Another judge may hear Barrett murder case
Posted on Wednesday, November 19, 2008
BENTONVILLE — Roger Dale Barrett is scheduled to be tried for capital murder in March, but there’s a question over which circuit judge will preside over the case.
Barrett is charged with capital murder, a class Y felony. If convicted, he will be sentenced to life in prison because his case is not a death-penalty case.
He is accused of killing Eunice “ Yogi” Bradley.
Bradley, 40, of Healing Springs, died from an Aug. 21, 2000, gunshot wound to the chest from a. 22-caliber gun. Firefighters fighting a brush fire near Highfill found her body.
On Tuesday, Circuit Judge Tom Keith scheduled Barrett’s trial to begin March 23, but Keith is retiring at the end of the year.
Current county attorney Robin Green has been elected to replace Keith on the bench. She will take over Keith’s caseload but will have to recuse herself from Barrett’s case because she was the Benton County Prosecuting Attorney when Barrett was arrested in 2000.
Barrett was found guilty of capital murder in July 2001 and was sentenced to life in prison.
Keith granted Barrett a new trial because Keith believes John Gross, Barrett’s attorney during the trial, did such a poor job of defending Barrett that he was deprived of a fair trial.
Barrett did not testify during the first trial. However, he claimed during an evidentiary hearing seeking a new trial that he accidentally shot Bradley, who died the night before her burned body was found. Barrett testified that he accidentally shot Bradley when the pair were struggling over a gun in his home on Wager Road near Cave Springs.
Barrett also admitted to burning Bradley’s body and throwing the gun into a pond. The gun was never recovered.
The second trial had originally been scheduled to begin Tuesday, but Benton County Prosecutor Van Stone and Barrett’s attorney Joel Huggins requested a continuance because of witnesses’ unavailability and other evidentiary issues.
According to Keith, Stone and Huggins requested that he continue to hear the case because he is familiar with it.
Keith is willing to preside over the case as a special judge.
“ I felt a certain obligation to finish the case and did not want to put it off on another judge, ” Keith said during the hearing.
Keith said he had briefly spoken with Chief Justice Jim Hannah of the Arkansas Supreme Court.
Circuit Judge John Scott, who serves as administrative judge for Benton County circuit judges, said the judge for Barrett’s case will be selected according to the administrative plan when Green recuses herself from the case.
If Green recuses herself, the administrative plan calls for the case to be assigned to Circuit Judge David Clinger. The case would be assigned to incoming Circuit Judge Doug Schrantz if Clinger recuses himself from the case. If Schrantz recuses himself, then the judge will be chosen randomly between Scott and Circuit Judges Xollie Duncan and Jay Finch.
A special judge will be necessary if all of the circuit judges recuse themselves from the case, Scott said.
Also during Tuesday’s hearing, Stone announced he would not seek to introduce as evidence a recording between Bradley’s daughter, Angie Weston, and Barrett.
Stone and Huggins also agreed that Barrett’s testimony during the Rule 37 hearing can only be used for impeachment purposes if Barrett testifies during the trial. Prosecutors can not introduce Barrett’s hearing testimony when they present their case against Barrett to the jury.
Barrett is free on $ 150, 000 bond.
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