Pathologist: Rahim Ward’s body had two gunshot wounds

n autopsy conducted on the decomposing body of Rahim Ward concluded that he died from a gunshot wound, forensic pathologist Dr Althea Neblett told jurors in the murder trial of Kevin Andrew Haynes on Wednesday.

Haynes, of Jordan Road, Belleplaine, St Andrew is accused of murdering Ward between August 23 and 30, 2019.

Giving her evidence virtually before the 12-member jury in the High Court, Dr Neblett said she conducted the postmortem of Ward’s body on September 9, 2019, at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s morgue. While there she was informed by police that the deceased was last seen on August 23 that year and was subsequently discovered in a shallow grave on August 30.

The pathologist described the body as being that of a young adult man, which was moderately decomposed with brown dirt.

During her examination, she found two gunshot wounds on the right side of the body — one to the right chest area, that went into the chest cavity, injured the lower lobe of the left lung, and exited the body through the back. The doctor explained that the evidence suggested that “gunshot wound occurred in life”.

The other wound to the neck “went upwards”, according to the pathologist who added that there were no other significant injuries seen on the body. Dr Neblett said she concluded that the cause of death was a “gunshot wound to the chest”.

After answering several questions from Acting Principal State Counsel Romario Straker, the pathologist was crossexamined by Haynes’ defence lawyer Ajamu Boardi.

She stated that she was not a gun expert and as such she could not speak to the distance at which the shooter was standing when the deceased was shot: “I didn’t get any projectile.”

Asked whether there was any injury on Ward’s arm, the doctor responded “no”.

The case continued before Justice Christopher Birch, in Supreme Court No.5A, with PC Ross Phillips, who gave evidence on Tuesday, taking the witness stand for the second day for crossexamination by the defence.