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By JON MILTIMORE / News Herald Writer
BRISTOL — Octavious Barnes died Sunday still clutching the $1,100 he took from an 82-year-old bar owner before he was shot.
Now, three Blountstown women accused of helping Barnes, 24, face murder charges in connection to his death.
“As we were processing the crime scene, it became clearer and clearer he (Barnes) didn’t do everything himself,” Liberty County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Brigham Shuler said Wednesday.
Jessica Nicole Long, 19; Heather Marie Ammons, 22; and Mandy Allen, 43, planned and aided Barnes in the robbery of 82-year-old Bradley Harvil, owner and operator of the Slip N’ Slide bar, Shuler said.
On Sunday, authorities said Barnes broke into Harvil’s house, which is connected to the bar, and demanded money. Shuler said Barnes was waving a black pistol and assaulted Harvil with a shocking device used to debilitate people with heart conditions.
Harvil gave Barnes about $1,100, but then a second struggle ensued, authorities said. Harvil was knocked over and a TV set fell on top of him, but Harvil was able to reach his own gun, a .357 magnum. He fired twice, hitting Barnes once in the chest and a second time in the eye.
The second shot killed Barnes, Shuler said. Only later was it learned Barnes had robbed Harvil using a toy pistol made to look like a real weapon.
“He had blackened the gun with a magic marker,” Shuler said.
Shuler said not long after investigators realized Barnes had not acted alone, an anonymous tip led them to Long, Ammons and Allen, who authorities said was seen in a vehicle that picked Barnes before the robbery.
Long, Ammons, and Allen confessed to planning and helping Barnes commit the robbery to investigators, Shuler said. He said the women had identified the Slip N’ Slide, which is known to host large crowds on the weekends, as a ripe robbery target, and the women had been planning the robbery since at least early June.
“They told us about six weeks ago they did a dry run on his house,” Shuler said.
Shuler said the women face life in prison for the second-degree felony murder charge and up to 30 years in prison for the charge of felony home invasion robbery with a weapon.
The suspects already have had their first court appearance before Circuit Judge Kenneth Hosford and are being held at the Liberty County Jail without bond, Shuler said.
The investigation might not have come together without the assistance of the anonymous citizen, Shuler said.
“It was some good luck for us to get a tip like, and someone chose to do the right thing,” Shuler said
BRISTOL — Octavious Barnes died Sunday still clutching the $1,100 he took from an 82-year-old bar owner before he was shot.
Now, three Blountstown women accused of helping Barnes, 24, face murder charges in connection to his death.
“As we were processing the crime scene, it became clearer and clearer he (Barnes) didn’t do everything himself,” Liberty County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Brigham Shuler said Wednesday.
Jessica Nicole Long, 19; Heather Marie Ammons, 22; and Mandy Allen, 43, planned and aided Barnes in the robbery of 82-year-old Bradley Harvil, owner and operator of the Slip N’ Slide bar, Shuler said.
On Sunday, authorities said Barnes broke into Harvil’s house, which is connected to the bar, and demanded money. Shuler said Barnes was waving a black pistol and assaulted Harvil with a shocking device used to debilitate people with heart conditions.
Harvil gave Barnes about $1,100, but then a second struggle ensued, authorities said. Harvil was knocked over and a TV set fell on top of him, but Harvil was able to reach his own gun, a .357 magnum. He fired twice, hitting Barnes once in the chest and a second time in the eye.
The second shot killed Barnes, Shuler said. Only later was it learned Barnes had robbed Harvil using a toy pistol made to look like a real weapon.
“He had blackened the gun with a magic marker,” Shuler said.
Shuler said not long after investigators realized Barnes had not acted alone, an anonymous tip led them to Long, Ammons and Allen, who authorities said was seen in a vehicle that picked Barnes before the robbery.
Long, Ammons, and Allen confessed to planning and helping Barnes commit the robbery to investigators, Shuler said. He said the women had identified the Slip N’ Slide, which is known to host large crowds on the weekends, as a ripe robbery target, and the women had been planning the robbery since at least early June.
“They told us about six weeks ago they did a dry run on his house,” Shuler said.
Shuler said the women face life in prison for the second-degree felony murder charge and up to 30 years in prison for the charge of felony home invasion robbery with a weapon.
The suspects already have had their first court appearance before Circuit Judge Kenneth Hosford and are being held at the Liberty County Jail without bond, Shuler said.
The investigation might not have come together without the assistance of the anonymous citizen, Shuler said.
“It was some good luck for us to get a tip like, and someone chose to do the right thing,” Shuler said
