Guilty verdict reached in 2021 murder trial

Feb. 2—A five-day jury trial came to an end on Friday, Feb. 2, with Whitfield Superior Court jurors finding a 38-year-old man guilty of one count of malice murder.

Defendant Christopher Napoleon Barrett, II, was also found guilty of one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, one count of concealing the death of another and two counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon — all felony offenses.

Jurors did not find Barrett guilty of one count of felony murder and one count of armed robbery.

Barrett was accused of shooting and killing David Casler-Tyrrell, a resident of Adairsville, outside his place of employment in Whitfield County on Aug. 11, 2021.

After the fatal shooting at the Bimbo Bakery off Cleveland Highway, a bill of indictment indicates that Barrett then took control of Casler-Tyrell's Chrysler Pacifica and drove it behind White's Pharmacy.

Later, two co-defendants — who provided testimony during Barrett's trial and previously pled guilty to counts of concealing the death of another — indicated they helped Barrett move the body of the victim.

Barrett was later arrested after he led police in Tennessee on a high-speed chase in the Pacifica.

Michael Hayes, police chief for Englewood, Tennessee, said Barrett was traveling at a rate of speed well over 100 miles per hour before he crashed the vehicle.

After the crash, he testified that Barrett continued to run from police on foot, at one point tossing a pistol down during the pursuit.

Jeff Smith, another Englewood police officer, said that Barrett was behaving "very erratic, kind of out of his mind" at the time he was apprehended.

Barrett was represented by attorney Jerry Moncus, while the State was represented by Conasauga Judicial Circuit District Attorney Benjamin Kenemer and Conasauga Judicial Circuit Assistant District Attorney Cory Rosenberger.

Juror selection occurred on Monday, Jan. 29.

Co-defendants Andrew Isaac Connor and Darious Daquan-Martinez Knight testified on Jan. 30.

Both men already pled guilty to concealment of a death charges and received 15-year sentences — with the first three years to be served in prison and the remainder on probation.

Knight and Connor each said that the defendant asked them for a ride to White's Pharmacy and to park their Hyundai Elantra "trunk to trunk" with the Pacifica.

Knight testified that Barrett removed several bags from the Pacifica and put them in the backseat of the Elantra.

Knight said the bags appeared to contain "documents," adding that Barrett made a comment about selling some of the possessions contained within the bags.

Knight testified that he drove the vehicle — knowing there was a body in the trunk — to a residence in Tunnel Hill.

He said that Barrett wanted to go back to the Pacifica "to clean blood out of it."

Connor said that he was "in shock" when he saw the body in the trunk of the Pacifica.

At the Tunnel Hill residence, he alleged that Barrett removed several bags from the vehicle, which the defendant purportedly claimed contained "like over $10,000 worth of stuff that he was going to take to a pawn shop."

Connor said he was offered $120 by Barrett for his "help" in getting a ride and moving the body of the victim.

Connor said he asked Barrett why he "did what he did."

He claimed Barrett responded with "it was me or him."

An audio recording of Barrett's interview with law enforcement was played for jurors on the morning of Feb. 1.

"I didn't do nothing to him, physically," the defendant stated at one point in the audio recording.

Later in the recording, Barrett could be heard sobbing.

"I never did nothing in my life," he stated. "I wasn't even trying to do [expletive] like that, but had he not pulled the gun on me I wouldn't have pulled the trigger."

Barrett took the witness stand himself on Thursday afternoon.

He said that the night of the fatal shooting, he was exploring nearby creeks for rocks and other artifacts.

"I was going live on Facebook," he said.

On the witness stand, he said he spotted the victim in the Pacifica at the bakery and purportedly asked him if he was following him.

"He pulled his gun and said "you [expletive]," and I stepped back with my hands up," Barrett said. "Knowing that I had a gun in my backpack, I automatically dropped my backpack so I could grab the gun — I slung it in a single motion and I shot one time."

After shooting the victim, Barrett testified that he took the gun out of the decedent's hand and placed it in a passenger seat.

"I put my arms under his shoulder, pulled him to the back of the vehicle and I got in the car and drove off out of fear and panic," he said. "My only intention was to get away, leave the scene, because I was scared."

The defense and the prosecution gave closing arguments on Friday morning.

Moncus argued that Barrett acted in self-defense and was not seeking to rob Casler-Tyrrell.

"Mr. Barrett, basically, was out doing what he did, looking for items, curiosity about history, you can interpret that anyway you want to," he told jurors. "At some point in time he approaches a car ... he was wondering, basically, why was that vehicle there? He had no intent to commit any criminal misconduct."

Moncus contended that the victim in the case pulled a firearm on Barrett first, and that his client "spontaneously reacted and fired one round."

"This was not something that was pre-planned, that was thought about," he continued. "It was sudden, immediate, irresistible."

Moncus argued that Barrett had no intentions of robbing the decedent.

"The vehicle was basically abandoned and left," he said. "It was left in an area where anybody or someone's definitely going to find it."

On cross-examination, Kenemer said the defendant admitted to concealing the death of the victim.

"People that conceal deaths are wanting to hide things," Kenemer said. "He never wanted this body to be found, he wanted to avoid that car, get away from it as much as possible — he never wanted to be in this courtroom."

Kenemer said he was not convinced by the defendant's "self-defense" argument.

"You know what people do when they act in self defense? They pick up the phone, call 911, 'I just had to shoot somebody or stab somebody, whatever the facts are, and I had to defend myself,'" he said. "He had every opportunity to call 911 ... and he sought to avoid detection to such the level he would crash a car at over 100 miles an hour in the state of Tennessee and get out of that car once he's crashed it and try to flee on foot to avoid the law enforcement officers of this state and, more importantly, this country."

Kenemer said he believed the defendant did not see the victim as a human being — but rather, a dollar sign.

"The life of David Casler-Tyrrell was taken by a person that just saw him as a cheap store," he said to jurors. "He dehumanized him to such the level that he was just the property on him."

Kenemer circled back to statements made by Moncus in his closing statement, in which the defense attorney contended that Barrett shot and killed the victim in self-defense.

"That's what he said, in a murder case," Kenemer said. "The defendant wasn't killing time, he was seeking to try to find somebody to kill ... do you really think it's a reasonable act of any reasonable human being to kill somebody and steal their car and claim self-defense?"

Kenemer said the defendant essentially closed the state's argument for them when Barrett stated "I will say whatever I have to to get out of trouble" during cross-examination.

"You shouldn't trust a word he says, not just because he's a convicted felon," he said. "If you really think about what the defendant's version of the events in this case, it is totally unbelievable."

The trial was overseen by Conasauga Judicial Circuit Judge Scott Minter.

The two counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon were bifurcated into a separate trial.

"The law did not allow to let you know about [them]until after you rendered a verdict on the counts you just rendered a verdict on," Minter told jurors.

He noted that Barrett had previous convictions for theft by taking out of Whitfield from 2000; a Georgia Controlled Substances Act violation out of Whitfield from 2003; a cocaine possession conviction out of Catoosa from 2007; armed robbery and aggravated assault convictions out of Whitfield from 2008; and an escape conviction out of Whitfield from 2008.

The 2008 aggravated assault and armed robbery convictions were allowed as admissible evidence to jurors in the trial following a previous 404(b) "character evidence" hearing.

Prosecutors filed a motion to allow the other convictions as admissible to jurors as impeachment evidence on Jan. 30. That request was denied by Minter.

Following the delivery of the verdict, Minter ruled "by a preponderance of the evidence" that Barrett had also violated his terms and conditions of probation from a prior conviction by committing the new offenses.

Whereas jurors did not find Barrett guilty of felony murder or armed robbery, Minter's probation revocation ruling differed.

"There's a different standard of proof in a probation revocation than in a jury trial, it is a lower standard of proof," he said.

Minter ordered both the disposition on the probation revocation as well as the sentencing for Barrett to take place at 1 p.m. on March 8.