2 guilty in shooting of mother-to-be

After 10 days of deliberation , a Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted two men yesterday of first-degree murder in a brazen 2003 shooting of a pregnant woman on a crowded Orange Line train that resulted in the death of her child.

Chimezie Akara, 23, and Andre Green, 22, were each charged with firing an errant hollow point bullet that struck Hawa Barry in the abdomen on Feb. 5, 2003. Barry, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant at the time, survived, but her son died 45 minutes after being delivered by Cesarean section. The men pointed at each other as the shooter.

After the verdict was read, Akara stared straight ahead, stone faced. The bespectacled Green, however, could not control his emotions. Crying as he shook his head, Green rocked back and forth on his feet while alternating stunned looks at the ceiling, the floor, at his lawyer, and members of the jury while mouthing the word no.

The two were also found guilty of three counts of armed assault with intent to murder, three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and one count each of unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition. They face mandatory life in prison without parole at sentencing today.

"Right now I am very happy," said Barry, 34, who sat quietly nervous during the lengthy deliberations and cried when the verdict was read. "I feel better now. I feel like I can go on with my life now."

Her husband, Mamadou, thanked police and prosecutors. "I am happy with everyone who helped us . . . the government, the police, everyone," he said after the verdict.

One juror, who asked not to be identified, called it a "heavy and trying" process. "It's sad," she said as she left the court house. "It's a sad thing for everybody."

Prosecutor David Meier praised the jury. "There were no winners or losers in this case," he said after the verdict. "It's a tragedy for Hawa Barry and the families of both defendants. I just want to express my gratitude to the jury for all the hard work they did and the attention they paid to this case."

During the trial, which lasted five weeks, Meier told the jury that the two men acted together when they fired a 9mm semiautomatic Desert Eagle handgun at another man inside the subway train and missed their target.

The target, identified by police as Philip Gadsden, had yelled to passengers: "They have a gun. Believe me, they have a gun," according to witness testimony.

Others ducked for cover, but Barry, who had emigrated from Guinea in West Africa and who spoke very little English, could not understand what he was saying.

"When I saw my clothes, I see the blood," she testified in Fula, her native language, as an interpreter translated.

"I feel the pain," she sobbed on the stand last month. Barry said she could still remember the shooter. She told police it was Green.

Another man on the train, a student at Berklee College of Music, escaped harm when a second bullet lodged in the guitar case strapped to his back. Surveillance video played for the jury showed the two defendants fleeing the rear of the train, where Meier said they had opened fire.

In the course of the trial, lawyer Robert L. Sheketoff, who defended Akara, told the jury that his client was not guilty and said Barry identified Green as the shooter.

Green's lawyer, Stephen J. Weymouth, also told jurors that his client was not guilty, and he pointed a finger at Akara.

Weymouth said his client's conviction will be reversed on appeal.

"The jury got this one wrong," Weymouth said in a telephone interview last night. "You know, Andre did his best to keep my spirits up and cocounsel's spirits up by saying, 'I didn't do anything wrong, and the jury will see this.' When he heard the verdict, he was shocked, he was stunned; he was devastated. What can you say to him? . . . He was so upset I told them to keep an eye on him tonight."

Weymouth contends that one of the main trial errors made in this case was made by a previous judge who would not allow the defendants to be tried separately. "Had there been a separate trial, you would not have cocounsel and codefendants beating up on each other in the case," he said. "It certainly would have been a fairer trial."

Superior Court Judge Thomas E. Connolly told the jury they could convict both men of murder under the theory of joint venture, under which both could be found guilty if one was the triggerman and the other was an active participant in the crime.

The original panel of 12 jurors deliberated for four days before one member was dismissed for what were described as personal reasons.

On March 19, one of the alternate jurors joined the panel, and deliberations began again from scratch.

Last week, jurors asked the judge about the joint venture theory. Yesterday morning, Connolly urged jurors to be patient, saying that it was normal for deliberations to take so long in such a complicated case.

Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley praised the jurors for their "incredible strength of character."

"It was a long trial," Conley said, "They reached the right verdict."

Calling what Akara and Green did on the crowded train despicable, Conley said the verdict sends a clear message to violent criminals.

"You will be prosecuted, you will be punished, and you will spend the rest of your life in prison," he said.

Megan Tench can be reached at mtench@globe.com.