Rebecca Barker
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A sleepy Texas town is shaken awake by a harrowing 911 call. Oh my God, I can't watch at him. He was dead in his chair. She needed help. Oh God, what have I done? As the dust settles, a seemingly simple narrative takes shape. I love that man, but he pushed me to my limit.

She was saying that he was verbally abusive and he would always put her down. But a well-kept secret threatens to expose a far darker truth. I don't understand why somebody would be able to get away with something like this the first time. This is how she handles problems. It was same story, different situation.

And there are always two sides to every story. She wasn't a nice person. She was pushing the family away. She meant to take this man's life, and that's exactly what she did. I would just like to tell my side, the story. I didn't plan anything. I just snapped. About two hours southeast of Dallas, the 6,000 residents of Rusk live in the heart of East Texas.

Everybody kind of knows who their neighbors are, even though their neighbor lives a half mile away from them. The in-town area has like the little diner and stuff. It's a really old town style. Just after 2:30 p.m. on February 26, 2014, a rare 911 call comes in to dispatch. - - Ma'am, I just shot my husband.

The call was made by Rebecca Barker. She called 911 and reported that she had shot her husband. As authorities rush to the scene, the 911 operator stays on the line with 52-year-old Rebecca. Oh, my God.

The operator alerts the trooper en route that he may be entering a hostile situation. As he approaches the home, the front door slowly starts to open.

She cracked the door open. He raised the weapon and ordered her to come out. The trooper braces for a standoff, but Rebecca backs down. She complied. She came out on the front porch. He was able to go up, get her secured, make sure she didn't have a weapon on her. She wasn't really talking. She seemed to be distraught. She was shut down, so I wasn't able to speak with her.

When investigators arrive and enter the home, they quickly find Rebecca's husband, 76-year-old Jerry Barker. - Jerry's body was sitting in his chair. Feet were up on the ottoman. It looked like he was still asleep in his easy chair, except for the pooling of blood on his chest. When they checked for a pulse, there was none. His body had already begun cooling. They were not able to put a definite timeframe, but it was pretty obvious he'd been dead for a little bit.

Outside, officers inform Rebecca that her husband is deceased, and they attempt to get her side of the story. In a situation like this, what we do, we start, we just ask them, tell me what happened. Give me your side of what occurred. Born in 1937, Rusk native Jerry Barker's life centered around family and the open road. Jerry drove an 18-wheeler for a living. He was definitely a hardworking guy. He owned his own truck.

And he drove for a company all across the country. In 1957, Jerry married the love of his life, Frances Mae Barker. They had four children, three boys of their own, plus a son from Mae's first marriage. My grandparents were a perfect couple. And my grandpa raised all four boys because the dad of the oldest son wasn't around.

Jerry loved Mae and he put her up on a pedestal and that I always thought was great. Jerry's work may have kept him on the road, but when he was home, Jerry was all about spending time with his family. If he wasn't driving the truck, he was definitely always around. One thing my grandpa taught his kids was how to work on cars because that's what he did and he wanted them to learn too. Jerry's main thing that he wanted out of life was a happy home.

He wasn't trying to conquer the world. He was just trying to conquer his little corner. Eventually, Mae and Jerry's boys grew up and had families of their own. Jerry still loved being on the road, but grandchildren made coming home that much sweeter. My grandpa loved when he got off the truck to see if grandkids were at the house already. We saw his truck drive up. We're like, you know, Papa's here, and we were all excited.

After over 40 years of marriage, Jerry was looking forward to his golden years with Mae. But in 2001, those dreams suddenly disappeared when Mae suffered a fatal heart attack. The entire family was overcome with grief, but no one more so than Jerry. The only life that he knew was with her.

Having her gone, I don't think that he was able to really grasp it. I think that he felt a huge empty feeling. Jerry tried to take solace on the road. But no matter how many miles he logged, he always returned home with a heavy heart. Then, in 2002, the 64-year-old met 40-year-old waitress Rebecca Osborne.

That's how they met, because he was a customer at her cafe. When she, at one time, apparently had talked to him, and they started to flirt. Rebecca was a divorcee with two grown children of her own. Rebecca was 20 years younger than him, and I think probably the first attraction was she was just kind to him, and he playfully flirted back. And him and her started going out and started seeing each other.

Jerry was smitten with the kind waitress. It was less than a year after he had lost my grandma that Rebecca was there. So to me, that seemed fast, but I just figured maybe because of his age, things were a little different. He said to us, y'all don't understand how hard it's been since Mae died. And to have somebody to be around helps fill that void. I'm not so lonely.

For the next six years, Rebecca frequently joined Jerry on the road. But by 2008, he decided to change lanes. He quit driving a truck and bought a general store in nearby Dialville. And so he sold his 18-wheeler and he took that money and he invested it into a store. In love and inseparable, Rebecca and Jerry relished working side-by-side.

She cooked, worked back in the cafe. She would run the register. She did the finances and the books. Jerry wasn't very business-wise, but he was a good-hearted man. Everybody in the little community right there knew him and said, "Hello, how you doing, Jerry?" For more than five years, Jerry and Rebecca ran the store. It appeared that Jerry would enjoy his golden years, after all, with Rebecca.

But on the afternoon of February 26th, 2014, after 12 years of marriage, Jerry Barker is dead from a gunshot wound to the chest, and Rebecca has just confessed to pulling the trigger. They found a bullet in the floor in front of the couch. There was also a bullet in the chair that had been fired through the center of his chest and came out his lower back. There was only one entry wound and one exit wound.

Police said that immediately they could tell he had been shot by someone who seemed to be standing above him. They did locate a Ruger .357 that was later confirmed by Rebecca Barker as having been the murder weapon that she used to shoot Jerry Barker. Even though they know how Jerry died and who killed him, the scene doesn't answer the biggest question weighing on investigators' minds.

They know going into it what happened, but the question they have now is why. Coming up, Rebecca offers up her side. She was saying that he was verbally abusive. He would always say, like, in her words, these awful, bad, awful things to her. I love that man, but he pushed me to my limit. Investigators find reason to believe there's more to this story.

Rebecca had waited over an hour before even calling police. Now we need to see if we can figure that out. Was there more of a justification? Is this cold-blooded killing? Is this person evil? Within hours of her 911 call, investigators in Rusk, Texas, are eager to learn why Rebecca Barker shot and killed her husband, Jerry.

Was there more of a justification? Is this cold-blooded killing? Is this person evil? Just before the interview starts, Rebecca requests medical attention. She lets them know that she had taken one of Jerry's blood pressure pills and she's not feeling so well. Hold on, Rebecca. Can you take some medicine? I just took a blood pressure pill. When? About 1.30.

She took the blood pressure pill after she shot Jerry, trying to calm her nerves. Because my heart is beating so bad. EMS clears Rebecca to go ahead with the interview. When it begins, Rebecca quickly reveals she and Jerry had been fighting nonstop about their business venture. The store is a source of strife in their relationship. She and Jerry were together all the time. They fought about it constantly.

Rebecca paints a portrait of a woman at her breaking point. She takes investigators back to that morning, which the couple spent arguing at home.

So Wednesday morning they get up and Rebecca tells him, I'm not going to work again. It's basically all on you. I just don't want to. And I didn't want to go in. So he didn't go in either? Yeah. Rebecca says this set Jerry off. He told me that I was a bitch and he wanted a divorce. And I'm just trying to do the best I can for this man. Do you know what statement he made that pushed you over?

Rebecca claims that Jerry's harsh words are nothing new. She was saying that he was verbally abusive and he would always pick on her. He would always just put her down and say, like, in her words, these awful, god-awful things to her. Yeah.

He had just been on her since the minute he woke up, that he was just in her direct quotes, bitching and bitching and bitching at her. He pushed me to the limit and I tried to tell him. I said, baby, please don't push me no more. I can't do it anymore. And he called me all kinds of ugly words, my name. He was griping and griping and griping. I just did it. Oh, God.

I love that man.

Investigators consider Rebecca's story. We start looking at, is there a claim for sudden passion? You know, did this happen in the heat of the moment? Did it arise to that level where legally she could claim that so it's more manslaughter than it is cold-blooded intentional murder? Rebecca's demeanor during the interview is certainly indicative of a woman pushed to the brink.

She's very animated, putting her head down on the table, throwing her head back, throwing her arms around. But that suddenly changes when authorities leave the room. All of a sudden, those histrionics stop. She goes dead calm, just sitting around, looking around like you and I are. There's no emotion. I don't believe that Rebecca realized she was being video recorded. All of us were kind of sitting back, looking at each other, thinking, "Okay, this is not normal."

When investigators review Rebecca's statement, they find another red flag about a small yet critical piece of information in Rebecca's timeline of events. I just took a blood pressure pill. When? About 1:30. Rebecca tells law enforcement she took the blood pressure medication that was Jerry's about 1:30 after she shot Jerry. After that, we know that a call was made by Rebecca Barker. She had tried to get ahold of her best friend.

They talked for about 10 minutes or so. Then he tells her, you need to call law enforcement, you need to call 911, you need to do the right thing. And then around 2.45 is when she makes the call to 911. Rebecca had waited over an hour before even calling police. By the time police arrived, there was nothing they could do for him. He was long gone. The case is far from closed, but Rebecca isn't walking away a free woman.

Investigators turn to the report from the medical examiner. Based on the markings around the wound, he confirms that Jerry was shot at a close distance.

The shooter was within three feet of the body when the gun was shot. And we know that the bullet came from up above and went down at an angle through the body and went into the chair back behind him. And he was dead very, very quickly. He would have bled out in a matter of minutes. But one crucial finding in the report will cast even more doubt on Rebecca's version of events.

Looking at that wound and the trajectory of the bullet, it appeared to him that his arms were crossed over his stomach and the bullet passed through the forearm as it went into the chest. And then as the body went slack, his arms fell. So the medical examiner was able to infer by putting all of that evidence together that Jerry Barker was asleep when he was shot. Coming up, Rebecca's story continues to unravel.

It did seem like she had brainwashed him. She controlled everything that he did. And a family comes forward with shocking allegations. They believed he was in a situation where he was in danger, and so Adult Protective Services stepped in. This Christmas, get exactly what you want.

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Rebecca Barker claims she shot her husband Jerry during a heated argument that pushed Rebecca to her breaking point. But the medical examiner's report tells a different story. He's leaned back in his chair, his feet are up on that ottoman with the ankles crossed, and then once that bullet goes through him and the body relaxes, he's found with his hands down by his sides, palms up.

The evidence indicates that Jerry was asleep when he was shot. It almost looked like she waited until that moment when he would be off guard to take that chance and shoot him. It looked like there's not even an argument going on. She didn't have a self-defense claim. She didn't have a sudden passion claim.

So why did Rebecca Barker shoot the man she claimed to love? Determined to get to the bottom of what happened, investigators speak with Jerry's family. They are reeling from the news of the beloved patriarch's death. It's not so much when a person dies, but how they die that bothers you the most. And this was a hard one to accept. Jerry's family says once he hooked up with Rebecca, the family gave her the benefit of the doubt.

Here's this pretty young woman, much younger than him, that's very interested in him. Made him happy, probably made him feel young again. And so they tried to be accepting. But when Jerry told his family he had married Rebecca, they found themselves at odds with Jerry's new bride. I would call Jerry. She would pick up sometimes and she'd be like, "You can't come to the phone," or whatever. When I called, she would say, "I'll give him the message. He's busy." And he's always busy.

Every situation where I tried to, you know, get to do something, to organize a date, she would tell me that it wasn't possible. Rebecca was shutting everybody out. She was putting distance between everybody. And Jerry didn't see that part of it. Jerry felt everybody was ganging up on Rebecca. It became strange with the family. There wasn't that close connection anymore.

I thought the relationship between them was going to be a short-lived thing because she was so much younger and she wasn't a nice person. As the years passed, things got worse. She was just not willing to meet or do anything with us at all. She pushed most of the people in the family away and only a couple were able to go around. It did seem like she had brainwashed him because she controlled everything that he did and she controlled everybody he talked to.

A few months before the murder, Jerry began to openly question his future with Rebecca. Their relationship clearly wasn't going well. There was a lot of problems. They were fighting a lot.

As it goes on and time rocks on and things get more tense, around September, early October of 2013, Jerry has started voicing to both Rebecca and to others in the community and to his family that he wants a divorce. I honestly believe Jerry told her he wanted a divorce and she was upset. It was his house and he was planning to leave her and split with her.

But what really got the attention of family and friends was Jerry's sudden decline in health. Jerry was on several medications because he had had a horrible accident not too long before his murder where a tractor had actually rolled over him and broke some of his ribs. Some days he'd be lucid and talking and the next day at the store he's basically sitting there catatonic and drooling on himself, which was completely unlike him.

He seemed to be weak and under the influence of something that made him unaware of his surroundings for the most part. That raised a red flag for me. I had gotten word that she was giving him extra medication, that it was his own medication. She was giving him extra to make him be-- to make it to where he wasn't aware. Jerry had actually made comments to people in the months leading up to the murder that he believed Rebecca was trying to kill him by messing with his medication.

When Jerry's family confronted Rebecca, she became unhinged. I told her in one of the phone calls that I'm, I said, I'm just going to go visit. And she had gotten mad at that phone call and said, no, you don't show up on my property. I'm like, but it's my grandpa. I'm going to show up over there to see him. And she said, if you do, I'll shoot you.

Unable to see Jerry or reason with Rebecca, his family and friends turned to the authorities. Multiple reports were made that friends and family believed he was in a situation where he was in danger, and so Adult Protective Services stepped in. They had been called to the store just two weeks before Jerry's murder on a report that he was overmedicated. But by the time they got there, it seemed like he was fine, so there wasn't really much they could do.

Jerry was irate. Even though he had his own suspicions when it came to Rebecca, he made it clear he didn't want his family or friends messing around in his business. I got a call from him and he was yelling at me and telling me that I had embarrassed him in front of all of his customers by pulling something like that. Jerry's loved ones weren't going to let it go.

I had talked with my dad and we decided that what we would do is figure out a way to get my grandpa and bring him to our place. That was our plan, whether he wanted to or not. But before they could act on it, they got the call that Jerry was dead. The information from the Barker family casts new light on the investigation. So there were a lot of questions within Rebecca and Jerry's relationship.

Rebecca is often saying one thing while his family is saying something else. Investigators theorize that if Rebecca was switching out Jerry's meds, that could have been her first attempt to kill him. We believed that she was trying to kill him through the medication because it's harder to trace. And when that didn't work fast enough, she shot him. But if Rebecca did plan Jerry's murder, why? Why?

Of course, we're thinking about financial because, as we all know, one of the guiding principles to human behavior, unfortunately, is greed. If she divorced Jerry, Rebecca would have to share. But if Jerry died, all of it would be hers. Rebecca stood to gain everything. She would get the store. She would get whatever monies were in the bank, whatever investments he had, whatever retirement he had. She would get the home.

Investigators continue to dig, taking a deep dive into Rebecca's past. They are shocked to learn that when Rebecca and Jerry married in 2002, Rebecca was on probation for a major offense. This wasn't Rebecca's first brush with the law. She had been in trouble almost 20 years before Jerry's murder. I was absolutely incredulous when I found it out. We were just flabbergasted. Coming up...

Investigators uncover a disturbing pattern of behavior. Same story, different situation. She had previously been in trouble for trying to kill her husband beforehand. And Rebecca responds to the allegations. Jerry's family said a lot of things throughout our marriage that just weren't true.

While investigators in Rusk, Texas dive deeper into possible motives for the murder of Jerry Barker, they learn that in 1996, Rebecca Barker had been linked to another shooting, this one involving her first husband, John Osborne. When law enforcement runs a criminal history, they find out she did have something involving a weapon and involving a shooting in her past.

When you hear about that, you think this is a pattern of behavior. It definitely raises some questions. Authorities reach out to their counterparts in Liberty County, Texas. They speak with investigator Ivan Pierce, who responded to the 911 call the night John Osborne was shot. ♪

April 15th, 1996, shortly before midnight, I got a call of a shooting in the unincorporated portion of Liberty County. The victim had been shot several times while he was sitting in a recliner in his living room. The caller was Rebecca's teenage daughter. Rebecca has two children from a previous relationship, a son and a daughter. The son is out of the home. Her daughter, Marsha, is living in the home and is 17 years old.

Marcia was the one to give the first information to first responders when they got to the house and started giving life-saving measures to John. She was visibly upset, not knowing really what had happened or who did it. To gain more insight on the shooting, officers examined the crime scene. It was from a large caliber. We could tell that from the projectiles. There appeared to be bullet holes in the window from behind the recliner. It appeared that the shooter was right outside of the window.

After unpacking the crime scene, investigators focused their efforts on finding out who shot John and why. We learned early on in the investigation that John and Rebecca were getting divorced. I spoke with Rebecca's brother. He informed me that he had a .45 caliber pistol, but he could not locate it. He had understood that Rebecca was supposed to be coming to Liberty Prison.

with a lawyer to turn herself in on the case. Rebecca didn't appear until two days later. So on April the 18th, about 10.30 a.m., Rebecca Osborne did appear at my office. Rebecca explained that on the afternoon of the shooting, John called her with the sole intention of upsetting her. John and Rebecca had been having problems mainly related to her drinking habits.

John has indicated he wants a divorce. Rebecca called Marsha and said, "Would you come and live with me?" And Marsha told her, "No, I'm not gonna live with you. I want to live with John." Well, this set Rebecca off. She shot him, I believe, two times, both in the back of the head, and then she left. Rebecca's first husband was far luckier than Jerry.

Just by the grace of God, he survived. And the quick thinking of his stepdaughter. I had met with John. He was still in the hospital and informed him that Rebecca had confessed to shooting him. He was emotional about it himself. I mean, nobody wants to believe your spouse would do that. But investigator Pierce tells detectives that it wasn't long before John changed his tune.

Rebecca's previous husband seems to kind of feel bad for Rebecca, doesn't want her to go to jail. He wanted Rebecca to get some help. His main focus was for her to get some help for her drinking problem. When you have a situation like that, it just makes it very, very difficult for prosecution. And at that point, the district attorney works out the best deal that they can. The judge gave her 10 years probation. 180 days of that was locked up in the county jail.

To Cherokee County Sheriff investigators, Rebecca's shocking past displays a pattern. This is how she handles problems. And it was same story, different situation. It was she was being threatened with divorce. She was going to lose what she believed to be hers. She thought she was justified in taking a life. And so she did.

I don't understand why somebody would be able to get away with something like this the first time. She should have been able to start any kind of relationship with my grandpa, with that being her past. When detectives circle back to Rebecca with all of this new information, she begins by denying Jerry's family's allegations. They never wanted Jerry and I to even

Rebecca says she never kept Jerry from his family. It was Jerry who didn't want anything to do with them.

They would call the house and want to talk to Jerry. And I would say, babe, so-and-so's on the phone. And he'd say, I don't want to talk to him. Rebecca also denies threatening to shoot Jerry's granddaughter, Wendy, if she showed up on their property. That's not true. I never met the granddaughter. She wouldn't come to the house. And I don't understand why Jerry's family said a lot of things throughout our marriage that just weren't true.

Rebecca claims the trouble in their relationship really began when Jerry wanted to open a general store. He said, I think we could handle a little small mom and pop grocery store. So that and that's what he wanted. We never had time for the house anymore. We never had time for a life anymore. It was always the store.

A lot of things that started building up between not just the tension between Jerry and I, but something changed with Jerry. And I don't know if it was the medication that the doctor kept changing him on, but he started changing. And I didn't know him anymore.

While her rebuttal to the family's accusations may seem plausible, after three days of being in police custody, Rebecca offers a new account of Jerry's death that throws police for a loop. She sends out a note to detectives that she has something very important she needs to tell them. Coming up, Rebecca's story takes a sharp turn. She says nobody was mad, they'd been getting along, that it was a big accident.

And Rebecca fights for her freedom again. I got scared. I did. I said, maybe if I tell them that, they'll let me go. I can go home. After being arrested for her husband's murder, Rebecca Barker requests to speak to the Cherokee County Sheriff's investigators again.

So a few days after Rebecca Barker has given her first statement to law enforcement, she's still sitting in jail. She says, "Something I have to get off my chest." She says that Jerry is her best friend, that nobody was angry, nobody was mad, they've been getting along, that it was a big accident.

Rebecca says they were watching an old Western and drinking heavily when she began horsing around and took it too far. She's standing up, playing around with the loaded weapon, and she said, hey, look at me, I'm Marshal Dillon. And he said, don't do that. You need to put the gun down. Well, it startled her and the gun went off. I told him, I said, it was an accident. We were watching TV and we were playing with the gun.

I got scared. I did. I said, maybe if I tell them that, they'll let me go. I can go home, try to make things right. To investigators, Rebecca's accident story is far too little too late. I don't know. I just, I snapped. I didn't plan anything. I just snapped. And I just went and got the gun and I just shot him. Rebecca's claims of heavy drinking are also quickly ruled out.

In toxicology and looking at that, his blood alcohol level was minimalistic at best. So we know that part's not true. She meant to take this man's life, and that's exactly what she did. She was charged with first-degree murder at that point. While prosecutors ready their case, Rebecca spends the next seven months awaiting trial. On October 8, 2014, Rebecca takes a plea.

Rebecca Barker actually comes in and pleads guilty to first-degree murder. So knowing and intentionally causing the death of Jerry Barker is what she tells the judge she is guilty of. Despite her willingness to accept responsibility, Rebecca elects for a jury trial to determine her punishment. The reason that I went to trial for sentencing was my attorney said...

The DA is offering you 40 years. And I said, "40 years? No way. There's no way." With a sentencing deal off the table, in November of 2014, prosecutors come out swinging. When you look at who Rebecca Barker is,

at the totality of who she is and what she's chosen to do in her life. Rebecca is greedy, she's devious, she's controlling, she's manipulative, she's underhanded, she's ruthless. And it's clear that the damning portrait was plausible to a jury when they determine Rebecca Barker should spend the rest of her life behind bars.

They decided that they did not want her walking the streets. Now, she has the potential after 30 years to go up for parole, but her chances of getting it, even if she's an absolute model prisoner the first time she's eligible, are slim to none. For Jerry Barker's family, the punishment is as it should be. I don't want her to be executed. I want her to live her whole life remembering what she did, but not freely. I don't want her to have any kind of freedom. I want her to be in those walls, and that's the rest of her life. Jerry was the love of my life.

I know I was wrong in shooting Jerry. Most of the bad decisions I made were because of alcohol. And that's the first time I've ever said that. If his family could forgive me, I don't know whether they ever can. But I sit and I think of, I wish I could say to them, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I truly am. Jerry's family only hopes that others can learn from his story and intervene before it's too late.

Rebecca Barker is currently at the Patrick O'Daniel Unit Correctional Facility in Gatesville, Texas. She will be eligible for parole in 2044 at the age of 82.

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