1
00:00:22,560 --> 00:00:24,080
<i>I agreed to be adopted.</i>

2
00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:28,400
<i>I had my own room.</i>

3
00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:31,320
<i>I got a summer camp I go to every year.</i>

4
00:00:33,600 --> 00:00:36,080
<i>I mean, I was ecstatic.</i>
<i>I was... I was overjoyed.</i>

5
00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:38,800
<i>I could live. I was doing it right.</i>

6
00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:42,280
<i>You always had fun.</i>

7
00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:45,880
<i>But it came with consequence.</i>

8
00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:21,080
<i>I think I wanted the world</i>
<i>to feel my pain.</i>

9
00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:25,680
I didn't want to exist.
I just wanted to die.

10
00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:27,000
I... No more.

11
00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:42,720
<i>This is a true story.</i>

12
00:01:44,880 --> 00:01:46,280
<i>I'll start it off like that.</i>

13
00:01:47,120 --> 00:01:49,880
<i>I just wanted to rebel.</i>
<i>I wanted to cause chaos.</i>

14
00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:52,640
<i>I looked over at him.</i>
<i>We'll see who kills who, huh?</i>

15
00:01:52,720 --> 00:01:54,040
<i> I made the choice.</i>

16
00:01:54,960 --> 00:01:56,080
<i>I took his life.</i>

17
00:01:56,720 --> 00:01:59,760
<i>It's something</i>
<i>that I never intended to do,</i>

18
00:01:59,840 --> 00:02:01,960
<i>I wish I didn't do.</i>

19
00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:09,000
<i>I knew I was gonna get out</i>
<i>of that car and murder those two men.</i>

20
00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:13,800
<i>As he kneeled in front of me,</i>
<i>all I remember is pulling the trigger.</i>

21
00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:17,600
<i>I'd killed them both.</i>

22
00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:20,240
<i>I had stabbed them to death.</i>

23
00:02:50,720 --> 00:02:54,960
<i>One of the waitresses</i>
<i>from Steak 'n Shake gave me a call saying,</i>

24
00:02:55,040 --> 00:02:58,520
<i>"Your son's father has been here,</i>
<i>sitting in one of our booths,</i>

25
00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:00,280
<i>smoking and just drinking</i>

26
00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:03,480
<i>for, like, over 24 hours."</i>

27
00:03:05,040 --> 00:03:08,520
<i>I immediately went up</i>
<i>to see what was going on,</i>

28
00:03:08,600 --> 00:03:10,120
<i>and I tried to talk to him.</i>

29
00:03:11,200 --> 00:03:12,720
And he looked at me

30
00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:16,200
with the most evil look
I could ever see in my life.

31
00:03:18,760 --> 00:03:22,320
And he was like,
"Get the 'F' out of my face."

32
00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:28,040
I didn't know what to think,
and I kind of just stood there.

33
00:03:29,520 --> 00:03:31,800
And then I just... I just left.

34
00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:13,840
Ready?

35
00:04:14,440 --> 00:04:15,840
My name is David Barnett.

36
00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:18,760
I was originally charged
with two first-degree murders,

37
00:04:18,840 --> 00:04:20,960
and I received the death penalty for both.

38
00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:33,400
I was born in St. Louis City, Missouri.

39
00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:38,880
I don't remember any of the places
where I actually lived.

40
00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:45,800
But the smells and the sounds of St. Louis
are something you just can't forget.

41
00:04:50,480 --> 00:04:53,000
My mother did not want me
when I was born.

42
00:04:55,560 --> 00:04:58,720
Basically, I... I ended up in the care
of Robert Biggerstaff,

43
00:04:58,800 --> 00:04:59,960
my mother's friend.

44
00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:05,360
He was an alcoholic.
He was in and out of jail a lot.

45
00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:16,200
The early years of my childhood
were clouded with being molested,

46
00:05:16,280 --> 00:05:18,080
beaten, having my nose broken.

47
00:05:18,160 --> 00:05:20,800
I was running around
in ragged and dirty clothes.

48
00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:23,480
I was soiled.
Didn't bathe for days at a time.

49
00:05:23,840 --> 00:05:27,760
Sometimes I had to fetch my own food
out of vending machines with hangers.

50
00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:36,440
I was just like a stuffed animal
that sat on the shelf,

51
00:05:36,520 --> 00:05:38,720
and when people wanted me,
they grabbed me.

52
00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:40,200
Other than that,

53
00:05:40,560 --> 00:05:43,520
all the memories I had of my childhood
were I was alone.

54
00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:51,400
I believe
I was about four or five years old

55
00:05:52,040 --> 00:05:54,080
when the Department of Family Services

56
00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:57,120
finally caught up with,
I guess, my existence.

57
00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:01,960
And I still remember that woman
to this day,

58
00:06:02,400 --> 00:06:04,680
but I do not remember any of her features.

59
00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:10,640
And I don't know why my mind clouds that,
but it was the first loving hug...

60
00:06:11,520 --> 00:06:13,480
...that I had in a long time.

61
00:06:16,040 --> 00:06:19,920
The only thing I remember her saying was,
"I'm gonna take you away from this."

62
00:06:22,400 --> 00:06:25,000
I don't know how long I stayed with DFS.

63
00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:29,360
While I was there,
I became attached to a stuffed animal.

64
00:06:29,760 --> 00:06:31,160
I don't know why.

65
00:06:32,280 --> 00:06:33,320
But I... I had it.

66
00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:40,240
Family Services contacted Robert somehow,

67
00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:42,560
and they had instructed me

68
00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:46,320
to be on good behavior
when he came for a visit.

69
00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:50,800
On the visit,
they left us alone in the room,

70
00:06:51,400 --> 00:06:53,600
and he just scooped me up and ran away.

71
00:06:56,080 --> 00:06:59,880
The last memory I have of that place
was dropping that animal in the hallway.

72
00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:16,000
He hid me out for a couple weeks
in the trunk of his car.

73
00:07:17,680 --> 00:07:20,720
It seemed like there were thunderstorms
every day for the entire time.

74
00:07:22,440 --> 00:07:24,560
So I'm cramped in the back
of a dark trunk.

75
00:07:24,960 --> 00:07:27,640
I was scared.
I didn't know what was going on.

76
00:07:28,800 --> 00:07:31,920
I wasn't being bathed.
I wasn't being fed every day.

77
00:07:35,160 --> 00:07:38,760
But a couple weeks later,
uh, DFS caught up with us.

78
00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:43,520
And he was eventually arrested,
and I never saw him again.

79
00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:13,200
I instantly fell in love with that family,
'cause it was a family.

80
00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:19,360
Rita was the first one
I could call "Mother."

81
00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:23,480
I mean, she wasn't my mother,
but I just felt that, if I had a mother,

82
00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:25,480
that's how she would treat me.

83
00:08:25,560 --> 00:08:28,680
And it's like everything they did
was trying to make me better.

84
00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:32,040
I loved them.

85
00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:38,640
And then, uh, one day,

86
00:08:38,720 --> 00:08:41,800
Rita got an opportunity
to go across seas and study.

87
00:08:43,320 --> 00:08:45,880
They broke the news
that I would be leaving them.

88
00:08:45,960 --> 00:08:48,840
They couldn't take me with them
because they were leaving.

89
00:08:48,920 --> 00:08:51,920
The only thing I thought was,
"I did something wrong."

90
00:08:53,320 --> 00:08:55,520
I just figured, like, you know,

91
00:08:55,600 --> 00:08:58,040
being beaten and molested
so far in my life

92
00:08:58,120 --> 00:09:00,040
through the first five or six years...

93
00:09:00,680 --> 00:09:01,680
It stopped.

94
00:09:02,240 --> 00:09:05,960
It's like now they were getting rid of me
'cause I wasn't doing something right.

95
00:09:32,320 --> 00:09:34,080
John was a computer teacher.

96
00:09:35,400 --> 00:09:38,200
He was not, uh, an average man.

97
00:09:38,280 --> 00:09:39,680
He was very intellectual.

98
00:09:41,320 --> 00:09:44,880
I wasn't even taken back by the fact
that there wasn't a woman with him.

99
00:09:44,960 --> 00:09:47,280
I didn't know he wasn't married.
He was single.

100
00:09:47,360 --> 00:09:49,600
He was like a mother and father
all in one.

101
00:09:50,040 --> 00:09:52,280
I couldn't have asked for anything better.

102
00:09:55,960 --> 00:09:57,320
He was a charming man.

103
00:09:58,040 --> 00:09:59,040
He was very caring.

104
00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:03,360
And the one thing I did like is
he didn't touch me.

105
00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:08,200
Almost like he knew,
"Hey, look, this child's damaged.

106
00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:09,960
I don't want to push him away."

107
00:10:11,280 --> 00:10:14,240
I didn't know that then. I see that now.

108
00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:19,920
He took me out to dinner one day
and sat me down.

109
00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:22,960
He's like, "Would you like to be my son?"

110
00:10:24,160 --> 00:10:25,320
I said, "Well, I am."

111
00:10:25,400 --> 00:10:28,200
And he said,
"Would you like to be adopted?"

112
00:10:34,560 --> 00:10:36,960
I mean, I was ecstatic.
I was... I was overjoyed.

113
00:10:37,880 --> 00:10:38,960
So...

114
00:10:40,320 --> 00:10:41,920
I agreed to be adopted.

115
00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:43,800
And we went to court,

116
00:10:43,880 --> 00:10:47,240
and that was actually one
of the happiest memories of my childhood,

117
00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:51,480
the day I was adopted, and I knew
that I had a parental figure forever.

118
00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:02,440
I felt that I was moving
into a better lifestyle with John Barnett

119
00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:03,520
in Webster Groves.

120
00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:08,080
Webster was a middle-class, um, city.

121
00:11:08,680 --> 00:11:12,000
It wasn't poverty style,
like I would have been used to growing up.

122
00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:14,600
Places looked nice.

123
00:11:14,680 --> 00:11:18,160
The city itself was clean,
and the houses were in better condition.

124
00:11:32,120 --> 00:11:35,080
A couple months into being adopted,

125
00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:40,640
I got kind of worried
about who John actually was.

126
00:11:43,720 --> 00:11:48,040
I started getting hit
for not meeting his expectations,

127
00:11:48,120 --> 00:11:51,640
which... His expectations were
already higher than kids my age.

128
00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:55,600
He was forcing me to perform
out of my age group.

129
00:11:58,600 --> 00:12:00,440
John would get physical,

130
00:12:00,520 --> 00:12:05,200
leave marks, break skin, bruises,
welts, whatever it was...

131
00:12:06,240 --> 00:12:10,440
but then his comfort was starting
to cradle me,

132
00:12:10,520 --> 00:12:13,080
and hold me closer,
and start kissing my ears,

133
00:12:13,160 --> 00:12:14,680
and that didn't feel right.

134
00:12:16,200 --> 00:12:19,920
That gradually became every other night
or, you know, once or twice a week

135
00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:21,840
to every other night to every night.

136
00:12:21,920 --> 00:12:24,520
"Hey, come sit on my lap for a while.
Give me a hug."

137
00:12:26,600 --> 00:12:30,160
And I noticed that there was
something going on with his body.

138
00:12:30,720 --> 00:12:33,000
I was only eight years old,
nine years old.

139
00:12:33,680 --> 00:12:35,080
I knew something was wrong.

140
00:12:36,960 --> 00:12:39,200
He touched me inappropriately.

141
00:12:39,720 --> 00:12:42,640
Genitals...
He'd stick his tongue in my ear.

142
00:12:44,840 --> 00:12:48,200
I started to almost, like, black out
when I'd sit on his lap.

143
00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:51,000
Sometimes I wouldn't remember what he did

144
00:12:51,360 --> 00:12:54,280
because I told myself,
if I didn't want to feel,

145
00:12:54,360 --> 00:12:55,440
I had to be numb.

146
00:12:56,320 --> 00:12:58,800
I didn't want to exist.
I just wanted to die.

147
00:12:58,880 --> 00:13:00,080
I... No more.

148
00:13:23,440 --> 00:13:25,160
I instantly liked Eric.

149
00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:27,280
He was charming.

150
00:13:27,840 --> 00:13:28,960
He was real conscious

151
00:13:29,040 --> 00:13:32,120
about these two little buck teeth
he had in the front.

152
00:13:32,200 --> 00:13:34,880
They were kind of twisted.
I was like... I loved him.

153
00:13:34,960 --> 00:13:37,040
He was, he was... He was a bundle of joy.

154
00:13:39,320 --> 00:13:42,280
But then I started seeing
John call Eric out

155
00:13:42,960 --> 00:13:44,920
in the same way it was happening to me.

156
00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:47,880
And I felt defenseless.

157
00:13:47,960 --> 00:13:49,000
I felt like...

158
00:13:49,360 --> 00:13:51,840
...I robbed Eric of his childhood.

159
00:13:56,680 --> 00:13:59,280
I'm the oldest,
and I was supposed to protect them.

160
00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:02,440
But I couldn't.

161
00:14:03,120 --> 00:14:05,400
And at the same time,
I was glad it wasn't me.

162
00:14:06,120 --> 00:14:08,760
I felt bad because I let it be him.

163
00:14:28,440 --> 00:14:31,080
Every other Sunday,
we would gather with his parents,

164
00:14:31,160 --> 00:14:33,360
and we'd have
what they call a family dinner.

165
00:14:36,160 --> 00:14:39,760
I loved Leona as soon as I met her.
She was very warm and welcoming.

166
00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:41,640
She taught me how to cook.

167
00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:46,960
We never told them anything
about what was going on with John.

168
00:14:49,640 --> 00:14:54,440
I was nervous of how Clifford would react,
because he was... he was kind of stern.

169
00:14:56,120 --> 00:14:58,080
Several times, Clifford...

170
00:14:58,160 --> 00:15:00,440
You'd get the upside
of the back of your head,

171
00:15:00,960 --> 00:15:03,320
just like any parent would do to a kid.

172
00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:06,520
Not hard,
but he'd always catch me with that ring.

173
00:15:07,800 --> 00:15:10,280
And he wore the same kind of class ring
John wore.

174
00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:14,160
When he hit me,
it was like John was hitting me again

175
00:15:14,240 --> 00:15:17,360
in the back of the head with the ring,
over and over and over.

176
00:15:18,720 --> 00:15:22,120
So I started to see Clifford as John,
and I couldn't look past that.

177
00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:25,680
When I saw John, I saw Clifford.
When I saw Clifford, I saw John.

178
00:15:29,200 --> 00:15:32,560
But when I saw Leona,
I was like, "Can I give you a hug?"

179
00:15:33,920 --> 00:15:35,840
She was the only love in that family.

180
00:16:02,360 --> 00:16:04,560
I was living with friends here and there,

181
00:16:04,640 --> 00:16:07,440
and I wouldn't tell my friends
exactly what was going on,

182
00:16:07,520 --> 00:16:09,040
but I think they kind of knew.

183
00:16:10,680 --> 00:16:13,800
I was still holding a job,
but I was sleeping everywhere.

184
00:16:15,440 --> 00:16:16,960
Leona kind of caught on.

185
00:16:17,560 --> 00:16:20,360
She asked me how I was doing.
I was like, "Oh, I'm fine."

186
00:16:20,440 --> 00:16:22,360
She said, "How are you really doing?"

187
00:16:23,840 --> 00:16:28,440
And I wanted so much to tell her
about what was going on with John.

188
00:16:28,800 --> 00:16:32,480
I just wanted to look at her and be like,
"You don't know about the abuse.

189
00:16:32,560 --> 00:16:35,360
You don't know about him trying to,
basically, fuck me

190
00:16:35,440 --> 00:16:37,160
when I was nine, ten years old,

191
00:16:37,680 --> 00:16:39,080
uh, laying on top of me..."

192
00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:41,000
I... I wanted to tell her all that.

193
00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:44,600
I was like... Anything that I would say
that was negative towards John,

194
00:16:44,680 --> 00:16:48,840
she would speak up in a supportive way
or a protective measure.

195
00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:53,080
Um... So I felt that,
if I pressed too hard,

196
00:16:53,160 --> 00:16:54,800
I would be rejected instantly.

197
00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:21,040
When they came home, I was asleep.

198
00:17:21,120 --> 00:17:24,120
And when I came to,
we started discussing things.

199
00:17:25,520 --> 00:17:27,800
The last thing I remember was
talking to her,

200
00:17:28,600 --> 00:17:29,800
and I... I...

201
00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:35,440
I've tried to remember
every day since my case what happened,

202
00:17:35,520 --> 00:17:36,960
how did the events go down,

203
00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:39,280
what was said
that triggered what triggered.

204
00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:45,080
She was talking about a conversation
she had with John.

205
00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:48,760
I remember seeing Clifford.

206
00:17:49,720 --> 00:17:51,480
Clifford said something about John.

207
00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:53,200
And...

208
00:17:53,960 --> 00:17:55,880
I went... I don't know where I went.

209
00:17:56,600 --> 00:17:57,600
I went somewhere.

210
00:18:03,680 --> 00:18:06,280
When I finally realized what was going on,

211
00:18:06,360 --> 00:18:08,160
I was standing looking at a wall.

212
00:18:08,520 --> 00:18:10,880
And when I looked down,
Clifford was at my left.

213
00:18:11,600 --> 00:18:13,800
And I didn't have blood on my hands.

214
00:18:13,880 --> 00:18:16,280
So I didn't know
where did all the blood come from.

215
00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:23,160
I didn't know what happ...

216
00:18:23,240 --> 00:18:25,600
I was scared to death.
I didn't know what to do.

217
00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:28,880
And I was like, "Man, what did you do?"

218
00:18:30,160 --> 00:18:33,200
And I'm looking around like,
"Is there anybody else here?"

219
00:18:33,640 --> 00:18:37,360
And I see Leona over there. I step over,
and I see Leona down the hallway.

220
00:18:39,320 --> 00:18:40,320
And I was scared.

221
00:18:42,880 --> 00:18:44,600
I'd killed them both.

222
00:18:45,120 --> 00:18:46,440
I'd stabbed them to death.

223
00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:09,320
The damage that was done to their bodies,
when I saw the reports,

224
00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:13,040
broken ribs, jaw completely disaligned,

225
00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:16,440
dozens of stab wounds
with multiple knives...

226
00:19:17,280 --> 00:19:18,600
I don't know where they came from.

227
00:19:18,680 --> 00:19:21,320
They said they came from the kitchen.
I don't remember getting them.

228
00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:26,320
I went into a state of overkill
or manic rage.

229
00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:28,000
I lost consciousness.

230
00:19:28,600 --> 00:19:31,320
And... I killed two innocent people.

231
00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:14,200
<i>This was home</i>
<i>for eight, nine, ten days.</i>

232
00:20:16,880 --> 00:20:18,000
<i>I sat right here.</i>

233
00:20:18,800 --> 00:20:21,360
<i>Middle row, second seat from the right.</i>

234
00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:25,360
<i>But it brings back a flood of memories.</i>

235
00:20:28,200 --> 00:20:30,080
I see David's face all the time.

236
00:20:31,440 --> 00:20:33,920
David's face never leaves.

237
00:20:39,120 --> 00:20:40,440
My name is Andy Dazey.

238
00:20:40,520 --> 00:20:46,520
I was the jury foreman
on the David Barnett 1997 court case.

239
00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:56,040
You couldn't help but be intimidated
by the severity of the charges

240
00:20:56,120 --> 00:20:57,520
against David Barnett.

241
00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:01,760
I believe there was
somewhere around five knives used,

242
00:21:02,160 --> 00:21:05,800
stab wounds were, uh... were north of 20.

243
00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:10,640
This attack was so violent

244
00:21:11,320 --> 00:21:14,960
that it snapped knife blades
off the handle.

245
00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:19,840
It impaled knives so deeply that,
upon lodging them...

246
00:21:20,080 --> 00:21:22,160
uh, down in the bone structure,

247
00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:27,360
that he had to go back into the kitchen
and retrieve multiple knives.

248
00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:30,600
So each of his grandparents

249
00:21:31,160 --> 00:21:34,160
suffered a very violent, slow,

250
00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:37,400
painful, brutal death.

251
00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:40,840
That weighed heavily

252
00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:44,960
in each of our hearts
with regard to doing the right thing.

253
00:21:49,840 --> 00:21:51,720
In order to impose a death sentence,

254
00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:54,920
you have to have unanimous agreement
amongst all the jurors.

255
00:21:58,800 --> 00:22:03,120
And I remember getting up from the table,
and walking to the window...

256
00:22:04,800 --> 00:22:07,280
and almost holding back tears,

257
00:22:07,360 --> 00:22:10,840
saying, "Twelve of us
has to make the decision.

258
00:22:11,560 --> 00:22:14,160
Eleven have already done it. Am I there?

259
00:22:15,680 --> 00:22:18,760
Have I come to the...

260
00:22:19,560 --> 00:22:23,800
firmness in my heart
to say this guy shouldn't live?"

261
00:22:24,840 --> 00:22:25,880
And I finally did.

262
00:23:07,520 --> 00:23:11,400
It's "Happy birthday...
to my loving mother. Your son David."

263
00:23:12,520 --> 00:23:15,600
He does a lot of flowers,
but sometimes he does other things.

264
00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:19,560
He never forgets a birthday,
or Mother's Day, or Christmas.

265
00:23:19,640 --> 00:23:22,920
I've got to say, I have
two biological children, and they forget.

266
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:24,200
David does not forget.

267
00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:26,840
He's very sweet and thoughtful.

268
00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:29,080
He calls me "Mom." I...

269
00:23:29,480 --> 00:23:30,960
I'm the closest thing he has.

270
00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:40,520
My name is Rita Reames.

271
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:44,560
David Barnett was our foster son

272
00:23:45,120 --> 00:23:49,480
from the time he was aged six and a half
until just past his seventh birthday.

273
00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:55,200
Just being part of the family
to him was a wonderful life.

274
00:23:55,280 --> 00:23:56,440
He loved it.

275
00:23:58,520 --> 00:23:59,600
He was never violent.

276
00:24:00,120 --> 00:24:02,080
You know, he was... he was a good kid.

277
00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:07,600
I think he would have continued
to improve and blossom

278
00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:11,560
in a stable family environment,
a loving family environment.

279
00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:14,880
On the other hand,
he was a challenge in some ways.

280
00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:16,440
You could tell,

281
00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:19,920
in the wrong environment,
he was not going to do well.

282
00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:46,200
When I found David had...

283
00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:48,200
killed two people...

284
00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:51,840
Shocking.

285
00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:53,480
I did not expect that.

286
00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:58,400
Especially when I found out
these were nice people.

287
00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:01,560
They had done him no harm.

288
00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:24,560
I sat through
all of the punishment phase trial.

289
00:25:27,560 --> 00:25:31,720
His attorney at the time did not use
any of the background material

290
00:25:32,360 --> 00:25:35,280
for any of the abuse
and what happened to him

291
00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:38,440
from the time he was adopted
until he went to jail.

292
00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:42,000
I asked her

293
00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:45,800
why none of this was being used
to help David.

294
00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:49,840
And her only answer to me,
which was very curt, was...

295
00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:54,280
"I don't think it'll do him any good.
It'll hurt him more than help him."

296
00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:57,920
That was all she would say to me,
and she kept walking. Yeah.

297
00:26:19,400 --> 00:26:21,680
<i>David had a long list of people's names</i>

298
00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:24,480
<i>that he would have wanted</i>
<i>to be witnesses at the trial.</i>

299
00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:30,960
<i>His first public defender did not contact</i>
<i>one person on that list.</i>

300
00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:32,560
<i>Not one.</i>

301
00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:41,760
I'm Jason Kingdon,
and we are going into old Webster Groves,

302
00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:43,960
to see where me and David grew up.

303
00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:52,240
David lived with John Barnett,
who was the man who adopted David,

304
00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:55,960
and the other two boys
that John had adopted.

305
00:26:58,360 --> 00:27:03,480
It seemed like, at first,
like they were this really cool family

306
00:27:03,560 --> 00:27:07,000
that had this dad
that was, uh, like, a soccer coach,

307
00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:09,600
and really into the kids,
and really into sports.

308
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:15,120
It wasn't until about six months
into knowing David

309
00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:17,840
that some things started to happen.

310
00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:22,440
They would lock themselves in their room

311
00:27:23,120 --> 00:27:24,400
and hide from John.

312
00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:28,880
They were so scared to come out
of their rooms and be around John

313
00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:32,200
that when they had to urinate,
they wouldn't go to the bathroom.

314
00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:34,960
They would open the window
and urinate out the window.

315
00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:40,280
David's grandparents lived right there
in that house.

316
00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:45,160
You know, they're just two houses away.

317
00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:48,160
That place was more comfortable to us.

318
00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:50,080
We'd go over there after school.

319
00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:52,600
They would have milk and cookies
laid out for us.

320
00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:56,560
It's crazy how this house was so scary
to us,

321
00:27:56,640 --> 00:27:59,200
and that house was so pleasant.

322
00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:16,520
The picture was,

323
00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:21,120
basically, a torso
with a little bit of thighs

324
00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:24,600
and legs and...
and almost maybe up to the neckline

325
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:28,160
of a young, prepubescent boy,

326
00:28:28,840 --> 00:28:31,120
prepubescent meaning no pubic hair,

327
00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:35,920
and John's arm was holding
the boy's penis in the picture.

328
00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:38,320
John had a very hairy arm,

329
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:40,880
and he had a certain ring
that he always wore

330
00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:42,320
that was like a class ring.

331
00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:46,880
That ring and that arm were
in the photograph.

332
00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:49,600
We knew it was John.

333
00:28:54,520 --> 00:28:57,480
We thought this picture was irrefutable...

334
00:28:58,440 --> 00:29:00,400
evidence that nobody could argue with.

335
00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:02,800
Nobody could, like, say
that this isn't real.

336
00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:05,920
We were so happy.

337
00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:08,360
This was going to be the end of it.

338
00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:11,480
It was this sensational thing
that was about to happen.

339
00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:19,680
We walked on foot
up to this police station,

340
00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:23,280
and we thought, "Maybe this will,
like, explain to the detective

341
00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:25,120
in Webster Groves Police Department

342
00:29:26,080 --> 00:29:28,240
why we're so unruly, and so angry,

343
00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:30,880
and just are doing a lot of things
that we're doing.

344
00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:32,800
Maybe she'll understand."

345
00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:38,760
As soon as she saw that picture,
I could tell she was scared to death.

346
00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:41,000
She was more afraid of it than we were.

347
00:29:41,080 --> 00:29:46,280
She slid the picture right back to David
the exact way he had slid it to her,

348
00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:49,440
and she immediately told me
to get out of the room.

349
00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:53,560
When she was done
having her talk with him,

350
00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:56,480
he stormed out of this door right here.

351
00:29:57,560 --> 00:29:59,440
I saw he had the picture in his hand.

352
00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:02,840
"What are you doing with that picture?
Why do you still have the picture?"

353
00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:06,280
"They won't do anything for us.
They won't help us."

354
00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:10,000
He was just devastated.

355
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:14,280
This was the top of the food chain for us.
There was nowhere else to go.

356
00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:16,040
There was nobody else to trust.

357
00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:20,320
I know it changed David that day.

358
00:30:46,280 --> 00:30:48,960
<i>John was a great friend.</i>
<i>He was funny,</i>

359
00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:52,000
especially witty, and great to be around.

360
00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:55,640
He was successful
in Information Technology,

361
00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:57,400
holding a position as a director,

362
00:30:58,080 --> 00:30:59,760
but he gave up the big salary,

363
00:30:59,840 --> 00:31:02,400
and he taught kids,
many of them disadvantaged,

364
00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:05,680
uh, data processing
at West County Technical High School.

365
00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:09,480
He was a darn good
and a well-loved school bus driver,

366
00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:10,840
good enough to be awarded

367
00:31:10,920 --> 00:31:13,160
School Bus Driver of the Year
several times.

368
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:16,320
But John was also wise.

369
00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:20,120
He had the wisdom to discern
what his life was all about,

370
00:31:20,680 --> 00:31:21,880
and that was kids.

371
00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:26,520
He became a loving foster father,
an adoptive father,

372
00:31:26,600 --> 00:31:31,440
and his kids had the opportunity
to live and grow and... and do well.

373
00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:37,640
I'm Fred Domke,
and, uh, I was John Barnett's best friend,

374
00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:42,720
and I was privileged to be able
to deliver a eulogy at John's funeral,

375
00:31:43,480 --> 00:31:45,240
and I wanted to share that with you

376
00:31:45,320 --> 00:31:49,440
to kind of give a feel for the kind of man
that John Barnett was.

377
00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:56,360
I've never<i> </i>delved
into what the allegations are,

378
00:31:56,440 --> 00:32:00,800
but I can just generically say
he was a great guy.

379
00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:05,400
And... And, uh, I don't...
I don't need to know any more.

380
00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:06,480
I already know it.

381
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:09,480
Um, so, if somebody sees
something other than that,

382
00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:13,960
how... how they think
they would know better than I did,

383
00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:16,200
when I spent 49 years with John,

384
00:32:16,280 --> 00:32:18,800
I just don't understand
how that could possibly be.

385
00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:35,240
<i>I never seen him touch the boys</i>
<i>or anything.</i>

386
00:32:42,360 --> 00:32:45,360
<i>I never seen him do that to them.</i>

387
00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:51,080
<i>I'm Secil Schodroski.</i>

388
00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:56,120
<i>I was in high school,</i>
<i>tenth grade, at West County Tech.</i>

389
00:32:57,720 --> 00:33:00,520
<i>And John Barnett was my computer teacher.</i>

390
00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:04,640
<i>He was tall. He was nice.</i>
<i>His eyes were blue.</i>

391
00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:07,480
There was something about him.

392
00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:10,360
I wanted to see him every morning,
communicate with him,

393
00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:14,160
and have him smile back at me,
and that would make me feel special.

394
00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:18,520
I was 14.

395
00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:21,640
I was being beaten a lot at home.

396
00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:24,800
That's how I ended up
at the Barnetts' house.

397
00:33:26,280 --> 00:33:31,160
I never witnessed him being abusive,
or hitting them, or sexual abuse.

398
00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:35,640
But it was different with me.

399
00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:42,400
He would wait for the boys to go to sleep.

400
00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:45,760
I would, like,
stay on the couch or whatever,

401
00:33:45,840 --> 00:33:48,560
and he would come down,
and rub on me, and kiss on me,

402
00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:51,480
and put his hands different places,
and things like that.

403
00:33:52,960 --> 00:33:56,560
And in my brain, I thought it was okay,
'cause I loved him.

404
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:00,960
I was just a little girl, you know.

405
00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:04,720
I would say...

406
00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:10,040
he is a pedophile, or was,
and he was a predator.

407
00:34:31,600 --> 00:34:33,920
David and I were kind of hanging out

408
00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:37,240
and was kind of dancing together
and singing songs.

409
00:34:37,320 --> 00:34:39,480
I mean,
there was something kind of brewing.

410
00:34:40,520 --> 00:34:41,840
It just kind of happened.

411
00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:43,360
And we, um...

412
00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:44,880
uh...

413
00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:46,560
Sex was involved.

414
00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:49,520
I'm not on birth control or anything.

415
00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:52,400
And then, um...

416
00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:54,000
They told me I was pregnant.

417
00:34:56,760 --> 00:34:59,000
John Barnett demanded
that I get an abortion.

418
00:34:59,080 --> 00:35:00,680
He offered to pay for it.

419
00:35:01,520 --> 00:35:03,520
He... He's mad I'm with his son,

420
00:35:03,600 --> 00:35:06,440
and now I understand
he was probably jealous.

421
00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:09,400
He was probably upset
I was not with him anymore.

422
00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:25,560
David was so proud of Setham,

423
00:35:25,640 --> 00:35:29,160
and, uh, he wanted to just hold him
and wanted to feed him,

424
00:35:29,240 --> 00:35:33,400
so, um, we tried to make things work.

425
00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:37,080
And that didn't go too well.

426
00:35:37,640 --> 00:35:38,960
David was up late.

427
00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:44,360
He was, um, smoking with my sister
and some friends and playing cards, and...

428
00:35:45,160 --> 00:35:49,200
um, I had to go to bed early.
I had college classes in the morning.

429
00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:50,640
He wasn't going to school.

430
00:35:50,720 --> 00:35:54,560
I had to pay a lady to keep Setham,
because David just couldn't do it.

431
00:35:56,120 --> 00:35:58,120
I didn't know how to handle that.

432
00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:01,760
And I just couldn't be with him anymore.

433
00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:06,440
I pushed him away. I know I did.

434
00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:08,480
I'm sure that hurt him.

435
00:36:08,560 --> 00:36:10,920
He's always been pushed away
his whole life.

436
00:36:13,040 --> 00:36:14,720
Then, here, I did the same thing.

437
00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:13,640
<i> I think,</i>
<i>before a jury says to a person,</i>

438
00:37:13,720 --> 00:37:16,600
<i>"We are going to ask the State of Missouri</i>
<i>to kill you,"</i>

439
00:37:16,680 --> 00:37:18,160
<i>his story ought to be told.</i>

440
00:37:19,240 --> 00:37:21,160
<i>And I don't think it was in his trial.</i>

441
00:37:23,600 --> 00:37:25,160
My name is Elizabeth Carlyle,

442
00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:29,640
and I was one of David Barnett's lawyers
in the last stages of this case.

443
00:37:43,640 --> 00:37:48,640
This is actually a report
in September of 1992.

444
00:37:49,080 --> 00:37:53,880
DFS was brought in after the boys talked
to a detective in Glendale.

445
00:37:54,520 --> 00:37:56,960
And they talked about the different kinds

446
00:37:57,040 --> 00:38:00,480
of physical and sexual abuse
that they had experienced.

447
00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:18,320
There are all these warning signals,
all these red flags that aren't addressed.

448
00:38:19,760 --> 00:38:21,760
I mean, obviously, it's tragic,

449
00:38:22,160 --> 00:38:26,320
but it's also... it also certainly made...
I think, made us really angry.

450
00:38:27,800 --> 00:38:30,520
I think he was let down
by the schools he went to,

451
00:38:30,600 --> 00:38:33,480
he was let down
by the Division of Family Services,

452
00:38:33,560 --> 00:38:35,120
he was let down by the police.

453
00:38:36,240 --> 00:38:39,000
Any place he turned for help,
he didn't get it.

454
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:16,720
I think I was at the mall,

455
00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:19,000
getting food in the food court
or something,

456
00:39:19,080 --> 00:39:22,040
when, all of a sudden,
all these texts start coming through.

457
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:25,080
"We did it! We did it!
David's off death row!"

458
00:39:26,240 --> 00:39:29,160
And I just screamed really loud
in the mall.

459
00:39:29,240 --> 00:39:31,640
I had a lot of people looking over my way,
but...

460
00:39:32,320 --> 00:39:34,160
I mean, just my heart was rejoicing

461
00:39:34,240 --> 00:39:36,680
because I knew
a great injustice had been undone.

462
00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:26,600
When I first was starting to go visit him,
it was tough.

463
00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:30,000
David burst into tears a lot
on our visits.

464
00:40:31,160 --> 00:40:35,560
I just truly, honestly think
that David doesn't know why...

465
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:38,120
that he couldn't control himself.

466
00:40:58,480 --> 00:41:01,120
He didn't go there
to kill his grandparents that day.

467
00:41:01,640 --> 00:41:04,480
David had no ill will towards them
whatsoever.

468
00:41:05,480 --> 00:41:06,480
He just said,

469
00:41:06,920 --> 00:41:10,160
"I just wanted
to finally be over with this

470
00:41:10,680 --> 00:41:12,800
and let them know what John was doing."

471
00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:17,560
So, he told them everything.

472
00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:21,000
He told them what John had done to him.

473
00:41:21,080 --> 00:41:23,720
He told them
what John had done to Eric, and...

474
00:41:24,800 --> 00:41:28,040
it just did not go the way
that David thought it was going to go.

475
00:41:28,600 --> 00:41:30,280
There were no open, loving arms.

476
00:41:31,520 --> 00:41:35,080
They were hurt. They were offended.
They didn't want to hear it anymore.

477
00:41:36,160 --> 00:41:38,520
You know,
he's hearing that from the two people

478
00:41:38,600 --> 00:41:39,960
that he thought loved him.

479
00:41:40,040 --> 00:41:41,560
He didn't have anybody else.

480
00:41:44,080 --> 00:41:47,280
But all of that brutality,
and that hatred, and that anger

481
00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:52,480
was not directed towards the grandparents.
It... It just wasn't.

482
00:41:54,280 --> 00:41:57,400
Every stab wound was to John.

483
00:41:59,600 --> 00:42:02,320
That was the culmination
of David's whole life,

484
00:42:02,880 --> 00:42:04,560
giving them that confession.

485
00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:06,440
I mean, that was the moment.

486
00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:26,880
<i></i>
<i>I believe that</i> <i>I deserve where I'm at.</i>

487
00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:31,440
<i>I deserve the situation</i>
<i>that I face every day.</i>

488
00:42:34,120 --> 00:42:35,480
<i>And I'm blessed to have it.</i>

489
00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:56,360
<i>I cannot remember</i>
<i>step-by-step what happened.</i>

490
00:42:57,440 --> 00:42:58,440
I remember...

491
00:42:59,080 --> 00:43:02,760
the beginning,
and I remember the result was horrifying.

492
00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:05,960
Uh, the beginning,
I was in a conversation,

493
00:43:06,440 --> 00:43:08,120
trying to explain to them,

494
00:43:08,200 --> 00:43:10,560
"Hey, look, I can't go back
and live with John."

495
00:43:10,960 --> 00:43:15,040
I did not have the direct words
to point a finger at John.

496
00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:16,640
"Hey, John did this to me."

497
00:43:17,280 --> 00:43:19,600
I don't think
I had those skills at that time.

498
00:43:19,680 --> 00:43:22,480
But that day, in my own way...

499
00:43:22,560 --> 00:43:24,920
...I believe 100%

500
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:27,680
a part of me was trying to say
what happened.

501
00:43:31,040 --> 00:43:34,360
There's not a day that goes by
I don't think of Clifford and Leona.

502
00:43:35,480 --> 00:43:36,600
They live in my heart.

503
00:43:37,920 --> 00:43:40,480
Leona,<i> </i>I believe if she was standing
in front of me,

504
00:43:40,560 --> 00:43:42,680
she'd give me a hug
and say she understood,

505
00:43:43,120 --> 00:43:44,120
she forgave me.

506
00:43:44,600 --> 00:43:45,600
So would Clifford.

507
00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:52,960
I don't hate John.

508
00:43:53,680 --> 00:43:55,240
I didn't hate John then.

509
00:43:56,040 --> 00:43:58,680
I still love John for what he tried to do.

510
00:43:58,760 --> 00:44:00,000
I forgive him.

511
00:44:00,080 --> 00:44:04,720
He had his own problems,
his own things that he couldn't overcome.

512
00:44:05,080 --> 00:44:09,560
So he gave in to his own desires,
whether they were psychologically or...

513
00:44:10,440 --> 00:44:11,560
physical, sexual.

514
00:44:11,840 --> 00:44:13,640
Uh, he just couldn't overcome 'em.

515
00:44:15,520 --> 00:44:19,000
So I still respect the fact

516
00:44:19,080 --> 00:44:22,520
and appreciate the fact
that he tried to be, um, a dad,

517
00:44:22,920 --> 00:44:25,960
even though he had... he had monsters.

518
00:44:26,280 --> 00:44:27,800
That's the only way to put it.

519
00:44:47,520 --> 00:44:49,960
The weird thing
I've never admitted to anyone

520
00:44:50,040 --> 00:44:51,880
is, when they gave me life without,

521
00:44:52,280 --> 00:44:55,440
I felt that they, literally,
put me in torment,

522
00:44:55,920 --> 00:44:58,520
because I had to live the rest of my life
like this.

523
00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:03,920
But that's not so much the case.

524
00:45:05,120 --> 00:45:06,480
The more support I had,

525
00:45:07,800 --> 00:45:09,360
the more I was willing to live.

526
00:45:09,680 --> 00:45:13,560
There's a connection between prisoners
of, "Hey, you know, we messed up.

527
00:45:13,640 --> 00:45:15,560
We're no different than anyone else.

528
00:45:15,640 --> 00:45:17,480
We're not gonna live in our regrets.

529
00:45:17,560 --> 00:45:19,600
We're gonna live with them
and push forward."

530
00:45:21,640 --> 00:45:23,440
I believe that I will be out.

531
00:45:24,520 --> 00:45:27,600
It's just a couple years down the road.
It's all gonna change.

532
00:45:28,160 --> 00:45:31,320
And, hopefully,
I can be a productive member of society.