Anglin retrial for child murder begins

Jeremiah Barnes

(CNS): Chilling CCTV footage, shown as evidence in the retrial of Devon Anglin (29) for murder, shows a gunman shooting at close range at a white Chevrolet Malibu at Hell Gas Station on the night of 15 February 2010, which resulted in the death of 4-year-old Jeremiah Barnes. Presenting the crown’s case Tuesday, Andrew Radcliffe QC said that the shooter was Anglin and his intended target was Andy Barnes, Jeremiah’s father.

In the retrial of Anglin for the murder of Jeremiah and attempted murder of Andy Barnes, Radcliffe described the crown’s version of events that night.

Barnes, who was driving, and Dorlisa Ebanks (now Dorlisa Barnes), who was sitting in the front passenger seat, had stopped for gas on their way to pick up pizza. Their two young sons were in the back seat of the car, with Jeremiah sitting directly behind his father.

As Barnes got back into the car, just before 8pm, a grey Honda Accord drove into the gas station via the exit and disappeared round the back of the retail building. He recognized the car as belonging to Darryl Evans, a friend of Anglin’s, and could see two figures inside and, knowing who might be inside, was immediately alarmed, Radcliffe said.

The gunman appeared within seconds but at that point, according to the prosecution, the bandana which he was wearing in the CCTV footage was not in place and he was in the process of fixing it. The gas station was very well lit and Barnes knew Anglin well, so he immediately recognized his face and his gait, Radcliffe said.

Twelve seconds before 8pm the gunman, wearing a hoodie, started shooting at the car but only one shot hit. Andy Barnes had ducked down and it missed him but the bullet passed through the headrest of the driver’s seat and hit little Jeremiah in the head.

Barnes threw the car into reverse to get round the car parked in front of him to get away, and then drove past the gunman. The white Chevrolet almost touched him as it passed by, and as it did so, CCTV footage shows that the his hood fell down and his bare head was visible.

The Barnes family drove out of the gas station and then, having discovered that Jeremiah had been hit, they drove to the West Bay Police Station. When they arrived, Barnes started shouting hysterically that Devon Anglin had shot his son. An ambulance arrived within three minutes, and although the paramedics tried to resuscitate him, the child, aged four years and seven months, was pronounced dead at the George Town hospital at 8:35pm.

Anglin was arrested at 9:20pm. The arresting officers determined that he was drunk.

Radcliffe said the prosecution will depend heavily on the eye-witness testimony of Barnes and the child’s mother, Dorlisa.

Both of them knew Anglin well, Radcliffe told Justice Charles Quin, who is hearing the case in a judge-alone trial. Dorlisa had known him since she was a teenager and they had at one time been on good terms. Andy Barnes, who is a few years older than the defendant, had known him all his life and had in the past been good friends with him until he had moved into the Logwood area of West Bay, and Radcliffe noted the ongoing hostility between the Logwood gang and the rival Birch Tree Hill gang in the district.

The prosecution said that Anglin has very distinctive eyes which do not point in the same direction. Calling the court’s attention to photographs taken by RCIPS officers, he noted that when his left eye looks to the left, the right eye looks straight ahead.

He said the crown’s two witnesses had got a clear look at the shooter’s face when he first appeared round the corner of the retail building at the gas station before he covered his face with a scarf or bandana. They got a longer look at him than the 8 to 10 seconds that the CCTV footage suggests because when he first appeared he was out of the camera range, Radcliffe said.

He also said that the compression of pictures by the CCTV made it appear that the gunman’s whole face had been covered, whereas it had only covered his face from the bridge of the nose down.

However, he said there was also supportive evidence that the shooter was Devon Anglin.

As the grey Honda Accord left the gas station via the entrance, the CCTV picked up a clear picture of the car. Investigating officers later discovered that there were only four other cars that were the exact make, model and colour of the car that was at Hell gas station that night and definitively eliminated the possibility that it was any of the cars other than the one belonging to Darryl Evans.

He said the Honda did not stop for gas or to buy anything from the retail shop and there was no legitimate reason for it to be there that evening.

Anglin and his cousin, Beto Anglin, were seen in the car very close to the scene of the murder just after – or possibly just before – the shooting. They stopped next to another of the defendant’s cousins and her friend, both aged fourteen at the time, and Devon Anglin, who was bare chested with no shirt on, told the girls to go home.

Devon was also seen around 8:30 at Beto Anglin’s home by Beto’s wife, Maria, who, the crown said, will testify that Beto was in the kitchen and Devon was in the shower when she arrived. Afterwards she saw him wearing one of Beto’s polo shirts.

Later, forensic evidence found gunshot residue on all of Devon Anglin’s clothes except for the polo shirt, and also found GSR in the grey Honda Accord.

The gunman was left handed, as is Devon Anglin, Radcliffe noted.

He also said that as the shooter raised his arms to hold the gun in both hands, CCTV footage captured an image of his boxer shorts, which were later found to be indistinguishable from the underwear Devon Anglin was wearing when he was arrested.

By chance, Devon Anglin had been to court on the morning of the murder for an unrelated traffic matter. However, CCTV at the court had recorded what he was wearing that morning, and those clothes were found to be indistinguishable from those of the shooter.

When the hood of the shooter fell down as the Barnes car passed him, the CCTV at the gas station showed his hairline with a distinctive tuft, and the prosecution said an expert in the field found that the hairline matched that of Devon Anglin.