Murder-accused paints “very misleading picture”, court hears
Accused killer Ronniko Burchall is attempting to present a very misleading picture of himself to Supreme Court, Crown counsel Robert Welling alleged today.The prosecutor presented a letter from Mr Burchall’s former employer which stated he was fired because he failed to register for courses at Bermuda College.Yesterday, Mr Burchall told the court he lost his mechanic job at the bus garage because of the murder charges he is now facing.“You came in yesterday to try to paint a very misleading picture of yourself,” Mr Welling told the 22-year-old.Mr Burchall and his half-brother Leroy Symons, 21, are accused of murdering 30-year-old Shane Minors in 2009.Mr Burchall is further charged with using a firearm to commit murder.Both men deny the charges.Mr Burchall has said he spent time with friends in the Middletown area before taking a taxi to his girlfriend’s and then back to his aunt’s home on the night of the murder.He was unable to name the friends he was with when questioned, without prompting from Mr Symons’ lawyer.Said Mr Welling: “You are facing murder allegations. You are not guilty of this. You know you are not guilty because you were not there at the time, and all these people should be able to help you.“You would have thought ‘Who was I with? They could help me’. So why is it you have to pause and think about who can do that?”Mr Burchall denied that he paused, responding: “They said they don’t want nothing to do with this.”The trial will resume this afternoon.