Shooter Named

Murder victim O’neill Chase identified his assailant after he was shot in the head.

His sister, Aaliyah Chase, gave that evidence on Friday in the No. 4 Supreme Court during the trial of Raheem Travonte Barnett, of Regency Park, Christ Church, who is charged with the murder of her 25-year-old brother on October 5, 2019.

The deceased’s sister said that on the evening of August 8, 2019, she was in Silver Hill Park, Christ Church when her brother gave her his cell phone to fix and left to go to visit his child’s mother who lived nearby. She said later, she saw her brother coming back up the road and she left the park and went inside their house. Her brother subsequently sat on the step while using his phone.

The witness recalled seeing a lump on her brother’s forehead and a slash in his face and she went to a lady next door to ask her to call the ambulance.

Questioned by Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Alliston Seale SC, who is prosecuting the matter along with State Counsel Paul Prescod, about whether her brother said anything to her, she replied that he said someone had shot him.

“When we ask who shot he, he said Barnett,” the witness stated.

Admitting that she could not recall exactly who asked her brother the question, she said that her two other brothers, Shaquan Chase and Solomon Forde, were present in the home along with Shawn Ishmael.

She said the ambulance then came and took her brother away.

Under cross-examination by Senior Counsel Michael Lashley, who is representing Barnett, the woman agreed that she told police she did not recall hearing any gunshots that evening.

The defence attorney suggested to her that her brother did not mention Barnett’s name. She disagreed.

“I am suggesting that you don’t know who asked him who shot him because you are lying”, Lashley said, to which the witness replied, “When it comes to these sorts of things, you don’t mek sport or lie in these sorts of cases.”

The mother of the deceased, Alicia Chase, also testified. She said she was at home in Silver Sands, Christ Church that evening when her son Shaquan called her. She went to Maxwell View, Silver Hill, and saw an ambulance leaving. She went to the Accident and Emergency Department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and saw O’neill hooked up to “all sorts of machines” with blood on his head and face. She said he underwent surgery and remained in the Intensive Care Unit before being discharged.

The witness said that her son was “back to baby stage” as he could not walk or talk and had to be given assistance to eat and bathe.

She recalled that after he began receiving physical therapy in the weeks that followed, he regained movement in one of his hands and feet and his ability to speak, but was always in “a lot of pain” and began having seizures.

On October 5,  she was woken from sleep by O’neill shouting for her. The mother said her son was having a seizure and she called for an ambulance, but he subsequently died.

Shown a photograph of medications at her house, she said they were prescribed by doctors at the hospital to prevent her son from developing blood clots and to help with his recovery.

Earlier in the morning, two police photographers gave evidence in the trial which will continue on April 15 before Madam Justice Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell.