Jurors found Kenneth Eugene Barrett, 45, guilty Nov. 4 of three federal charges. U. S. Attorney Sheldon J. Sperling reported that Barrett was sentenced to death for intentionally killing a state law enforcement officer engaged in the performance of his duty. The defendant was also sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release for both u sing or carrying a firearm during and in relationship to a drug trafficking crime with death resulting and using or carrying a firearm during and in relationship to a federal crime of violence, with death resulting.
Barrett was not present to hear the jury's decision.
Witnesses finished their testimony last week in the sentencing phase of the trial. The sentencing phase involved the prosecution presenting aggravating factors, and the defense presenting mitigating factors, which are matters that must be proved by a preponderance of the evidence. The jury then weighed whether the aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors.
"This jury heard all the relevant facts and saw to the core of the case - the defendant murdered one law enforcement officer and tried to murder another," Sperling said.
"While the jury found multiple mitigating factors urged by Barrett, including that he had been previously tried, sentenced and convicted for the death of the victim in Sequoyah County, they found that the aggravating factors sufficiently outweighed any possible mitigation as to warrant a sentence of death," Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Littlefield noted.
This is the third trial Barrett has faced. Barrett's first state trial ended with a deadlocked jury, while Barrett was convicted of a lesser charge of manslaughter by a Sequoyah County jury during his second state trial last year. The second jury gave Barrett a combined 30-year prison sentence for the death of Eales and the wounding of another trooper, who were shot while trying to serve a night time, no-knock drug search warrant at Barrett's rural home northwest of Sallisaw.
Barrett's formal sentencing is set for Dec. 7.
