CHRISTIANSBURG VA November 28 2018 — Burdis Gene Barker Jr. was sentenced Monday to 83 years in prison and ordered to pay $290,000 in fines, the punishment recommended by a Montgomery County jury that last month found him guilty of trying to kill two Christiansburg police officers.

Barker, 46, of Stuart, left the courtroom cursing Montgomery County Commonwealth’s Attorney Mary Pettitt, telling her, “I hope you die in a house fire” as deputies turned him toward a door that led to holding cells.

Pettitt raised her eyebrows and shook her head.

Earlier in the sentencing hearing, Circuit Court Judge Robert Turk asked Barker repeatedly if he had anything to say and Barker either answered no or shook his head. His longest reply to the judge was “do what you want to do.”

Turk said that Barker was convicted of two counts of the attempted capital murder of a law enforcement officer, one count of possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute it, and one count of possessing a gun while possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute it.

For each attempted murder charge, Turk imposed a 35-year prison term and a $100,000 fine. The drug charge brought eight years and $90,000. The gun and drugs charge added five years, bringing the jury-recommended total to 83 years and $290,000 in fines, Turk said.

The judge added another three-year prison term and suspended it, saying Barker would be supervised by the probation office for three years if he is released from prison.

The sentence imposed Monday adds to the five years that Barker received last year after another jury found him guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm, a charge that also stemmed from the Aug. 7, 2016, altercation between Barker and two officers.

Barker has another jury trial scheduled for Dec. 12 in Roanoke County, where he was charged with conspiring to commit capital murder and attempted escape for a plan allegedly formed while he was being held in the Western Virginia Regional Jail on the Montgomery County charges. Barker is accused of plotting to kill a judge and sheriff’s deputy in Patrick County, where he was to be taken for a traffic charge.

Barker’s most recent journey through the courts began in 2016 when a clerk at a convenience store in Christiansburg reported that Barker might have taken a customer’s credit card. The clerk and Barker were Facebook friends. When she asked him to return to the store, Christiansburg police Lt. Carson Altizer and Officer Rene Fonseca were waiting.

Altizer and Fonseca testified last month — and at numerous hearings earlier in the case — that Barker acted jumpy when he was questioned and was asked to step out his car. When the officers asked to pat him down for weapons, Barker said he wasn’t doing anything, and when they told him to put his hands behind his back, he refused.

Then Barker pulled out a pistol and a parking-lot wrestling match ensued, with the three men rolling partly under Barker’s car as each tried to control the gun.

Barker had argued in court that officers planted a gun on him but in a jail phone call recording that was played at last month’s trial, Barker said that he pulled the trigger of his weapon “seven or eight times” but it would not fire. In the phone call, Barker complained that someone he knew had set him up by giving him a non-functioning firearm.

After the officers subdued Barker, they found methamphetamine and two more guns in his car. The credit card that had prompted the call to police was never located.

In other jail phone call recordings that were played at his trial, Barker boasted of drug dealing, detailed how much methamphetamine he had had with him when he was caught, and said he had more drugs and money concealed at his home to give to anyone who could help him get out of jail.

Before Turk imposed Barker’s sentence Monday, defense attorney Wade McNichols of Christiansburg asked the judge to take into account arguments made at last month’s trial. Then, Barker had attempted to explain away a long list of prior convictions and McNichols highlighted a history of drug problems and mental illness.

Turk appointed McNichols to advise Barker on his appeal rights and to represent him in an appeal if Barker wished.

roanoke.com

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