Teen Charged in Murder of North Ridgeville Man

See UPDATE below:

1-27-2010 Ohio:

NORTH RIDGEVILLE, Ohio - Daniel Kovarbasich is 16 years old and was a student at North Ridgeville High School. But on a day when his classmates were at school, Daniel was being arraigned in Lorain County Juvenile Court on charges that he murdered 55-year-old Duane Hurley at Hurley's home last Friday.

His fellow students are stunned by his arrest. Krissy Buckner says "I can't believe he would do something like that, it doesn't seem like anything he would do."

According to court documents, Daniel Kovarbasich is accused of stabbing to death Duane Hurley.

Those who know Daniel say he was one of several young men who hung around Duane Hurley's home and did odd jobs for the 55-year-old.

Krissy Buckner says "he would just like mow his grass and just walk his dog, wash his car."

The attorney for the 16-year-old tried to convince a judge that he should be released to his father pending a probable cause hearing.

But one of Duane Hurley's neighbors says she is still frightened in her own home by a crime that robbed her of her best friend.

"Denise" says "it hurts me everyday because I have to look out my front window and I see his home. He's not here anymore and it really hurts."

But other neighbors wonder what went on inside the home of Duane Hurley, a former Avon Lake city employee, who was convicted in 2004 of bribery, falsification and theft in office. Prosecutors say Hurley accepted bribes from convicts to reduce the amount of time they had to serve for community service.

And they wonder what brought Daniel Kovarbasich into Hurley's life and what sparked the violence that took Hurley's life.

John Buckner says "I don't know, why would a 16-year-old boy stab a grown man, I mean we can only think."

"Denise" says "that's baloney, that's pure garbage, he was not that kind of man."

The 16-year-old is currently being held in the Lorain County Juvenile Detention Home. A probably cause hearing on the case is scheduled for February 12th. ..Source.. by Staff

---

BREAKING NEWS: Daniel Kovarbasich gets five years probation (for killing molester)

8-12-2010 Ohio:

ELYRIA — Daniel Kovarbasich, 16, was sentenced to five years of probation for the Jan. 22 slaying of Duane Hurley inside his North Ridgeville home.

Lorain County Common Pleas James Burge also ordered Daniel remain incarcerated until he can be placed in a treatment program.

Daniel, who was tried as an adult, was convicted earlier this year of voluntary manslaughter and aggravated assault. He had originally been charged with murder in the case.

Daniel did not speak before Burge handed down the sentence, but Jack Bradley, one of Daniel’s lawyers, argued that his client should receive probation.

Bradley said Daniel needed treatment for the sexual abuse he suffered at Hurley’s hands.

During his trial, which Burge decided instead of a jury, Daniel testified that Hurley, 55, had molested him for months before the killing.

Hurley’s niece, Marcy Utlak, called Daniel the “epitome of evil.”

“We saw not one bit of remorse in his testimony or his actions. None,” she said.

Utlak said that Daniel lied about using two of Hurley’s sports cars in exchange for sexual favors. She also said that the pornography found on Hurley’ computer — much of it appearing to feature underage boys in graphic sexual positions — was downloaded by other people who used the computer beside her uncle.

Assistant County Prosecutor Tony Cillo argued for the maximum prison sentence of 10 years.

He said if there was a sexual relationship, it was one where Daniel received things from Hurley in exchange for sex.

On the day that Hurley died, Daniel testified, the older man wanted sex from him. Daniel said he clubbed Hurley once with large pickle jar before a melee between them broke out.

Daniel said he punched, kicked and repeatedly stabbed Hurley until he stopped moving. He then called his father, who picked him up, took him to the hospital and called 911.

Prosecutors said during the trial that Hurley was struck three times with the jar as he lay on his bed, blows that would have been fatal even if he hadn’t been stabbed. He was stabbed 55 times, an autopsy determined. ..Source.. Brad Dicken

---

Teen reaches out to millions on Oprah

10-19-2010 Ohio:

CHICAGO — Sixteen-year-old Daniel Kovarbasich had the opportunity yesterday to reach millions of people and tell children to speak out if they become a victim of sexual abuse.

Daniel, his parents, Terry and Donna, and brother, Gregory, were guests on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” where Daniel described to Winfrey the details behind the slaying of 55-year-old Duane Hurley.

Terry Kovarbasich told Winfrey he remembered Jan. 22, the day his son killed Hurley, as a typical day when he dropped his son off at Hurley’s home. About a half-hour after dropping Daniel off, he got a call from Daniel, who was “freaking out,” he told Winfrey. He would soon find out Daniel hit Hurley in the head with a pickle jar and stabbed him repeatedly.

“Daniel told his parents that Duane had attacked him and he was acting in self-defense, but that is not what happened,” Winfrey said. “The real story begins more than three years earlier when Daniel was just 12 years old.”

Donna Kovarbasich, with Daniel’s help, then described for Oprah and her viewers they researched Hurley and thought he was legitimately a nice man and welcomed him into their home. Then, Daniel chronicled how about a year into the friendship, Hurley began using incentives like his cars and money to engage in sexual acts with Daniel.

Kovarbasich told Winfrey he didn’t consider his relationship with Hurley a “sexual relationship” because it wasn’t consensual, but he also didn’t realize he was being molested. Daniel told her he didn’t know how to tell his family and Hurley made him feel like the abuse was his fault.

“So the grooming process is ... if a sexual molester is any good at his job, his No. 1 job is to make the child feel that they are part of it so that they don’t tell, because once you tell, his game is up,” Winfrey said of the sexual abuse. SClBTerry Kovarbasich told Winfrey how he now understands why police almost always assume sexual abuse starts inside the home because it usually comes from someone trustworthy.

“If my son ended up missing, if this went the other way and my son ended up missing, my wife and I would be standing right with (Hurley) looking for our son and would never know that he did anything. That’s how much we trusted him,” Terry said to Winfrey.

Winfrey asked Daniel if he had any remorse and the teen said, “I do on some extent. I mean, I feel — I do know I killed a man, you know. That’s not right. I mean, I don’t feel great for killing someone. I know that’s wrong. I feel — I feel relieved, though, now, if you can understand what I’m saying. I feel relieved because everything is done, but I feel bad to an extent.”

Terry and Donna also gave advice to parents and other children in the world who might be going through a similar situation to know the signs of grooming and abuse and Daniel said for children to “man up” and speak out if they are being abused.

In addition to the Kovarbasich family, Winfrey also spoke with Ellie Nesler, who killed her child’s sexual abuser in a courtroom in 1993. ..Source.. by KELLY METZ

UK- British Child Molester Priest Stabbed 24 Times in a Tripoli Apartment

7-25-2009 United Kingdom:

The British Anglican priest John Mountford who was found dead in his apartment in ‎Tripoli, Libya on 18 July was stabbed 24 times by a 15-year old boy, sources told The ‎Tripoli Post on Thursday 23 July.‎

The British priest used to contact Libyan children by chatting with them on the internet ‎telling them he would teach them English, the sources added. He would also give them ‎his local phone number in order to set up appointments for meetings.‎

The child abuser was found lying dead, in the kitchen at his apartment at Zawit Al-‎Dahhmani area by his Libyan friend who went to check on him in his apartment when ‎Mountford did not answer the repeated phone calls.‎

This Libyan friend opened the door with a key previously given to him by the dead man, ‎he later informed the police of the incident.‎

Two kids, brothers, aged between 13 and 15 were arrested when the Libyan police found ‎their phone number in the British priest’s cell phone, the sources said. They later were ‎released.‎

A number of other Libyans have also been interviewed by the police and were released. ‎The investigation is still ongoing.‎

The two brothers knew Mountford before he left to England this summer. ‎

A relative of the two brothers told The Tripoli Post that Mountford tried to approach ‎them sexually after which they decided not to meet him anymore. ‎

However, their relative also said that after his return from Britain, Muntford had ‎contacted them again via the internet and got their phone number that he seemed to have ‎lost after he earlier lost his old CIM card.‎

According to The Times, Mountford’s employers reported him missing to the British ‎Embassy in Tripoli on Thursday 19 July soon after he returned from visiting relatives in ‎Britain. The British Foreign Office was informed on Saturday night 20 July that child-‎abuser’s had been found.‎

The former St Peter's College chaplain escaped justice in the courts in Australia in 2007 ‎after child-sex charges against him were dropped.‎ ..Source.. by The Tripoli Post

Prosecutor: 'Thrill kill' led teens to murder, decapitate man

11-30-2007 Case Update


These handout photos show Alexander James Letkemann, left, and Jean Pierre Orlewicz, suspects in the murder of Daniel Sorenson. They are accused in the planning, ambush and slaying of 26-year-old Daniel Sorenson last Wednesday in a Canton Township garage owned by Orlewicz's grandfather, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said. ( Courtesy Canton Police Department)
CLICK Select: "Thrill Kill Update: Trail of Evidence"
CLICK to watch their arraignment.
CLICK for the MySpace page
NORTHVILLE TOWNSHIP -- In announcing the arrests of two teenagers today, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said they stabbed Daniel G. Sorensen to death, sawed off his head and used a blow torch to burn his body simply for the thrill.

"All of us have seen every type of crime available and why someone would kill for the thrill of it amazes us," Worthy said at a press conference at the Northville Township Police Department.

Sorensen, 26, of River Rouge, was found dead Thursday at the end of a yet-to-be-developed subdivision cul-de-sac in Northville Township off Ridge Road just south of Maybury State Park. His severed head was found Saturday in a section of Hines Park located in Dearborn Heights.

Jean Pierre Orlewicz, 17, of Plymouth and Alexander James Letkemann, 18, of Westland, were arraigned via video today in Romulus District Court on charges of premeditated murder, felony murder and mutilation of a corpse. The homicide charges carry sentences of up to life. A preliminary exam is set for Nov. 19 at 35th District Court in Plymouth.

Sorensen had owed Orlewicz "small amounts" that weren't a factor in the premeditated killing, Worthy said. The men were acquaintances, but she declined to further detail their relationship. The pair killed Sorensen in a Canton Township home owned by Orlewicz's grandfather, Worthy alleged.

"They lured him into a garage where a space had been prepared to kill him," Worth said.

Worthy said the pair stabbed Sorensen in the back multiple times, then sawed off his head. The garage had been prepared with a tarp on the floor and cleaning supplies standing by to clean up the blood. She called the killing "bone-chilling."

It is alleged the pair tried to conceal the identity of the victim by using a blow torch to burn his hands and feet. Gasoline was used to set the body on fire after it was dumped in the empty lot in Northville Township.

"I'm very shocked," said Jack Ryan, 59, out walking his dog Monday on the same block of Holly Lane in Canton Township where the slaying allegedly took place on Wednesday. Although he noticed police in the neighborhood this morning, he didn't see detectives and crime scene technicians collecting evidence from the garage near his home over the weekend.

"Nothing goes on in the neighborhood. At night, you don't hear anything," Ryan said about the working-class street where he has lived for 25 years.

He added that he didn't know the victim or his grandfather because his neighbors all work hard and keep to themselves.

Worthy said Sorensen's status as a sex offender had nothing to do with his death. His name is listed on registries in Michigan and Illinois for a 1998 incident in Illinois.

State Police forensic science technicians were able to identify Sorensen with one clear fingerprint. Tips from unnamed sources led police to find Sorensen's head and his pickup truck Friday night in the parking lot of a Meijer store at Newburgh and Warren in Westland.

Policed announced Friday night three persons of interest had been identified and arrest warrants were being sought. Police declined to confirm whether anyone was under arrest. Worthy said only Letkemann and Orlewicz are under arrest, but the investigation of the potential involvement of others continues.

"Investigators have worked tirelessly, virtually around the clock, gathering information, developing leads, collecting evidence, and executing search warrants," said John Werth, director of public safety for Northville Township.

"By putting the pieces together, we were able to determine who was responsible for this terrible act and where the death took place. Due to the incident's complexity and the numerous details that have arisen, no further information will be available until the preliminary examination."

With help from Michigan State Police, Livonia, River Rouge, Wayne County Sheriff's deputies and Canton and Plymouth townships, it took detectives just 34 hours to solve the case.

"As a result of a multi-jurisdictional collaborative effort by numerous law enforcement agencies the Canton Police were able to arrest and charge two individuals for this horrific and heinous crime," said Director of Public Safety, John Santomauro.

Northville Township Police needed just 17 hours to unravel the homicide of Cheryl Lynn Boeskool, 44, of Garden City, who found floating on Aug. 7 in a retention pond at Country Club Village on Haggerty near Six Mile. Police determined she had been had killed by multiple blows to her head and face and her body dumped in the pond.

Her boyfriend, Thomas Joseph Roe, 62, awaits trail after allegedly confessing to the slaying.

The killing is at least the second in Metro Detroit involving decapitations. In Macomb County, Stephen Grant faces an upcoming trial on allegations he strangled his wife in their Washington Township home and dismembered her body before strewing it in a nearby park. ..more.. by Doug Guthrie (734) 462-2674 or dguthrie@detnews.com.

See Background Articles for more information on this case!

Boy Who Killed a Pedophile Seeks a New Trial

5-17-2005 Florida

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Mark Berrios had dreams of being a fireman, of being a football star, but Mark got into trouble and those dreams would never come true.

"He's missed a lot. He's missed his childhood," says Margaret Loring, Mark's mom.

At 15 years old, Mark walked inside the razor sharp wires of prison. This was his new home and there was no chance of getting out.

"165139--That's me. I'm no longer a name I'm a number, a statistic," says Mark.

To understand why he is behind bars for the rest of his life, we have to start at the boardwalk in Daytona Beach eleven years ago.

"He stopped me and asked me if I needed a ride and I was like I don't think you're going where I need to go."

Mark had run away from home and was trying to get back to Jacksonville.

It was on the boardwalk where, he says, he met a man by the name of Olen Lee Hepler.

"I'm going to Jacksonville and he said get in. He gave me his phone number and said if I ever need anything call him."

Six weeks later, Mark was in trouble again. He'd run away from a detention center and this time he made a phone call.

"I was lost I suppose. I didn't want to go home. So, that was about the only other alternative I could think of. Why didn't you want to go home? Because I ran away scared about what my family would do. I still remember it (phone number) to this day."

Mark says Hepler picked him up in Jacksonville and brought him back to his beach-front home in Daytona. Mark stayed seven days.

"It was a week full of fun. He would take me out shopping to Orlando. I thought it was wonderful. I didn't have to go to school, I didn't have to do anything. All I had to do was sit there and go with him."

Then on Sunday, August 11, 1994, everything changed.

"What happened on that day? We just came back from natural springs in Ocala from swimming. We stopped by and got some alcohol. Over the course of a couple of hours, he made advances to me. 'He had never done that?' No. He called me over to him. He was sitting on the couch. He started asking me how I enjoyed living there. While we were talking, his hand starting going over to my shirt and pulled up my shirt. I moved his hand away and he stuck his hand back inside my shirt inside my pants. I tried to slap his hand away, then he slapped me that's when I grabbed his gun.
'So, you saw the gun and you thought?' I have to get out of here. 'You felt like you couldn't get out of there?' No."

Mark says there were dead-bolts on every door and he felt he couldn't get out without Hepler catching him first.

"Do you remember that moment of picking up the gun and firing it? Yes ma'm, very much so."

Mark shot Hepler in the back of the head. Police called it execution style.

"I ran to the bedroom I was living in and waited cause I didn't know if I'd actually killed him. I didn't hear anything. I grabbed his car keys and went back to Jacksonville."

Little did Mark know, the man he had just killed was a man who was under investigation.

According to court records, police were following Hepler. He was a man they believed was a pedophile preying on young, troubled boys.

Hepler's history would never make its way into the courtroom and it would eventually send a 15 year old to life in prison without parole.

"I just thought it would all work out in the end. I thought if I went up there and told the truth then everything would be o.k. and it wasn't."

Watch First Coast News at 11pm Wednesday for the second part of Mark Berrios' story. Our I-Team will show you evidence that was never used in court. We'll show you why he has new hope for a new trial. ..more.. by Jackelyn Barnard

---

Teen Says He Did Not Kill Man Whose Card He Used

9-17-1994 Florida:

A Jacksonville youth pleaded not guilty Friday to the August shooting death of an Ormond-by-the-Sea man, who sheltered the boy for a few weeks.Mark Berrios, 15, will be tried as an adult in the shooting death of Olen Lee Hepler Jr., 47, of 7 Neptune Court in Ormond-by-the-Sea. A relative found Hepler Aug. 15 on the sofa with a gunshot wound to the head.Berrios is being held in the Volusia County Branch Jail without bail.Hepler's black S-10 Blazer and a revolver were missing from his home, a police report stated. ..Source..

Rape suspect killed, maybe by 'vigilante'

9-5-2000 Georgia: (SEE UPDATE)

Police say Julius Grant was shot dead less than two hours after raping a teenage girl Monday.

The 17-year-old girl was hospitalized after being raped about noon in an abandoned house on Wesley Avenue in the Edgewood neighborhood, said Atlanta police homicide Sgt. Keith Meadows.

At 1:52 p.m., Grant, 29, was shot four times in the parking lot of an apartment complex on Hutchinson Street, three blocks from the rape scene. The bullets pierced his lungs. He died at Grady Memorial Hospital.

It being Labor Day, some residents were outside at the time, barbecuing chicken. But when police arrived, everyone said they didn't see a thing, said Atlanta homicide Detective Steve Walden.

Walden made no arrests Monday. He said he believes someone who knew the girl killed Grant in an act of vigilantism. But he had no suspects.

An investigator took a Polaroid photo of Grant's bloody face and police showed it to the rape victim. She identified Grant as the rapist, Walden said. She knew Grant by name.

Grant was arrested for rape in 1998. His criminal record also includes arrests for armed robbery, theft and felony obstruction for fighting with police, according to Atlanta police records. All those arrests came within a five-year period. But they were not enough to keep him off the street. His record of convictions was not available Monday because courts were closed for the holiday.

"If he raped that little girl, he got what he deserved," Edgewood resident Latrice Turner, 25, said as she stood next to the parking lot where yellow crime scene tape marked the spot where Grant was shot.

A girl wearing a diaper tugged on the crime scene tape. Turner shook her head and watched her chicken cooking on an outdoor grill. She said she wasn't there at the time of the shooting.

Linda Jones stopped eating when she heard the news about Grant's death.

"It's a shame he got killed," Jones said. "But it's even sadder he raped somebody." ..more.. by Joshua B. Good - Staff

---

Accused Vigilante Killer Surrenders.
9-13-2000 Georgia:

ATLANTA -- A citywide manhunt for an accused vigilante ended this morning when the young man marched into police headquarters and surrendered on charges of murdering the man who had allegedly raped his teenage friend.

Kelvin Demarcus Bridges, 19, accompanied by an attorney, made no statement when he surrendered to Atlanta police shortly after 10:30 a.m., said Officer John Quigley, a police spokesman.

Authorities say Bridges, who has a history of arrests for gun charges, was seeking revenge Sept. 4 when he tracked down Julius Grant and shot him in broad daylight.

Grant's death came less than two hours after he had allegedly grabbed a 17-year-old girl off the street in Atlanta's tough Edgewood neighborhood, dragged her to an abandoned house and raped her, police said.

Rough justice?

The girl escaped and told her family and police about her ordeal, authorities said. She was later able to identify Grant as her attacker, police said.

While police were taking her statement at a nearby hospital, authorities say, Bridges armed himself with a handgun and set out for revenge.

Investigators said Bridges found Grant, 29, just a few blocks from the abandoned house where the girl had been raped. He allegedly fired two bullets into the man at point-blank range and fled, police said. Grant died at the scene.

Almost from the beginning, detectives suspected that the slaying was motivated by revenge. But investigators say they got little help from the neighborhood, where some believed that Grant's death could be chalked up to a kind of rough justice.

Publicity flushes out suspect

Within a week of the slaying, authorities had gathered enough evidence to have a warrant issued charging Bridges with murder, investigators said.

On Tuesday, after a week of quiet and fruitless searches for Bridges, police publicly identified him as their chief suspect in the case, hoping that pressure from the media would help convince him to surrender.

This morning, just hours after news reports identifying Bridges as a suspect hit the streets, the young man surrendered, authorities said.

Bail information on Bridges was not immediately available. by By Seamus McGraw, APBnews.com

Elizabeth Twp. girl, 13, kills dad, alleges sex abuse

7-31-2007 New Jersey:

Hours after killing her father with a shotgun blast to the face, Rachel Booth told investigators and a neighbor why she did it.

Her father had been sexually abusing her for years, Booth, 13, of Elizabeth Township, told neighbor Suzanne Gruber, 20.

"She said, 'I'm not a bad person,' " said Gruber, who accompanied Booth, a seventh-grader enrolled in the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, to the police station. Investigators confirmed that Booth told them she couldn't take the abuse any longer and "had enough."

Booth picked up her father's 12-gauge shotgun at 2:22 a.m. Monday and leveled it at him. Matthew Booth Sr., 34, was lying on a bed in the first floor of the family's Pitt Street home, according to Allegheny County police. She fired once, killing him nearly instantly, police said.

Rachel Booth appeared in Pittsburgh Municipal Court, wrists and ankles shackled, eyes downcast and face drawn.
She didn't speak during a brief hearing in front of District Judge Anthony Saveikis, who ordered her held without bond in the county jail on a criminal homicide charge.

The girl's mother, Michelle Fazek, 33, of White Oak, said she had filed numerous complaints during the past few years with police and the county Office of Children, Youth and Families about the deplorable conditions of the home in which her daughter and son, Matthew Booth Jr., 14, were living.

CYF officials didn't return calls for comment.

"My kids never told me specifically that they were being abused, but they looked like they were, and I always suspected it," Fazek said after her daughter's arraignment. "I tried to get someone to help her and no one would listen, and now my 13-year-old daughter is in jail."

Fazek and Matthew Booth Sr. never married but had three children together. She filed for three protection-from-abuse orders against him, and he filed one against her, court records show. They finally split in April 2005 after Booth was charged with pointing an unloaded shotgun at Fazek and pulling the trigger. It was not clear yesterday how that case was resolved.

In September, Booth was granted custody of both children, and Fazek was given custody of another daughter, age 12.

On Feb. 16, 2006, Rachel Booth called Fazek early in the morning screaming that she had tried to commit suicide, according to court records. A week later, Matthew Booth Sr. called Fazek and said Rachel Booth had been sexually assaulted two months earlier by a family friend, who later committed suicide, court records state.

Matthew Booth Sr. told Fazek that Rachel Booth was receiving care related to the incident, according to a petition filed by Fazek in March 2006.

CYF opened an investigation and learned the girl had been out of school for 45 days.

When county police detectives arrived at the home, they found animal urine, feces and garbage on the floors, and the rooms teeming with fleas and other insects. A broken window allowed cats to come and go.

"There were many animals in there that were in bad shape," said township police Chief Robert W. McNeilly Jr.

McNeilly said humane society officers removed from the home four dogs, a cat and her kitten, and two degus, which are small rodents. The dogs were thin and missing hair, he said, possibly because of fleas.

Neighbor Jason Mervosh, 37, called Matthew Booth Sr. a friend and said the two enjoyed fishing and hanging out.

"He liked the outdoors," Mervosh said.

Mervosh said Booth had struggled financially but recently found work.

"He was trying to live as best he could," Mervosh said. "He just started to get on his feet and make money. He wasn't a bad guy. He was trying to do the best he could."

Fazek said she'll do whatever she can to win her daughter's freedom, and she refuses to mourn her children's father.

"He deserved what he got," Fazek said. "May he rest in hell." ..more.. by Jill King Greenwood and Karen Zapf

Son indicted in murder of father

9-14-2006 New Mexico:
GRANTS — A 19-year-old Gallup man has been indicted on a charge of second-degree murder in the Aug. 12 death of his 47-year-old father.

The 13th Judicial District Grand Jury for Cibola County returned its true bill Wednesday against Arthur Baca Jr., accusing him "without lawful justification or excuse by any of the means with which death may be caused, and did so knowing that such act which caused the death created a strong probability of great bodily harm or death to Arthur Baca Sr., and did not act upon sufficient provocation, a sudden quarrel or in the heat of passion."

If eventually convicted and given the maximum punishment Baca Jr. would serve nine years in prison and pay a $10,000 fine.

Baca Sr. allegedly abused his son and wife, Joyce Estrada, 44, near the Laguna Pueblo that Saturday, although Lt. Rick Anglada of the New Mexico State Police Division said in a story in The Independent on Aug. 15 that authorities found no signs of abuse on the son or mother.

The family spent time in Albuquerque that Sunday and allegedly began arguing on the way back to Gallup. The family stopped near the junction of State Hwy. 6 (the Belen cutoff) and Interstate 40. The mother and son then beat the elder Baca, stabbed him, then left him still alive on the highway. State police said the wounded man managed to walk about 400 feet before collapsing, then died.

When state police contacted Estrada and Baca Jr., as the next of kin, they became suspicious and obtained confessions, first from the mother, then the son and arrested both on the second-degree murder charges.

Estrada's case remains pending. ..more.. by Jim Maniaci

Teen likely to be tried as an adult (for killing a registered sex offender)

1-4-2006 Washington:A 16-year-old Yakima youth faces arraignment in adult court Tuesday on a likely charge of second-degree murder in the shooting death of James Garrett in his west Yakima apartment earlier this week. The youth, identified as Joshua Collett, made a preliminary appearance Thursday in Yakima County Juvenile Court where he was told of the possible charges against him.

Collett's case will be transferred automatically to Superior Court under state law because of his age and the seriousness of the offense. Court Commissioner Robert Inouye set bail at $1 million, based on the crime and the youth's criminal history.

His record includes a number of arrests dating back to late 2002, including several minor assaults, a residential burglary and taking a vehicle without permission, according to court records. During the brief hearing, Inouye pressed prosecutors for more information based on a one-paragraph probable cause statement.

The statement, filed by police, indicated Garrett, a Level II sex offender, had held frequent parties at his residence, and that a number of young males had been at the apartment from time to time. A deputy prosecutor subsequently told Inouye that Collett had admitted to police his involvement in the shooting during questioning Wednesday at the Yakima Police Department.

Garrett was found dead on the living room floor of his apartment at 4081/2 South 18th Ave. A .22-caliber rifle and two spent shell casings were found on the kitchen floor, court documents said. Garrett died of a single gunshot wound to the head. ..more.. : by DAVID LESTER, YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Teen sentenced in sex offender slaying
12-14-2006 Washington

YAKIMA -- A Yakima teen-ager who killed a registered sex offender has been sentenced to ten years in prison.

Seventeen-year-old Joshua J. Collett pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter for shooting 63-year-old James Richard Garrett last December at his home in Yakima. Collett says Garrett had sexually assaulted him.

Collett received a sentence of less than four years for manslaughter. He also pleaded guilty to an unrelated charge of assault for wounding a man after robbing a taco truck. He was sentenced yesterday to the longer, ten-year term, for the assault. ..more.. by KXLY.com

Man Identified In Midvale Beating Death

1-14-2006 Utah:
SALT LAKE CITY Police on Friday identified a man found beaten and unconscious last week as George Benally, 43, of Ogden.

Benally died in a Salt Lake hospital Thursday, five days after being found beaten and wrapped in a blanket in Midvale parking lot. In a coma, Benally, who was carrying no identification, never regained consciousness before his death, Midvale Police Sgt. Steve Shreeve said.

Police released a picture of Benally's swollen face to the news media, which triggered calls to police. An autopsy confirmed his identity, Shreeve said.

A registered sex offender, Benally pleaded guilty to attempted forcible sex abuse in 2001. A father of seven, Benally was on parole at the time of his death and was employed as a steel worker.

Police believe ``someone intentionally attacked him and tried to kill him,'' Assistant Police Chief Tony Mason said. Doctors say Benally suffered multiple blows to the head, but didn't find evidence of beating elsewhere to the body, Mason said.

In hopes of determining what happened, detectives are reviewing a video surveillance tape from a South Salt Lake business near where police located Benally's car. ..more.. by KUTV

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Police arrest 3 in beating death of man
2-11-2006 Utah:
MIDVALE — Three people have been arrested in connection with the beating death of a man whose body was found dumped in a parking lot.

Rondal Eddie, 19, was arrested Thursday and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of aggravated murder, vehicle theft and robbery. Two others, Cory Preston Lee, 22, and Alexis Tallman, 20, were arrested for investigation of obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence and possession of stolen property.

George Benally, 43, was found beaten and unconscious Jan. 6 near 7200 South and 900 East. He remained in a coma for nearly a week before dying.

Thursday, Midvale homicide detectives developed information that led them to three separate locations in Salt Lake County where they arrested each of the suspects without incident, said Midvale Assistant Police Chief Tony Mason.

The three were acquaintances of the victim, he said. They allegedly had some sort of "falling out" that resulted in the beating death, Mason said.

Mason noted even though some of the suspects were booked for investigation of robbery, that was not the motive for the beating. They allegedly decided to rob Benally only after they had beaten him, he said.

The investigation, which led officers to the Navajo Reservation in the Four Corners region and St. George, will now be screened for charges with the Salt Lake District Attorney's Office. ..more.. by Pat Reavy

Youth charged in bloody slaying

11-8-2006 Wisconsin:

A 15-year-old boy was charged with bludgeoning a man to death with a hammer after the man said he would pay him to pose nude and then asked the boy for sex, according to a criminal complaint issued today. Corey J Kleser was charged as an adult with first-degree intentional homicide in the death of Ronald O Adams, 57. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. According to the complaint:

Kleser told police that he had gone to Adams' residence in the 7100 block of N. 60th St. on Oct. 29 because Adams had offered him $40 to $50 to model nude in front of him. When Adams wanted to have sex, Kleser said, there was a physical altercation and he hit Adams in the head more than eight times with a hammer until Adams fell to the floor. He told police he then grabbed a scissors and stabbed Adams in the neck multiple times.

Adams' body was discovered by the building manager, who used her pass key to enter his apartment Friday after residents reported not seeing him for several days. A security camera in the common hallway taped Adams walking into his apartment with Kleser at 1:49 a.m. on Oct. 29 and Kleser leaving the apartment about an hour later.

Within hours after the slaying, the boy called his father and asked for a ride home to Fox Point from the area of W. Mill Rd. and N. Green Bay Ave, the petition states. The father, who was interviewed by police on Saturday, said he had noticed that there was "a large amount of blood splattered" on his son's blue-and-white plaid shirt. ..more.. by Mary Zahn, JS Online

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jury deliberating hammer homicide case

5-11-2012:

The prosecutor in the Corey Kleser trial told jurors Friday that even they believe he was fearful of his victim, he's still gulty because he went way too far for any legitimate self defense.

"He had many otheroptions," said Assistant District Attorney Kevin Shomin in closing argument. "He didn't have to do what he did."

Kleser, then 15, struck Ronald O Adams, 57, more than 20 times with a hammer, and stabbed him more than 30 times with scissors in October 2006. The case is only now going to trial because of disputes over whether Kleser would be tried as a juvenile or adult. The state Supreme Court ruled that he must be tried as an adult.

In his closing, Shomin recounted the severity of Adams' injuries, and suggested they were not inflicted because Kleser truly feared for his safety during a surprise attempted sexual assault and physical attack, as he testified, but because Kleser was just angry at Adams over money.

Kleser's attorney, Samuel Benedict, told jurors that when children's parents can't or won't protect them, chldren "have to do what they can to survive."

He reminded the jury about an expert's testimony about how a 15-year-old's brain hasn't fully developed in areas that control impulse and reaction to stress and danger.

"What Corey did that night was reasonable," Benedict said. "The danger was real. He didn't have time to think about escape. It was a time for reacting."

Kleser is charged with first degree intentional homicide. The jury could find him guilty of second degree intentional, first degree reckless or second degree reckless homicide instead, or acquit him of any charges if they accept his self-defense argument.

EARLIER POST

Corey Kleser tried to tell a jury Friday how, when he was 15, he wound up killing a man with dozens of hammer blows and scissor stabs.

Now 21, Kleser calmly described his confusion and fear after a surprise sexual attack by Ronald O. Adams, a 57-year-old man for whom he said he had modeled nude for money -- and without any touching or even talk of sex -- in the past.

Early on Oct. 29, 2006, Adams pressed him to "try something different," and jumped on Kleser's back when he kept saying no, Kleser said.

He said Adams wrestled him and was choking him over a desk when Kleser grabbed a nearby hammer and began striking Adams. He said when Adams finally went down, he also fell to the floor to pull up his own jeans, but thought he saw Adams moving for the hammer. That's when Kleser said he grabbed scissors that were on the floor of Adams' bedroom, and stabbed him repeatedly.

He followed up with an explanation of how his friends and family didn't seem to believe him when he told them later that morning that he might have killed someone, that they didn't ask any questions despite the blood on his shirt.

If the testimony helped his self-defense, the theory then took some hard shots during Assistant District Attorney Kevin Shomin's cross-examination.

He suggested Kleser was a cold-blooded killer who thought he could rob Adams, who others described as a frail crackhead, not someone who could easily overpower Kleser just because of their age difference.

Shomin pointed out the many variations in Kleser's account to detectives in 2006, and how his testimony Friday added more new details. He asked how Kleser's jeans had so much blood on the thigh if they were in fact bunched around his ankles during the attack.

He asked Kleser why he washed off the hammer and scissors after the attacks, and returned to Adams' bedroom to look for money if he had been so afraid of him and what had just happened.

Kleser said he took the weapons because he thought it was safer than leaving them near Adams. He said they just got rinsed coincidentally when he washed his hands. He said by the time he went looking for cab fare, he was finally pretty sure Adams was no longer a threat.

He denied taking Adams' prescription pills, the bottles for which were later found in Kleser's father's car, saying that Adams had given them to him during an earlier meeting, and said he could take them to get high.

Shomin also displayed a photo of the bloody crime scene that included a clean piece of paper near Adams' body. On it was written the word "Surrendered."

"You didn't write this and throw it down next to him?" Shomin asked.

Kleser said he had not, but admitted it was a very unusual thing to find there.

His apartment manager discovered Adams' body in his unit five days after he was killed. ..Source.. by Bruce Vielmetti of the Journal Sentinel

Trial date still not set in murder mystery

See: Best description of original incident. With that said, if you wish to read the entire case it is below, but read the highlights to see how it ended (way down).

11-28-1995 Georgia:

CARNESVILLE - More than a year after the Georgia Supreme Court overturned his conviction, a trial date has still not been set for a Franklin County man whose trip through the court system has taken more improbable twists than an Agatha Christie murder mystery.

Sterling Barber, who will turn 20 on Sept. 6, was convicted by a Franklin County jury in 1996 on felony murder, aggravated assault, involuntary manslaughter, armed robbery and motor vehicle theft charges in the Nov. 28, 1995, slaying of convicted child molester Gerald Wyatt.

Barber admitted to stabbing the Madison County hairdresser with a large knife Barber carried, but said he did it in self-defense. Wyatt posed as a private detective, tricked Barber into going with him to a secluded Franklin County road and tried to rape him, Barber testified in his trial.

Barber's lawyer at the time brought five men who were prepared to tell the jury that Wyatt had tried to molest them when they were boys, but the trial judge, William F. Grant, allowed only two to testify.

On June 30, 1997, the Supreme Court reversed the conviction, ruling that Grant should have allowed all five men to testify.

But more than a year later, Barber remains in the Franklin County Jail in lieu of $140,000 bond. He has a new new lawyer, the state has a new prosector - the second one appointed to prosecute Barber - and even the judge in the case is new. The upshot is that the case has not been scheduled for trial, and hearing dates have not been set for several motions filed last October by Barber's new lawyer, Ed Tolley of Athens.

Tolley was Barber's original defense attorney, but had to drop the case when he was hired to prepare the University of Georgia's defense in an NCAA investigation of the UGA football program.

The daisy chain of personnel moves began in October 1996, when Tolley took over Barber's defense from Northern Circuit Public Defender Bob Lavender, who was elected district attorney. Lavender, who defended Barber in his trial, replaced Lindsay Tice. Tice had resigned to assume the seat of Grant, who retired as the Northern District's chief Superior Court judge after 1996.

When the Supreme Court overturned the convictions, Lavender disqualified himself from prosecuting because he had been Barber's defense attorney.

The case was reassigned to George Bryant, the Northern Circuit's new chief judge, and Bryant appointed Danielsville lawyer Lane Fitzpatrick to prosecute Barber. But Fitzpatrick resigned in February after Tolley filed court motions asking to have Fitzpatrick disqualified, arguing that Fitzpatrick had conflicts of interest.

Fitzpatrick once sued Wyatt in a civil case on behalf of an elderly woman swindled by Wyatt, Tolley said. Fitzpatrick also had a conflict because his law partner, Tom Camp, represented the Franklin County Department of Family and Children Services when Barber was in the agency's custody, Tolley argued.

On Feb. 24, Bryant asked the office of State Attorney General Thurburt Baker to take over prosecuting the case, but so far there has been no movement.

"We've had folks working on this for some time now. We're prepared to try it, and plan to try it," said Daryl Robinson, deputy counsel to Baker.

But so far, "We have no inkling when the trial might be," he said.

Before there can be a trial, Bryant will have to schedule hearings on Tolley's motions. Those include a motion to move the trial outside Franklin County, and a motion to throw out search warrants Franklin County authorities obtained to search Barbers' parents' home. Law officers seized Wyatt's watch, his briefcase and wallet when they executed that search warrant.

Tolley was unavailable for comment Monday and Tuesday. ..more.. by Lee Shearer

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Franklin man's tussle with law on '48 Hours'

2-10-1999 Georgia:

CARNESVILLE -- The sad, twisted case of Sterling Barber will get prime-time national exposure Thursday on the news show ''48 Hours,'' airing at 10 p.m. on CBS.

The segment, called ''A Time To Kill,'' has been a year-and-a-half in the making and explores the case of Barber, a Franklin County man still awaiting a re-trial in the Nov. 27, 1995, stabbing death of Madison County businessman Gerald Douglas Wyatt -- family man and church deacon to some, sexual molester and swindler in others' eyes.

The ''48 Hours'' story is distilled from more than 100 hours of interviews with Barber, his family, Wyatt's family and others involved in the case, said Abra Potkin, one of the show's producers.

''It's a very difficult story. There are no winners,'' Potkin said.

On one side, ''there's this kid who's in prison waiting, not knowing what his future holds,'' she said. On the other side, there is the family of the murder victim, who ''are committed to making people remember there was a murder, who want people to remember that he was a husband and a father -- a good father,'' she said.

''It raises some very important questions,'' she said.

Arrested three days after Wyatt bled to death from six stab wounds, Barber admitted from the beginning that he stabbed Wyatt to death with a large knife Barber habitually carried on his belt.

But Barber, then 17, said he acted in self-defense. Wyatt, 48, a hair dresser and used-car dealer, told Barber he was a private detective, offered him money to be his local guide and lured him to a deserted Franklin County road, Barber told investigators. There Wyatt, a convicted child molester, tried to rape him, Barber said in court.

In Barber's first murder trial, in September 1996, Northern Circuit District Attorney Lindsay Tise portrayed Barber as a cold-blooded killer who planned all along to rob Wyatt and steal his 1988 Lincoln Continental.

A Franklin County jury agreed with Tise's version of events. On Oct. 3, 1996, the jury convicted Barber of felony murder, aggravated assault, armed robbery and motor vehicle theft. Barber was shipped from the Franklin County Jail to Hays State Prison to serve a life sentence.

Barber was back in the Franklin County Jail within months, however, after the Georgia Supreme Court ordered a new trial for him.

The court ruled that Superior Court Judge William T. Grant had made a serious mistake by allowing the testimony of only two of five defense witnesses, all prepared to testify that Wyatt had either molested them or tried to when they were teens.

One of the witnesses said Wyatt threatened him with a shotgun, one said Wyatt threatened him with a razor, and the Supreme Court ruled that Grant should have allowed all five to testify.

CBS originally planned to follow Barber's case through his second trial, but the case has dragged on so long that the show decided to go ahead with the broadcast, Potkin said.

In the 26 months since Barber was convicted, a series of twists and turns has caused delay upon delay, and Barber has yet to get his new trial.

A month after the jury convicted Barber, the prosecutor, Tise, was elected to a Northern Circuit Superior Court judgeship, filling the post left open when Grant -- the trial judge -- retired. Barber's lawyer, Bob Lavender, was elected to Tise's post as Northern Circuit district attorney.

Lavender withdrew as Barber's defense counsel, and also had to withdraw from prosecuting the case because he had defended the young man. Athens lawyer Ed Tolley took over the case, filing the appeal that got Barber a new trial. Tolley was actually Barber's first lawyer, but withdrew when the University of Georgia Athletic Association asked him to defend them in an NCAA football recruiting investigation.

The new trial judge, Northern Circuit Chief Judge George Bryant, appointed Danielsville lawyer Lane Fitzpatrick to prosecute the case. Fitzpatrick withdrew in February 1998, however, after Tolley filed court papers accusing Fitzpatrick of a conflict of interest -- Fitzpatrick's law firm represented the Madison County Department of Family and Children Services when Barber was under DFACS supervision.

Days after Fitzpatrick withdrew, Gov. Zell Miller appointed the state Office of the Attorney General to prosecute the case.

In October 1997, four months before Fitzpatrick pulled out, Tolley had filed nearly two dozen motions, including one that asks to move the trial to another jurisdiction because of excessive publicity and another asking the judge to approve money for Barber's defense to hire an investigator and independent experts to evaluate the evidence.

The state filed its responses to Tolley's motions in August.

On Aug. 28, barely a week before Barber turned 20 -- his third birthday behind bars -- Bryant suspended a hearing on whether to reduce Barber's bond because a doctor who had treated Barber was unable to be in court to testify.

The hearing was never completed, and now Bryant himself has withdrawn from the case.

In November, 10th Judicial District Administrative Judge Penn McWhorter appointed Augusta Superior Court Judge Bernard Mulherin to prosecute the case -- the third judge the case has been assigned to.

Three months later, Mulherin as of yet has set no hearing dates. ..Source.. by Lee Shearer, Staff Writer

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sterling Barber free on bail

2-23-1999 Georgia:

Sterling Barber walked out of the Franklin County Jail on Friday evening a free man -- for now -- after two women who had watched a television show about his case agreed to post a $175,000 bond for the Franklin County man.

Barber, now 21, still faces re-trial on murder and other felony charges in the 1995 stabbing death of Madison County businessman Gerald Douglas Wyatt.

Barber's case was featured in the Feb. 11 broadcast of the CBS News show ''48 Hours,'' and more than 100 calls offering financial help flooded in the next day to the home of Judy Barber, Sterling Barber's mother, and Ed Tolley, his Athens lawyer, they said.

The two women who posted Barber's bond -- one from Warner Robins, one from Habersham County -- had seen the TV show, Judy Barber said Monday morning.

The women, who did not know the family before the TV show, asked to remain anonymous, she said.

Barber, now 20, threw a baseball around a little on Saturday morning, but spent much of the weekend visiting family and friends, including a Saturday night welcome home celebration at Ryan's restaurant in Commerce, his mother said.

After watching the movie ''The Man in the Iron Mask'' Sunday evening, Barber went to work Monday morning, laying brick with the same Habersham County brick masonry company that employs Barber's stepfather, Darrell Berthelot, she said.

''It feels like waking up and you're not in the war zone,'' said Judy Barber of her son's return. ''I cherish every second. It's just absolutely wonderful.''

Meanwhile, Barber will continue to wait for developments in his second trial on murder and other charges in the stabbing death of Wyatt, a convicted child molester, on Nov. 27, 1995. Barber was 17 at the time.

In 1996, a Franklin County jury found Barber guilty of felony murder, armed robbery, motor vehicle theft and aggravated assault in the case. The jury reduced another charge -- malice murder -- to voluntary manslaughter.

The Georgia Supreme Court overturned the conviction and Barber's life sentence and ordered a new trial in 1997, however. The court said the trial judge should have allowed the jury to hear more evidence about Wyatt's predilection to molest young boys, including the testimony of several men who said Wyatt had attempted to sexually molest them when they were teen-agers.

Barber has admitted that he stabbed Wyatt to death with a knife Barber carried on his belt. But he said he did it in self-defense after Wyatt tried to rape him on a dark Franklin County dirt road.

Prosecutor Lindsey Tise portrayed Barber as a cold-blooded killer who planned all along to rob Wyatt and steal his 1988 Lincoln Continental.

Barber has been behind bars since his arrest days after the murder in Thomasville, where he fled after the killing.

The case has not moved forward in the court system in the 20 months since the Supreme Court overturned Barber's conviction, however. The trial judge retired, and was replaced by a second judge, who has since been replaced by a third judge, this one from Augusta.

Barber's defense lawyer during the trial, Bob Lavender, was elected Northern Circuit District Attorney to replace Tise one month after the jury's original verdict. Lavender was replaced as defense lawyer by Ed Tolley of Athens, who could not take the case originally when he was hired by the University of Georgia Athletic Department to investigate charges of cheating in football recruiting.

A new prosecutor was also appointed to replace Tise, who is now a judge, but that prosecutor, Lane Fitzpatrick of Madison, withdrew after Tolley filed a motion to have him thrown off the case because of conflict of interest. Former Gov. Zell Miller then appointed the state Office of the Attorney General to prosecute the case. ..Source.. by Lee Shearer, Staff Writer

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Local lawyer says charges should be dropped in murder case

9-15-1999 Georgia:

Murder charges should be dropped against a Franklin County man who stabbed a Madison County businessman to death in 1995, a lawyer for the defendant argued in court papers filed Tuesday.

According to Athens lawyer Ed Tolley, a jury in a previous trial handed down inconsistent verdicts in the case, which Tolley said is a reason to dismiss murder charges against the Franklin County man.

Tolley filed the papers in Franklin County Superior Court Tuesday.

Sterling Barber was convicted in a 1996 trial, but the verdict was thrown out and a new trial ordered by the Georgia Supreme Court in 1997.

In the 1996 trial, a Franklin County jury found Barber guilty of felony murder, armed robbery motor vehicle theft and aggravated assault. The jury reduced another charge -- malice murder -- to voluntary manslaughter.

In the new case against Barber, the state should follow that jury's example and reduce the malice murder charge against Barber to voluntary manslaughter, Tolley argued in Tuesday's court papers.

By reducing the charge against Barber, the 1996 jury found that there was no ''malice'' in his actions -- therefore the malice murder charge should be reduced to voluntary manslaughter, Tolley said.

The 1996 jury's verdicts were inconsistent, however, according to Tolley.

In choosing a voluntary manslaughter conviction, the jury was saying Barber did what he did in response to provocation by Wyatt. But the jury also found Barber guilty of felony murder, or murder committed during the commission of another felony. The underlying felony in Barber's case was armed robbery, because he drove Wyatt's car away and took other items after the slaying.

But according to that felony murder verdict, the jury believed that Barber set out to rob Wyatt -- which is inconsistent with their voluntary manslaughter verdict, Tolley argued.

Barber admitted from the time he was arrested that he stabbed Wyatt to death with a large knife he (Barber) carried on his belt.

But Barber contended he killed Wyatt in self-defense after Wyatt posed as a private detective, asked Barber's help in finding a rural address, then tried to rape Barber on a dark and lonely Franklin County road.

Barber was 17 at the time of the slaying.

The trial judge should have allowed jurors to hear more evidence about Wyatt's history of molesting young boys, the high court ruled when overturning Barber's conviction.

Specifically, the testimony of several north Georgia men who came to court ready to testify that Wyatt had molested them as young boys should have been allowed, the justices ruled.

After more than three years behind bars, Barber has been free on bond since Feb. 19, a week after the CBS News show ''48 Hours'' featured the case. Calls offering financial help flooded in afterward, said Barber's mother and his lawyer.

Barber's case has been in limbo in the court system as more than two years have passed since the high court threw out his conviction.

The trial judge who sentenced Barber to life in prison retired. A second judge was appointed, and that judge asked to be excused from the case. Barber's case is now assigned to an Augusta judge.

Barber's defense lawyer in the trial, Bob Lavender, was subsequently elected Northern Circuit District Attorney, so Lavender had to withdraw as Barber's attorney and was replaced by Tolley.

Tolley intended to take Barber's case from the beginning, he has said, but was unable to do so after being hired to conduct an investigation of alleged cheating in University of Georgia football recruiting.

The man who prosecuted Barber, then-Northern Circuit District Attorney Lindsay Tise, is now a judge and therefore cannot prosecute the case.

Danielsville lawyer Lane Fitzpatrick was appointed to replace Tise, but withdrew after Tolley accused him in court papers of conflict of interest. Former Gov. Zell Miller then appointed the state Office of the Attorney General to prosecute the case. ..Source.. by Lee Shearer, Staff Writer

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Barber pleads guilty to manslaughter

10-20-1999 Georgia:

Franklin County man maintains his innocence in high-profile case

Ending a four-year drama that attracted national attention, 21-year-old Sterling Barber of Franklin County pleaded guilty Tuesday to voluntary manslaughter in the Nov. 27, 1995, stabbing death of Gerald Douglas Wyatt, a Madison County businessman.

Barber entered the plea to avoid the possibility of a life sentence if a jury was to find him guilty of felony murder, according to his lawyer, Ed Tolley of Athens. The plea came as the result of negotiations between Tolley and Stacey Hydrick, the assistant state attorney general prosecuting the case.

Barber was sentenced to five years in prison, to be followed by 12 years on probation, by Senior Judge Bernard J. Mulherin Sr. Mulherin was appointed to hear the Barber case because the first judge to hear the case has retired. The sentence was handed down Tuesday morning in Clarke County Superior Court.

Mulherin gave credit to Barber for the 39 months he has already served in connection with the case, meaning that he will serve only an additional 21 months in confinement.

Barber went to prison following a 1996 trial in which a Franklin County jury found him guilty of felony murder, armed robbery, motor vehicle theft and aggravated assault in Wyatt's death. At that time, Barber was represented by Bob Lavender, who was appointed to the case by the Franklin County Superior Court.

Tolley accepted Barber's case after the convictions and successfully appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court for a new trial. The Supreme Court decision to overturn the convictions was based on its view that the trial judge should have allowed jurors to hear more evidence about Wyatt's history of molesting young boys.

Prosecutors contend that Barber fatally stabbed Wyatt while robbing the Madison County businessman on a dark Franklin County dirt road in 1995.

Barber admitted to stabbing Wyatt with a knife he kept on his belt. He has contended that Wyatt, posing as a private detective, asked for his help in finding a rural address and tried to rape him in the secluded location.

The guilty plea that Barber entered Tuesday is known as an ''Alford plea,'' based on a 1970 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case of North Carolina vs. Alford.

In that case, a man facing the death penalty for a 1963 murder told the trial judge he would plead guilty to second-degree murder, even though he still maintained his innocence, to avoid the death penalty. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison on the second-degree murder charge and later appealed his case to the Supreme Court.

The court maintained that the man was acting within his rights in pleading guilty to a criminal charge while not admitting guilt for the crime.

''To risk the unknown with a possible jail sentence of 14 years to life, we weren't going to bet against the house again,'' Tolley said Tuesday, explaining the plea decision.

''Sterling continues to maintain his innocence in his plea today based on the probability or possibility that a jury could convict him in a trial. We maintain his innocence under the law but bought out of that risk (of a life sentence).''

Although Barber pleaded guilty to the voluntary man slaughter charge, Tolley said Tuesday that Barber continues to claim he is innocent and killed Wyatt in self-defense.

Tolley said Barber's age was a consideration in his recommendation that his client plead guilty.

''He's 21 years old now,'' Tolley said. ''You can start your life over at 2212. It's much harder to start your life over again at 50.''

Later, Tolley said, ''I think he can have a bountiful life after all this. After all of this, Sterling has become very religious, which I believe is sincere.''

Barber's mother, Judy Barber, wept after the sentencing of her son.

The Barber case made the national spotlight on Feb. 11, when it was featured on the CBS News show ''48 Hours.''

After the show, more than 100 telephone calls were logged by Tolley's office and by Judy Barber, offering monetary help in posting a $175,000 bond to free Barber while he was awaiting a retrial. Barber had been free on that bond since Feb. 19.

Tolley said he expects to be second-guessed by many armchair lawyers on the wisdom of a plea bargain in the Barber case.

''This decision (by Barber) was based solely on my advice,'' Tolley said. ''The simple fact is they (people who might second-guess the decision) wouldn't have to do a life sentence if the jury found him (Barber) guilty of murder.''

Hydrick had no comment Tuesday. ..Source.. by Greg Martin, Staff Writer

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Yahoo Answers:

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker
I just registered here for this. It meant that much to me too. I called the Franklin County Sheriff's office, 706-384-2525, to get an answer. He plead guilty to manslaughter, got credit for time served and is still on probation living in Alabama. There. My good deed for the day. Best to ya!

2 years ago

---------------------END of STORY-----------------------