She's accused of murdering a 17 year old Jasmine Petillo by stabbing her 98 times - and tonight 28 year old Shereema Neal, a mother of 6 is awaiting the verdict of trial judge, Justice Candace Nanton.
It didn't get much media attention at the time but Neal's trial concluded on September 16th with the verdict to be given at a date to be announced.
The murder occurred at Mahogany Heights in June of 2016 and DNA evidence gathered at the time was central to the prosecution's case.
Here's when the officer commanding for that area told us 8 years ago about that evidence:
posted (July 4, 2016)
ACP Edward Broaster - OC, Eastern Division Rural
"We have identified the house in which we believe the young lady was killed. We have also managed to extract blood samples from the house which will be sent to the lab for DNA testing and that will give us the way forward in terms of charges and what have you in respect to that murder case. We have also found bloody clothing in another location which was discarded by another suspect and we are looking for an additional suspect where we will be doing DNA swab as well and sent to the lab for testing."
Again, that interview was from 2016.
And in the trial Senior Crown Counsel Portia Ferguson relied heavily on DNA evidence to get a conviction. What are known as Luminol tests were done in the kitchen and two other parts of Neal's house.
These were matched against samples taken of blood of the deceased. All eh samples were sent abroad for analysis and when the results came back in 2021, Neal was arrested and charged with murder because there was a match of both samples.
After the Crown closed its case, Neal's attorney , Lyndon Jones made a no case submission but it was rejected by Justice Nanton.
When she was informed of the three options she had, Neal chose to remain silent
Petillo's body was found about 400 yards from Neal's house. The motive for the murder was allegedly revenge because the ki9ller believed Petillo had lured a man to his death in 2015.
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