Justin Barber Murder Case – ST. Augustine, Fla. – A judge denied a motion for a new trial for Justin Barber, who was sentenced to life in prison for killing his wife in April 2002.
Last year, Barber’s new attorney filed for a new trial, making eight arguments that trial attorney Robert Willis provided ineffective counsel, including a conflict of interest part.
Justin Barber Murder Case
The new attorney claims Willis talked Barber out of accepting a plea deal and told him he could win. The motion said Willis Barber did not want to plead because he had represented Barber in a civil case involving a life insurance policy and received about $1 million of the payout.
April Barber Granted Clemency 30 Years After Killing Grandparents
Before Barber’s arrest, April Barber’s family tried to prevent her from receiving $2 million from his life insurance policy, which investigators said fueled the murder.
The judge denied the motion for a new trial on all of the arguments raised. Many were excluded from the hearing. The judge praised Willis for his “effective cross-examination and at times cross-examination of the State’s witnesses” and that “the trial counsel were faithful in their representation. “
The judge found that Barber was convinced he should go to trial and ignored Willis’ advice to drop the civil claim for the life insurance payout because that would only help the state with to develop her case against Barber.
In 2002, Barber was convicted of fatally shooting his wife during a late-night hike in Guana State Park. The young couple had all the ingredients for a romantic beach walk late at night: holding hands, barefoot in the moonlight, the seductive soundtrack of waves lapping on the shore…
Judge Denies Killer’s Request For New Trial
That’s how Justin Barber remembered the evening in 2002 – a special scroll on a beach in northern Florida after an anniversary dinner with his wife of three years, April.
Justin Barber: We took off our shoes and left them at the bottom of the table. Dennis Murphy, Dateline Reporter: Walking hand in hand? Barber: Yes. Murphy: Walking your feet in the water? Barber: Yes.
But on a humid night out of season, walking on a beach on a deserted stretch of sand can make a young couple a little nervous, the crashing waves seem more primitive than calm, too vulnerable to the forces of the night. .
A passenger called 911. Justin was found behind the wheel of his SUV on a coastal highway near the coast. He was distraught and bleeding – he said he and his wife were attacked by an unknown assailant and it got worse.
Drug Ring Slaying Case Ends With Apology, Hefty Sentence — 15 Years Later
While authorities searched the beach for his injured wife, April Barber, 27, her husband, Justin, 30, was taken to a trauma center in nearby Jacksonville.
Seasoned law enforcement officers like Sheriff’s Detective Skip Cole know all too well that Saturday nights can end with gunshots and ruin a good weekend. The phone rang late at night and the claimant asked to go to the emergency room to get a statement from a man who had been shot. To him, it was just another day at the office.
Det. Skip the call: He’s sitting in a hospital bed. It’s straight. He has no shirt. He is aware, he is awake. MURPHY: Can you tell right away that he’s a gunshot victim? Cole: Of course. He had four wounds. One of his left shoulders appeared to be giving out. You shoulder another one like a muscle on his right shoulder. Such was at an angle. Here there was another wound on the right breast that looked like a grazing wound. Then there was another cut in the middle of the left hand, which went out from the back of the hand. MURPHY: Do you think you attempted a robbery here? COLE: That’s what it’s reporting, yes.
Robbery turned deadly? Back on the beach, paramedics were unable to revive Justin’s wife, April. She was found slumped at the foot of the boardwalk, with a single gunshot wound to her left cheek. Justin Barber was released from the hospital a day later.
Police: Hitchhiker Stabs, Kills Man Who Picked Him Up At A Taco Bell
Next week, he returns to the beach with Detective Cole to walk through the story he tells again and again: what happened that terrible night.
Justin said on the beach, he and April kicked off their shoes at the end of the boardwalk and held hands at the water’s edge.
JUSTIN BARBER: We were walking and I was looking down, watching the waves come over my feet, and I felt the tension in April. I looked up and saw a man coming towards us very quickly. It wasn’t too long. MURPHY: Wearing a hat, you think? Yes.MURPHY: Branding a pistol, obviously? Or—JUSTIN BARBER: Yeah.MURPHY: So, was this all happening in slow, nightmare-like motion? JUSTIN BARBER: No, it was happening fast.Det. Cole: [Justin Barber said] The man raised his hand, looked confused, and asked for money.
Justin told Detective Cole that he remembered hearing a gunshot and struggling for a weapon. He died for a while and when he “came” he ran up and down the beach looking for April.
Justin Barber’s Sick Plan To Fool Cops Investigating Wife’s Murder
He tried to drag her 100 meters up the beach, but he felt something wrong with his body – he did not realize that he had been shot. It only got April about a foot off the boardwalk.
Det. Cole: Once he put her on this rail and she fell down, and he couldn’t pick her up, he couldn’t take her any further. So at that time he decided to go and seek help.
For days, police scoured the beach and scrub for clues, using metal detectors and helicopters. Did they find the attacker’s gun? Some of his symptoms? But they stayed away.
The vague details Justin Barber gave investigators about the man he ran into on that dark beach didn’t provide much.
Newark Man Gets 18 Years In Prison For Girlfriend’s 2018 Death
MURPHY: Does it give you a useful description? COLE: The sum of that comment was, “He’s a little taller than me. He’s a little heavier than me. He was wearing a baggy shirt and a ball cap. I didn’t see his face. Limiting, isn’t it? COLE: It wasn’t something I thought would have any good results, that’s for sure. MURPHY: So it’s a tough case? COLE: Yeah. MURPHY: You’ve got one. that comes out of the night, kills someone to hurt someone else, and then goes away?
Call Detective may not have hard evidence, but no patience. Learning what happened on that beach he would surf as a teenager would haunt him for the next four years. Although he did not know it in August 2002.
He tried to understand why a robber would kill and then take nothing…kill a woman and only injure a man.
The detective must take his case back to the Barbers’ home state of Oklahoma to find out who Justin and April are.
Who Is Justin Barber, Did He Kill His Wife And What’s The Truth Behind The Murder Case?
They were country kids, both. Hailing from Hennessy, Oklahoma, population 2,000, April is a beautiful young woman with an easy smile and joy who has covered some really tough years.
Justin, who grew up a few hours away on his family’s 120-acre property, curls up next to little Dustin, who cuts grass and stocks shelves at a local grocery store with his older brother , Charles, who is now a US Navy officer.
Charles Barber: We both grew up in loving families. A big loving family. We lived out of town until now, with no neighbors. And so we became close.
He was an A student, graduated valedictorian of his high school class, attended the University of Oklahoma, tried his hand as a financial analyst, and returned to school to earn a business degree.
Family Mourns Gastonia Barber Killed In Home Invasion
Amber Mitchell, who was a fellow student in the MBA program, remembers thinking that Just liked a lot.
Mitchell: He talked a lot about Christian values and the importance of family. I thought he was a good man. DENNIS MURPHY, REPORTER: So you thought it would be a good catch for a friend. Mitchell: Absolutely. Completely.
In 1998, Amber introduced Justin to her girlfriend April Lott of Hennessy. April was her high school valedictorian, voted all-state and most likely to win.
April’s aunt, Patty Parrish, remembers a beautiful girl who stole everyone’s hearts – a child who was unusually close to Patty’s sister, Nancy.
Update: Man Charged In Carmichael Road Robbery
Patti Parrish, April’s aunt: When April was little, Nancy used to enter her in beauty pageants. She always had white hair. It was something in April. She always had good hair. (Laughs) Nancy would do all these different things. Buy these gorgeous dresses for her.
Patti Parrish: Her father
The real barber justin, barber shop justin tx, justin mertis barber, justin barber, justin barber shop, justin bieber barber, barber box case, justin barber april, barber kit case, justin barber sentence, justin and april barber, justin barber songs
