Opinion ID: 1934777
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Stranger Kidnapping

Text: Jamie Barone On August 21, 1987, the victim left her place of employment to meet a friend at a mall. She never returned. Fifty-two days later her body was found in a wooded area several miles from the mall. She had died of a fractured skull caused by bludgeoning that had separated her skull from her body. The victim's car was discovered in Barone's possession in another state. Barone had also used several of the victim's credit cards. Police investigation revealed that Barone had been shopping at the mall from which the victim had disappeared. An eyewitness had seen the victim with Barone at the mall. Barone denied any involvement in the abduction, and claimed that someone had given him a ride in the car and then had given him the car and the victim's wallet. The defendant was convicted of knowing and purposeful murder, kidnapping, robbery, unlawful possession of a weapon, and felony murder. At the penalty trial, the jury found aggravating factors c(4)(f), murder to escape detection, and c(4)(g), contemporaneous felony. The jury also found mitigating factors c(5)(c), age, and c(5)(f), the catchall factor. It rejected c(5)(a), extreme mental or emotional disturbance. Because the jury was unable to reach a decision in the weighing process, the trial court sentenced Barone to a life term with a thirty-year parole bar. He also received a thirty-year term with a fifteen-year period of parole ineligibility for kidnapping, consecutive to the murder sentence, and a twenty-year term with a ten-year parole bar for the robbery, consecutive to the kidnapping term. The court merged the felony-murder conviction into the purposeful-and-knowing-murder conviction. Barone, age twenty-six, had been in the Army, where he had earned college credits. He had no significant history of drug abuse but admitted to prior crack use. He was previously convicted of grand larceny, possession of a stolen motorcycle, driving without a license, two burglaries, and auto theft.