Attorney Barry Joe Barnette's Legal Cases

Violent crime

State v Michael Barton

Oct 24, 2024

OUTCOME: Plead Guilty to all charges- sentenced to 20 years in prison

On the afternoon of September 16, 2023, a homeowner on Oakridge Court in Wellford heard someone in his wife’s BMW. The homeowner came outside to see Michael Trevor Barton in the vehicle with a dog and ... an assault rifle. With the homeowner at gunpoint, Barton stole the BMW from the residence. The homeowner was able to identify Barton. In their investigation, members of the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office determined that Barton had broken into the home on Oakridge Court a day earlier and stolen items including a spare key to the BMW. Through additional investigations by the Landrum Police Department and the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office, law enforcement determined Barton had committed a series of property-related crimes in and around Wellford, Duncan, Lyman, and Landrum. In September 2024, after disregarding officers’ blue lights and direction to pull over, Barton was pursued by members of the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office and thereafter taken into custody. Weblink: https://wyff4.com/article/car-theft-bmw-spartanburg-husband-wife-south-carolina/62709417

DUI and DWI

State v. Melissa Ann Parker

Sep 23, 2024

OUTCOME: Pled Guilty to 3 counts of Felony DUI (Death)- 25 years plus $25,100 on each counts, GL more $10,000- 10 years , Assault and Battery 1st- 10 years, and Hit and Run minor injuries- 1 year all concurrent

In the early morning hours of August 16, 2021. Melissa Ann Parker drove her vehicle to a gas pump at the Circle K on Asheville Highway. She parked her vehicle and then climbed into another customer’s ... Hummer SUV. Parker stole the Hummer SUV and drove it around the Circle K several times as law enforcement was arriving to the gas station. Parker almost hit a responding Inman Police Department officer who tried to stop her. Parker then drove the Hummer SUV onto Interstate 26 near exit 15 going the wrong direction. While driving the wrong direction on Interstate 26, Parker caused a collision with a Kia sedan driven by Briana Foster. In the sedan with Ms. Foster were twin sisters, Belle and Elle Gaddis, as well as Macy Watts. The four friends from Indiana were driving to the beach in South Carolina. Belle Gaddis, Elle Gaddis, and Briana Foster were killed when Parker drove the Hummer SUV into the Kia sedan. Ms. Watts sustained minor injuries. Following the collision, Parker crawled through the back windshield of the Hummer SUV to exit the stolen vehicle. She left the scene of the collision without notifying law enforcement or emergency services. Working with the South Carolina Highway Patrol, K-9s and officers with the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office responded to the collision to track Parker’s location. Parker was found in a residential area adjacent to I-26; she appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Parker was transported to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center. In their investigation, law enforcement determined Parker had consumed THC gummies and taken Adderall before driving that night. Weblinks: https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/2024/09/24/woman-sentenced-to-25-years-in-prison-after-causing-deadly-i-26-crash/75363238007/ and https://www.wyff4.com/article/woman-sentenced-wrong-south-carolina-crash-teens/62337150

Violent crime

State v. Ta Juan Devon Garrett

Aug 09, 2024

OUTCOME: Pled guilty to Attempted Armed Robbery x 2, Kidapping x 2, PWDVC, Unlawful Carrying, Poss. of Stolen Pistol, RSG x 2, OGBFP x 2- received a twenty (20) year jail sentence

On Sunday, February 20, 2022, shortly after midnight, Tajuan Devon Garrett and a codefendant approached two college students in a parked vehicle on the campus of Wofford College. Garrett was wearing a ... ll black with sunglasses and a ski mask obscuring his face. Armed with a handgun, Garrett got into the vehicle. The college students were separated into the front and back seat of the vehicle; they were held at gunpoint and threatened to keep their heads down. Garrett was in the backseat of the vehicle as the codefendant drove them toFounders Credit Union and then Bank of America on East Main Street in Spartanburg where currency was withdrawn using a bank card belonging to one of the college students. After driving to another location in the city, Garrett and his codefendant took jewelry and other belongings from the college students before walking away from the college students with the keys to the vehicle. Later the same day Garrett sold the college students’ mobile phones using a self-serve kiosk in Westgate Mall. When Garrett was apprehended two weeks later he was in possession of a stolen pistol; the distinctive boots he wore during the robbery and kidnapping were located in his vehicle. Weblink: https://www.foxcarolina.com/2024/08/12/kidnapper-pleads-guilty-abduction-wofford-students/

Violent crime

State v. Rodney Brownlee

Jul 12, 2024

OUTCOME: Pled Guilty to all charges and received a thirty (30) years in jail

The crimes occurred on May 13, 2023, in Spartanburg. Two clerks in different stores on W.O. Ezell Boulevard noticed Brownlee enter their businesses around 8:30 p.m. while acting agitated. Brownlee coe ... rced one store employee to let him use their personal phone to message someone. he then went to Crowne Point Apartments where he got into a verbal altercation with his sister.He pointed a handgun at his sister, with several family members present, before fleeing the apartment. Brownlee proceeded to Dover Road where he shot into a family’s home. The family did not know Brownlee and one member, who was near the door of the home, suffered a gunshot wound to their abdomen.Officers went to respond to the shooting at Dover Road, and additional calls came in regarding a shooting at a nearby Jack In the Box. At the restaurant, Brownlee approached a vehicle in the drive-through line and shot into the vehicle. The driver suffered a gunshot wound to his arm. Brownlee then went to the Bojangles at Dorman Center where he pointed a gun at a woman and forced her from her vehicle. He drove the stolen vehicle to a Spinx gas station on John B. White Sr. Boulevard, where he fired a handgun several times into the ceiling. At 10 p.m., Brownlee approached a vehicle in the parking lot of a seafood restaurant on John B. White Sr. Boulevard. In the vehicle was a mother waiting for her son to leave work.Brownlee ordered the woman, at gunpoint, to exit the vehicle and her son ran to the car to intervene. Brownlee shot at the son, who was not struck. Brownlee then attempted to approach a second vehicle. The woman in the vehicle noticed Brownlee approaching her while armed and drove off but was shot at by Brownlee. Brownlee was arrested by the Spartanburg Co. Sheriff’s Office shortly after, at a Circle K on John B. White Sr. Boulevard. Weblink: https://www.foxcarolina.com/2024/07/12/spartanburg-man-pleads-guilty-attempted-murder-burglary-after-crime-spree-last-year/

DUI and DWI

State v. Jackson James Smith

Jun 25, 2024

OUTCOME: Pled guilty to Felony DUI (Death) and received a 17 year jail sentence with $10,100 fine.

The crime occurred shortly after four o’clock on the morning of September 11, 2021. As officers from Duncan Police Department and Lyman Police Department were stationary in the area of Highway 29 near ... Barnett Road, a white sedan passed by them at a high rate of speed. Jackson James Smith was driving the white sedan. Officers estimated the speed of Mr. Smith’s sedan to be over 120 miles per hour. Officers immediately began a pursuit of Mr. Smith’s vehicle. Before officers were able to get close to Mr. Smith’s vehicle due to its high rate of speed, Mr. Smith changed lanes and struck the rear of a Honda Civic on Highway 29 near Pine Ridge Road. TheHonda was driven by Lizette Soto-Diaz. Officers witnessed a flash of light that resulted from the collision. Officers arrived on-scene shortly thereafter to give assistance to Ms. Soto-Diaz. The fuel tank of Ms. Soto-Diaz’s Honda was ruptured and the trunk was pushed into the vehicle from the force of the collision. Ms. Soto-Diaz was transported to Spartanburg Regional MedicalCenter where she ultimately succumbed to her injuries from the collision. Following the collision, Mr. Smith’s sedan came to a final rest approximately 80 to 100 yards from the roadway. Mr. Smith was transported to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center and was determined to be under the influence. A hospital blood test showed Mr. Smith’s blood alcohol was .184. At the hospital, Mr. Smith admitted weekly drinking and daily marijuana use. He further admitted he had been grounded by his parents and left the residence that night without their permission. Mr. Smith also had THC in his system at the time of the collision. Weblink: https://www.foxcarolina.com/2024/06/25/20-year-old-sentenced-prison-after-pleading-guilty-felony-dui-with-death/

Violent crime

State v. Greogry Frye

Jun 12, 2024

OUTCOME: Found Guilty at Trial of Burglary First Degree- sentenced to Life, CSC 1st Degree- 30 years, and Kidnapping- 30 years

On April 4, 1997, at approximately 4:00 a.m. a young woman was asleep in her residence at Birds Nest Apartments on Bryant Road in Spartanburg. Gregory Howard Frye removed a window screen and then broke ... a window to gain access to her apartment. Frye entered theyoung woman’s apartment. Frye held her on the bed with a pillow over her face and sexually assaulted her; he thereafter left her apartment. During the Spartanburg Regional Medical Center’s sexual assault examination of the young woman, semen was found and sent to SLED for analysis. A DNA profile of the rapist assailant was developed; at that time no one who had previously given a sample during the course of any law enforcement investigations matched the DNA profile of the rapist assailant. The Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office and Spartanburg Police Department worked together with a local librarian who was skilled in the use of genealogy to track family trees. Using different genealogy services and the DNA profile from SLED, the librarian mapped the family tree of the unnamed rapist assailant. A family tree of 2500 people was developed; different branches of the family tree were eliminated based on the degree of relation to the unnamed rapist assailant’sDNA profile. The genealogy work of the librarian eventually pinpointed Frye as a possiblesuspect. Once Frye was identified as a suspect, law enforcement learned Frye had lived at Birds Nest Apartments in 1997 in a building across from the victim’s apartment. A composite sketch created with input from the victim in 1997 was very similar to Frye’s face. At the time of the assault, a neighbor at Birds Nest Apartments had come forward stating that shortly after the assault that morning she saw a man outside her door who matched the composite sketch she had seen on the news. Law enforcement got a search warrant for Frye’s DNA. Frye’s DNA was sent to SLED. Frye’s DNA matched the sample collected during the victim’s sexual assault examination. The match showed that the odds that Frye was the rapist assailant were 7,200,000,000,000,000,000 to 1 Weblink: https://www.foxcarolina.com/2024/06/12/man-convicted-rape-burglary-nearly-3-decades-after-upstate-woman-attacked/ and https://www.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article295361829.html

Violent crime

State v. David Jackson

Feb 22, 2024

OUTCOME: Pled guilty to Attempted Armed Robbery, PWDVC, and Discharging into a Dwelling. Received a 12 year jail sentenced followed by 10 years sus 5 years of probation consecutive to the 12 year sentence

It occurred at the QuikTrip “QT” located at 489 West Main Street in Spartanburg. On August 9, 2022, around 5:45 in the morning officers with the Spartanburg Police Department responded to the QT for a ... “shots fired” call. A short time earlier David Soloman Jackson had stood near the QT’s checkout counter, withdrawn a pistol from his pocket, and fired it in the gas station’s store. Mr. Jackson then went behind the checkout counter. He did not gain access to any drawers; he then departed the gas station’s store and went toward the gas pumps where he dropped the pistol. Mr. Jackson was acting erratically when officers arrived a short time later. Weblink: https://www.foxcarolina.com/2024/02/22/spartanburg-man-sentenced-after-qt-robbery-attempt/

DUI and DWI

State v. Lyndsey Nicole Stanton

Dec 08, 2023

OUTCOME: Pled guilty to Felony DUI (Death), Felony DUI (GBI), and Trafficking Meth 10g to 28 g and received 25 years sus 16 years with 5 years probation plus $10,100 fine total

On the afternoon of Christmas Eve 2021 on Nazareth Road. Officer Crow with the Wellford Police Department was outside the Startex Fire Department speaking with firemen. He saw a 2014 Dodge Durango dri ... ve past the fire department at a speed exceeding the 30 mph limit and almost hitting a roadside pole. The Dodge was driven by Lyndsey NicoleStanton. Officer Crow immediately got into his patrol car, activated his blue lights, and attempted to follow Ms. Stanton’s Dodge. He was unable to catch up to the Dodge due to its high speed. Within a minute of passing the fire department, Ms. Stanton’s Dodge crossed the center line of a two-lane road and struck a 2012 Ford Escape head on. Sara Ann Fernandez was driving the Ford Escape; her young grandchild was also in the Ford. Ms. Fernandez was pronounced deceased at the scene; her grandchild was airlifted to Prisma Health in Greenville. Ms. Stanton was transported to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center and determined to be under the influence. A hospital blood test showed Ms. Stanton’s blood alcohol was .134 and a legal blood test drawn later and tested by SLED showed THC, Xanax, and Klonopin in her system. Thirteen (13) grams of Methamphetamines were also located in Ms. Stanton’s purse inside the Dodge. Weblink: https://www.foxcarolina.com/2023/12/08/spartanburg-woman-sentenced-nearly-2-years-after-deadly-dui-christmas-eve/

Violent crime

State v. James Robert Seibles

Nov 29, 2023

OUTCOME: pled to 2 counts of ABHAN, 2 counts of Common Law Robbery, Receiving Stolen Goods enhanced and received a 12 year jail sentence.

On the afternoon of July 5, 2023, a woman in her sixties was loading groceries into her vehicle near the front door of the Dollar General on Asheville Highway in Spartanburg. James Robert Seibles appro ... ached the woman from behind, grabbed her purse from her shoulder, and draggedher to the ground before stealing her purse. Mr. Seibles then drove off in a Nissan Altima. A witness was able to get partial license plate information. The victim suffered injuries to her hand and hip that later required surgery to place a rod in her leg. On the afternoon of July 8, 2023, officers with the Spartanburg Police Department were called to the parking lot of the Fresh Market on East Main Street for a similar incident. As a woman in her eighties was exiting her vehicle with her purse on her arm, Mr. Seibles approached the woman and grabbed her purse with two hands. Mr. Seibles shoved the woman to the ground as he wrested the purse from her. Witnesses attempted to intervene and prevent Mr. Seibles from leaving the scene. Mr. Seibles fled in a Nissan Altima. The victim was severely injured with wounds to her arms and an injury to her shoulder. Mr. Seibles was taken into custody two days later at the USA Economy Lodge on Asheville Highway after a Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office deputy noticed a vehicle matching the description of the Nissan Altima in the motel’s parking lot. Weblink: https://www.wyff4.com/article/south-carolina-purse-snatching-sentencing/45996452

Violent crime

State v. Marcel Larville Alston

Aug 29, 2023

OUTCOME: sentenced to thirty-five (35) years in prison for Murder as well as a concurrent thirty (30) year prison sentence for Attempted Murder and a concurrent five (5) year prison sentence for Possession of a Weapon During Commission of a Violent Crime

In the early morning hours of April 21, 2022, officers with the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office responded to the home of Audra Rochelle Brown at Southern Pines Apartments. Numerous 911 calls had be ... en received, including one from Ms. Brown herself. When deputies arrived at Ms. Brown’s apartment they found her in the bathroom with multiple stab wounds. Two of the wounds were made to Ms. Brown’s neck. Ms. Brown was transported to the Spartanburg Regional Medical Center where she later succumbed to her injuries. In law enforcement’s investigation it was determined Ms. Brown’s son, Marcel Larville Alston, was staying in his mother’s one-bedroom apartment with her and her boyfriend. Mr. Alston was sleeping in the living room while Ms. Brown and her boyfriend, Jermaine Austin, slept in the bedroom. On the morning of the crimes, Ms. Brown had locked the bedroom door to prevent her son’s entry. Ms. Brown and Mr. Austin were asleep when Mr. Alston broke in the bedroom door. Mr. Alston attacked both of them with a knife; he stabbed his mother multiple times. Mr. Alston also stabbed Mr. Austin several times. Mr. Austin was able to run out of the front door of the apartment and went to several neighbors for help before falling down at the door of a nearby apartment. When deputies arrived at the scene, Mr. Austin identified Mr. Alston as the person who stabbed him and Ms. Brown. Deputies thereafter located Mr. Alston in a field adjacent to a nearby Valero store. When he was located, Mr. Alston had bloody a knife in the pocket of his pants. The DNA of both Ms. Brown and Mr. Austin was found on the knife. Weblink: https://www.wyff4.com/article/sc-man-mother-bedroom-stabbing-death-sentence/44942424

Barry Joe Barnette's Legal Cases (87)

State v Michael Barton

State v. Melissa Ann Parker

State v. Ta Juan Devon Garrett

State v. Rodney Brownlee

State v. Jackson James Smith

State v. Greogry Frye

State v. David Jackson

State v. Lyndsey Nicole Stanton

State v. James Robert Seibles

State v. Marcel Larville Alston