The Brooklyn man whose girlfriend shot him in the face loves her so much, he testified in her defense yesterday.
“I love her. Yes, I care about her,” Randy Costa, 59, said at the attempted-murder trial of Evelyn Barnave, 43, who prosecutors say shot him in Crown Heights on Jan. 11, 2011.
“We had a good relationship. Just the drugs got in the way. We took care of each other.”
Costa was called by his gal pal’s defense attorney to help clear her name. On the stand, he claimed the shooting was an accident that happened after Barnave found a gun his friend “Freddy” left in her car.
“I went to grab it when she was talking about throwing it away,” Costa said. “I was hit in the cheek . . . No, it didn’t hurt a lot.”
Prosecutors say Costa is telling “baldfaced lies in open court” to protect the woman he wants to marry, noting that Barnave didn’t say anything about an argument over the gun to investigators after the shooting.
Barnave faces up to 25 years behind bars on the attempted-murder charge.
Attorneys for both sides have rested, and the judge will issue his verdict in the bench trial next Wednesday.