Grand Fond man's murder trial ends this week

The murder trial of Dorian Dailey, a 27-year old man from Grand Fond for killing his father in 2017, is expected to end this week.

Now into its second week, the trial will see investigating officer Corporal of Police Jerry Frank take the witness stand for the third day when the trial resumed on Monday, May 22, 2023.

Dailey is charged with the murder of his father, Maurice Murry Dailey, 62, between January 9, 2017 and February 23, 2017.

Justice Thomas W. R. Astaphan presides over the case before a jury of eight women and one man.

Director of Public Prosecutions Sherma Dalrymple and State Attorney Marie Louise Pierre Louis had conducted the State's case with Corporal Jerry Frank being the ninth witness called up to the end of the first week (Monday, May 15 – Friday, May 19).

Counsel Darius Jones and Peter Alleyne are conducting the defense of Dorian Dailey.

During the trial, Corporal Frank said he was at the La Plaine Police Station on Monday, January 9, 2017, when a report was referred to him for investigation. He went to the La Plaine Health Centre, where he met and spoke with the district medical doctor, Dr Nebiyu Bekele. He went to the casualty department and noticed a man was bleeding from wounds on his head, neck and back.

The corporal and other officers went to Grand Fond that same day.

Witness said he heard quarrelling

A witness, Bartholomew George, said he knew the deceased for the past 15 years and the deceased for the past 35-40 years.

George said he was barbecuing that Sunday evening when about 11:00 p.m., he saw Dorian Dailey pass by. There was a streetlight above where he was barbecuing, and Dailey was about 3-4 feet from him. George said he saw him go by his father's house and immediately after heard a quarrel between him and his father. George closed his bar at midnight, and he could still hear quarrelling.

The next day Monday, George was passing the basketball hardcourt and saw people standing there.

Questioned by Jones, the defense lawyer, George said there were about nine people at his barbecue bar.

Another witness, Mandel Moise, a farmer of Grand Fond, told the court he was in his house when about 3 a.m. heard a sound coming from the back of his house, like someone groaning. He went back to sleep. At about 4:30, he listened to the sound more intense and closer.

"So I went to check it out," he said.

Moise grabbed his flashlight and cutlass and headed to where he heard the sound. He heard the sound coming from an abandoned building on the side of his house. Flashing his light in the abandoned building, he saw his uncle Murry Dailey kneeling.

"I called him, and he told me he wanted to sleep. So I flashed his face and head and observed what appeared to be lots of chops. I got scared and went to a neighbour to tell him what I saw," he said.

Moise went with another guy to get the nurse.

"After that, an ambulance came, and I accompanied my uncle and nurse to the La Plaine Health Centre," the witness said.

Moise also accompanied his uncle Murry Dailey to the Princess Margaret Hospital, where he left his uncle in the hands of the doctors.

Brother said he rode from Salisbury to Grand Fond

Another witness, Evans Dailey, is an older brother of Dorian but lives in Salisbury with his mother. He was sleeping when he got a call from his sister on Monday, January 9, 2017. So he took his little brother and rode off on his motorbike to Grand Fond. He met his grandmother in Grand Fond, and she took him to a little track where he saw a trail of what appeared to be blood.

"I followed it, and I saw a dickies' short pants," the witness said.

Corporal Jerry Frank said he met Evans Dailey on the track, and he pointed out something to him. The corporal, in his observations, said he saw a blue jeans pants, a white long-sleeve jersey, short grey pants, the left side of blue and black sneakers, the right side of the blue and black sneakers, a pair of white slippers with what appeared to be blood stains on some of the items.

The police officer cordoned off the area with crime scene tape.

Evans Dailey next went to the PMH and saw his father lying in a pool of blood. He had a cut under his neck, and his hands and head were bandaged. Evans next saw his father in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on Thursday, February 23, 2017.

"His body was swollen," he said.

Evans Dailey's next visit to the PMH was to the morgue, where he identified his father's body to the pathologist who performed the autopsy.

In his examination and treatment of Maurice Murry Dailey at the La Plaine Health Centre, Dr Nebiyu Bekele said the patient was semi-conscious on arrival. He had low blood pressure, disoriented and had multiple head injuries. There was a 14-centimetre open wound to the frontal right head aspect with visible fracture; 20cm temporal region right side of the head with signs of fracture; 7cm facial laceration to the left side of the face below the eye; right eyelid massive haematoma, that is a black eye, blunt injury; and small 1-2cm puncture-like wound to the right lumber region or lower back.

The patient was referred to the PMH because the injuries threatened his life.

Two other witnesses, including Inspector Jeffrey James, were present when the accused, Dorian Dailey, gave his statement to Corporal Jerry Frank at the CID in Roseau on Monday, March 20, 2017.

The case continues this week when Corporal Jerry Frank will continue giving his evidence, with the pathologist lined up to follow. In addition, the statement from another witness who is out of the jurisdiction will be read into the record.