Samuel James is currently on remand.

James is charged with allegedly attempting to murder his wife and wounding with intent at an incident that occurred on April 11, 2011 where Mrs. James was stabbed several times and hospitalised for eight days.

The landlady in her testimony, told the court that Mrs. James and her three children had come to live at her Jenny Hill apartment with Mrs. James’ sister sometime between December 2010 and January 2011.

In her testimony, she said on April 11, 2011 about 9 or 10 a.m. she was in her kitchen and a white jeep came down the hill and the person was blowing the horn. She told the court that she peeped outside and recognised that it was Mr. James in the vehicle.

The next time she saw Mr. James that day was in the afternoon of the incident. “… I saw he was coming from the apartment downstairs running up the driveway going to the main road. I observed there was something in his hand which was a knife apparently. It was wrapped maybe in a white towel and just saw the point of the blade.”

She said at that point she called her husband to call Mrs. James’ sister. The landlord also recalled that she had observed earlier before seeing Mr. James a four door vehicle parked in front of the apartment.

The Crown’s witness in her testimony further stated that when she went to change her clothing to go down to see what had happened, during that time, she heard the jeep left but didn’t see who was in it.

“When I went downstairs I saw a drop of blood on the apartment porch and I knocked on the door and Loretta’s son open the door … I ask him if everything was ok … Then he opened the door wider and I saw Loretta lying down on the ground … on the kitchen floor on her stomach in a pool of blood. I checked to see if she was breathing … She was breathing then I called 911,” she told the court.

She also testified that the children were standing over Mrs. James and she told them to come outside while she waited in the driveway for the ambulance to arrive. She also recalled there was a gentleman, who was tall and his hair wrapped was on a hill and when she heard the ambulance coming, he pointed in the direction to where it was coming from.

During cross examination by Defense Attorney Corrine George, the land lady said she did not hear anyone screaming and that she was “all the way in the back” of her house, which is the upstairs of the building where the incident took place. When her sons said “something” she came out on the porch.

The witness said she was in the porch with her sons for a short period and during that time she did hear a noise but wasn’t anything to cause for alarm. She also testified that it was a couple minutes after that she saw Mr. James leaving.

She claimed to see Mr. James wearing a yellow shirt on that day.

Asked if she spoke to anyone else at the apartment when she went down and met Mrs. James on the floor with her kids, the land lady said no.

Meanwhile, following her testimony a child witness also took the stand and also testified seeing Mr. James with the knife and seeing the attack on Mrs. James.

On March 6, 2012, Loretta James, the Virtual Complainant and the star witness in the Crown’s case took the stand, and revealed that at the time of the incident she was separated from her husband following a marriage that was “going down”, and a recent dispute.

She claimed Mr. James had asked her to leave their Huntum’s Ghut home which she left on December 26, 2010 from which time she was living at her sister’s apartment on Jenny Hill. It was also revealed that Mr. James was to stay away from the complainant while the issue of their children was being dealt with at the Social Development Department. The couple had four children from the union.

In her testimony, Mrs. James recalled that on the morning of April 11, 2011 she was in Road Town and asked Mr. Glenford Smith, whom she told the court was her boyfriend of one month, to drop her and her three kids home.

She said she was at home preparing something for everyone to eat and Mr. Smith was eating and watching television on a couch in the bedroom while the kids were in and out of the house playing and watching television as well. She claimed a phone call came in on her 10-year-old son’s phone and when she saw it was his father, she told him to answer it.

Mrs. James then testified that her sister, whose apartment she was living in, then called her on her cell phone.

“I realised I wasn’t seeing … (son), so I continued talking on the phone with her and was walking out on the porch so I was standing on the porch facing the driveway, still conversing with her when I saw Mr. James and … coming down the driveway,” she told the court.

She was questioned by the Crown if there was any arrangements with Mr. James to which she replied, “he was to stay away from me … he wasn’t supposed to come down there.”

The mother of four told the court she was shocked to see her husband and recalled putting their youngest child, a four year old daughter, inside the apartment and closing the front door.

“I was still standing on the porch and he came in the porch. He came towards me, that’s when he grab me by the hand, lift me up and throw me down on the ground on my back.” She said at that time the phone dropped out of her hands as she was speaking to her sister up to that point.

Mrs. James told the court she “got up fast and that is when I saw him pull the knife out from his back pocket”.

“When he took out the knife on the porch I grabbed the blade … And he pulled it out of my hand. I was defending myself. I remember pulling … (son) in front of me,” she said, stating that at that point she was in the door way.

“I pull … (son) in front of me and I fell down in front the door way and Mr. James was trying to stab me there and … (son) was preventing him. Every direction his father was throwing the knife … (son) was using his hands, where ever the knife go to prevent it,” she told the court and demonstrated how their son was blocking the directions his father was pointing the knife.

Asked by the Crown why she pulled her son in front of her, the VC replied, “Well I didn’t think his father will hurt him. He was doing that and saying ‘daddy no, daddy no’.”

“He (Mr. James) then took … (son) and put him out of the way. So I got up and try to run inside the house, we were in the middle of the living room. We were there wrestling because he was trying to hold the knife at my throat, he was going for my throat. So I was using my hands to hide my throat,” Mrs. James further claimed in her testimony.

She said at that point she fell down, face down and Mr. James was at the back of her and she was still using her hands to protect her throat.

“He was leaning on top of me, my legs, then he proceeded to stab me and I was putting back my hands backward to defend myself … He stabbed me on the shoulder I felt the first stab … it felt like a hard punch, my right shoulder, well he keep on stabbing, the last stab he give was the right side of my mouth. The knife went through the mouth and I lost a tooth. It pushed out a tooth. I heard it flew out of my mouth and heard it on the tile of the floor,” she told the court.

Mrs. James claimed that her husband then went out the door and she looked up to see him leave.

She further stated that she didn’t think he was stabbing her at first, “I thought he was just hitting me in the neck. When I see the blood flowing I realised I was injured.”

“I feel frightened, I think I was going to die,” she described how she felt at the time when questioned by the Crown.

While the entire ordeal was going on, Mrs. James claimed, Mr. Smith who was in the bedroom eating and watching television, did not come out until she was lying and bleeding on the floor.

She also told the court she was not aware if Mr. James had known about Mr. Smith and told the court when questioned that at no time during the day was she involved in any intimate relationship with Mr. Smith.

Asked whether she had screamed during the ordeal, Mrs. James said she recalled doing so when she was in the porch but inside the house, “I was just trying to protect myself at that time and didn’t sound any alarm inside the house”.

She also recalled that after Mr. James left her 10-year-old son was crying and jumping up and down saying “Oh my God, Oh my God”.

Speaking of her injuries, she said they are not affecting her now but for about four months she couldn’t raise her right arm where she had received stab wounds and the other injuries to her neck were still paining for about a month or so after the incident.

During the trial as well, investigating officer Wendell Ballantyne and Mr. Glenford Smith took the stands. Mr. Smith in his testimony told the court that he and Mrs. James were acquaintances and that he heard the kids screaming and came out the bedroom and saw her on the ground lying in blood and called the Police.

The trial continues today March 8, 2012.