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Convicted killer Barnette learns Tuesday whether he’ll face death
YOUNGSTOWN
The jury that convicted Lorenza Barnette will return to the courthouse next week to recommend whether Barnette should serve life in prison or die by lethal injection.
Barnette, 29, was convicted of aggravated murder with death-penalty specifications, kidnapping and arson, in the suffocation deaths of two men more than two years ago.
Jurors acquitted Barnette of aggravated robbery.
He will return at 9 a.m. Tuesday to the courtroom of Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Testimony will be presented by psychologists, other experts and Barnette’s relatives before jurors make their recommendation to the judge, who will impose the sentence.
If the jury recommends a life sentence with parole eligibility after 25 years or after 30 years or life without parole, the judge cannot impose death.
The jury rendered its verdict Wednesday morning after deliberating for six hours Tuesday and Wednesday after being sequestered overnight in a local hotel. The jurors also will be sequestered in a hotel for any overnight breaks in their deliberations on the penalty.
Barnette, of Lora Avenue, is one of three defendants in the deaths of Jaron L. Roland, 20, of Fairmont Avenue, and his cousin, Darry B. Woods-Burt Jr., 19, of the city’s North Side.
Quiana Bills, who lives in Atlanta and has attended Barnette’s entire trial, which began with opening statements on Oct. 4, wants to see Barnette executed.
“I feel so blessed” and “relieved,” Bills said in response to the verdict. “I feel like they’re finally getting justice,” she said of the victims, who were her first cousins.
“I hope he gets the death penalty. I don’t feel like he deserves to live. I never really used to think this way until it hit close to home,” Bills said of Barnette. She also believes he’s shown no remorse.
The death-penalty specifications Barnette was convicted of say he purposely killed two people while committing the other crimes against them.
Barnette’s co-defendants, Kenneth Moncrief, 26, of Fairgreen Avenue, and Joseph Moreland, 28, of Mahoning County jail, who also face the death penalty, will have jury trials at a later date, also before Judge Sweeney. Bills said she’ll be back to attend those trials. “I’m going to be here every step of the way,” she said.
The victims were found dead in a burning car by the Mahoning River off West Avenue, their heads encased in plastic bags and duct tape on Aug. 11, 2009. The victims had no cash, cellphones or identifications on them.
During the trial, prosecutors showed discount-store surveillance video of Barnette purchasing plastic bags, duct tape and lighter fluid less than 90 minutes before the victims’ bodies were found.
The prosecutors said the victims were beaten, bound, gagged, and smothered at Moncrief’s residence before being driven to the riverbank. Prosecutors also said Barnette’s DNA was found on both victims.
The defendants killed the victims because they accused Woods of being “a snitch,” who reported information to a rival gang.
Rebecca Doherty and Dawn Cantalamessa, the assistant county prosecutors on the case, declined to comment on the verdict because the penalty phase is pending.