Brenda Morgan couldn’t believe she was seeing a man shooting into a car right in front of her. When he ran to another vehicle and left the scene, she followed, she told a jury Tuesday, Dec. 6.
“I thought, ‘Not today you’re not,’” Morgan testified as one of the first witnesses in the Richmond County Superior Court trial for Kwadere Barno, 35.
Barno has pleaded not guilty to charges filed in the May 25, 2019, fatal shooting of 56-year-old Tony Sanford on Meadowbrook Drive.
Assistant District Attorney Deshala Dixon told the jury in her opening statement that Barno shot Sanford over a minor traffic accident. Barno, she said, was enraged after Sanford in his older model green Cadillac sideswiped Barno’s mother’s BMW.
MORE: Third suspect arrested in ‘accidental’ murder at Olmstead Homes
Morgan testified that she was in her vehicle behind the BMW when she heard what she initially thought was a car backfiring, until the “pops” continued in rapid fashion, and she looked up to see a man standing at the driver’s side door of the green Cadillac. He had a gun and he was firing to the vehicle. After that, the man she described as wearing a white shirt and jean shorts with long dreads got into the BMW and drove away, and she followed. He drove to the nearby American Best Value Inn and left the vehicle behind.
The prosecutor told the jury in her opening statement that video from the hotel’s security system will show Barno throwing a gun into a trash can at the hotel. A ballistic expert is expected to testified that it was the murder weapon, Dixon said.
But defense attorney Peter Johnson told the jury in his opening statement that there were two very different versions of what happened that evening. Barno, he said, was the intended victim of a carjacking by Sanford. Barno was pistol-whipped, and when Sanford lost control of the gun, a friend riding with Barno picked up the gun and shot Sanford in self defense. The friend, however, has since left the area, Johnson said.
Sandy Hodson is a staff reporter covering courts for The Augusta Press. Reach her at sandy@theaugustapress.com.
