Accused had fight with victim on day of her murder

Killing of ex-boyfriend’s mother

By Shemuel Fanfair

As the murder trial of former Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Private Abiola Jacobs continued at the High Court, the daughter of murdered housewife Donna Taylor testified that the accused woman and her mother had a fight on the day of her mother’s demise.
Marcelle Collymore and her husband Charles Collymore, both of Diamond, East Bank Demerara, also recalled in their testimonies for High Court Justice James Bovell-Drakes that they were at home when the phone rang, at about 23:00 hrs. Marcelle recalled that she was watching television at the time she received the call informing that something happened at her parents’ Agricola, East Bank Demerara home.
After informing her husband, they both travelled to Agricola, where they met with a neighbour and her brother, who accompanied them to search for Taylor.
The 12-member jury later heard that in the backyard they discovered Taylor lying on her back with her hands behind her. “Her shirt was wrapped around her neck,” Collymore told the court.
Collymore noted that she went upstairs to retrieve a sheet, which they used to place her mother’s body in. Marcelle and Charles Collymore further testified that they saw Taylor’s houseguest, Samantha Sabbatt, with a swollen jaw and with bruises about the body.
Abiola Jacobs is on trial for allegedly killing 55-year-old Donna Taylor on January 31, 2014. Taylor had been the mother of Jacobs’s estranged boyfriend. During last Thursday’s court hearing, Jacobs’s defence lawyer Adrian Thompson opted against cross-examining Marcelle Collymore, but briefly questioned her husband, Charles.
According to reports in 2014, Taylor was in bed at some time around 23:00hrs when she was attacked. Her throat was slit after she was dragged to the back of the Agricola house that she rented. Her hands were also bound, and she was found by a neighbour.
Taylor’s overseas-based friend Samatha Sabatt, who was staying in the upper flat, was injured when persons allegedly invaded the Lot 1617 Agricola property. Taylor’s cause of death has been given as shock and haemorrhage due to incised wounds compounded with blunt trauma to head. Jacobs, of 55 Evans Phillips Park, Agricola, was captured by Police a few days after Taylor had been killed, and was subsequently charged with her murder.
State Counsel Lisa Cave is assisting with the Prosecution’s case. The matter continues before Justice James Bovell-Drakes this week.