and a crowd. This same witness was responsible for identifying Finch’s body approximately two weeks later.
The second friend of the deceased explained that upon seeing Finch’s Facebook post, she attempted to call Finch but was unable to make contact. She presumed that Finch had already received the help she was seeking through her online cry for assistance.
The witness admitted that she felt, and continues to feel, deeply remorseful for not immediately “jumping up to go to her against curfew”.
The final witness was the officer in charge of the C Division, which includes the Dockyard Police Station. His testimony was brief.
The trial is scheduled to continue today before Justice Tunde Bakre.
Advertise with the mоѕt vіѕіtеd nеwѕ ѕіtе іn Antigua!
We offer fully customizable and flexible digital marketing packages.
Contact us at [email protected]
“Feeling threatened, he offered her his food and drink” – Calms a crazy woman every time
Just lock up this big p*ssy crackhead and done!
Hope that the annoying Turks Lee not meddling in this case
That mother of hers not easy she would just heat them children like she don’t care all in there head for simple things so I’d she crazy blame it on the mother her correction towards her children wsS bad and the mother her self look crazy
She is a mentally disabled child. But that’s us, I hope she gets the help she really needs. Her mother may be a little loud but she is a very nice woman that has worked hard and brought herself up. She is a single mother and has been battling for years. We black people don’t belive that we might need a psychiatrist too or our children suffer from things like depression or ahdh and by polar and all those. But we are quick to pull down our one another. Just saying get help for the child. It’s not too lat3