Jury to determine Barnes’ fate today

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The murder trial of Errol “Errie” Barnes will be handed over to a 12-member jury and two alternates for deliberation today.
The Crown presented witnesses and the accused took the stand during 10 days of testimony.
Yesterday, the prosecution presented closing arguments to support why Barnes should be convicted, but the defence stated that the Crown failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Barnes pulled the trigger that resulted in a bullet killing Barnes’ former lover and mother of his daughter, Melissa Rose, and that the accused should be acquitted.
“Let your conscience be your guide. If the wrong man is before the court, let him go and let the prosecution bring the right person. The evidence should be so resounding that the accused should come and take a plea,” defence counsel Lawrence Daniels said.
He admitted that his client could not provide any explanation why the car he rented, a day after Barnes cursed at Rose, was seen going to and fleeing the John Hughes scene on September 5, 2012.
The 19-year-old mother was fatally shot through the heart while sitting in a vehicle parked in front of her home.
One witness testified that Barnes had said he prayed that something bad would happen to the mother of his then 11-month old daughter.
But Daniels stated the Crown did not prove that Barnes fired the shot that killed Rose, since there was no physical evidence tying him to the scene, nor was there any witness who stated they saw the now 41-year-old shoot the deceased.
“Why do we have this defendant in the box fighting for his future, his life and his liberty and there were catastrophic failures of the state to prove the case?” Daniels asked.
Crown Counsel 1 Adlai Smith reminded the jury that although there was no physical evidence, there was overwhelming circumstantial evidence linking Barnes to the crime like the two women who testified that they saw the Nut Grove man with a gun on the night of the shooting, him telling at least two people that he wanted something bad to happen to Rose, and the fact that the man who Barnes drove to the scene was on the phone.
(More in today’s Daily Observer)

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