The Community College student who was left with a slit lip and other injuries after an altercation in Paul’s Avenue on March 28 has told the court that she had posted on social media a topless photo of the woman charged with wounding her.
Sakaina John, of Lowmans Leeward, told the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court on Friday that she and the defendant, Chantea James, of Old Montrose, had had an “altercation” on social media over John’s boyfriend.
John’s boyfriend, Javid Lewis, had previously been involved with James.
John told the court that the March 28 incident in Kingstown that also left her nursing wounds to her face, head and left fingers, came one week after James and her friends had visited the Community College, which John attends.
At the school, the conversation was about “the same boy” and all other interactions were about the “boy”, John told the court.
She said she had ignored James’ March 21 attempt to question her at the Community College, where James is not a student.
During cross examination, John told the court that she was “familiar” with the defendant because James had sent her a follow request on Instagram — a photo and video-sharing social networking service.
She said that although she approved the request, she and James are not friends in person.
John told the court that James had posted something online about someone else and she (John) was offended by it “because I know, in some way, she used it to get at me”, adding that the post was “with my boyfriend”.
“She posted a screenshot with a message — a conversation”, John said, adding, in response to questions by defence lawyer Carlos James, that she felt “angry and embarrassed” by the post.
“I was offended because the conversation pertained to someone I was close with and she knows my boyfriend don’t follow her. I am the only one who follows her,” John said.
She told the court that she spoke to her boyfriend to find out what was going on.
John told the court that she later “posted back something” — a topless photo of James.
“It was a scratched out picture,” John told the court.
“You couldn’t see anything for the young lady and she went and posted it in her own story saying she don’t care,” John said in response to the defence counsel’s questions.
She said that she did not agree that James and her friends wanted to have “a conversation” with her when they came to her school.
“The way they approached me, I wouldn’t call it a conversation. The way they approached me and their mannerism said something else,” the virtual complainant told the court.
She said that when she arrived at home on the day that James and her friend had visited her school, people were messaging her, telling her if she had seen a video of her and James on social media.
John told the court she kept asking people to send her the video.
“I was surprised. I was upset. When I asked for the video, they said Chantae said to delete it; she didn’t want anybody to have it.”
John emphasised that the incident at the school and the online interaction occurred a week before she encountered James in Paul’s Avenue, when the wounding took place.
“Bear in mind that nothing was said on social media or in person after that,” she told the court, referring to the period between the online and in-person altercations.
John said that when she met James in Kingstown, she did not immediately recognise James because James had a different hairstyle.
The virtual complainant told the court that she and her friend, Jézell Prescott, were walking via Paul’s Avenue to Stony Ground about 12:45 p.m. on March 28, when they say James standing on the sidewalk outside Caribbean Reference Laboratory.
She said that when she first saw James, she (James) had a baby and a bag in her hands.
John told the court that as they approached the area, she noticed that James, who had put the baby to sit on the edge of a concrete flowerpot, was staring at her and mumbling, so she asked James what she was saying.
She said she further told James that when she (James) sees her, she should not interfere with her.
John said that as she turned to walk away, James took a knife from her bag and attacked her.
The trial continues on July 24.
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