The trial of Tiffene Greaves, who is charged with the 2022 murder of her neighbour, Vanessa Anderson, continued yesterday before Justice Deborah Kumar-Chetty at the High Court in Demerara, where two prosecution witnesses testified about the events surrounding the fatal stabbing.
The first witness told the court that shortly before Anderson was found injured, he saw a woman walking past him carrying a knife. According to the witness, he asked her where she was going and she replied that she was heading to the police station.
He said that moments later someone called out to him requesting a vehicle, saying that “the female was dying in her brother’s arms.”
The witness testified that when he arrived at the scene, Anderson was lying motionless with blood coming from her nose and mouth. Although persons there told him she was already dead, he placed her into his vehicle and transported her to the Georgetown Public Hospital. He later gave a statement to police after being summoned.
The prosecution also called Anderson’s sister, Natasha Anderson.
Natasha testified that on the day of the incident she had gone out and, upon returning to her home in the ‘B’ Field Squatting Area, Sophia, learnt that her sister had been involved in an argument with Greaves.
She said Vanessa subsequently told her she was going to a nearby shop to buy something to eat and drink, to which she responded, “Okay.”
According to Natasha, while she was returning she saw Greaves and her sister, Jamacy Jason, standing on the roadway. She told the court that Jason handed a baby to Greaves and, as Vanessa crossed a nearby bridge, Jason stabbed her twice in the back.
Natasha said she immediately ran to assist her sister, while she and her sister-in-law restrained Greaves and took her to the Turkeyen Police Station.
She later went to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where she was informed that Anderson had died.
Natasha also testified that she attended the post-mortem examination, where only she and the father of Anderson’s child were present.
Greaves, 29 at the time of the offence, a security guard of the ‘B’ Field Squatting Area, Sophia, was jointly charged with her sister, Jamacy Jason, following Anderson’s death. The two women were not required to plead to the capital offence when they first appeared before the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court. Jason is to be tried separately.
According to the prosecution’s case, Anderson and the accused were neighbours who had not been on speaking terms because of a previous misunderstanding. It is alleged that after an argument, Greaves handed a knife to Jason, who pursued Anderson and stabbed her in the back as she walked to a nearby shop.
A post-mortem examination later found that Anderson died as a result of stab wounds to the back.
A voir dire is now being held.
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