GUILTY FL - April Barber, 27, shot to death on beach, St Johns County, 17 Aug 2002

NoraLee

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Is anyone watching the Justin Barber trial on Court TV? I can't find any threads about it.

Barber's attorney reminds me of David Westerfield.
 
NoraLee said:
Is anyone watching the Justin Barber trial on Court TV? I can't find any threads about it.

Barber's attorney reminds me of David Westerfield.
I'm watching it (some). I think that the trial started yesterday. I think that we do need to start a thread in the "Trials" forum at the very least. The trial is supposed to last two weeks.

I personally think the guy is guilty as sin. Of course, my husband says that I always think that the spouse is responsible. I think that this spouse is responsible. I just hope that they find justice for April.

ETA: This guy takes out over $2M in insurance against his wife. He is deep in debt; and he is a serial womanizer. The marriage was on shaky grounds because of his womanizing. Plus, I don't think that they ever lived under the same roof. You can't tell me that this marriage wasn't headed for divorce.

This guy was divorced once before. Perhaps, April told him of her intention to divorce him if things didn't change. He is determined that divorce won't happen to him a second time. He decides that it would be much more profitable to stage her murder.

Justin is a smart guy and just may get away with it. Who knows? Hopefully, the jury will see through it all. Justin also did searches on his computer about gunshot wounds, immigration to Brazil, etc. Sort of reminds me of the "tides" search that Scott Peterson did before dumping Laci's body.
 
nanandjim said:
I'm watching it (some). I think that the trial started yesterday. I think that we do need to start a thread in the "Trials" forum at the very least. The trial is supposed to last two weeks.

I personally think the guy is guilty as sin. Of course, my husband says that I always think that the spouse is responsible. I think that this spouse is responsible. I just hope that they find justice for April.

ETA: This guy takes out over $2M in insurance against his wife. He is deep in debt; and he is a serial womanizer. The marriage was on shaky grounds because of his womanizing. Plus, I don't think that they ever lived under the same roof. You can't tell me that this marriage wasn't headed for divorce.

This guy was divorced once before. Perhaps, April told him of her intention to divorce him if things didn't change. He is determined that divorce won't happen to him a second time. He decides that it would be much more profitable to stage her murder.

Justin is a smart guy and just may get away with it. Who knows? Hopefully, the jury will see through it all. Justin also did searches on his computer about gunshot wounds, immigration to Brazil, etc. Sort of reminds me of the "tides" search that Scott Peterson did before dumping Laci's body.
I just dont understand, how it is possible, in todays world....people are so stupid to research stuff on a computer, and not think a thing of it.....i think my 10 year old knows everything can be "found"-- I just cannot comprehend-its in the news everyday, you dont even need to be a rocket scientist to begin with....:loser:
 
Nanandjim says:

>>Of course, my husband says that I always think that the spouse is responsible.<<

:D
 
nanandjim said:
I think that we do need to start a thread in the "Trials" forum at the very least. The trial is supposed to last two weeks.



Here you go! Post away!!!~!!
 
I'm following this case on CTV. I actually hadn't heard anything about it til I was forced to recuperate from a pulled muscle in front of the television all day Monday. I had no background in the case at all and seriously wanted to believe there was a K car and that the owner of the K car shot Justin and his wife April. I had a hard time believing anyone would shoot themselves 4 times in the chest. After reading background information over at CTV and seeing the search terms Justin used on his computer, I'm now thinking we're looking at another psychopathic womanizer. I do question why the police didn't test his hands for gun shot residue, or did they and that hasn't come out yet? I also think the police should have followed up on the K car theory, if only to show they didn't zero in on Justin blindly. I sense some sloppy police work and hope it doesn't result in a guilty person getting away with murder.
 
There was a segment on CTV today with Ashleigh Banfield where they talked about 27-yr-old women being murdered by their husbands. There were about five of them -- including Laci Peterson and Laurie Hacking. Kinda freaky.
 
This is a snippet taken from one of the CTV's articles:
Barber said he lost consciousness after a bullet struck him. When he awoke, he said, he found he had four bullet wounds, one in his left hand, another just below his right nipple, a third in his right shoulder and a fourth in his left shoulder.

A doctor on Nancy Grace's show tonight said that Justin would not lose consciousness from the wounds he received or the one wound. He said that loss of consciousness occurs from a wound to the head.

Supposedly, Justin's wounds were so minor that all he was given was an antibiotic cream when released from the hospital.
 
i am following this trial. i agree with nanandjim that he did it, but he has an excellent and i mean excellent defense attorney!! he is hammering away at reasonable doubt and holes in the case. the prosecution opening argument was as compelling as a wet noodle. the prosecution actually gave me the impression of being ill-prepared. the defense has played tapes of justin talking to police about the crime, so he will probably not be called to the stand...his story is already before the jury.

the main girlfriend testified yesterday. their affair lasted only a short time and ended with the murder. according to the defense the others were only one night stands.

her body was left in the body bag for something like 48 hours before it was autopsied. the defense is saying this destroyed all the blood evidence.

the computer is the most damning. 6 months before the murder he did the search on gun and chest trauma. the night of the murder he down-loaded a song about "i had to killer her" or something like that. after the murder he searched about moving to brazil.
 
I agree Izzy -- he has an outstanding defense attorney -- until that evidence from his computer comes in, I'd say the guy has raised enough reasonable doubt. The computer evidence is damning though. The evidence of affairs, the evidence of financial difficulties, the evidence of the large life insurance policies to me is not enough evidence to convict the guy. There needs to be more for me. Read the list of computer evidence though and wow, add that on to marital difficulties and financial difficulties and it takes away all reasonable doubt for me. We know all this information though, let's see how much of it the jury ends up knowing.
 
think the prosecution was able to score some points with the blood evidence about the pattern of the blood flow of her head wound. not consistent at all with being dragged as the defendant says, but rather with being shot and dropped right where she was found and bleeding out right there.


also jean casaras of CTV said the jury of mostly people in their 40's and 50's looked "speechless" when the guns and roses song came on "used to love her but now i (want to) kill her" or however the lyrics goes.
 
Here is a link to the things that Justin researched on his computer. There are six pages listing all sorts of research that someone planning a murder would possibly search on the Internet. From these searches, I bet that he was considering drowning her and having her body wash out to sea, so to speak. Note all of the "missing person declared dead" type of searches, among other things. Surely the jury will not think that these searches are what a "normal" person researches just for kicks.

http://www.courttv.com/trials/barber/docs/discoverylist.html?page=1
 
Ubelieavable -- how could someone so "smart" be so dumb. He had to know his computer, even his work computer, would be searched. Or was he so dumb as to think he wouldn't even be a suspect? He obviously doesn't watch any court tv. After this morning's evidence, I'd say the guy will definitely be convicted. The Guns and Roses song downloaded the night his wife is murdered would be totally shocking to me if I was on that jury. (BTW -- I've never heard the song, but I'm afraid of downloading it in case something happens to me and my husband becomes a suspect !!! --just kidding -- but seriously all of your computer searches and downloads become relevant if you're the victim or suspect in a murder)
 
CordovaMom said:
...was he so dumb as to think he wouldn't even be a suspect?...
I think guys like Justin (and Scott Peterson) think that they are smarter than everyone else, especially cops. I'm not sure, but I have read that this guy was a member of Mensa. If that is accurate, I'm sure that he thought that he was way smarter than anyone else. He still thinks that he is going to beat this rap. I guess that we shall see.

I have read that he had over 1600 songs on his computer. I'm sure that his defense attorney will bring up that point. However, he downloaded the Guns and Roses song the night of his wife's murder and then deleted it later that night after her murder. Hmmmm....I guess that this was just a coincidence...

I have also read but don't know if it's true that he refused to pay for his wife's funeral expenses. If so, he is quite a loving guy, isn't he??
 
Nan -- I think the Guns and Roses song was downloaded 6 hours prior to April's murder and not deleted til September 3rd. He was in the hospital for at least a day or two after the murder and wouldn't have been able to delete the song that night from my understanding. Also he downloaded 16 songs the day of April's murders, several of them were Guns and Roses songs. I think the defense wants the jury to believe that those songs were downloaded by April.

Also Rascal Flats "I'm Moving On" was downloaded at 5pm that day.

"Firewoman" was also downloaded and was downloaded after "I'm Moving On".

Rise was done at 5:03pm

You're Crazy was done at 5:11pm

Knocking on Heaven's Door at 5:17pm

November Rain (Guns and Roses)
She loves Me Not was downloaded
So Excited at 5:20pm

Nerd
16 songs downloaded that afternoon.
 
This guy is unbelievable -- when asked in his deposition if he remembered the day of the murder -- he says vaguely -- but he does remember they had sex. If this was the day my spouse was murdered, I'd be able to recall every second of every minute with heart aching detail.
 
CordovaMom said:
This guy is unbelievable -- when asked in his deposition if he remembered the day of the murder -- he says vaguely -- but he does remember they had sex. If this was the day my spouse was murdered, I'd be able to recall every second of every minute with heart aching detail.


i agree with this completely after just watching his depostion on CTV.

and in regards to your question about the funeral. he did NOT pay for the funeral, but it is my understanding the judge deemed this too prejudicial and it will not come before the jury. the woman who he asked to pay, and did, testified yesterday, but she was an emotional wreck, she had been so close to april. i found out after she testified she is actually a judge in oklahoma, but the jury did not know that either.

he has never paid her back for the funeral either.

after watching him on tape i have one thing to say: scott peterson. this guy is guilty, guilty, guilty.
 
izzyB said:
...after watching him on tape i have one thing to say: scott peterson. this guy is guilty, guilty, guilty.
I agree. This guy is disgusting to watch on that videotape. You can tell that he is trying to put on an act. He's trying to stay one step ahead of the attorney who is deposing him. I'm sure that he thinks that he is smarter than the attorney, too.

I notice that he says, "I don't recall" quite a bit. There is another person in history who used this phrase everytime something potentially incriminating was asked of him. It might be where Justin got the idea...
 

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