A man on trial for possessing an imitation firearm claims the ‘gun’ was actually a cellphone that he pretended was a weapon because he says he felt threatened by a couple accusing him of stealing fish-fry money.
Andre Delroy Campbell, who appeared in Grand Court Tuesday, denies the charge of possession of an imitation firearm, with intent to cause fear or provocation of violence. The charge stems from an encounter between him and the couple outside Vic’s Bar on Seymour Road, George Town, late at night on 13 Aug. last year.
Prosecutor Neil Kumar, in his opening statement to the court, outlined the background to the case.
He said Campbell’s girlfriend and her friend had organised a fish fry in George Town on 12 Aug. 2023. During that event, the girlfriend’s friend, who gave evidence in court on Tuesday, heard that Campbell apparently had pocketed some of the takings. She asked his girlfriend to talk to him, and when she did, he left the fish fry.
Kumar told the jury that the next day, both couples attended a boat cruise, but did not discuss the supposed theft of money. However, afterwards, the witness posted a WhatsApp status about people lying, which led Campbell to call her and leave abusive voice notes, telling her to stop talking about him, Kumar said.
Later that night, around midnight, when the couple was on the way to the Everglo bar, they spotted Campbell on the road outside the nearby Vic’s Bar, the prosecutor said. They stopped their car to confront him over the calls and messages he’d sent. It was at that point, Kumar said, that they saw that Campbell had a gun.
The prosecutor said Campbell, in his statement to police, said there had been a dispute about what had happened to the fish-fry ticket money, and the woman and her boyfriend had come to confront him. Campbell told police, “It was clear they wanted to fight me. I felt extremely threatened and fearful based on what they were saying to me and how they were acting.”
To deter them, he said, he put his hand on his waistband “as if I had a gun”.
He added in his police statement, “All I had in my waistband was my mobile phone.”
Kumar told the jury of five women and two men that no firearm had been recovered.
The female witness, who, along with her boyfriend, drove to George Town Police Station to report the incident about 20 minutes after Campbell allegedly indicated he had a gun, told the court that she had tried to de-escalate the argument between Campbell and her boyfriend in the parking lot of Vic’s Bar.
Despite being frightened by the sight of the gun, she said, she had tried to calm down the situation, getting between her boyfriend and Campbell, who were “cussing each other”. Another man came along and took her boyfriend to the side of the car park, while she continued to talk to Campbell, she said.
She told the court she was sure she had seen the gun, as there was a street light nearby and she was about three to four feet from Campbell.
She said Campbell had turned away and put the gun back in his waistband after her boyfriend pulled out his phone and started videoing the encounter.
A segment of a CCTV video of the incident in the dark car park was shown in court, which showed the couple arriving in their car, which they left on the road, as they confronted Campbell in the car park.
Defence attorney Jonathon Hughes, representing Campbell, suggested to the witness that she was mistaken about seeing the gun.
He put it to her that she had been drinking that day, on the boat and in bars afterwards, that it was dark in the car park, and that the object Campbell had been holding against the waistband of his black pants would have been difficult to make out.
Asked if it was possible the object she had seen was a phone rather than a gun, the woman responded, “No.”
The case before Acting Justice Ben Tonner continues on Wednesday.
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