Metro

Man refuses to testify against woman who allegedly shot him — so he can marry her

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This Brooklyn couple is ready to take another shot . . . at love.

Randolph Costa says he’s still too enamored of his girlfriend to testify against her at her Brooklyn criminal trial — although she allegedly put a bullet in his head during an argument over money.

“I’m just hoping they drop this order of protection so we can get married . . . We love each other,” Costa told The Post yesterday.

The 59-year-old Bushwick man still has the “love” bullet lodged near his spine.

“I’d be crazy to testify against her,” he said.

Evelyn Barnave, 43, blasted Costa as she sat in her car in Crown Heights on Jan. 11, 2011, and he reached in through the window — then left him in the street, sped off and ditched the gun, prosecutors charge.

But while Costa initially fingered Barnave as his shooter, he has since refused to cooperate with prosecutors..

“We feel the same way: Everything was an accident,” said Costa, who insists he will never testify against the unemployed Barnave, whom he met on a subway platform five years ago.

“We feel they should get out of the way and let us be.”

A police source said Barnave got rid of the firearm, undercutting the couple’s claims the shooting was “an accident.”

“There’s no gun. She made the gun disappear,” the source said.

Barnave faces 25 years behind bars if found guilty of attempted murder in her Brooklyn Supreme Court bench trial.

She maintained her innocence to The Post, claiming Costa’s hospital-bed accusation against her was fabricated by cops.

“He had his mouth wired shut and was on all kinds of drugs,” she said.

“The cops lied.”

Defense attorney Paul Hirsch said, “If the case was dropped today and the order of protection was thrown out, they would ask the judge to marry them.”

In a handwritten statement made the day of the shooting, Barnave said Costa was trying to punch her through the car window as the couple fought over their joint checking account.

“I stuck my hand out the window. I heard the gun go off. I did not even realize that I hit him,” Barnave said in the statement, which also details Costa’s AIDS-positive status.

Prosecutors yesterday read aloud incriminating phone calls Barnave made from Rikers Island.

“How’s Randolph doing? Just tell him that I said I’m sorry,” Barnave said in one call, according to Assistant District Attorney Josh Charlton.

The trial continues Monday before Judge Matthew D’Emic.