Crown: Killers carried out murder with ruthless efficiency

(CNS): The men accused of killing Sven Brett Connor when they opened fire into his bedroom window at his home in East End, on Fiddlers Way, in December 2023, carried out the plan and execution with “ruthless efficiency”, Barnaby Jameson KC told a jury on Wednesday, as he opened the crown’s case against them. Prosecutors say that Antascio Rankine (30) and Roland Welcome (34), who are on trial for conspiracy to murder, entered into an agreement with two unidentified men who have never been apprehended to kill Connor using two different guns.

The crown says that twenty minutes after Connor had a heated altercation with Rankine at a neighbour’s house in the community where both the men lived, close to the Hi-Lo Mini Mart, he was shot multiple times through his bedroom window.

The evidence against Rankine and Welcome is based largely on CCTV footage and eyewitnesses to the events leading up to and immediately after the fatal shooting.

Rankine has denied having anything to do with the killing, claiming he is not on the CCTV footage. He has said he did not shoot Sven Connor or anyone else, and he was not in the area on the night in question.

His co-defendant, Roland Welcome, has admitted to being one of the four men on the CCTV video but claims he did not shoot Connor and was coerced into being the lookout for the killers, whom he has not named.

The crown contends that Welcome was a willing conspirator who entered into the agreement to kill Connor, making him just as culpable as the two men who pulled the trigger. Jameson told the jury that Rankin was one of the two gunmen involved.

He said CCTV footage taken from the parking lot next door to Connor’s house shows the four men minutes before the killing in a huddle, planning the shooting. In the video, during this brief discussion among the men, one of the two unidentified suspects gives a gun to a man who the crown maintains is Rankin.

After that, Welcome is seen walking away to take up his position of lookout while the other three men head towards Connor’s house. Moments later, the shooting began, and according to various witnesses who heard them, at least ten shots rang out in quick succession. Soon afterwards, the three men are seen running away and meeting back up with Welcome before leaving the scene.

Rankine is later spotted by another witness walking casually towards his own home on Sea View Road.

When police arrived at the scene, they found that Connor had been shot through his bedroom window. From the evidence and trails of blood, it appears that he was hit at least once as he lay on his bed. Jameson said that he managed to get up, open his bedroom door and move through the house, all while being fired at through the window in a hail of bullets.

Some of the bullets penetrated the mattress, the bedroom door, the interior partition walls and even the kitchen cabinets, smashing crockery. Connor staggered around his house and made it as far as the kitchen before he succumbed to his injuries and was found by police with multiple wounds to his head, neck, back and buttocks, slumped on his kitchen floor by the oven.

Eight spent shell casings were found by police outside the window, from where the killers had fired at least two weapons, one of which was a Glock 19 semi-automatic 9mm pistol, according to a ballistics expert. Neither weapon has ever been found. Bullets that had shattered the china were found inside the kitchen cupboards. He said the Glock is not a recreational gun but one that is light, accurate and deadly.

From CCTV footage, at least one RCIPS officer who knew Rankine very well, having gone to school with him, was able to make a positive identification even before other witnesses came forward and told police about the fight that Rankine had with Connor minutes before he was killed.

But when he was arrested, Rankine gave a written statement denying having anything to do with the murder and then answered “No comment” to what the prosecutor said were the legitimate and reasonable questions the police asked.

When the police learned that Welcome was with Rankine during his confrontation with Connor near the mini-mart and was also on the video, he was, too, arrested. When he was interviewed, he initially denied being anywhere near Connor’s house. He told police he was friends with Connor and had been shocked by his death, but at the time of the shooting, he was with another friend called Rusty.

However, in the face of police questioning, he eventually admitted that it was him who was on the CCTV footage. He told police he was there but did not kill Connor. He said he had not wanted to be involved and feared for his life. He said he did not know the unidentified suspects as they were not from East End, but they were the type of men you needed to be afraid of. He claimed he did not know who pulled the trigger as he had not seen the shooting.

The evidence indicates that Connor was lying on his bed alone and unarmed in the sanctity of his own home when the first shot came through the window. Jameson suggested that the gunmen didn’t enter the house as they assassinated Connor to lessen the risk of leaving a forensic trail.

According to some of the witnesses in this case, one of whom began giving evidence anonymously on Thursday, Rankine and Connor were involved in a “blazing argument” in a neighbour’s yard shortly before the shooting. Conner was said to be hiding behind a small truck in the yard while Rankine was yelling and cursing at him to come out. Then Rankin pelted Connor with a rock before Welcome intervened and pulled Rankine away.

Jameson told the jury that Connor had passed by the nearby grocery store before returning home. Twenty minutes later, he was shot dead. A mere fraction of a second after the four men were caught on camera plotting the murder, the peace of East End was shattered with the sound of gunfire.

He said the crown didn’t have to prove who fired those ten shots, though it was likely that Rankine was one of them, given the evidence that one of the unidentified suspects had given him a gun. He argued that all four men — the shooters and the lookouts — were involved in a conspiracy to kill Connor as he lay on his bed in his own home unarmed and alone.

The case continues.

---