Dean Barker foresaw his death the night of Sept. 7.
The 51-year-old man had endured a two-hour beating and now his tormentors were talking about taking him for a ride, court records filed Wednesday show.
“These guys are going to take me out of here and beat me to death,” Barker purportedly told John Joseph Brown, in whose South Tacoma house the beating occurred. “They’ll kill me if you let them.”
Brown, 60, did nothing, Pierce County prosecutors allege, and Barker indeed wound up dead.
A passerby found Barker’s body outside a vacant house in Graham the next day. His hands were tied behind his back and his mouth taped shut. The medical examiner determined he’d been beaten and strangled.
On Wednesday, Brown became the seventh person charged with first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree robbery in Barker’s death. He pleaded not guilty in Superior Court and was ordered jailed in lieu of $1 million bail.
Five others already have pleaded not guilty. Another, Jeffrey Powell II, 30, was being sought.
The motive for Barker’s death remained murky Wednesday.
Some of the defendants told detectives that they were mad at Barker because they believed he sexually assaulted a woman in the group and might have had something to do with the brief disappearance of one defendant’s 3-year-old daughter.
Police later found the girl unharmed.
Prosecutor Mark Lindquist reiterated Wednesday that his office has not been able to corroborate those claims. There is evidence of robbery, Lindquist said. Several defendants have admitted taking Barker’s cash and watch, court records show.
“What we know is that all the defendants were involved in a robbery and kidnapping at defendant Brown’s house that led to murder,” Lindquist said. “All seven are complicit in the death of Mr. Barker.”
Brown said he witnessed the beating but did nothing to stop it, court records show. He denied taking part in robbing or killing Barker. He told detectives that Powell at one point drove off in Barker’s car, allegedly saying he needed to “get rid of it.”
Not long after, Powell, Justin Mahaffey and Angela King left the house with Barker, Brown told detectives. Mahaffey, 23, and King, 32, also are charged in Barker’s death.
“Brown told detectives that he knew Mahaffey, Powell and King were taking Barker out to a dead-end road in Graham to ‘teach him a lesson,’ ” court records show.
Adam Lynn: 253-598-8644
adam.lynn@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/crime
@TNTadam
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