Crown files appeal on child murder verdict

(CNS): Officials from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) office have confirmed that the crown has filed an appeal against the not guilty verdict in the trial of Devon Anglin for the murder of four-year-old Jeremiah Barnes. The West Bay man was tried in August by Justice Howard Cooke, who sat alone without a jury. The judge acquitted Anglin when he rejected the eye-witness evidence of the child’s parents, Dorlisa and Andy Barnes, who both said Anglin was the man who opened fire on their car at the Hell gas station in West Bay in February 2010.  Police say that Andy Barnes was the intended victim on the night as a result of a feud between him and Anglin.

In his ruling the judge said he had found that there were too many inconsistencies between the Barnes’ evidence as well as with that of a gas pump attendant who was also a witness to the shooting on the evening in question, and returned his not guilty verdict.

In the wake of the verdict, Police Commissioner David Baines described the acquittal as a sad day for justice and stated that he wished for the DPP to seek an appeal as quickly as possible. The grounds on which the DPP has based the appeal have not yet been revealed but the prosecutors will need to find that the judge has erred in his judgment of the law in some respect for it to be upheld.

The appeal will not be heard before the next session of the appeal court, which begins later this month, and the next ordinary session is expected to sit sometime in the spring. The law does provide for an emergency sitting of the higher court.