Opinion ID: 1205526
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Barker's story

Text: Defendant, Barker, and John Meacham rented a three-bedroom house in Scottsdale, Arizona. Defendant occupied one bedroom with his girlfriend, Diane Weber, and her infant daughter. Barker occupied another bedroom with his then-girlfriend, Monique Rousseau. For several weeks, Defendant and Barker had discussed pulling off a robbery of one of two possible victims known to Defendant. On September 4, 1991, they decided to rob Mark Jones at his home. That evening they drove in Barker's car to a Denny's Restaurant where they called a taxi. The taxi dropped them off near Jones' home. They walked to the house and knocked on the door. When Jones answered, Defendant said his car had broken down and asked if he and Barker could come in to use the telephone. Defendant asked Jones, Do you remember me? I'm from R and D Automotive. Jones had been introduced to Defendant on a prior occasion when Defendant sought counseling about his new business enterprise. Jones invited them in and showed them the telephone. While Barker faked a telephone call, Defendant opened his briefcase and pulled out a gun. The briefcase also contained gloves, plastic tie wraps, handcuffs, and a large veterinary syringe apparently filled with battery acid. After Defendant and Barker put on gloves, Barker handcuffed Jones. Defendant rummaged through the house, took Jones' car keys, and loaded Jones' Lincoln with a television, photocopy machine, cameras, jewelry, and other items. Defendant removed Jones' wallet from his back pocket and took about $200 and credit cards. They also took $1,000 from a desk drawer. Before leaving, Defendant and Barker took Jones to the master bedroom at gunpoint, uncuffing him while he used the bathroom along the way. They asked him whether he was expecting anyone soon, and Jones said no. According to Barker, Defendant offered Jones about two choices in the matter of how we could leave him. One was ... [to] tie him up, ... the other was to introduce a drug into him to make him sleep instead of being tied up. Jones chose to be put to sleep and was laid face down on the bed with his hands bound behind his back. Contrary to his statement to Jones, Defendant apparently believed the injected substance would kill Jones. At his request, Jones' shoes were removed to make him more comfortable. Defendant made several attempts to inject the contents of the syringe into Jones' arm, pushing the needle all the way through a vein. The drug having no effect, Jones pretended to sleep by snoring. Determined to kill Jones, Defendant made a noose out of plastic tie wraps from his briefcase, slipped it over Jones' head, and pulled tightly on its end to strangle Jones. Jones did not struggle but made choking and gagging sounds. Defendant then cut and removed the tie-wrap noose from Jones' neck. Believing Jones was not yet dead, Defendant made another noose like the first one ... popped [it] over the head, and pulled tight with a `zip' sound, explained Barker. The two men then loaded a large television into Jones' other car, a Dodge convertible. While trying to start the Dodge, Barker set off its alarm. Barker jumped into the Lincoln and the two men drove away with Defendant at the wheel. Barker allegedly threw the empty syringe out the window into an oleander hedge [1] as they drove back to Denny's to get Barker's car. They returned to their home, unloaded the goods, putting some into Meacham's bedroom, and removed a compact disk player from the Lincoln's dash. Defendant then drove the Lincoln to the parking lot of an apartment complex while Barker followed in his car. They parked the Lincoln there and returned home. A security guard at the complex saw the men and later identified Defendant in a photo lineup. The next morning, Meacham returned from work to discover in his bedroom items he had not seen before. Defendant, Barker, and Diane were also in the house. Meanwhile, two employees of the golf club that Jones frequented had looked for Jones and found his body about mid-morning that day.