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David
Michael BARNETT
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Robbery
Number of victims: 2
Date of murder:
February 4,
1996
Date of arrest:
Next day (surrenders)
Date of birth:
May 18,
1976
Victims profile: His grandparents
Method of murder: Stabbing
with knife
Location: St. Louis County, Missouri, USA
Status: Sentenced to death on May 2, 1997
United States Court of
Appeals For the Eighth Circuit
During January and the first few days
of February 1996, David Barnett had been living with friends in the
Glendale area.
He had spoken several times to his friends about his grandparent’s
car, a 1995 Dodge Intrepid, and had told them that his grandparents were
going to rent this car to him.
About 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, February 4, 1996, Barnett walked to the
home of his grandparents, who were away attending Sunday school and
church services at the Kirkwood Baptist church.
Barnett entered the home, apparently through a bedroom window, sat
down on the couch, turned on the television, and soon fell asleep. When
he awoke, he phoned his stepbrother Scott and boasted that he had just
won the lottery last night and had suddenly come into a large sum of
money.
Barnett was waiting for his grandparents when they returned home
around 1:00 p.m. He confronted his grandmother and pushed her down in
the hallway. He then pushed his grandfather to the floor and grabbed a
knife that was lying on the nearby kitchen table.
As his grandfather rose from the floor, Barnett kicked him in the
head, and when he fell to the floor again, Barnett stabbed him
repeatedly in the neck area. All told, Barnett inflicted ten stab wounds
and numerous cuts to his grandfather’s neck, face, and hands.
Satisfied that he had killed his grandfather, Barnett returned to
the kitchen to get another knife and then began stabbing his grandmother
in her neck as well. Once again, Barnett returned to the kitchen to get
more knives.
This time he retrieved two knives with which he continued to stab
his grandmother until she, too, was killed. She suffered a total of 12
stab wounds to her neck and numerous cuts to her face.
After the attack, Barnett concealed one of the knives by placing it
between two mattress pads in his grandparent’s bedroom. Next, he went to
the bathroom and washed the blood off his hands.
He then removed the keys to the 1995 Dodge Intrepid that were
dangling from the lock in the back door, retrieved his coat, and took
approximately 120 dollars from his grandmother’s purse.
Before leaving the house, Barnett stood silently next to his victims
to hear if they were still breathing. After determining that his victims
were dead, Barnett lowered two of the shades in the house, locked up,
and drove off in the victims’ car.
Early the next morning, police officers found the victims’ car
parked in a residential area of Glendale. Barnett walked up to the
uniformed officers and confessed that he had committed the murders.
