CLAYTON, Mo. — A Missouri man whose initial death sentence for killing his grandparents was overturned has now been sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 43-year-old David Barnett was resentenced by a St. Louis County judge on March 15. Barnett’s attorney has filed a notice of appeal.
Barnett broke into the Glendale home of his adoptive grandparents on Feb. 4, 1996. When 82-year-old Clifford Barnett and his 75-year-old wife, Leona, returned from a church brunch, David Barnett fatally stabbed them and stole their car and cash.
He confessed to the crime and was sentenced to death. A judge in 2015 overturned the sentence, saying Barnett’s trial lawyers should have presented more evidence about the “horrors” he suffered as a child.
