Man tied to deadly shootings pleads guilty to manslaughter

A Central Kentucky man has pleaded guilty in one of two fatal shootings during a string of robberies and gunfights in Lexington.

Jemel Barber, 22, pleaded guilty last week to manslaughter and second-degree robbery more than four years after he shot and killed 40-year-old Tyrece Clark, according to court records. He was initially charged with murder and first-degree robbery, but his charges were amended down after a plea agreement was reached.

Barber told police after the deadly shooting on July 23, 2017, that he showed up at a Lexington motel with a rifle, intending to rob Clark of narcotics and/or money, according to court records.

But Clark started shooting after Barber knocked on his door, Barber told police, so he shot back. The plea agreement was reached after attorneys disputed whether or not Barber could claim self-defense. Barber maintained that Clark was the aggressor and his attorneys continued to blame Clark as the court case played out.

“I shot because I was scared,” Barber told police when he was being questioned after the shooting, according to court records. “ … I didn’t know what was going on.”

But prosecutors argued there wasn’t enough evidence to prove Clark was the aggressor. Prosecutors also argued that self-defense laws don’t apply to people who are already committing a crime when they use deadly force to try to protect themselves. Barber disputed that he told police he was at the motel to rob Clark. He said he was there to buy drugs.

“The use of deadly force in self-protection is unavailable to the individual who instigates a situation,” prosecutors wrote in court records.

Barber’s defense team tried to have the case thrown out due to the self-defense argument, but the judge disagreed and ruled the case needed to go to trial. Barber was scheduled for a jury trial in March 2020, but it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

After multiple court hearings were rescheduled, Barber was set to go to trial on Monday before he and the state reached a plea agreement.

Prosecutors recommended that Barber serve 15 years for manslaughter and 10 years for robbery. The judge will decide whether or not to accept the prosecutors’ recommendations and determine if those sentences will be served at the same time or one after the other. Barber is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 11, 2022.

Durease Tyreaze Richards was charged in connection with Clark’s death too. He initially was accused of facilitating murder but was later indicted on a lesser charge of hindering Barber’s apprehension, according to court records. Richards allegedly picked up Barber and others and drove them away from the area of the shooting, according to court records.

Richards told police he heard Barber make statements implicating himself in the shooting, according to court records.

Barber tied to 3 robberies, 2 fatal shootings in 2 days

Two additional robberies and shootings on July 22, 2017 — the day before Clark’s death — resulted in additional charges of complicity to murder, attempted murder, complicity to robbery and complicity to burglary filed against Barber, according to court records. A bystander died.

Barber was one of five people charged after a group allegedly tried to rob two people in one day, according to court records. A few members from the group first robbed someone at gunpoint during a drug transaction in the Winburn area and fired shots at the victim as he fled, according to court records.

Alissa Mitchell, one of the five defendants, allegedly drove the group to meet with the Winburn victim. She then took them to the 300 block of Race Street, where the group stole items from a home and fired shots at the person who lived there as he fled, according to court records.

A bystander, 29-year-old Charles Shryock, was shot during the gunfire on Race Street. He later died at University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital.

Police responded to the shooting scene and found the car they believed the suspects were in, according to court records. They found Mitchell and chased down two additional suspects — Marvell Lacy and Garren Anderson — who tried to flee on foot, according to court records. Officers found stolen items in the car.

Lacy allegedly tried to toss his gun away. Anderson hid his inside a sewage drain, according to court records. It was later recovered. Investigators later identified Barber and Malik Moore as the other suspects.

Lacy, Anderson and Moore were charged with complicity to murder, attempted murder, complicity to robbery and complicity to burglary. In addition, Lacy and Anderson face evading police, evidence tampering and other charges.

Mitchell was charged with complicity to robbery and burglary. She has pleaded guilty to amended charges of facilitating robbery and complicity to robbery, according to court records. Prosecutors recommended that Mitchell serve 10 years in prison for complicity to robbery and one year for each of her two counts of facilitating robbery, according to court records.

Mitchell’s sentencing, during which a judge will determine whether to accept prosecutors’ recommendations, is scheduled for Dec. 10.

The others, including Barber, haven’t yet reached a resolution in their cases.