ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – Prosecutors played the Guns 'N' Roses song "Used to Love Her" Wednesday in court for the jury in the trial of a St. Johns County man charged with murdering his wife.
The prosecution said Justin Barber downloaded the song on his computer the day he murdered his wife, April. They said the lyrics to the song were key evidence in the case against Barber.
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The lyrics: "I used to love her, but I had to kill her. I had to put her six feet under," prosecutors said, are eerily similar to what happened the night of April Barber's death.
An expert in the field testified that the song was downloaded on Aug. 17, 2002, at 5:16 p.m.
The defense questioned why the prosecutors only referred to one of the songs downloaded.
"Of 1,695 songs on his computer, 16 of which were download on the afternoon of her death, and out of those, we were brought this one in the courtroom," defense attorney Bob Willis said.
In addition to Barber's music, the expert also testified that Barber had been searching the Internet for keywords such as "trauma," "gunshot" and "right chest".
Defense attorneys rebutted, stating that there was no way of telling why Barber searched the words on the Internet.
"You really can't tell us what occurred before it? In other words, was he reading an article out of the New York Times or Time Magazine or something that might have prompted this?" Willis said. "You can't tell us what happened before these searches, and you can't, essentially, tell us what happened after these searches either."
Also played in the courtroom Wednesday was a three-hour videotape deposition of Barber telling the court what happened the night his wife was killed.
"I got between them and then a gun went off. I'm calling her name, but she's not responding. I felt confused and nauseous. I felt like I did not have control of my body," Barber said in the 2003 videotape deposition.
In the deposition, Barber also talked about his financial state at the time of his wife's death, his sexual relations with at least four other women that his wife did not know of, and a $2 million life-insurance policy that Barber claims was cancelled months before his wife's death.
Prosecutors are expected to finish presenting their case this week. When that happens, the defense will take over.
Previous Stories:
- June 14, 2006: Jury Sees Video Reenactment Of Fatal Shooting
- June 12, 2006: Opening Statments, Testimony Begin In Husband's Murder Case
- June 12, 2006: Man On Trial For Killing Wife On St. Johns Beach
- June 8, 2006: Jury Selection Complete; Husband's Murder Trial To Begin
- July 12, 2004: Husband Arrested In Deadly Guana River Shooting
- April 9, 2004: Police Find Possible Clues in 2002 Murder
- August 19, 2002: Police Have Few Clues In Double Shooting At Beach