Calvin Bailey, who is on trial for the 2007 murder of his 18 month-old son, yesterday said it was the child’s mother who killed him.
Bailey was at the time leading his defence through an unsworn statement in the High Court, where the prosecution wrapped its case and his attorney made his closing arguments.
Bailey is on trial in the High Court before Justice Navindra Singh and a 12-member jury. He led his defence after Justice Singh overruled the no-case submission made by defence attorney George Thomas.
He is accused of mortally injuring Shaquan Nero after attacking the child’s mother and his then partner, Bernadette Nero, on April 4, 2007, at Amelia’s Ward, Linden.
In his unsworn statement to the court, Bailey said that on the day of the child’s death, he returned home from his farm and found Nero gone, along with money he had hidden. He tried to contact Nero but her phone was turned off. However, he later called one of her cousins, who told him that she went to her aunt’s home in Amelia’s Ward.
Bailey said he went to the house and he called for Nero, who subsequently came out and stood at the doorway. He said he asked Nero what was the problem and she informed him that she was going to Georgetown.
At that point, Bailey said he told her he did not want his son, Shaquan, to go to Georgetown. Nero told him that the child was her son too and she was carrying him with her. The man said that it was while he was exchanging words with Nero that her uncle, Alfred Carrington, came out with a wood in his hand and asked him to leave the premises.
Bailey said he told Carrington that he was not leaving without his son and Carrington started to push him in his chest with the wood. While Carrington was pushing him, he added, Nero came out of the house with a pot in her hand and a kettle in the other hand. The pots contained a hot substance, which he said she threw in his direction but he managed to move out of the way. Bailey said he left the premises and at about 9:45 pm he called Nero and told her he needed to speak with her and see Shaquan. “Yes, you come. Ah got something for you…,” he claimed she told him.
Bailey said he then went back to Nero’s aunt’s home and she exited the house with Shaquan and he went to her and collected his son. As he was leaving, he added, Nero ran behind him.
“I feel something shock ma in ma right hand,” Bailey said, adding that he swung around and Nero fired another stab to him, which caught the child in his neck.
“Sir, when she catch Shaquan in he neck, I say ‘Bernadette, watch wah you do! Look you juk the child in his neck!’” he recounted.
Nero, he added, then broke down in tears after she realised what happened and she dropped the knife. Bailey also showed the jury his right hand, where he received the injury.
Prosecutor Konyo Thompson is leading the state’s case with Dhanika Singh. Carrington, a witness for the prosecution, told the court in his evidence that he was awakened by a loud noise coming from his yard and Nero saying, “‘Uncle Alfred, Uncle Alfred, open the door!’”
The man said that when he opened the door, Nero was standing on the landing of the stairway with her son in her hands and Bailey was on top of her with an instrument in his hand stabbing her. As Bailey stabbed Nero, blood began to gush from the baby’s neck.
The case will continue today Justice Singh summing up the evidence before handing the case over to the jury for deliberation and a verdict.
