Admitted drug dealer and convicted felon Michael Barnes said on the stand Tuesday he planned to disregard prosecutors’ subpoena to testify in the murder trial of a Trenton man accused of gunning down city graffiti artist Andre Corbett.
He testified that he decided against absconding after friends told him he was mentioned in newspaper articles in which the attorney for defendant Keith Wells-Holmes attacked Barnes’ credibility and referred to him as a “workhouse snitch.”
“I got your memo in the newspaper,” Barnes told defense attorney Caroline Turner. “I was gonna run from the truth. I wasn’t going to come to the subpoena.”
Barnes, apparently anticipating the defense’s unflattering portrayal of him as a man looking to cash in a bargaining chip with prosecutors, added he would spend significant time behind bars if it brought back Corbett, a man he knew for more than a decade.
Turner noted in her cross examination Barnes referred to the victim as a “crackhead,” which she contends is what Barnes really thought of Corbett. Turner said Barnes did not bother to step forward with information about Corbett’s killer until a year after the murder, when he found himself jailed on a litany of criminal charges.
Sometimes derisive and sometimes deadpan, Barnes fought back against Turner’s sardonic wit, which was more biting than an English lemon tart. During one testy exchange, Turner accused the witness of “getting smart” with her; she was immediately cut off and scolded by Judge Robert Billmeier.
Sometimes it was unclear whether the man known as on the streets as “Murder Mike,” from his time in the Sex, Money, Murder sect of the Bloods street gang, was truly oblivious or simply putting on a Broadway-like show for the jury.
For example, when Turner asked him whether he enjoyed his time in jail, Barnes responded that it was “all right.” Turner pressed him up about myriad diseases one could contract behind bars.
“I’m straight,” Barnes responded, pointing out his sexual orientation for jurors.
His richest callout of Turner, however, sounded like a bit of grandstanding considering he claimed he was willing to jeopardize the deal he had cut with prosecutors for probation to resolve charges of aggravated assault, resisting and weapons offenses.
In truth, Barnes wasn’t on the stand to talk about the crimes he has committed over the years. He was there to point the finger, literally, at Wells-Homes for Corbett’s murder.
When Assistant Prosecutor James Scott asked the witness who killed Corbett, Barnes responded emphatically.
“Him,” he said, pointing toward Wells-Holmes. “I’m 100 percent sure.”
Barnes lived at the Oakland Street apartment complex where Corbett was shot. He said he was near a glass-plated door of one of the apartment units staring out at Hoffman Avenue scanning for police because he was dealing drugs at the time of the shooting.
He turned in the direction of the shots and caught a glimpse of the killer’s face, which was obscured by a dark cone-shaped hoodie that was rolled back. He recognized the man as “Zeek’s cousin.” Zeek lived a few doors down from him, Barnes said, and the defendant regularly visited.
Barnes said he and Wells-Holmes had even played Oak, a basketball game similar to 21. Barnes said Wells-Holmes would “go up strong” with his left hand – in contrast with the right-handed shooter -- during the game he described as “every man for himself.”
“That’s what it appears to be here, right?” Turner shot back. “Every man for himself?”
Scott loudly objected to the question, and the attorneys were immediately roped into sidebar by the judge.
Turner spent the bulk of her cross examination of Barnes going over his rap sheet, which includes convictions for theft and an arrest for weapons trafficking.
Barnes was one of several people charged in 2012 as part of Operation Gravedigger, an investigation by state and city police into weapon sales near funeral homes. Barnes admitted selling a handgun.
“I’m no angel,” he said.