- Jail guard on trial for murder in death of prisoner -
ofr...@hotmail.com
Date: Nov 10 2000 23:53:49 EST
From: "ofr...@hotmail.com" <ofr...@hotmail.com>
Subject:
- Jail guard on trial for murder in death of prisoner -
Barnes says he tried to save inmate
Ex-jail guard denies stomping Reynolds' head By KIM WESSEL,
The Courier-Journal
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Former Jefferson County corrections officer
Timothy Barnes told a jury yesterday that he called his wife shortly
after
his struggle with Adrian Reynolds. He told her he thought he'd just
saved
an inmate's life.
Instead, Reynolds died and Barnes is standing trial, accused of
Reynolds'
murder.
Testifying in his own defense, Barnes described how he'd seen Reynolds
with
a sheet tied around his neck shortly before midnight on Jan. 6, 1998.
He said Reynolds had told him: "Nobody likes me. I'm going to hang
myself."
"That scared me," Barnes said, testifying on the 12th day of his trial,
which is expected to end today. "I had to do something about it."
He said he went into Reynolds' cell to get the sheet, and a struggle
ensued, ultimately involving at least five officers and ending in the
hallway outside the cell.
Although he admitted putting his foot on Reynolds' head, Barnes said he
did
so to try to keep him from biting another officer, which he'd seen him
try
to do.
Barnes, who spoke very softly through much of his testimony and showed
no
emotion, denied stomping on Reynolds' head -- which at least three
inmates
have testified he did.
He stood up from the witness stand and demonstrated how he held onto a
cell
door, with one foot raised slightly, trying to keep his balance. He
said
he
tried to keep pressure on Reynolds' head, even though Reynolds was
still
trying to move it.
WHEN QUESTIONED by Joe Gutmann, the prosecutor in the case, Barnes
acknowledged that no one suggested he put his foot on Reynolds' head.
But, Barnes said: "The man was bleeding, and the nurses weren't able to
take care of him . . . I had to try to help."
Barnes' attorney, Bart Adams, opened and closed his case yesterday with
the
testimony of three witnesses, including a neuropathologist who disputed
the
cause of Reynolds' death, believing it to be a neck injury and not a
head
injury.
Barnes, 32, was the only one of the corrections officers to be indicted
by
a grand jury. If convicted of murder, he faces 20 years to life in
prison.
His trial was moved to Lexington because of pretrial publicity in
Louisville.
Attorneys will make their closing arguments today, and the jury will
begin
deliberating.
Also yesterday, Jefferson Circuit Judge Ann O'Malley Shake, who is
presiding over the trial, excused two of the 15 Fayette County jurors
--
one because of a family emergency, the other for health reasons.
The jury, which still has one alternate, is now made up of 11 whites
and
two blacks, nine women and four men.
The jurors have heard from a total of 47 witnesses. They've watched a
videotape of the scene, taken at the very end of the struggle.
And they've seen both Gutmann and Adams get down on the floor, trying
to
demonstrate the position Reynolds was in -- and the way Barnes' foot
landed
on Reynolds' head -- during the struggle.
Barnes testified that, although Reynolds calmed down at times, he kept
resisting the officers.
"I'd never seen nobody fight like that before," he said.
He said that when he put his foot on Reynolds' head, he was careful not
to
touch the stitches on the inmate's face, where Reynolds had been
injured
during his arrest. He said he adjusted his foot once to get off
Reynolds' ear.
On cross-examination, Barnes said he never saw any other officer hit or
kick Reynolds, and he never saw Reynolds strike anyone.
Gutmann noted that Barnes initially neglected to tell police he had put
his
foot on Reynolds' head -- and he did not mention it in a report he was
required to fill out. Gutmann questioned whether Barnes omitted that
because he knew he shouldn't have done what he did.
Barnes said the reason was because he hadn't thought the action was
significant.
GUTMANN ASKED him if he couldn't have just entered the cell and taken
the
sheet away, then watched Reynolds from outside the cell and called for
medical help.
Barnes acknowledged that he could have.
The neuropathologist who testified yesterday for the defense was Dr.
Greg
Balko, of the University of Cincinnati. He disagreed with Kentucky's
chief
medical examiner, Dr. Tracey Corey Handy, and two other
neuropathologists
on the cause of Reynolds' death.
Balko testified that in his opinion Reynolds did not die of a closed
head
injury, as Handy determined from an autopsy.
Instead, he said Reynolds died of respiratory arrest caused by a spinal
cord injury. Balko, who was asked by Adams to review the case, said
such
an
injury would require severe force applied to the front of Reynolds'
head,
causing it to snap back rapidly.
He said that would have caused bleeding in the upper cervical spine
area,
paralyzing the muscles that control breathing.
At least three inmates have testified that they saw another officer,
Jeffrey McClellan, hit Reynolds in the forehead. McClellan has
testified
that, after Reynolds bit him, he pushed his head back, but not hard.
On cross examination, Balko acknowledged he had been paid a $2,000
retainer
and is getting paid $300 an hour for his time.
Both Handy and Dr. Joe Parker, who assisted Handy in determining a
cause
of
death, testified after Balko yesterday, reiterating their opinion that
Reynolds died of a severe head injury. They said the blood in the
spinal
cord area wasn't significant.
--
- Outlaw Frog Raper -
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