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Nancy Grace
Nancy Grace Mysteries: The Murder of April Barber
Aired December 26, 2013 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: Tonight, a beautiful bride`s late night stroll on the beach with her husband turns deadly. What happened the night April Barber was murdered?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUSTIN BARBER, CHARGED WITH MURDER: I remember saying...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a videotaped deposition of Justin Barber. It was taken in October as part of a civil suit involving his wife`s $2 million life insurance policy and who gets the money, but it`s also evidence for the criminal case against Barber, who`s now charged with the murder of his wife, April.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: I recall when I first heard about the death of Justin Barber`s wife. She was only 27 -- April, April Stacy Barber. The two were walking along the beach in Ponte Vedra, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, when he, the sole survivor of the attack, says that a loud and angry man ran up to them on the beach. Nobody else saw the loud and angry man, but this loud and angry man runs up to them and opens fire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Barber said the pair was attacked on the beach near Guana Lake in St. Johns County by a gunman who shot him and his wife.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Now, the wife -- just beautiful -- April Stacy Barber, was shot to death, and amazingly, Justin Barber lives. Now, he was also shot, but take a listen to where he was shot. Now, remember, he`s right-handed. He was shot in the left hand. He was shot on the edge of the shoulder, left shoulder. He was shot on the right side of the collarbone. His right hand and most of the right side of his body was not shot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you recognize this individual`s voice if you heard it again?
BARBER: I don`t know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you recognize his face, if you heard it again?
BARBER: If I saw his face, would I recognize it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Uh-huh.
BARBER: Probably so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: So his story is that then the man, I guess, just runs away after attacking them. He doesn`t know the man. There`s no motive for the attack. There`s no connection between him, his wife and this loud and angry man. Nobody can ever find the man. Nobody fits that description.
He says he then drags his wife through the sand across the beach -- nobody sees this happening on a public beach -- up to the boardwalk, and that he -- he walks. He says he walks for a very long time until he can flag down someone and get help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell me about his face. What do you remember?
BARBER: There wasn`t anything distinctive about his face.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But police and prosecutors say there was no gunman. They say all of the evidence points to Barber himself. We went through that evidence today to see what prosecutors are planning to present. In it, we did find a statement from one of April Barber`s ex- boyfriends, who said April was in Oklahoma a week before her death and said she wanted to leave Justin, but he would never give her a divorce.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the videotaped deposition, Justin Barber admitted to having an affair. Listen to this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you were specifically asked if you had had sexual relationships with anybody else close in time to her death and prior to her death. Did you lie to them?
BARBER: Yes, I did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did you lie to them?
BARBER: I was embarrassed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Barber also talked about owning a gun, which he said was stolen two months before the murder. He was also questioned about checking into moving to a foreign country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you ever done any research on an Internet site to determine the circumstances of living in Brazil?
BARBER: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When was that, that you did that?
BARBER: Any time over the past four or five years, I`d say.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And why would you do that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My company has business in Brazil.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Now, the state`s portrayal of the facts is very, very different. They claim that Barber had a loud and angry argument not with an unknown male, but with his wife, that the two argued, and he dragged her out into the water and tried to drown her, and had her nearly unconscious, but then dragged her body about 300 feet, and then shot her in a location where he couldn`t be seen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you remember about that beach?
BARBER: The sound of the waves, the wind, the smell of the salt water. My memories of what happened there are clouded. Of course, I remember -- oh! I remember what happened to us. Oh! It was a very, very scary time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When did it become scary?
BARBER: When we approached. It happened very quickly. It was a bit confusing. I didn`t know -- didn`t know what this person wanted, at first. I didn`t know what to do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What happened?
BARBER: Things got out of control very quickly and -- he started shooting. And we fought -- we fought for the gun, and that`s, you know -- it was a struggle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: As it would happen, coincidentally, the state uncovers a $2.1 million life insurance policy on April.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The question that everybody wants to know is, why did you leave her on the beach?
BARBER: I don`t -- I don`t know why. I wasn`t thinking clearly. I tried to reconstruct a thought process for that time, and I can`t. I mean, it`s -- it`s -- I don`t think that I can go back and tell you why I did certain things. I was reacting to the situation.
The distance that we covered from the water`s edge to that crosswalk was a long way. It was a very difficult journey. I thought that I couldn`t go any farther with her. I knew that if I didn`t get help soon, that if she wasn`t dead already, that she would be soon.
And I was worried for myself at that time, too. I knew that I was hurt, and I didn`t know how bad. And when I tried to get her over my shoulder that one last time and through that crosswalk, and I couldn`t get her up and I dropped her -- I think it was the sound of her body hitting the ground that -- that snapped -- that made me snap out of that and I had to do something else.
So I just left. I didn`t even stop to get my shoes. I just immediately started running to the -- to the highway.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We also find out the state uncovers at least five sex affairs that Justin Barber has during his three-year marriage. He was only married three years. That`s 36 months -- 36 months divided by 5 -- he would have a new mistress every six or seven months during his relationship, his marriage to his wife.
So between the money and all the women, motive for murder. And then the icing on the cake is the fact that we learn Justin Barber had suffered $58,000 in stock losses. He liked to gamble in the stock market.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Justin Barber faces troubling questions after he miraculously survives the attack on his wife. Could Justin Barber actually be behind his own wife`s murder?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: A medical examiner for the state says that the blood flow, a trickle of blood beneath April`s nose was proof that Justin Barber`s story is a lie. His story is the loud and angry unknown man confronts them near the water on the beach, that the shooting goes down there, and that he drags her all the way to the boardwalk.
However, the medical examiner says she had to be shot almost exactly where her body was found because of the way the blood had trickled out of her nose. If she had been shot near the water and then dragged, the blood would not have gone in the one direction. It would have indicated movement of her being dragged, her head being this way and that way and this way -- but it didn`t. All the blood was going the same direction.
And that indicated and could be proved by the medical examiner that she was killed exactly where she was found. She was not dragged up from the water. Also, she was soaking wet. Not only that, contusions, scrapes, bruises were found around her head and shoulders. The medical examiner says this is consistent with pressure being applied to her.
Now, it could be argued by the defense that contusions, bruises along the shoulders were from him carrying her. But how? How would the bruises be here and not under the armpits? And what about the bruises and contusions to her head? How could that be consistent with his story that she was shot and then dragged, he dragged her to the boardwalk, and went and got help?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you woke up on the morning of August 17, 2002, who were you?
BARBER: I was a young man with the world at my fingertips. We went down to the beach at Guana Park.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did you go there?
BARBER: We had been there a few times before. It was a place that we would go to be alone on the beach. He was Caucasian. He had a hat on, a dark hat with a (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How big was he?
BARBER: In relation to me, slightly taller and heavier, 200 pounds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think it was robbery?
BARBER: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you hear anyone say, Give me your money?
BARBER: He was yelling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yelling what?
BARBER: I don`t know exactly. He was yelling, I assume, that he wanted money.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you see a gun?
BARBER: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you see him shoot April?
BARBER: I did not see him shoot April, no.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he shoot you?
BARBER: I know that he did. Yes. Have you ever been kicked by a horse?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
BARBER: I have. And I felt like I`d been kicked by a horse in several places. It was painful. It was painful. And I was deeply ashamed that I had abandoned her on that beach!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did April`s family suspect you right away?
BARBER: I believe now that they did, at least very, very quickly. And now I`ve learned that they voiced their accusations to the police immediately.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you kill your wife?
BARBER: No, sir, I did not kill my wife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you shoot yourself four times to cover up the motive (ph)?
BARBER: No, that`s ridiculous. No, I did not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you love April?
BARBER: I did. I still do. If that jury thinks I killed April, then they should execute me! I would never ask for mercy for the person who killed her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why not?
BARBER: Because they don`t deserve it. And if that jury believes that I`m that person -- then they should send me to death row.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: That was from CBS News. In an exclusive one-on-one interview, he recalls the night his bride was murdered. You`ll never guess what he says happened.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was August of 2002 April Barber was found shot to death on Ponte Vedra Beach. Justin Barber was also wounded, and told police he took off from the scene to look for help.
BARBER: If I saw his face, would I recognize it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Uh-huh.
BARBER: Probably so.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Barber contended then and during this 2003 deposition for a civil case involving April`s life insurance that a mysterious gunman confronted the couple near Guana River State Park. Later, Justin admitted have be an affair up until the time of April`s murder, another issue raised during that deposition.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think people really want to know, you know, could Justin Barber really have staged this whole event, killed his wife and shot himself four times to make it look good. It just seems outrageous. And is this a person who really would do this? What`s at the bottom of this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a trial that involves sex, money and a husband who allegedly shot his wife and himself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Barber`s statement that he was accosted for robbery purposes by a loud and angry man didn`t make sense. On his wife`s body -- she was dripping in jewelry, earrings, a watch, the wedding band the engagement ring, necklaces, everything. None of that was taken.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just don`t see how anybody could accept the fact that he left his wife on the beach and was looking for help and would drive that far away to get it. It`s inconceivable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s odd.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s inconceivable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You drove 9.6 miles. Why did you drive so far?
BARBER: I don`t know. I don`t know how far it was. I knew that we came from that direction and that`s where town was. And I knew that if I drove fast enough back into Jacksonville Beach that I would find help. And I drove as fast as I could until I could find somebody that would help me. But that wasn`t the first thing I did. I tried to flag cars down on the highway, and they wouldn`t stop! Three cars, and they didn`t stop to help me!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was said in the trial by one of the detectives that when you were asked, why didn`t you stop at one of the homes, you said, I didn`t want to wake up an old man. Explain that statement.
BARBER: If that`s not a complete fabrication, then it is such a distortion of my comments that -- it`s just simply not true. It is simply not true. Much like you just asked me what I was thinking when I made these decisions to go back to town, Detective Cole (ph) asked me those same questions. And he wanted me to justify that behavior to him, and I really couldn`t. I told him the same thing I told you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He said after he was shot, he falls unconscious, wakes up, finds his wife floating in the ocean. He says he gets up and grabs her and carries her about 100 yards up to the boardwalk, can`t carry her anymore, needs to find help.
So he says he jumps in his car and drives 10 miles north on Florida`s A-1A. After driving 10 miles, he says he flags down a car to get help. And then help arrives, and they find his wife dead on the beach.
BARBER: It wasn`t a conscious thought process. It was me in shock reacting to the situation. And he wanted to know about all these houses that he says I passed and why I didn`t -- why didn`t I stop? I mean, the hindsight justification would be that these are very expensive beach homes. Do people even live there full-time? Are they vacation homes? Can I take the chance of picking this house, climbing the gate, trying to get help, and not finding any there? How much time does that take?
If it`s an elderly couple, are they even going to help me? Are they going to answer the door in the middle of the night? But that wasn`t the thought going through my head. There were no thoughts going through my head.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So the question is, what really happened here? You know, is this a case where a guy is -- and his wife, is mugged on a beach, you know, in the middle of the night? Or is this a case where a husband has set up the murder of his wife, has shot himself to try to make it look like some third party is responsible for all of it?
BARBER: But looking back on it -- and that`s the conversation that I had with Detective Cole -- I would never say that, that I would -- didn`t want to get some old man out of bed. That is such a ridiculous statement, I can`t even believe he made that on the stand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He comes from which direction?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Experts examining April`s body make a startling find. Does it prove her husband`s telling the truth? When we come back, what secrets does her body reveal?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Now, interesting, both police and the medical examiner believe that Justin Barber`s wounds were self-inflicted, and I`ll tell you why. None of the wounds were near any major organs. And knowing that he is right-handed would explain the wound to the left hand, the wound to the left side of the body, and even with the trajectory path of the wound on the right collarbone, it would explain that, as well -- easily self- inflicted, none of them life-threatening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is there something you wish that the jury could have heard in this trial that they didn`t?
BARBER: Lots of things. I think they deserved to hear from me, and it was my intention to testify. But it was also my decision not to testify. I`m not going to put that decision on anybody else. I was advised not to, and I went along with that -- that advice from my attorneys. I think that they deserved to hear from me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you look at all of this...
BARBER: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... regrets?
BARBER: Concerning?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anything.
BARBER: I have so many regrets. I regret being, you know, the world`s worst husband. I regret -- I regret going to the beach that night. I regret initially lying to the police about my extramarital affairs. I should have been honest from the very beginning. I knew that they knew when they asked the question, or they wouldn`t have asked. But I lied anyway because I just didn`t want to talk about it.
I could -- I could name 100 things that I regret, but I don`t -- I don`t think that it helps me to dwell on -- on that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Barber says that he dragged his wife across the sand, up to the boardwalk. Then he got in his car, leaving her to go seek help. Interesting, on the route that he told police about, where he was seeking help, he passed a gas station, a Walgreen`s and a McDonald`s, all that were open at the hour and the night he says he was seeking help.
Why would he drive at least nine miles past all of these businesses and homes without stopping to use the phone?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why did you cheat on April?
BARBER: I don`t have any justification for that at all, and I`m not even going to try to. I can try to go back and -- and tell you why I -- I -- the reasons for that, not just with Shannon, but there were others before her. But it`s me trying, I guess, to psychoanalyze myself and perhaps my insecurities. Perhaps I was punishing April for choosing to take a job in Thomasville, Georgia, that kept us separated. But I don`t -- I don`t know why, other than it was a terrible, terrible thing to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Now, although everyone, all you legal eagles, know that statistics are not allowed in a criminal case in a court of law, this would have been the first time such a robbery had ever happened on Ponte Vedra Beach, the first and only.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are some legal documents -- didn`t come into the trial, but Patty Parrish (ph) says that you had said that you would pay back the funeral expenses, that you couldn`t pay it, and that you never tried to pay one dime of it back. True or not true?
BARBER: Oh, there`s more to that story. I didn`t have my wallet on me when we met with the funeral home director. And the funeral home director was a personal friend of Patty`s, and he wanted payment at that time and I didn`t have it. My mother offered to pay it, and Patty offered to pay it.
And I told Patty that I would reimburse her. And less than a week after that, from my interviews with the police, it was very obvious that -- that Patty was pursuing me as a suspect with the police. And at that point, I didn`t feel comfortable having conversations with her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So that early on...
BARBER: Yes. Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was that surprising to you?
BARBER: Yes. It`s one thing for the police to immediately suspect a spouse in a crime like that, but for family members to do it is -- it was upsetting, to say the least.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: To battle Justin Barber`s claim, the state brought on seven experts, including crime reconstructionists. An interesting expert brought on by the state was Jerry Finley (ph). He says Justin Barber`s story is absolutely irreconcilable with the physical evidence.
And he goes on to explain this. Justin Barber insists that he changed positions, changed positions while dragging his wife from the water to the boardwalk across the sand, and I guess meant dragging her under arms, dragging her by the chest, dragging her by the hands.
But if you look at the physical evidence that was found at the boardwalk where her body was found, they say that the blood spatter evidence shows she was shot where she was found. Her head hit the sand, and there it stayed.
If, according to Jerry Finley, her body had been repositioned at least nine times in the process of dragging her from the beach to the boardwalk, there would have been no definitive blood pattern. It would have moved all over. It would have dripped down, it would have dripped to the side, to both sides, maybe even up if her head was hanging back at some point.
Long story short, there was a blood flow from her nose. It went in one direction. It never varied, and there it dried. That is inconsistent with the story that Barber gave.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you want people to know about Justin Barber?
BARBER: That I`m innocent, that I did not kill April. I certainly didn`t shoot myself four times. And I want people to understand that, that although I have been convicted, that I`m going to fight with everything I have left. Until the day the state of Florida executes me, I will fight this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, a shocking discovery. Prosecutors uncover a potential motive in the bride`s murder. Was money and sex with other women to blame?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to read you one of the affidavits that Justin filled out. It was in September, just right after the murder. He says, "April and I were not having any unusual marital problems. I was never abusive to her mentally," and he goes on to say, "or physically. I was not aware of April`s plan to move to Oklahoma, and frankly, I am not convinced that that was the case."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But in the videotaped deposition, Justin Barber admitted to having an affair.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was essentially -- you enjoyed his company, and he was having things that he enjoyed with you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What sort of things did the defendant say about his wife or his marriage?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He said that he loved her, he just couldn`t live with her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: In the mystery surrounding the death of April Barber, her husband, Justin Barber, left a trail, a forensic trail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably the most important piece of forensic evidence were the blood stains on April, the victim. Justin Barber claimed that he had carried his wife from the ocean and had found her floating and carried her up to the boardwalk.
Well, forensic experts say she was shot and ended up right where she was shot, by the boardwalk. She wasn`t shot by the ocean, and it`s the blood stain that proves it. The blood stain has one pattern going down, and experts say if he, in fact, was carrying her, that blood stain would be all over the place. But they say it was consistent with her being shot and dying where her body was found, which contradicted Justin Barber`s story.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You helped law enforcement so much.
BARBER: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every step of the way.
BARBER: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then once it got to your trial, they used all that against you.
BARBER: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you regret doing that?
BARBER: No. It`s the right thing to do. It -- there`s -- there`s nothing else I could have done. I mean, the situation, my conscience demanded that I help the police. I was being advised to get an attorney, to stop talking to the police, but I just couldn`t to that. That`s -- that`s just not the right thing to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: In the months leading up to April`s death, we see on Justin`s computer, Justin Barber`s computer, computer searches for "gunshot wounds," "non-fatal gunshot wounds," "gunshot wounds to the right chest," which coincidentally, he suffered a gunshot wound to the right chest. And this is in the month before he has a gunshot wound to his own right chest.
As I always say, there is no coincidence in criminal law.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are the odds of somebody researching gunshot wound to the right chest getting a gunshot wound to the right chest six months later? Those odds just don`t exist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: If you`re not convinced by those computer searches, he also looked up "Florida divorces," "Florida divorce law" the month before his wife is found dead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you love your wife, April Barber?
BARBER: I did. I still do! I still do!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you miss her?
BARBER: I do. Every day. I wish that I could -- I could trade places with her. I know people say that all the time, but it`s true.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you kill April Barber?
BARBER: I did not kill her! I could not do that!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, prosecutors say, first of all, Justin Barber is a guy who was married but wasn`t acting like a married man. He had at least five affairs, and they were together but separate. He was working in Jacksonville. She was working in Georgia. And they would get together in Florida on weekends, and that`s the time that they would spend together.
But they said that Justin Barber and his wife, April, had a fight the day that she was shot and killed, and they say Justin Barber was motivated not just by getting out of the marriage, but by money. $2.1 million in life insurance was at stake in this case. They say that was a huge motivator for Justin Barber to get out of his marriage and get into a new life because he was in debt for about $58,000 for some bad deals he had made. But the bottom line here was the bottom line, $2.1 million and he would no longer be married. That, they say, was the motive for murder.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the civil deposition...
BARBER: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... you admitted that you had purchased a bulletproof vest. Why did you buy it?
BARBER: I don`t know. It was an impulse buy. I was on eBay, and I think I was looking for underarmour, which is an athletic apparel and up pops the bulletproof vest, which I thought was bizarre. I put a bid on it, and I guess I won the bid and it shows up at my house a week later.
That bulletproof vest was hanging in our closet when the police searched our condo that same night. And then months later, I guess it became an issue, and I turned it over to them through my attorneys. They analyzed the vest and came to the conclusion that it had no relevance whatsoever.
The prosecutor -- the new prosecutors on the case, Chris France (ph), namely, decided that it had no purpose coming into trial. He didn`t even try to bring that evidence into the trial.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... "I Used to Love Her" by Guns `n Roses.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The very afternoon of the evening his wife is murdered, he downloads Guns `n Roses "I Used to Love Her But I Had to Kill Her," according to the state, to psych himself up to murder his wife of just three years. "I Used to Love Her But I Had to Kill Her" -- he downloaded it. He played it over and over the afternoon before his wife is murdered that night.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That song was deleted on September 3rd, 2002. Why is that date significant? Well, first of all, it`s the only song of the songs that were downloaded on that occasion that the analyst can definitively say was deleted. But it was deleted on September 3rd, 2002, one day before the computer was surrendered to law enforcement.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why did you download those songs that night?
BARBER: You`re probably referring to the Guns n` Roses song in particular, or just the entire group of songs?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, the entire group.
BARBER: I was always downloading songs. I think there was nearly 2,000 songs on the computer at home that I downloaded.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why did you delete just that one song?
BARBER: I deleted several songs that day, and I think that the -- or whenever -- whenever the songs were deleted, I don`t even remember what day that was, and I think that their computer expert, the state`s computer expert also identified other songs that I had deleted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: He also downloaded Rascal Flatts (ph) "Movin` On."
Finally, June 26th, a jury hands down a verdict, a verdict of guilty, Justin Barber, guilty in the murder of his wife of just three years, 27- year-old April Barber.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... and to the court that they would impose the death penalty upon Justice (sic) Mertis Barber.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No emotion from Justin Barber as jurors one by one agree with the verdict, recommending a judge sentence him to die for the murder of his wife, April, his family holding onto each other as he`s led away in handcuffs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t understand it. I never will. That`s about all we can say.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Earlier in the day, Barber cried as April`s best friend took the stand.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We all carry an indescribable pain! How is it anyone could choose to murder her?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: April`s aunt, who helped raise her, shared a poem April wrote.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "I cannot believe the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, after you were convicted on that Saturday, you came back in and you had to put your -- give your fingerprints. And your family was waiting, your grandmother, your mother. You looked at them, didn`t you.
BARBER: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Describe that for me.
BARBER: I don`t know how to -- I don`t know how to describe that feeling. I wondered if I would ever see my grandmother and my grandfather alive again. They were a healthy, but you know, they`re getting old. I knew the pain that they were feeling and the shock and the desperation. They`ve gone through a lot the last few years, as has April`s family.
And I just wish that there was some way I could ease their pain, as well as the pain of April`s, but there`s nothing I can do. And that moment in the courtroom -- I just -- I don`t know how to explain it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The jury`s 8-4 vote is only a recommendation. A judge still has the ultimate say as to whether or not Justin Barber should die for the murder of April Barber.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When it came to the sentencing phase, your attorney told the jury that you didn`t want to put your family through that to help save your life. Tell me about that decision and how you arrived at it.
BARBER: I never even considered it. I`m innocent. I would never have my family beg for mercy for me in a crime I didn`t commit. I would never offer mitigating evidence to try to convince a judge that he should spare my life if he believes I`m guilty. I`m not guilty. There`s no middle ground. There`s no, Well, we should have pity on him, if he believes I`m guilty. I can`t imagine asking -- asking for mercy for something I didn`t do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Even if it means you would die.
BARBER: I would rather go to death row than to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The jury votes 8 to 4 to give Barber the death penalty. Because they mistried, they hung on the sentencing, it goes to the judge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: In a shocking twist, the judge overrules the jury`s decision at Justin Barber`s trial. When we come back, find out what happens to the accused killer husband.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Judge Edward Hedgtra (ph), knowing the jury had voted 8 to 4 for the death penalty, gives Justin Barber life in prison. The judge says that because the defense did not put up any mitigating evidence to keep him from the death penalty that the judge could not put much weight in the jury`s vote.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The second option is the jury advises and recommends to the court that it impose a sentence of life of imprisonment upon Justin Mertis Barber without the possibility of parole.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: So while April Barber is six feet under and her family grieves, Justin Barber is behind bars, three meals a day and all the amenities the state of Florida can offer him.
Even now, as Justin Barber sits behind bars at the Central Correctional Institute in Escambia County, Florida, he`s still scheming and plotting. He just filed a motion that his trial should be reversed because of ineffective assistance of counsel. That was denied, but believe me, Justin Barber won`t stop.
END
