The Kuru Kuru man who was on trial in the High Court for killing his reputed wife during a spat in 2004 was slapped with a 15-year sentence by Justice Dawn Gregory-Barnes yesterday after he opted to plead guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter.
Junior Barton was indicted for murder for the September 2, 2004 killing of daycare worker, Lisa French. French was brutally stabbed and died within a few minutes of the attack.
Justice Gregory-Barnes before passing judgment told Barton that she had to send a signal to men in the society since they cannot continue to kill women who break off relationships with them.
Shortly before the sentencing the judge had ruled against the defence, allowing a written caution statement Barton gave police to be admitted into evidence. In the statement he admitted to being in a fight with French and choking her. However, there were several oral statements he gave police that were found to be inadmissible. Barton’s lawyer, Vic Puran in a plea of mitigation said his client is a man of diminished capacity. He told the court that Barton spent four years in hospital for a mental condition.
State counsel Dionne McCammon called several of French’s relatives to the stand during the trial including her father, Edward French. The man recalled that his daughter; her two children and the accused were at his home a few hours before she was killed and that when they left she had indicated they were going home.
He said French lived with his sister and her husband and that she had moved out of the home she shared with Barton two months before her death. In response to a question posed during cross-examination by defence counsel Vic Puran, French said that his daughter was living with his sister because her home offered more protection.
The man said that while French was at his home she was laughing and talking and so was Barton. “She seemed happy”, he added. But a while after she left the home he heard something and rushed from his home. French said he later saw his daughter lying motionless on the ground and covered in blood.
One of the witnesses who testified before French said he was at home with his wife when they heard a scream and upon investigating they saw Lisa French lying a short distance from where they lived. She was bleeding at the time. The man said he rushed to get transportation but when he returned to the scene French appeared to be dead. He said the police arrived shortly after.
Another witness testified to seeing Barton with a blood stained t-shirt on the night of the murder and told the court that when he asked Barton about it he was told that the accused and French had a fight.
Lisa French had moved out of the home she shared with Barton after years of reported abuse. (Iana Seales)
