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Thread: Steven Barnes - South Carolina

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    Steven Barnes - South Carolina




    Edgefield murder trial continues into weekend


    Attorneys have presented their cases and will start closing arguments on Saturday.

    EDGEFIELD CTY., S.C. -- A death penalty trial will probably go to the jury tomorrow in Edgefield. It's a case that started in Augusta.

    Steven Barnes is already serving a life sentence in Georgia for a 2001 kidnapping. He was running an escort/prostitution ring in Richmond County.

    Now Barnes is on trial for killing 16-year old Samuel Sturrup of Augusta, and testimony is now over.

    Sturrup's remains were found in Edgefield County nine years ago this month. Prosecutors said Barnes and others kidnapped him, beat him and shot him, then dumped his body.

    Several others are serving Georgia prison sentences too. Five of them face murder charges. Only Barnes is facing the death penalty.

    http://www.wrdw.com/crimeteam12/head...107560728.html

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    Barnes death penalty trial in sentencing phase

    Steven Barnes was convicted Saturday of masterminding the murder of a 16-year-old Augusta boy nine years ago.

    EDGEFIELD, S.C. -- The sentencing phase of a death penalty trial is underway in Edgefield today.

    Steven Barnes was convicted Saturday of masterminding the murder of a 16-year-old Augusta boy nine years ago. Now the same jury hears more evidence to decide if Barnes should get death or life in prison in the killing of Samuel Sturrup.

    The youth's remains were found in an Edgefield County field in 2001.

    Barnes is already serving life in Georgia for kidnapping.

    http://www.wrdw.com/crimeteam12/head...108186269.html

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    Lockhart trial continues with medical examiner on the stand

    The first person to take the stand in week two of the Courtney Lockhart trial was Dr. John Daniels. Daniels performed the autopsy on 18-year-old Lauren Burk's body.

    26-year-old Lockhart is charged with capital murder during a robbery, attempted rape and kidnapping. The medical examiner performed the autopsy on Burk the day after she was shot and killed.

    He said today that she also had a number of abrasions on her, or "road rash." He said they were similar to second or third degree burns.

    Daniels also said that the way Burk was shot, the bullet entered her left lung, went through her heart and then her right lung and out her shoulder. He said she would not necessarily have died right away.

    If convicted, Lockhart could face the death penalty.

    http://www.wltz.com/news/local/Lockh...108177529.html

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    Steven Barnes sentenced in Edgefield murder trial

    EDGEFIELD COUNTY, S.C. -- Steven Barnes, who was convicted in an Edgefield County murder this past weekend, has been sentenced to death.

    The EdgefieldDaily.com tells News 12 the jury recommended the death penalty. Barnes was convicted of kidnapping, beating and killing 16-year-old Samuel Sturrup.

    Sturrup's remains were found nine years ago this month in an Edgefield County field.

    Barnes is already serving a life sentence in Georgia for kidnapping in 2001. Barnes formerly ran an escort prostitution ring in Augusta.

    Five others have been charged with Sturrup's murder.

    http://www.wrdw.com/crimeteam12/head...108824499.html

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    The sentence of death by electrocution or injection was handed down by the Honorable Judge Knox McMahon with a date of January 16, 2011 for the sentence to be carried out.

    Although this date has been set, appeals by Barnes may take years.

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    Georgia man sentenced to death for 2001 Edgefield murder

    Steven "Big Man" Barnes of Augusta, Ga., was sentenced to death Tuesday for the 2001 kidnap and murder of 16-year-old Samuel Sturrup.

    The earlier murder trial established that Barnes drove the badly beaten Sturrup to a wooded area in Edgefield County and shot him in the back of the head after accusing the Augusta boy of stealing from him.

    Authorities were brought in to investigate after dogs dragged the skull from the woods, four months later.

    The 32-year-old Augusta man was arrested at his heavily fortified home, where police found four teenaged girls held against their will and a cache of weapons.

    During the sentencing hearing, witnesses testified that Barnes had committed many crimes including armed robbery, burglery, kidnapping, terroristic threats, drug dealing, prostitution, beatings and weapons possession.

    "Big Man Barnes truly deserves the death penalty," Lexington County solicitor Donny Myers said in a statement.

    http://www.thestate.com/2010/11/23/1...#ixzz169Isktiw

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    On February 5, 2013, the South Carolina Supreme Court will hear oral argument on Barnes' direct appeal.

    http://www.judicial.state.sc.us/supr...sterChoice.cfm

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    Court reverses death sentence in brutal torture case

    South Carolina’s high court on Wednesday reversed the death sentence of a man convicted in a teen’s 2001 torture and death, ruling that the defendant should have been allowed to represent himself at trial.

    Steven Barnes, 34, has been on death row since his 2010 conviction. Prosecutors said he beat 16-year-old Samuel Sturrup with a pipe after kidnapping him from Augusta, Ga., in September 2001, then stuffed him in a trunk and drove him to South Carolina.

    Authorities have said that Barnes forced Sturrup into the woods, where he ordered four other people to shoot the teen once before Barnes killed him with a shot to the head.

    The killing, which Edgefield County Sheriff Adell Dobey called one of the most cold-blooded in the county’s recent history, was discovered three months later when a dog found a skull with a bullet hole. Barnes — owner of an escort service — was subsequently arrested in his Georgia home, where police say he had imprisoned four teenage girls and forced them to have sex for money.

    In its ruling, the state’s high court said Wednesday that the defendant had asked relevant questions during pre-trial court hearings and demonstrated that he understood the legal process.

    Barnes also told the trial judge that his request was driven by “trust issues” and that he had already thought of several other attorneys he could consult as advisers during the trial.

    “A South Carolina criminal defendant has the constitutional right to represent himself under both the federal and state constitutions,” Justice Costa Pleicones wrote. “A capital defendant, like any other criminal defendant, may waive his right to counsel.”

    Quoting from a trial transcript, in which the judge noted that he felt Barnes’ decision to represent himself would be “unwise,” the high court noted that the judge instead should have relied on legal precedent and his own assessment of Barnes’ ability to make such a decision.

    “The only relevant question is whether the defendant’s waiver is knowing and intelligent, not whether it is wise,” the court wrote.

    Barnes’ appellate attorney did not immediately comment on the ruling, and a spokesman for Attorney General Alan Wilson said the court’s action speaks for itself. In a dissenting opinion, Chief Justice Jean Toal wrote that every consideration must be made to ensure that capital cases are handled fairly.

    “Defendants very clearly have a constitutional right to self-representation, however, this right must bow to the competing concern that ‘death is different,’ and trial courts must do everything legitimately within their power to ensure that these trials are fair and that the proceedings and verdict are especially reliable,” she wrote.

    http://onlineathens.com/breaking-new...l-torture-case
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    South Carolina v. Barnes

    Opinion Date: July 01, 2015

    Court: South Carolina Supreme Court

    Respondent Steven Barnes' first capital conviction and sentence were reversed on appeal because he was denied his constitutional right to represent himself at trial. In that first case, the South Carolina Supreme Court declined to adopt the heightened competency standard for a defendant who seeks to represent himself which is permitted, but not required, by "Indiana v. Edwards," (554 U.S. 164 (2008)). Since the "Edwards" standard had been applied by the circuit judge in this case, the South Carolina Court held it was "constrained to reverse" respondent's conviction and sentence. The State planned to retry respondent, and indicated it would again seek the death penalty. Respondent sought the appointment of counsel to represent him in these new proceedings. At the appointment hearing, the State argued that in seeking representation for the retrial, respondent essentially conceded that his prior conviction was constitutionally obtained. The State contended that in light of this concession, respondent's original conviction and sentence should be reinstated and the Supreme Court should proceed to review the issues raised but not reached in the first appeal. The circuit court denied the State's request. The South Carolina Supreme Court, in review of this case, found that the State relied on appellate decisions that remanded the question of the defendant's waiver of his right to counsel to the trial court for reconsideration. "It is apparent to us that the State now regrets that in respondent's first appeal it chose to argue only that the trial court's adoption and application of the standard announced in Edwards, [. . .], was correct, rather than to ask in the alternative for a remand if the Court were not to adopt Edwards. The State did not seek this alternative relief, we decided the appeal on its merits, and properly returned the remittitur to the circuit court. Respondent is entitled to the new trial, with all its attendant constitutional rights, pursuant to our decision in his first appeal."
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    Man once sentenced to death gets life for killing teen

    EDGEFIELD, S.C. (AP) - A Georgia man once sentenced to death in South Carolina for torturing and ordering the killing a 16-year-old boy will now spend the rest of his life in prison.

    Steven Barnes, 36, was found guilty of murder Friday after an hour of deliberations by an Edgefield County jury, Solicitor Rick Hubbard said.

    Barnes ran a teen prostitution ring in Augusta, Georgia, where clients were robbed after having sex, and 16-year-old Samuel Sturrup was one of several teens who liked to hang out with him, investigators said.

    But in September 2001, Barnes thought Sturrup robbed him. He beat the teen with his fists, a metal pole and a shock absorber, stuffed him in a car trunk and drove toe Edgefield County with several other people, authorities said.

    Barnes forced Sturrup into the woods, where he ordered another teen to shoot the victim in the head. Sturrup's disappearance went unsolved for three months until a dog found a skull with a bullet hole, investigators said.

    Barnes had been sentenced to death, but the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 2013, saying he should have been allowed to represent himself at his death penalty trial. Barnes had defense lawyers at this week's trial, prosecutors said.

    All the others with Barnes the night Sturrup was killed served lengthy prison sentences, either for the sex ring or the beating, authorities said.

    Hubbard said Charlene Thatcher pulled the trigger. She is serving 20 years in prison in Georgia.

    Sturrup's family attended some of the trial and were thankful to see Barnes get a life sentence, Hubbard said in a statement.

    "This is the long awaited answer the Sturrup family has been seeking for 16 years," Hubbard said.

    http://www.wsoctv.com/news/south-car...teen/624712393

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