Two Decades in the case of former Springboro Police Lt. Jim Barton
What are the details of the crime?
Barton, a police officer for more than two decades, returned home April 11, 1995, to the family horse farm in Franklin Twp. to find his wife, Vickie, a nurse at Sycamore Hospital and instructor for the Kettering College of Medical Arts, dead after an apparent break-in. Barton called 911 , resulting in a recording used almost 10 years later to convict him in a trial in Warren County Common Pleas Court. He was questioned, but not arrested or charged, after he established he had been elsewhere at the time.
When did Barton get arrested?
Barton was indicted on April 9, 2004, after an investigation by a newly formed cold-case team. They built a case indicating Barton turned to a burglary-for-hire ring to scare his wife into moving to Springboro so he could become police chief. He was arrested, but posted bond three days later.
What happened at trial?
During a two-week trial in February 2005, Barton’s lawyers presented evidence and testimony suggesting a series of other scenarios and suspects in the case.
The testimony of Gary Henson, a relative to William Phelps, one of the men alleged to have been involved in Kim Barton’s rape and murder, was seen as key to the conviction. It was based on conversations Henson said he had with Phelps before Phelps committed suicide. A detective explained to the jury how analysis of the 911 recording indicated Barton revealed he planned to call Phelps about what the 6th Circuit called a “botched burglary.”
What was the sentence?
On Feb. 22, 2005, Barton was found guilty of complicity to involuntary manslaughter and aggravated burglary. On March 18, 2005, he was sentenced to 15-to-50 years in prison.
What is the focus of the appeals?
A series of lawyers has brought appeals on Barton’s behalf in local, state and federal courts. The appeals were unsuccessful, until May 15 , when a panel of judges in the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals gave authorities six months to retry or release Barton. The panel found the prosecution withheld evidence and described as “somewhat fantastical” the story Henson told the jury. The court declined to rehear the appeal or to release Barton on bail, pending a final decision.
Where do things stand now?
The Ohio Attorney General’s Office is preparing an appeal to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land and the last chance for appeals of lower court rulings. The filing deadline is Nov. 3. The court could rule quickly or take several months before ruling on the filing, a writ of certiorari asking the high court to take up the case.
The Ohio Attorney General’s Office is appealing to the Supreme Court to try to keep a former Springboro police officer in prison.
Former Springboro Police Lt. Jim Barton has served 10 years of a 15-to-50 year sentence for complicity to what has been described as a “botched burglary” that resulted in the violent death of his wife, Vickie Barton, in 1995.
Without the high court’s intervention, Barton could be home, possibly in time for the holidays.
On May 15, , after a decade of unsuccessful appeals, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Barton to be retried within six months or released. Six months would run out on or about Nov. 15.
The state’s attorneys hope to convince the Supreme Court to take up the case and overturn the 6th Circuit ruling.
“If the six months comes around and they have not retried him, that’s it. He walks,” said Tom Hagel, a veteran University of Dayton law professor who has appealed criminal cases to the Supreme Court. “Since double jeopardy applies, he walks a free man.”
Reaction in Springboro
Springboro Mayor John Agenbroad said he was aware of the Supreme Court appeal and possibility that Barton could be coming home.
Agenbroad credited Police Chief Jeff Kruithoff with bringing together the cold-case team that built the case against Barton.
“When we brought it to light, I was one of the very first people who was shocked by it,” Agenbroad said Thursday.
Agenbroad said he knew Barton well from various city activities, including putting up flags on Memorial Day.
“I was hoping deep down inside he was innocent,” Agenbroad said. “Then he was guilty.”
Ten years later, Agenbroad estimated many residents have little knowledge of the case, but questioned how Barton could be coming back to Springboro.
“Time goes by. It is what it is,” he said. “I don’t know how he can now come out, but he is.”
Supreme Court appeal
The attorney generals office has until Nov. 3 to prepare a “writ of certiorari” asking the Supreme Court to consider its appeal of the 6th Circuit ruling.
Barton, now 60, was convicted in 2005 of complicity to involuntary manslaughter and aggravated burglary after the cold-case investigation. According to prosecutors, he hired others, never charged, to scare his wife into moving to Springboro so he could become police chief. Instead Vickie Barton was raped and killed at their horse farm outside Springboro.
Barton is currently being held at the Southeastern Correctional Institution in Lancaster. The 6th Circuit rejected his lawyer’s motion for bail, pending a final decision, but indicated it was ready to enforce the mandate for release or retrial, unless the Supreme Court decides to intervene.
Authorities have noted the difficulty of retrying Barton.
“Can you really resurrect a case that old in six months? I don’t know,” Kruithoff said in May.
Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell declined to comment, referring questions to the AG.
To win the appeal, the AG - representing the warden of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, where Barton was previously held - is facing long odds.
“These petitions are filed all the time, probably thousands a year,” Hagel said. “Very, very, very few are granted.”
The 6th Circuit panel ruled that Barton should be released or retried due to problems it found with the case used to convict him. It found prosecutors withheld evidence that could have helped Barton’s lawyers undo the testimony of Gary Henson, a key witness in the case.
“The State’s theory here rests on the testimony of a single witness —not even an eyewitness, in fact. That witness presented an unsupported, shifting, and somewhat fantastical story at trial. The State suppressed material, exculpatory evidence from Barton, thereby making it more difficult for Barton to discredit this theory. There is a reasonable probability that such actions affected the outcome of the trial,” according to the ruling which was upheld by the full 6th Circuit court.
Last month, The 6th Circuit denied the motion from the AG’s office for a rehearing, as well as a motion by Barton’s lawyer to release him on bail, pending a final decision on the appeal.
Lawyers in DeWine’s office sought and on Aug. 21 were granted additional time to build an argument good enough to win the appeal consideration by the Supreme Court.
In their motion for time to prepare the Supreme Court appeal, , the state’s lawyers argue the Supreme Court should take their case because of the seriousness of the crime and danger to the public.
“In light of the serious nature of the offense, the state’s interest—and by extension, the public’s interest— is in maintaining the integrity of his conviction,” the state’s attorneys said in the motion.
They also argued that a handful of legal issues in the case warranted it high-court review.
Barton’s case prompted international interest, including an episode of 48 Hours Mystery questioning the verdict. The show was televised for years after the trial.
While the Supreme Court can take up to 90 days on such cases, Hagel said it was “not unusual ” for the high court to rule quickly on writs for certiorari. The court must sift through numerous cases to pick out the ones to be considered in upcoming sessions.
On the other hand, the Supreme Court could stay the mandated release or retrial and send the case back to the 6th Circuit for reconsideration, Hagel said.
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