Murder accused says girlfriend ‘got bored accidentally’

JUSTICE Navindra Singh and a mixed jury in the Demerara Assizes heard yesterday that murder accused Tiffany Clarke had told the police that her deceased girlfriend Sonobia James was ‘bored accidentally’.Detective Corporal Shamkin Miller, testifying in the Dragon Night Club murder trial, said the accused alleged in a caution statement that her friend, who ‘got bored with the knife’, was hurt accidentally. He said that in her statement, which the accused had written herself, she claimed that Sonobia was aggressive that night, but added, “I pulled out da knife, and she accidentally get bored by de knife.”

After defence counsel, George Thomas had suggested to the corporal that the accused, being attacked by an aggressor, might have been acting in self-defence, the witness hesitantly said he could not agree or disagree with the suggestion, since there was no supporting evidence available.

Noting that Sonobia James died on February 26, 2011, and her close friend, Tiffany Clarke of Georgetown, is facing trial for her murder, counsel got the witness to say that, apart from the accused, there was no ‘eye-see’ witness to say that he or she had witnessed the crime or had seen from where the knife had come.

Counsel also suggested that the accused was not given anything to eat, and was told that she would not be charged.

Miss Dhanika Singh is prosecuting as the trial continues today.

(By George Barclay)