Deliberations begin in murder case

A jury will resume deliberations Aug. 28 in the case of a Cleveland man accused of killing a Lorain man in 2016.

A jury will resume deliberations Aug. 28 in the case of a Cleveland man accused of killing a Lorain man in 2016.

Both sides spoke for over two and half hours Aug. 27 during closing arguments of the Abline Cannon murder trial in Lorain County Common Pleas Court.

Jurors deliberated about 90 minutes Aug. 27 before being released for the day.

Cannon, 38, is facing a charge of aggravated murder, two counts of murder, one count of kidnapping, two counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of aggravated burglary, three counts of felonious assault, a single count of tampering with evidence and two counts of having weapons under disability in connection to the Dec. 10, 2016, shooting death of 23-yearold David Barreiro in his Lorain apartment.

In her closing argument, Lorain County Assistant Prosecutor Laura Dezort walked the jury through the 14 separate charges against Cannon and how the actions he took fit into the elements of those crimes.

With a large smart board behind her bearing crime scene photos and flanked on each side by easels holding large pads of paper, Dezort explained how each of the 11 shell casings in the small apartment connected to the 10 different bullet holes.

Dezort said Cannon and his accomplice had believed David Barreiro would be the only one in the home because he lived alone.

When Cannon and his accomplice came in and found David Barreiro’s 25-year-old twin brother, Daniel Barreiro, sleeping on the couch, they thought they had subdued him, she said.

The shooting started once they discovered David Barreiro in a back bedroom taking them by surprise, Dezort said.

During his closing argument, defense attorney James Burge attempted to cast doubt on the correlation between the bullet holes and casings found in the apartment.

Burge echoed much of his opening statement and Cannon’s testimony in recounting the events leading up to and including the shooting saying that his client and three accomplices had gone to the Shore Drive apartment in the early hours of Dec. 10, 2016, to sell two ounces of heroin.

As Cannon and one of his accomplices were inside dealing with Daniel Barreiro, Burge claims the other two accomplices, unexpectedly, busted into the apartment attempting to rob the Barreiro brothers.

Burge attempted to cast doubt on Daniel Barreiro’s testimony earlier in the trial that he’d gone over just to spend the night with his brother.

He cited an inconsistency in the motive between his testimony and his initial statement to police about his reason for going to his brother’s house.

Burge echoed Cannon’s claim that Daniel Barreiro’s testimony that he was asleep when the apartment door was kicked in wasn’t “the whole truth,” and that he’d been involved in the deal with Cannon and his accomplice.

He also attempted to cast doubt on the prosecution’s assertion that Cannon was shot once in the right arm by David Barreiro while he was protecting his home.

Burge said the bullet hole identified as the shot that hit his client was too high from the floor to account for the wound Cannon received just above the elbow.

He also claimed that it was obvious Cannon never carried a gun, because he did not possess a gun when he was arrested after a 27day manhunt following the shooting.

In his final closing argument, Lorain County Assistant Prosecutor Tony Cillo said Daniel Barreiro’s single inconsistency was nothing compared to the seven lies Cannon admitted to telling to police and hospital personnel immediately following the shooting.

“He says he’s more than willing to lie because he doesn’t want to be arrested for drug dealing,” Cillo said. “What the heck is he going to do for a murder?”

Cillo reminded the jury that Cannon, under crossexamination, was hesitant to say where he was in the apartment at the time he was shot because his actual location would identify him as one of the two men firing at David Barreiro.

Cillo pointed out that if David Barreiro was expecting to make a drug deal, he would not have been only wearing only his boxer shorts when found by police and there would have been contact made with his cellphone leading up to the shooting.

Common Pleas Judge D. Chris Cook is presiding over the trial.