Alvin Barkley, who is accused of murdering barber Yohan Hunte in 2012 at the Route 40 minibus park during a row over electricity theft, is expected to learn his fate on Monday in the High Court.
Barkley has been on trial before a 12-member jury and Justice Diana Insanally in the High Court for the murder of Hunte, who was also known as the “Man on the Roof” after he clambered onto the roof of the Georgetown Prison to protest against prison’s conditions.
The two men got into a fight after Hunte accused Barkley of stealing his electricity. Both men were working as barbers in the vicinity of the bus park when the fight broke out.
State attorney Mercedes Thompson, in her closing arguments, cautioned the jury not to sympathise with Barkley
because a life was lost. The prosecution had called seven witnesses to testify in the trial, which began last week.
Police Witness Corporal Harding had testified that Barkley went to the Brickdam Police Station on the day of the murder and filed a report. She said Barkley told her that a fight broke out between himself and Hunte and Hunte pulled out a knife and threatened his life. Barkley, she said, added that he then pulled out a pair of scissors and stabbed Hunte. She said Barkley then gave her the scissors and she lodged it as evidence.
Another witness had testified that Hunte and Barkley got into an argument over electricity and Hunte picked up a brick and threw it in the direction of Barkley. The witness said Hunte pulled out a cutlass and threatened Barkley’s life.
“The state accepts that the accused was under attack at that stage but this accused didn’t run away or go to the station to make a report, no. He went over the road and got his cutlass and went back to fight,” Thompson argued.
Yet another witness testified that when the fight started he noticed a crowd gathering and then he saw Hunte fall to the ground as Barkley backed away. “Members of the jury, this accused intended to kill the deceased and he was not acting in self-defence,” Thompson said. “It matters not if the deceased was the bad man. A life was lost. I’m asking you not to sympathise with him.”
She said Barkley had confessed with his own lips to Corporal Harding that he inflicted the injury which killed Hunte. She added that pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh’s evidence—that Hunte died of haemorrhaging and shock due to stab wounds to his heart—was consistent with the state’s theory that Barkley had intention to kill.
Barkley, however, had denied stabbing Hunte. He told the court that the two of them got into a fight and a crowd started pulling and tugging at Hunte. He said someone in the crowd then “juk” Hunte and he fell to the ground.
“You have the task to choose whose evidence you believe,” Thompson said again as she pleaded with the jury to hand down a just verdict. The jury is expected to deliver a verdict on Monday.
Barkley is being represented by defence attorney George Thomas.
