Grounds for murder appeal revealed

Grounds were set out on Thursday for the Crown’s appeal of the not guilty verdict in Devon Anglin’s trial for the murder of 4-year-old Jeremiah Barnes. 

Crown Counsel Elisabeth Lees appeared before Justice Alexander Henderson to request that he order a transcript of the trial so preparations could continue for the appeal, which is now set for March 2012 before the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal. 

Justice Henderson asked whether the Crown was applying for the official record of the whole trial or a part of it, and what the grounds of appeal were. 

Ms Lees said the Crown’s position was that the trial judge erred by failing to consider identification evidence in its entirety and that, in doing so, he wrongly concluded that there was therefore no need for him to consider the rest of the evidence. 

Justice Henderson said he would order the full transcript. 

Anglin’s trial took place from 15-31 August before Justice Howard Cooke without a jury, as the defendant had a right to choose. 

Identification evidence included the testimony of Jeremiah’s parents, who were in the front seats of the family car at Hell Service Station in West Bay with the boy and his brother in the back seat when shots were fired on the night of 15 February, 2010. Other identification evidence included the testimony of a pump attendant and videotape from a closed-circuit television camera outside the service station. 

During the trial, the Crown suggested Jeremiah’s father, Andy Barnes, was the gunman’s target. Attorney Andre Radcliffe, who conducted the case for the prosecution, explained at the time the concept of “transferred malice”: if a person aims at someone and shoots someone else, the shooter is still guilty of murder.  

The application for the trial transcript came as a result of the Court of Appeal’s expression of disapproval when whole trial transcripts have been requested by appellants and then only a portion was used. Court President Sir John Chadwick criticised the waste of time and resources.