WEST POINT — When two men attacked him on a dark, dead-end Clay County road, Jeremy Barnhill decided to kill to protect himself, he testified Thursday.
Barnhill”s manslaughter trial for the Jan. 2, 2010, Cedar Bluff shooting death of 46-year-old Curtis Clardy started Tuesday in Clay County Circuit Court.
The 26-year-old defendant took the stand in a rare move Thursday, telling the jury his version of the events that led up to the shooting.
Barnhill said he went to Clardy”s house on Jack Williams Road the night of the shooting to pick up his sister, Tiffany Johnson, who was living with Clardy.
Johnson, who also testified Thursday and is expected to return to the stand today, said Clardy forced her to lure her husband, B.J. Johnson, to Jack Williams Road.
She testified that Clardy forced her to tell her husband she was being abused, that she wanted to be picked up and that Clardy was out of town.
“He was in my face yelling at me,” she tearfully described.
She has since been charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated assault against her brother, according to court records. District Attorney Forrest Allgood said Barnhill would have been charged with murder except that the shooting happened while a crime was being committed against him.
Barnhill, who was told of the conversation by his brother-in-law, decided to pick her up, taking B.J. Johnson”s handgun with him in case there was a problem with Clardy”s mother or stepfather, who lived next door to Clardy.
There had been many threats exchanged between the Barnhill family and Clardy since Tiffany left her family in September 2009, she said.
When Barnhill showed up, driving past Clardy”s driveway towards the dead end, Clardy and his best friend, Donald Sheward, took a truck down the road to confront him, witnesses said Wednesday.
They met and stopped their vehicles as Barnhill was coming back towards them.
What actually happened at the scene of the shooting is disputed.
Sheward, who admitted he was intoxicated at the time, claims he did not exit the vehicle until after the first shot, that Barnhill did, and that Barnhill fired the pistol without being attacked. Barnhill claims both Sheward and Clardy attacked him first while he was sitting in his vehicle with the door open.
Barnhill also claims, contrary to Sheward”s testimony, that Clardy had a knife, possibly a box-cutter knife he had been known to carry.
No weapon was recovered from the scene, although defense attorneys pointed out that a purse inside Clardy”s truck belonging to Johnson was not thoroughly checked.
Barnhill said he knocked the knife away, then put the 40-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun to Clardy”s abdomen.
“I said, ”You know what this is, Curtis, now y”all just leave,”” Barnhill testified.
When Clardy tried to break free, Barnhill said, he pulled the trigger.
“I was worried he would cut my throat up and leave me there,” he said.
The gun went off a second time by accident during the ensuing scuffle, said Barnhill, who also claimed he did not pull the trigger.
“I had no intentions of going out there to kill anybody,” he said.
After the ammunition clip was ejected in the fight, Sheward ran to the truck and went for help while Barnhill tried to help Clardy, Barnhill said.
Barnhill left the scene, fearing that Clardy”s family were on the way, and headed to a nearby gas station, where he met his sister, he said. She followed him to Clay County Medical Center.
By the time he arrived at the center, Clardy was already there, he said. West Point police stopped him and took the gun before taking him inside, where he was eventually treated for facial cuts and other injuries.
Barnhill told medical personnel who came to treat him to put all their efforts into saving Clardy, he said.
“I wasn”t worried about me,” he added.
In his cross examination of Barnhill, Allgood tried to undermine the claim of self defense, pointing out that the defendant missed several opportunities to avoid the confrontation, such as shooting a warning shot.
“If I”d shot in the air, I”d be dead,” Barnhill replied.
The trial is expected to conclude today after the defense calls its last witnesses, sending the matter to the jury after closing arguments.
A mistrial motion by defense attorneys was denied Thursday by Judge Jim Kitchens. Defense attorneys had argued that when Allgood implied Barnhill had changed his story to meet self-defense law requirements, he had accused the attorneys of wrongdoing.
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