Barnhill gets life for killing wife
By Michelle Marcotte
The Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel
Saturday, October 03, 2009
NACOGDOCHES – Kyle Barnhill received the maximum sentence of life in prison and a $10,000 fine Friday for the March 11 death of his estranged wife, Melissa Barnhill, whom he fatally shot while she cooked dinner for their two daughters.
Barnhill was found guilty Thursday, and the jury debated the punishment phase on Friday. He will become eligible for parole in 30 years.
(ENLARGE)
KYLE BARNHILL
In closing statements before the jury left to deliberate for approximately 45 minutes, defense attorney Bill Agnew pointed out several events in Barnhill’s life that led up to the night he fatally shot his wife — bankruptcy, being kicked out of his home and the loss of time with his daughters.
“Mr. Barnhill was in a very, very, very vulnerable situation,” Agnew told jurors, adding that he was not trying to excuse the crime that had been committed. “… This was an emotional decision, not a logical one.”
Barnhill had been accused of shooting Melissa through the kitchen window of her Kings Row home while their young children were in the house.
District Attorney Nicole LoStracco, in her own closing statements, noted that while all those events may have been true, in each of them, the defense omitted one important fact — Barnhill killed his wife.
She said he had taken away a friend, favorite employee and mother to 3- and 10-year-old little girls, and then he “had the nerve to take the stand and blame his medication, (wife’s divorce) lawyer … to blame everybody but himself.”
LoStracco pointed out to the jury in her closing argument that Barnhill’s true callousness to the well-being of his family, his wife, and his children was told by one of the most important witnesses of the entire trial, his 11-year-old daughter, who took the stand Thursday.
“Her testimony was very important to this case,” LoStracco commented, following the verdict. “She was not only an immediate eyewitness to the death of her mother, but she was also the only person who could tell the jury where she and her sister were in the house when her mother was shot.”
LoStracco said she did not make the decision to call the daughter to testify lightly.
“Obviously, it was a difficult decision as to whether she would testify. We consulted extensively with her personal attorney, her therapist, her aunt, her pastor, and her guardian prior to approaching her about testifying. It was always her final decision whether to take the stand and confront her mother’s killer. I am very proud of her, and I agree with her family and the others looking after her interests that this will start to provide some closure for her and help her deal with this unspeakable tragedy.”
First Assistant District Attorney Lee Westmoreland, who assisted in Barnhill’s prosecution, was struck by the defendant’s attitude and demeanor throughout the entire trial.
“Both Mrs. LoStracco and I were shocked and angered by the defendant getting on the stand and stating that he was angry about our putting his daughter on the stand. In spite of his words to the contrary, the defendant never appeared emotional, and certainly never showed any real remorse for his role in the death of his wife and the mother of his children. This was no act of sudden passion. This was no act of insanity or desperation, no matter what the defendant attempted to tell the jury. This was a deliberate, cold, and calculated act, and the only one the defendant has to blame is the one person he is unwilling to blame — himself.”
One of the things jurors had to consider as part of Barnhill’s sentencing was if the crime resulted from a sudden passion, a cause from an immediate influence. LoStracco noted during her closing statement that the time from when Barnhill purchased the Russian rifle to when he shot his wife was three to four hours. She questioned how he would not have time to reflect on his actions during that time.
Jurors also heard several witness testimonies before going into deliberations on sentencing. Among them were two of Melissa’s coworkers at Nacogdoches Medical Center.
Joan Hill described Melissa as a good nurse whose patients loved her.
“I used to get on to her because she called all her patients ’sweetie,’” Hill said, adding that she would tell her she couldn’t say that, and Melissa would reply, “that’s just the way I am.”
Likewise, Teresa Ferell, who worked in the human resources department, testified Friday that Melissa was someone who had many friends at the hospital.
She said she was amazed at Melissa’s funeral by how many hospital employees from other departments were there. Melissa worked as a recovery nurse.
“They all knew her and knew how friendly and cheerful she was,” Ferell said.
On behalf of his son, Charles Barnhill also testified Friday, saying that Kyle “thought a lot of his children” and he had a normal childhood.
He said Kyle was very close to his children, and if the youngest one had been in court that day, she would have run up into his arms when she saw him.
Holding back tears when he talked about his son and the incident, Charles later noted that he was the last to know that Kyle and Melissa were having problems.
“I thought they had a pretty good marriage,” he said.
Charles said he had a good relationship with Melissa, and she often joked that as his only daughter-in-law, she was his favorite.
He said one afternoon he made a similar comment on how she was his favorite, and he could tell something was wrong, but he didn’t know what.
Barnhill’s fifth-grade teacher, Betty Young, also testified on Friday, stating that she had been in written correspondence with her former student since his arrest.
Young said for many years Barnhill had stopped in at her Sherwood, Ark., home to visit whenever he was in town, but their communication stopped a decade ago. She said she renewed their correspondence when she learned of his arrest, and they sent letters back and forth once week since,
She said the contents of the letters, which she agreed contained something similar to a confession, did not have a influence on her high opinion of Barnhill.
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