Grand jury indicts man in murder of his mother

Published 1:00 pm Wednesday, May 25, 2016

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — A Baldwin County grand jury returned a seven-count criminal indictment against a Milledgeville man accused in the March 16 brutal slaying of his elderly mother and two pet dogs at her home near Lake Sinclair.

Steven Charles Barrett was indicted on charges of malice murder, three counts of felony murder, exploitation of an elderly person and two counts of aggravated cruelty to animals, according to records filed in the Baldwin County Superior Court Clerk’s Office.

The charges stem from the stabbing death of his 76-year-old mother, Sandra Barrett along with the dogs, who like Mrs. Barrett, were repeatedly stabbed, Baldwin County Sheriff Bill Massee said shortly after Steven Barrett was formally charged with the slaying.

The defendant, a former schoolteacher, recently appeared before Baldwin County Chief Magistrate Shane Geeter for a preliminary hearing. Following testimony from Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office Detective Capt. Brad King during the hearing, Geeter ruled there was enough evidence to bound Barrett over to a grand jury for consideration of indictment charges against him.

Grand jurors met last Tuesday in Baldwin County Superior Court and heard testimony from King about the case before they decided to return true bills of indictment on all seven counts against Barrett.

An only child, Barrett was represented by John Bradley, chief assistant public defender, during the preliminary hearing. Barrett chose not to take the stand at the hearing.

Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Stephen A. Bradley is prosecuting Barrett with assistance from Assistant District Attorney Skye Gess.

At the recent preliminary hearing, King testified that Barrett still was at the scene of the crime when he arrived at the Barrett home, located on Bill Johnson Road.

The veteran detective said when he walked inside the home he saw what he described as several different blood-stained patterns throughout the kitchen and around Mrs. Barrett’s body.

“I noticed a number of knives in the kitchen floor, some of which were broken, and to say broken, you had a blade and a handle separate,” King said. “I also observed a large drawer pulled out, a left out kitchen drawer that contained a number of knives and different types of utensils.”

King said Dr. Melissa Sims, a pathologist with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), who performed the autopsy on Mrs. Barrett to determine the cause of death, told him that Mrs. Barrett sustained approximately 25 stab wounds.

Sims, according to King, described the wounds as jackhammer type stabs — “very fast, but close together.”