Barbee Trial - In the news

[CCADP]

Taped confession thrown out of Barbee trial
By MELODY McDONALD
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

FORT WORTH -- The videotaped confession that police got from a man accused of killing a pregnant woman and her 7-year-old son was obtained improperly and will be inadmissible in his capital-murder trial, a state district judge has ruled.

Jurors will, however, be allowed to hear about incriminating statements that Stephen Barbee made to a homicide detective in the bathroom of the Tyler Police Department two days after Lisa and Jayden Underwood were reported missing.

Judge Bob Gill ruled during a suppression hearing Thursday, five days before trial testimony is expected to begin in Barbee's trial.

Barbee, 38, is accused of suffocating Lisa Underwood, whom he once dated, and her son early Feb. 19, 2005, then burying them together in a shallow grave in rural Denton County.

After the Underwoods disappeared from their north Fort Worth home, police traveled to Tyler, where, according to testimony at the suppression hearing, Barbee and his friend Ron Dodd agreed to meet with Fort Worth detectives Feb. 21, 2005, at the Tyler Police Department.

Homicide Detective Mike Carroll said he had been interviewing Barbee separately for some time when Barbee told him he needed to use the restroom. There, Carroll said, Barbee admitted to the killings.

During the 45-minute conversation, Barbee said he and Dodd came up with the plan to kill Lisa Underwood because she was threatening to break up Barbee's marriage, Carroll testified.

Barbee said that Dodd dropped him off at Lisa Underwood's house early Feb. 19, 2005, but that Barbee couldn't go through with it and left. Barbee said that later, after he declined Dodd's offer to hire a "hit man," Barbee returned to Lisa Underwood's home and picked a fight with her, Carroll testified.

Barbee he said punched her in the nose and held her on the ground until she stopped breathing, Carroll testified. Barbee said that when Jayden entered the room crying, Barbee suffocated him too, Carroll testified.

After the bathroom confession, Barbee, using a mapping program on a computer, showed Carroll the remote area in Denton County where he buried the bodies, Carroll said.

Carroll said Barbee then returned to an interview room, where he gave a video-recorded statement, but said he would not discuss Dodd's involvement.

Before Barbee talked about the crime, Carroll asked whether he wanted an attorney. Barbee said he thought he would like to get one and asked Carroll whether that would be bad, according to testimony.

Carroll said he couldn't give legal advice, and the interview continued.

The next morning, Barbee, in a vehicle with Carroll and a police officer, directed Carroll to the bodies.

During two suppression hearings this month, defense attorneys Bill Ray and Tim Moore asked the judge to throw out all of Barbee's statements to police: the one in the bathroom, the one where Barbee mapped out the location of the bodies, the videotaped statement in the interview room and the statements he made the next day while directing police to the bodies.

The defense said that except for the videotaped confession, there was no record that the other statements existed or were true. Carroll did not document them, and the defense attorneys said they first heard about them during the suppression hearing.

Also, defense attorneys said, Carroll violated Barbee's constitutional rights when he kept interrogating Barbee after Barbee said he might want an attorney.

But prosecutor Kevin Rousseau, who is working with Dixie Bersano, said Barbee never made a "clear and unequivocal" request for an attorney during his videotaped statement, as required by law. Rousseau said the other statements were also admissible because they were found to be true. Rousseau pointed out that Barbee later led police to where he had told them the bodies would be.

Gill threw out the videotaped statement, which would have been powerful evidence in front of the jury -- a setback for the prosecution. But Gill is allowing the jury to hear about the other incriminating statements that Barbee made to Carroll, which are undocumented, a decision that will make the defense attorneys' job more challenging.

Before testimony begins, Gill is also expected to decide whether jurors will be allowed to see an incriminating videotaped conversation between Barbee and his wife in the interview room in Tyler before his arrest.

If convicted of capital murder, Barbee would face the death penalty.

Ron Dodd, who in a hearing this month exercised his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, has been charged with two counts of tampering with physical evidence in Denton County on allegations that he helped Barbee conceal the bodies.

Dodd, 34, remains free on bail, awaiting trial.

[CCADP]

A year after pregnant woman, son went missing, trial to open ---- FW:
Attorney says police tricked suspect into confessing to slayings


When Lisa Underwood missed her baby shower a year ago, friends and
family
immediately knew something was wrong.

The deli owner was the doting mother of a 7-year-old son and thrilled
about adding a little girl - to be named Marleigh - to her family.

Those who knew the 34-year-old said she wouldn't just disappear from
her
Fort Worth home without a reason.

A few days after that planned celebration, the remains of Ms. Underwood
and son Jayden were found in a shallow grave in Denton County and the
suspected father of her unborn baby was in jail.

The capital murder trial of Stephen Barbee, who could face the death
penalty if convicted, is scheduled to begin Tuesday, just a couple of
days
after the one-year anniversary of the killings.

"We miss them very much," said Holly Pils, who founded Boopa's Bagel
Deli
with Ms. Underwood. "We keep going because of them."

A sign on the front door of the popular north Fort Worth deli says that
the shop will be closed today on the anniversary of the deaths.

"They were taken from us on this day one year ago," the sign says. "We
miss them very much."

Inside the restaurant, on the rack for coats and aprons, are the names
Holly, Lisa and Jayden in yellow and red wooden letters. Ms. Pils, who
declined to comment about the trial and could be called as a witness,
said
she never considered taking the other names down.

"They built this," she said, referring to the restaurant. "We did it
together."

The deli took its name from Jayden's nickname: Boopa.

Bill Ray, one of the attorneys for Mr. Barbee, said he has a more
difficult case because of his client's confession a few days after Ms.
Underwood, 7 months pregnant, and her son disappeared. He would not
comment on his trial strategy, but he said he believes that detectives
lied to Mr. Barbee, 38, and tricked him into confessing.

"There is a right and the wrong way," Mr. Ray said about detectives'
approach. He also said he is especially suspicious that one of the
confessions took place in the men's restroom.

Prosecutor Kevin Rousseau declined to comment on details of the case,
which is the policy of the Tarrant County district attorney's office.

Ex-wife

Patricia "Trish" Barbee, who had been married to the suspect for about
two
months when he was arrested, had defended him at that time. The couple
divorced early this month, and she could not be reached for comment
last
week.

In the divorce settlement, Mr. Barbee retained his stake in a pair of
businesses and among other property, received a travel trailer and
timeshare property in Florida - items he will never get to use again if
convicted.

Ron Dodd, a friend and business partner of Mr. Barbee, was indicted on
two
counts of tampering with physical evidence. Police said Mr. Dodd helped
Mr. Barbee the morning he was disposing of the bodies.

Both men gave detailed statements to detectives after police detained
them, and Mr. Barbee confessed to the killings and revealed where he
hid
the bodies, according to police records. Those documents give the men's
accounts of what happened to Ms. Underwood and Jayden.

Mr. Barbee called Mr. Dodd late on Feb. 18 or early Feb. 19, 2005,
explaining that he needed a ride. Mr. Dodd drove his business partner
to
North Riverside Elementary School in Fort Worth, just a few blocks from
Ms. Underwood's house, and dropped him off.

Later, Mr. Barbee asked for a ride home and told Mr. Dodd he had
visited a
friend he had "made pregnant" and that "I just can't do it."

Mr. Dodd told police he assumed that Mr. Barbee planned to break up
with
the woman. Later, Mr. Barbee called his friend again for another ride
to
the school.

During one of those trips, "Lisa let him in and they began to argue
because he would not leave his wife, Trish," according to Mr. Barbee's
statement to police.

While arguing, Mr. Barbee said, Ms. Underwood kicked him, and he
responded
by punching her in the face several times, giving her a bloody nose.
Mr.
Barbee said he pinned her on the floor and suffocated her.

During the fight, Jayden began screaming. Mr. Barbee then put his hand
over the boy's mouth and nose and suffocated him.

Mr. Barbee took Ms. Underwood's car and drove the bodies to rural
Denton
County to bury them and then abandoned the stolen SUV in another spot.
He
called Mr. Dodd again for a ride back home.

Possible evidence

The court file suggests that prosecutors plan to bring up Mr. Barbee's
past in an attempt to convince the jury that he deserves the death
penalty. This includes an attack on a motorist during a road rage
incident, threats against Mr. Dodd and frequent physical abuse of his
1st
wife.

Also, the documents said that when Mr. Barbee's 1st wife mentioned
divorce, Mr. Barbee threatened to kill her and run her body through a
wood
chipper to dispose of the evidence. The document said that Mr. Barbee
even
talked to another person about hiring that person to commit the crime.

(source for both: Dallas Morning News)

[CCADP]

Man told wife he killed ex-girlfriend----FW: Confession played at trial in
slayings of pregnant woman, boy


A sobbing Stephen Barbee, clutching his wife's shirt and begging for
forgiveness, admitted to his new bride that he killed his pregnant
ex-girlfriend, a video recording showed Wednesday.

The DVD, played for jurors in Mr. Barbee's capital murder trial, was
recorded a year ago while the couple were alone in a Tyler police
interview room. The Barbees, who had been married for two months when Lisa
Underwood and her 7-year-old son, Jayden, were killed in February 2005,
were unaware that they were being recorded.

"I didn't mean for her to stop breathing," Mr. Barbee told his wife,
Trish. "I just held her down too long."

Later he told his wife: "I'm going to die in prison. They are going to
kill me." If convicted, Mr. Barbee would receive life in prison or the
death penalty.

Ms. Underwood, who was 7 months pregnant at the time of her death,
believed that Mr. Barbee was the father of her unborn child.

A DNA test after her death showed he was not.

During the video, Mr. Barbee said he was afraid that the news about Ms.
Underwood's pregnancy would ruin his marriage.

Ms. Underwood, 34, and her son were suffocated in their North Fort Worth
home and buried in a rural area of southern Denton County. Before entering
the interview room, police told Mrs. Barbee that her husband had killed
Ms. Underwood, but they did not mention Jayden.

During the dramatic recording, Mr. Barbee did not mention the boy's name
or refer to him directly. At one point, he said, "Them poor people," but
it wasn't clear whether he was referring to the Underwoods.

The confession was played shortly before the prosecution rested on the
second day of testimony. Defense attorneys, who did not give an opening
statement, also rested after 2 witnesses testified briefly. Mr. Barbee did
not testify.

Closing statements were to begin at 9 a.m. today.

Defense attorneys had tried to keep the recording out of court, citing
spousal privilege, but that request was rejected by state District Judge
Robert Gill.

The 1st section of the DVD showed Mr. Barbee explaining his whereabouts
the night the Underwoods disappeared. He said he was visiting friend and
business partner Ron Dodd.

Later, he admitted running from a Denton County sheriff's deputy after
being stopped in a remote area a quarter-mile from where Ms. Underwood's
SUV was found abandoned.

Then Fort Worth homicide Detective Mike Carroll told Mr. Barbee that Mr.
Dodd had implicated him in the killings. Detective Carroll said that was a
lie but that the bluff inspired Mr. Barbee to confess.

During a bathroom break that lasted as long as an hour, Mr. Barbee
admitted the killings and said that Mr. Dodd helped him plan them,
Detective Carroll testified.

The second portion of the DVD recording, which started after the trip to
the bathroom, showed Mr. Barbee alone, crying.

"God almighty. What have I done?" he said to himself.

When Mrs. Barbee entered the room, she slammed an object on the table and
shouted, "You got her pregnant?"

Mr. Barbee apologized over and over throughout the recording. "I'm sorry,"
he said. "My life is over."

"God, Steve, was it worth it?" Mrs. Barbee said.

"I didn't mean to," he said.

Through the tears, Mr. Barbee explained to his wife that he was afraid she
would find out about Ms. Underwood and leave him. He said that he only
meant to talk to Ms. Underwood but that everything spun out of control.

Throughout much of their time alone, Mr. Barbee sat in his wife's lap as
she rocked him like a hurt child. Both sobbed uncontrollably as Mr. Barbee
rested his head on his wife's chest and shoulder.

At one point, Mr. Barbee told his wife he didn't cheat on her, but she
noted that they were dating at the time Ms. Underwood became pregnant.

Mr. Barbee begged his wife several times not to leave.

"Does this mean we're breaking up?" he said.

That question elicited sighs and groans of anger from some of Ms.
Underwood's friends and family.

Mrs. Barbee told her husband she would stick by him, but the couple's
divorce was finalized this month.

During the DVD recording, Mr. Barbee also told his wife that Mr. Dodd was
not involved in the killings. Mr. Dodd, who police said assisted Mr.
Barbee in disposing of the bodies, was indicted in Denton County on 2
counts of tampering with physical evidence. His trial is scheduled for
April 3.

The day after Mr. Barbee's confession, he led Fort Worth police to the
shallow grave where the Underwoods were buried.

The defense called Mr. Dodd to testify Wednesday afternoon, but he invoked
his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The only other
defense witness was a private investigator who served subpoenas on the
city of Fort Worth to obtain phone records for detectives working on the
Underwood case and for police manuals.

There was no testimony given to explain their significance, and defense
attorney Bill Ray declined to tip his hand.

"Wait for closing arguments," he said.

(source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

[CCADP]

2 portrayals of 1 defendant


In Fort Worth, defense attorneys have characterized Stephen Barbee as man
who lost his way but is still worth saving.

Prosecutors have portrayed him as a cold-blooded killer who deserves to
die.

A jury will soon have the final say.

On Monday morning, the panel is expected to begin deliberating Barbee's
fate for smothering Lisa Underwood, 34, the co-owner of Boopa's Bagel Deli
in north Fort Worth, and her 7-year-old son, Jayden, a first-grader at
North Riverside Elementary School.

Underwood was 7 1/2 months pregnant with a girl she had planned to name
Marleigh.

During the 4-day trial, prosecutors Kevin Rousseau and Dixie Bersano
maintained that Barbee, believing that Underwood was carrying his baby and
would expose his infidelity to his new wife -- went to her home early Feb.
19, 2005, and beat her, giving her a black eye and broken arm.

Then, prosecutors said, he smothered her by holding her face to the floor
for several minutes.

They told jurors that Barbee didn't realize that Jayden was home until the
terrified, pajama-clad boy walked into the living room crying.

"Some stranger was killing his mommy," Bersano said, her voice rising
during her closing argument Thursday. "He was screaming. He was a witness.
He turns on Jayden and killed him by smothering him."

Afterward, Barbee used cleaning supplies to try to clean up the blood and
loaded the bodies in Underwood's sport utility vehicle. He drove them to
rural Denton County, where he buried them in a shallow grave and dumped
the SUV in a creek.

Ron Dodd, Barbee's friend and employee, is accused of meeting Barbee at
the burial site and helping conceal the bodies. He has been charged with
two counts of tampering with physical evidence and is free on bail
awaiting trial in Denton County.

For jurors to sentence Barbee to death, they must find that he is a
continuing threat to society and that there are no mitigating factors in
his character or background that would make a life sentence more
appropriate.

In their effort to spare Barbee's life, defense attorneys Bill Ray and Tim
Moore have called friends, family, ex-girlfriends and Barbee's pastor's
wife, all of whom said they love him and will continue to support him.

Some testified that Barbee emotionally shut down after his pregnant sister
died of a virus and, two years later, his brother died in a car wreck.
Barbee was a teenager at the time.

Others told jurors that, at the time of the slayings, Barbee, a former
reserve police officer, was under an enormous amount of pressure. He was
arguing with his wife, Trish, as well as his ex-wife and business partner,
Theresa, and had just found out that his father had cancer.

He was also having terrible headaches, which started several weeks earlier
when a pipe fell on his head, knocking him unconscious, one witness said.

On Friday, the defense called Susan Perryman-Evans, a former prison
warden, to address whether Barbee would be a future danger to society if
he received a life sentence. Among other things, she talked about how much
training prison guards receive, how inmates are housed and what happens if
they violate a rule.

She told the jury that a problem inmate can be placed in a solitary cell,
away from the general population, for 23 hours a day for up to 2 weeks.

On cross-examination, Rousseau pointed out numerous high-profile cases in
which prisoners escaped or raped or murdered other inmates or guards. He
suggested that the securest place in the prison system is death row.

After the defense rested, Rousseau called one final witness.

Bruce Cummings, a private investigator and a familiar face around the
courthouse, was Jayden's coach in a youth soccer league.

"He was not one of the strongest players I had," Cumming told jurors, his
voice quivering. "But he gave effort."

Moments later, Rousseau flashed a photo of Jayden's soccer team on a large
screen in the courtroom.

Jayden -- dressed in his blue soccer uniform, his foot resting on the ball
-- stood in a line with his teammates, smiling out from underneath his
glasses and a mop of hair.

Closing arguments are expected to begin at 9 a.m. in state District Judge
Bob Gill's court.

(source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

[CCADP]

Jury to decide killer's sentence----FW: Testimony ends in punishment phase
of murder trial


Testimony in the punishment phase of convicted capital murderer Stephen
Barbee's trial has wrapped up, and the jury is to begin deliberating
Monday on whether he should live or die.

The jury's only punishment options are life in prison or the death
penalty. Mr. Barbee was convicted Thursday in the February 2005
suffocation deaths of Lisa Underwood, who was 7 months pregnant, and her
7-year-old son, Jayden.

The testimony Friday afternoon mostly centered on Mr. Barbee's future in
prison. Former Texas prison warden Susan Perryman-Evans said criminals
serving life sentences often change when they are placed in a highly
controlled environment and removed from the pressures of the outside
world.

"They sometimes mellow," she said of some of the "lifers."

During 2 hours of testimony on behalf of the defense, Ms. Perryman-Evans
spoke about the tightening of prison rules that keeps murderers from
enjoying some of the freedoms that other inmates can earn.

Prosecutor Kevin Rousseau asked Ms. Perryman-Evans, who is running for
Anderson County judge, whether she was familiar with the 7 inmates who
broke out of prison in South Texas in 2000 and murdered Irving police
Officer Aubrey Hawkins.

He also quizzed her about cases in which inmates killed or sexually
assaulted guards.

"There are failures from time to time?" Mr. Rousseau asked the witness.

"Yes," she responded.

During earlier testimony, witnesses spoke about Mr. Barbee's violent
temper.

His 1st wife said he assaulted her several times, and an acquaintance said
Mr. Barbee yelled profanities at her when she turned down his romantic
advances.

A Fort Worth homicide detective testified that the newly married Mr.
Barbee said he killed Ms. Underwood to save his marriage. Ms. Underwood
believed that Mr. Barbee was the father of her unborn child, and he was
afraid his second wife would find out.

DNA testing introduced in the trial showed that Mr. Barbee was not the
father.

On Friday, as testimony in the punishment phase was ending, the defense
called a court bailiff as a witness. He testified that Mr. Barbee had not
caused any trouble or acted violently during the trial.

Testimony ended Friday with the prosecution showing the jury a picture of
Jayden taken with his soccer team.

(source: Dallas Morning News)

[CCADP]

Barbee sentenced to die


Stephen Barbee was sentenced to death this afternoon for killing Lisa
Underwood and her 7-year-old son, Jayden.

A jury of 7 women and 5 men took more than 3 hours to reach their decision
on Barbee, 38. The jury could have sentenced him to life in prison.

During closing arguments this morning, prosecutor Kevin Rousseau brought a
dramatic end to the capital murder case against Barbee with a gripping
description of the murder of a pregnant Underwood and her son.

He talked about Barbee's trip to Underwood's north Fort Worth home in the
early hours of Feb. 19, 2005, and the fight that left bloodstains all over
her living room.

When he finished describing how Barbee smothered Underwood by pressing her
face into her carpet, he reminded jurors about her 7-year-old son's last
moments on earth.

"Jayden couldn't run," Rousseau said. "You think of (Barbee) approaching
that little boy and slappng him upside the head hard enough to leave a
bruise and then holding him down until hes dead, and I dare you to say
there is a reason to save his life."

In a victim impact statement, Underwood's mother, Sheila Underwood,
addressed Barbee: "I want you to know Im 53 years old and I don't have
anything left. ... I want you to suffer like I suffer. You put me in
hell."

Last week, Barbee, 38, was convicted of smothering the two and dumping
their bodies in a wooded area in rural Denton County. At about 10:20 a.m.
today, a jury began deciding whether he would die for the crime.

Police investigators said Barbee thought that Underwood was carrying his
child and claimed that she had threatened to break up his marriage.

The unborn baby girl was not Barbees child, lab tests later confirmed.
Underwoods friends have said that she believed he was the father and
wanted only for Barbee, who co-owned two businesses, to have the child
covered on his health insurance.

During closing arguments Monday, prosecutors Dixie Bersano and Rousseau
cast Barbee as a selfish man who was willing to do anything to get what he
wanted. They said the disregard he showed for the lives of Lisa Underwood
and Jayden prove that he will be a future danger to society, a requirement
for the death penalty.

Defense attorneys Tim Moore and Bill Ray, however, pleaded with jurors not
to use emotion to answer the question of whether Barbee should die. Moore
cautioned them against asking why, if Barbee took these two lives, he
shouldn't die, too.

"It's not a proper question, and I'll tell you why it's not a proper
question," Moore said. "That is because its a question the answer of which
is based on pure revenge, and you have to be careful, folks, not to let
revenge creep into your deliberations. Theres no place for revenge in our
law."

Moore said Barbee was a law-abiding, productive citizen who changed into
an "atrocious human being" for 3 hours on Feb. 19, 2005. He is unlikely to
be violent in the future, Moore said.

Rousseau, however, said jurors had plenty of reason to consider Barbee
dangerous. Testimony from Barbees 1st wife, Theresa, was an example, he
said.

She testified last week that Stephen Barbee assaulted her 4 times during
their marriage. Once, a candle he knocked off a wall hit her in the head
and gave her a concussion, she said.

"The pattern was there. The warning was there," Rousseau said.
"Unfortunately, Lisa Underwood did not have the benefit of that warning.
She never had a chance. She never had a chance."

[CCADP]

Barbee receives death sentence----FW: Prosecutor saw 'no reason to spare'
man who killed ex-lover, boy


In Fort Worth, a jury sentenced Stephen Barbee to death Monday for
murdering his pregnant ex-girlfriend, Lisa Underwood, and her 7-year-old
son, Jayden, to cover up an affair.

The jury deliberated for 3 hours before deciding that Mr. Barbee deserved
execution instead of a life sentence for the February 2005 killings.

Sheila Underwood, mother and grandmother of the victims, looked at the
ceiling and then nodded her head when the verdict was read Monday
afternoon as the weeklong trial was ending.

A few minutes later, she demanded that Mr. Barbee look at her as she
spoke.

"I'm 53 years old, and I don't have anything left ..." she said, raising
her voice in anger. "You put me in hell, but I'm not alone. You put your
parents in hell, too."

Assistant District Attorney Kevin Rousseau said Mr. Barbee's actions
obviously warranted the death penalty.

"I saw a lot of self-pity," he said. "I didn't see any remorse. There was
no reason to spare his life."

Mr. Rousseau, who prosecuted the case with Dixie Bersano, called Mr.
Barbee deceitful and violent.

Bill Ray, one of Mr. Barbee's attorneys, said little about the decision to
give his client the death penalty.

"This is a hard case," he said. "There was not much we could do."

The prosecution showed jurors a video recording of Mr. Barbee confessing
to his wife that he murdered Ms. Underwood several days earlier. The
couple didn't realize that their tearful conversation was being recorded
in an interview room at the Tyler police station.

Mr. Barbee told police the murders were planned and then later claimed
they were accidents.

Fort Worth homicide Detective Mike Carroll testified that Mr. Barbee
thought Ms. Underwood's unborn child was his and that his wife of two
months would find out he cheated on her while they were dating. Mr. Barbee
told police he smothered the Underwoods and then buried them in a shallow
grave in rural Denton County.

A DNA test performed after Ms. Underwood's death and made public for the
first time during the trial proved Mr. Barbee was not the father. Ms.
Underwood was 7 ? months pregnant when she was killed.

Shortly after the trial ended, Jackie Barbee sat in a courthouse hallway
waiting to see her son before he was transferred to Huntsville. "I am so
sorry," she said, when asked for a reaction.

She and her son did not show any emotion as the punishment was announced.
Mrs. Barbee chewed gum and glanced around the packed courtroom. It was
only when the judge continued addressing Mr. Barbee, telling him he was to
die by injection, that she reacted.

Mrs. Barbee then grabbed the hand of a man seated next to her and patted
it softly. Afterward, mother and son talked briefly and hugged. Mr.
Barbee's face was red from crying.

Mrs. Barbee blamed the media - among others - for her son's fate. "I think
you tried and convicted my son on the 1st day," she said, "but I forgive
you."

Last week, Mr. Barbee's supporters also grumbled about the strategy of Mr.
Ray and fellow defense attorney Tim Moore. They were particularly angry
that the lawyers called only 2 witnesses - one of whom declined to testify
- before Mr. Barbee was found guilty of capital murder.

Mr. Ray said 2 appeals already have been filed.

At 4 p.m., Tarrant County sheriff's deputies began driving Mr. Barbee to
the Byrd Unit in Huntsville for processing by the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice.

Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the state agency, said processing takes
several weeks for most inmates but lasts only a day for those destined for
death row.

Mr. Barbee will then be transferred to the Polunsky Unit near Livingston,
Texas, where he will await an execution day. There are 397 men and 9 women
on Texas death row.

Before deliberations began Monday, the jury was instructed to determine
whether there was a probability Mr. Barbee presented a future danger to
society and whether there were mitigating factors that would lessen his
responsibility for the crime.

Ms. Bersano said there was a simple solution to Mr. Barbee's problem. A
paternity test would have shown that Ms. Underwood's unborn daughter -
whom she planned to name Marleigh - was not his child.

"He couldn't have waited?" Ms. Bersano asked. "Violence is how this man
handles problems."

Ms. Bersano also cited previous testimony by 1st wife Theresa Barbee that
several arguments escalated into violence.

Mr. Moore said the only evidence of past violence came from Mr. Barbee's
"scorned" and "jilted" ex-wife. The attorney noted that his client had no
previous arrests or convictions.

"That's the best they can find?" he asked the jury.

A few hours later, the jury delivered its answer.

(source: Dallas Morning News)