FORMER FOOTBALLER GUILTY OF MURDER

He took a gamble with the jury but lost; and now convicted murderer Errol “Errie” Barnes will return to the High Court on June 8 to find out exactly how long he will be imprisoned for killing his ex-lover Melissa Rose in 2012.
Despite being told by Justice Iain Morley on day six of the trial that the evidence against him was piling up and he was running out of opportunities to get full credit should he opt to change his plea to guilty, Barnes gave his attorney Lawrence Daniels strict instructions to proceed.
The former national footballer, who was also a striker for Empire Football Club, showed no emotion when the jury foreman read the unanimous decision.
But it was a victory long time in coming for Rose’s mother, Patrice Henry, who braved the testimonies that left her in an emotional state every day as she “sought justice for [her] granddaughter left motherless” from the senseless killing.
Always in the company of her sister and other relatives and friends, Henry’s cries of joy interrupted the silent courtroom as she fell to her knees and thanked God that the jury was convinced of Barnes’ guilt and had returned the verdict after just two hours of deliberation.
In breaking her silence since the September 5, 2012 murder of her daughter, Henry said in an exclusive interview with OBSERVER media that she was extremely pleased with the verdict.
“I am so happy; if I [had] money I would throw a party. This means a whole lot — not only for my family, but for women — to those families who lost their daughters tragically like how I lost Melissa, and for those women who are in violent relationships to know that they should get out. It won’t bring her back but it’s some sort of victory because I got justice for my children, myself and family,” an elated Henry said.
The deceased’s five-year-old daughter may not have any memories of looking into her mother’s brown eyes, but Henry, who legally adopted the child, said Rose’s daughter has large pictures around the house and she knows her mother was a 19-year-old college student who had just started working at a hotel before she died.
(More in today’s Daily Observer)