Witness: Accused threatened to chop deceased

When the murder trial of Errol “Errie” Barnes continued in the High Court yesterday, a witness, Raheem “Static” Murraine testified the murder accused threatened to chop up his sister, Melissa Rose, three nights before she was fatally shot outside her John Hughes home.
Murraine said three nights before the September 5, 2012 killing, Barnes accosted Rose when she arrived home in the passenger seat of Daymon “Chuka” Lewis’ truck.
“Errol pulled up right after and started to curse them. He was pounding on the window on the passenger side of the pick-up, making a scene. He said they don’t know what is coming towards them; he was going to chop them up. He was angry,” the witness said.
Rose’s younger sibling by three years said when their mother came out of their home to quell the situation, Barnes accused her of “knowing what was going on between the deceased and Lewis”.
Murraine said he was watching television three nights later when he heard two loud explosions. He said shortly before that, he had let his sister into the house and she quickly went back outside, then he heard what sounded like glass being shattered.
“I heard boom, boom, they were about two seconds apart. I immediately got up and went to the window. I saw a man standing in the road facing the driveway. He was wearing a white t-shirt. He had high hair.  I could tell because he had stockings on his hair. He was about 50 feet away from the truck. He ran. I heard two car doors slam and a vehicle accelerating,” Murraine recounted.
Meanwhile, pathologist, Dr Lester Simon said the fatal bullet entered Rose’s body through the left breast, penetrated the heart and left lung and exited the body via the areola. Rose’s cause of death was due to excessive bleeding.
Police Officer LaToya Lake of the Forensic Unit said she swabbed Barnes, some five hours after the shooting for gunshot residue (GSR) and the results were negative. Lake said it is possible to remove GRS from the skin through thorough washing and scrubbing.
Another witness, Cindy James, testified that she was on the phone with an earlier witness, Kieron Phillip, at around the time Rose was shot and she did not hear any gunshots, nor did she know where Phillip was when they were speaking on the telephone for about 22 minutes.
On Monday, the prosecution is expected to wrap up its case with three witnesses and in the evening the jury and several witnesses will visit the scene of the crime.