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Man gets 8 years in West Side shooting death
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Bernard Barnes pleaded guilty Monday for his role in a daylong chase across the city last May, the result of an argument over a woman that led to a man being gunned down on a West Side street.
Barnes, 58, pleaded guilty in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to a charge of voluntary manslaughter before Judge Maureen Sweeney and was immediately sentenced to eight years in prison. He got credit for the 18 months he has spent in the county jail since he was arrested shortly after the May, 5, 2016, shooting death of Kenneth Evans, 57, killed with a shotgun blast in the 5000 block of Manhattan Avenue.
Assistant Prosecutor Rob Andrews said Barnes was with a woman who was seeing Evans. When Evans saw the two on May 4, 2016, he chased Barnes all over Youngstown, with Barnes at one point calling 911.
Barnes dropped the woman off at Evans’ home and Evans showed up. The two argued before Barnes shot Evans with a shotgun, Andrews said.
Andrews said he did not believe Barnes could pursue a self-defense claim, but he did have a good argument he could make to a jury that he should be found guilty of a lesser charge of manslaughter.
Andrews added the state’s case was weakened by the absence of the woman, who was the main witness but has since disappeared.
Defense attorney Lou DeFabio said his client acted out of fear for his safety, although DeFabio added that looking back now he may not have made the best choice.
“I’m not sure people always make the correct choices, but it’s easy to look back in hindsight,” DeFabio said. “He felt no one was coming to his aid and he felt he needed to do something before it ended violently.”
The eight-year sentence was agreed upon by the attorneys, and DeFabio asked Judge Sweeney to uphold the recommendation, acknowledging that even though the state’s case was weakened by the disappearance of the witness, his client still accepted responsibility.
Barnes, who has no previous criminal record, apologized and said he was sorry for what happened to Evans.
“I’m sorry for what happened, I really am,” Barnes said. “There is no win-win. I’m still hurting because of that.”