A Dublin carpenter died after he was fatally struck during a St Patrick’s Day 2023 altercation, during which a racial epithet was used, a Boston court was told.
Attorneys in the Suffolk Superior courthouse presented opening statements on Thursday in the trial of a local security guard for his manslaughter.
Barry Whelan (46) was found lying on his back in downtown Boston on March 17th, 2023, and was taken to Tufts Medical Center. Mr Whelan died from his injuries, a skull fracture and brain hemorrhaging, three days later on March 20th, according to prosecutors.
Mr Whelan was originally from Dublin and emigrated to the US in 2002. He lived in Woburn, north of Boston.
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The state charged Sanusi Sadiq (30), of Quincy, Massachusetts, with manslaughter. Prosecutors alleged Mr Sadiq struck Mr Whelan in the head.
Assistant District Attorney Jillian Bannister told the jury this was a case about “individual and personal choices interacting with the choices of others”.
“Today you are here because of a choice,” she said. “A choice that tragically ended the life of a stranger.”
Ms Bannister told the jury that first responders found Mr Whelan unresponsive, “with an odour of alcohol on St Patrick’s Day”, near an ATM machine between Winter Street and Winter Place, a pedestrian road leading to nightclub Yvonne’s. At first glance there were no apparent injuries to his face.
The jury of 10 women and five men will see surveillance video footage of an interaction between “two complete strangers” who were “arguing, gesturing, walking around” between 8.49pm and 8.56pm, and a man in black clothing striking Mr Whelan and walking away, said Ms Bannister. After Mr Whelan fell, Mr Sadiq went inside Yvonne’s, where he worked, and stayed until 2am.
The day after Mr Whelan died, Mr Sadiq voluntarily spoke to Boston police detectives. He told them that, before he struck him, Mr Whelan called Mr Sadiq “the N-word and made other disparaging remarks”, according to Ms Bannister.
The prosecutor called the racial epithet “despicable”. She also stated that there is no audio component in the video recording of the argument between the two men and that “is not ultimately the choice that we are here for today”.
Defence attorney Michael Chinman said his client was approached by a “belligerent, very intoxicated man” who “immediately is confrontational”. He said Mr Whelan was swearing, telling Mr Sadiq what to do, and made clear “he wants to fight”.
The defence said that the reactions of two other black men in the video support Mr Sadiq’s claim that Mr Whelan called Mr Sadiq the N-word. When one of the men pulled Mr Sadiq aside and told him “he’s not worth it”, that made Mr Whelan additionally upset, Mr Chinman said.
“He called him an f***ing N-word, and he didn’t say f***ing, he didn’t say N-word, he uses those words,” said Mr Chinman. “You’ll see the moment when Barry Whelan charges.”
Mr Whelan approached his client twice, said the defence counsel, and Mr Sadiq did not want Mr Whelan following him into his place of work.
According to the defence, Mr Sadiq swung his arm in a circle, struck Mr Whelan with his wrist and did not use bodily force. “He did not inflict injury to Barry Whelan’s face”, and did not endanger his life, Mr Chinman said.
“The evidence does not support the charge of manslaughter,” added Mr Chinman.
Mr Sadiq sat next to his attorney throughout the proceedings.
The deceased man’s brother Darren Whelan observed the proceedings from the gallery with two family friends.
The trial continues.
