Jeremiah’s father had bullets for protection, attorney says
Andy Barnes was sentenced to eight months imprisonment last week after pleading guilty to possession of three .357 Magnum bullets without a firearms licence.
He accepted the sentence and entered his plea after Attorney Nicholas Dixey asked Justice Alex Henderson for a Goodyear Direction — that is, an indication of the maximum the court would hand down after hearing the facts of the case as agreed on by both Crown and Defence.
The judge agreed there were unusual circumstances to this case. He said he would start the sentence at one year and reduce it by one-third for the guilty plea.
Circumstances outlined
The circumstances were outlined by Mr. Dixey and agreed to by Crown Counsel Tricia Hutchinson. Barnes was the target of a shooting on 15 February, 2010, when one of the bullets hit his four year old son Jeremiah and killed him. [The man accused of being the gunman, Devon Anglin, was found not guilty of murder two days before Barnes had his matter dealt with.] In June 2010, Barnes was shot at again; this time a bullet went through his leg. [Someone has been charged with attempted murder as a result.] Both shootings occurred in West Bay.
North Side search
On Monday, 13 June, 2011, a team of officers went with a search warrant to search for firearms at an address in North Side, where Barnes had moved. Nothing was found in the house, but on a piece of furniture outside there was a cushion that one of the officers examined. He recovered what appeared to be a .357 Magnum revolver with the bullets loaded.
Barnes was initially charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm along with the ammunition. However, when it was examined by an expert, it was found to be a replica, not capable of firing. The ammunition, however, was real and capable of being fired.
Barnes told police he had been attacked by someone trying to kill him; there was a struggle and the man dropped the gun and ran away. Barnes picked it up and kept it. DNA matching his profile was found on the trigger guard, hammer and cylinder.
Life in danger
Mr. Dixey emphasised that Barnes had earlier been warned by police that his life was in danger. Barnes was in great fear for himself and his family and his fear was fully justified.
Justice Henderson said he understood having an imitation firearm to intimidate someone, but why would Barnes have live ammunition? He pointed out that the live rounds could later be put into a functioning gun.
Mr. Dixey said his instructions were that Barnes picked up the dropped item and kept it.
The judge said it was unclear to him why someone would attack Barnes with a replica gun, but no evidence had been offered to contradict Barnes’ account.
He said it was entirely understandable that someone facing a threat to himself and his family would wish to arm himself and perhaps the three rounds were for increased verisimilitude. The complicating factor in Barnes’ case was that he had a previous conviction, as a teenager, for possession of an imitation firearm with intent to commit an offence. He had then behaved himself for a while after serving that sentence.
Other convictions
In 2010, there was a large number of convictions for drug offences and failures to surrender, the judge noted. Perhaps these had contributed to subsequent events.
After a brief adjournment for Barnes to consider the eight month sentence and then enter his guilty plea, Mr. Dixey noted that a Goodyear Direction is the maximum sentence that would be imposed and the judge could go lower.
Justice Henderson said he had nothing to add to the points he had already made. He suggested that Barnes needed a bit of time to get rid of his drug habit. He did agree that time in custody would count toward the sentence.
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If this was someone else, they would have gotten serious jail time. Why would someone attack him with an imitation gun? Why does he have an imitation gun and real bullets? I sympathize with the family because of the loss of young Jeremiah, my heart aches. Why should he be treated differently? I am all for working with the police, but the police also need to be careful who they work with.
Well if the justice system was doing there job people wouldn’t have to take the law into there own hands now would they??If people where found guilty of murder for a child when the whole island knows it was him then maybe just maybe Cayman would be a safer place.
Caymanflower I agree… our Justice System needs a revamping, but people cannot take the law into their own hands, that is criminal. Mr. Barnes cannot be allowed to break the law and get a slap on the wrist. It is not the Judge/s who are at fault for making the decisions being made, it is the Police who time and time again fail to bring evidence and the Legal department for taking the cases before the Court/s with no evidence. Also once the Police have one suspect, the work stops there, even if the evidence is weak! In many instances certain witnesses that should be interviewed by the police are not interviewed and they they just push ahead with charges. They need to do some real police work. This is ridiculous and a big waste of money!