A Faulkner County jury found a Florida man guilty of 14 charges relating to a bank robbery on April 13, 2007, in Greenbrier.
Johnta (pronounced John-tay) Quatast Barber, 28, of 814 Randall St., Orlando, Fla. according to 20th Judicial District court documents, was found guilty of aggravated robbery, three counts kidnapping, aggravated assault, unlawful discharge of a firearm from a vehicle, theft of property, fleeing in a vehicle, fleeing on foot, improper use of vehicle registration and traffic violations.
The jury had not arrived at a recommendation for Barber's sentence at presstime. Aggravated robbery alone carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, and Barber will be considered a habitual offender with four previous cocaine-related felony charges.
The kidnapping, theft of property and aggravated robbery charges were in relation to two of Barber's accomplices actions while committing the robbery inside First Arkansas Bank and Trust.
While Barber waited outside the bank, 26-year-old James Walker and 33-year-old Cornelius Paige, shown by court documents to have held Orlando addresses of 1907 South Rio Grande Avenue and 5243 Gold Tree Court, respectively, held two bank workers at gun and knifepoint after accosting the two when they arrived to open the bank at about 7:45 that morning. In the course of the robbery, Walker and Paige severely beat a third worker who arrived after the two robbers had already stuffed a duffel bag with money.
A fourth bank employee arrived soon after Walker and Paige had fled the bank in the getaway car. This worker called 9-1-1 and gave a vehicle description given by one of the other workers that led to an all-units radio transmission advising officers to be on the lookout for the vehicle. This transmission was heard by Faulkner County Code Enforcement officer, who radioed that he was trailing possible suspects and followed them until trooper Gregg Bray of the Arkansas State Police picked up the pursuit and attempted to stop the vehicle.
The fleeing in a vehicle and traffic violation charges stemmed from a high-speed chase down Interstate 40 to Highway 365 and through downtown Mayflower. Before exiting the interstate, the getaway car agreed by the jury to have been driven by Barber lost control after passing multiple cars by driving down the median and careened into a SUV driven by Thomas Nabholz of Conway. Nabholz's vehicle was knocked off the road, overturning several times and leaving the man with what he told the jury were "miraculously" minor injuries.
The collision with Nabholz resulted in the aggravated assault charge, and six shots fired from a semi-automatic pistol through the back windshield of the getaway car at Bray's police cruiser by one of Barber's accomplices as the chase continued just south of Mayflower resulted in the unlawful discharge of a firearm from a vehicle charge.
Though the jury agreed Barber was guilty by association in the shots fired at Bray, the jury found him not guilty of an attempted capital murder charge.
Crippled from the collision with Nabholz's vehicle, the getaway car was ditched at Highway 365 and White City Road and all three suspects fled on foot. Walker and Paige were arrested by Bray and deputy Mike Wilkins of the Faulkner County Sheriff's Office within seconds, but Barber was able to hide for six hours before ASP S.W.A.T. team members found him coated with mud in a thicket about 200 yards from where he bailed out of the vehicle.
Walker and Paige were tried separately from Barber. Both were found guilty and given 225-year sentences in the Arkansas Department of Correction.
Defense attorney William "Bill" James argued to the jury that Barber's initial statements to an ASP investigator indicated that he was a transient passing through the area who had suffered a seizure and fallen unconscious in the muddy depression where he was found.
Aiding James' argument was his successful motion to Judge David Reynolds Wednesday morning that evidence which would have revealed to the jury that Barber, Walker and Paige all hailed from Orlando. As this evidence was available only in the form of court documents drafted by investigators who recorded address information for the suspects based only on statements made by the suspects, Reynolds ruled that the evidence had to be considered hearsay and therefore inadmissible before the court.
This left evidence available to state prosecution team Joe Don Winningham and Chuck Clawson, both 20th Judicial District deputy prosecuting attorneys, that included clothing found on and near Barber at the time of his arrest that seemed to match video images of the driver recorded by Bray's in-car camera.
The geographic link between the three suspects would have been a strong piece of evidence, Winningham and Clawson agreed after the jury had entered deliberation on a recommended sentence, but the brown jacket with a yellow stripe seen on Bray's video footage and recovered within arm's reach of where Barber was found was equally compelling.
Barber's given residence was less than 20 blocks from Walker's and about five miles from Paige's.
"We are very happy with the jury's verdict," 20th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Marcus Vaden said while the jury was deliberating sentence. "These three men came into our community; they hurt our people. A jury put two of them in jail for a very long time and Mr. Barber should also be put in jail for a lengthy period of time."
(Staff writer Joe Lamb can be reached by e-mail at joe.lamb@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1238. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit)
