Anglin guilty or strikingly unfortunate
Devon Anglin
(CNS): The crown prosecutor told Justice Charles Quin that Devon Anglin was either guilty of killing 4-year-old Jeremiah Barnes or he was facing misfortune of a “striking level”, given the circumstantial evidence against him as well as two eyewitnesses accounts. As Andrew Radcliffe QC summed up the crown’s case for murder against Anglin on Wednesday, he said that if both Andy and Dorlisa Barnes were, as the defendant has claimed, mistaken over their identification of him as the gunman, then the West Bay man was facing a series of incredible coincidences.
He pointed to a list of things supporting the eyewitness statements of Jeremiah’s parents and suggested only Anglin could be the killer.
Radcliffe said that in addition to the evidence given by the child’s parents, who both knew Anglin very well, the defendant had significant motive as a result of the bad blood between the men, including the fact that Anglin murdered Andy Barnes’ best friend, Carlos Webster (a crime he was later convicted for).
But if Anglin was not the killer and it was another gang rival, then he had the misfortune of being in the car used by the gunman to arrive and depart the murder scene minutes after the shooting — a car that only a handful of people were known to use regularly. In addition, that car had gunshot residue (GSR) in the exact spot, and nowhere else, where Anglin had been seen sitting by witnesses.
Witnesses had confirmed that the defendant had gone to his cousin’s house to shower immediately after the shooting and borrowed a shirt. His clothes, except for that shirt, also tested positive for GSR.
CCTV of the shooting analysed by experts revealed that the gunmen was wearing the identical type of shoes that Anglin was wearing when he was caught on CCTV at the courthouse earlier that day as well as when he was arrested. He was wearing the exact same underpants as the gunman and his jeans fell in the same crease patterns. The hairline of the gunman was an exact match for Anglin, analysis showed.
Anglin is left-handed or ambidextrous and the CCTV footage of the shooting showed a left-handed gunman. Furthermore, despite being very close, almost point-blank range at one point, to the intended target, the CCTV footage shows that the killer fired several shots at Andy Barnes but they all missed – with one of the stray bullets hitting and killing Jeremiah — indicating the shooter may have been drunk.
When arrested less than two hours after the murder, Anglin was very intoxicated and stumbling around.
The prosecutor admitted that, given the circumstances, the evidence of Jeremiah’s parents had inconsistencies. But even though the shooting was within a short and traumatic time period, they both knew Anglin well and the physical conditions, such as the lighting and lack of obstructions, was good. Their evidence as well as the list of circumstantial evidence, Radcliffe said, had presented a “compelling case” and “Devon Anglin’s guilt has clearly been proved”.
As defence counsel David Fisher QC began his closing submissions on behalf of Anglin, he warned that it was the very motive for murder that had led to Anglin being falsely accused: the Barnes couple was mistaken that Anglin was the shooter because they had simply assumed that he wanted to kill Andy Barnes.
Fisher said his client was by no means the only person with a motive. Barnes was a drug dealer and there were many people who wanted him dead, he said.
The case continues.
