Sherwin Barnwell, who was on trial for murdering Nohar Bahadur, was acquitted yesterday after Justice Franklyn Holder upheld a no-case submission in the High Court.
Barnwell ran out of the High Court a free man after Justice Holder concluded that there was no evidence to suggest that he had murdered Bahadur at Friendship, East Bank Demerara, in 2006.
Attorney George Thomas represented Barnwell while the state’s case was presented by prosecutors Diana Kaulessar and Zamilla Ally.
The prosecution’s case was that Barnwell had murdered Bahadur, whose body was found in front of his home on December 25, 2006. Bahadur had reportedly left his home the night before to visit some relatives a few blocks away. His relative, Mohamed Yusuf, had told the court that he had seen Bahadur when he came to his home on the night of the murder. They chatted for a while and Bahadur subsequently left for home. Another witness, Adrian James, had told the court that he saw Barnwell slapping and stomping Bahadur. James also said he saw Barnwell riding away on his bicycle after slapping and stomping Bahadur and he subsequently left the scene as well.
However, pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh had told the court that the cause of death for Bahadur was a stab wound to the chest, even though there was evidence of blunt trauma to the head of the deceased.
In his no-case submission to the court, Thomas argued that his client only inflicted slaps and stomps to Bahadur based on the evidence of James.
He said that Bahadur’s cause of death, according to Dr Singh, proved that he died from a stab wound to the chest and not from the slaps he had received.
Thomas stated that there was no evidence to suggest that Barnwell had stabbed Bahadur, and James, who witnessed Barnwell slapping Bahadur, said nothing about seeing him with a knife or stabbing Bahadur.
Kaulessar, in reply, had told the court that Barnwell had a motive for killing Bahadur, since he had admitted in his statement to the police that Bahadur had threatened to kill him. She added that since Barnwell had slapped and stomped Bahadur, the inference could be drawn that he returned and inflicted the stab wound.
Justice Holder, however, noted that the prosecution did not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt and that the argument that Barnwell might have return and stabbed the deceased would cause the jury to speculate, since anyone could have stabbed Bahadur after Barnwell rode away. In addition, none of the witnesses presented in the case had mentioned seeing Barnwell stabbing Bahadur, Justice Holder added.
As a result, Justice Holder upheld the defence’s no-case submission and asked the jury to return a verdict of not guilty.
Upon releasing Barnwell, Justice Holder told him that he hoped he had learned something while in prison. A smiling Barnwell then ran out of the prisoners’ dock after he was granted his freedom. (Mandy Thompson)
