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Court shoots down man's joke (Man imprisoned for practical joke)
Charlotte Observer ^ | 5/4/02 | nichole monroe bell

Posted on 05/06/2002 11:48:11 AM PDT by visagoth

Court shoots down man's joke

Charlotte Observer

A macabre practical joke has landed a Chester County man 15 years in federal prison without parole.

In May 2000, Jeffrey Price Barber, 44, tried to play a joke on his wife by firing a round from a .22-caliber rifle, smearing ketchup on his face and body, then lying on the floor in a bedroom of his house, according to a statement released Friday by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Columbia.

His wife, after hearing the shot and seeing her husband covered in what she thought was blood, called 911. A sheriff's deputy who arrived at the scene found Barber and the rifle with one spent round of ammunition. Investigators later found several other guns and ammunition at Barber's home, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Because previous felony convictions for violent crimes prohibited him from having a gun, Barber was charged with illegally possessing the .22-caliber rifle, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The previous convictions also meant Barber faced a mandatory sentence of 15 years to life. Barber was sentenced in federal court in Columbia on Thursday.

Barber, who pleaded guilty to the offense, must serve five years of supervised release after getting out of jail.


TOPICS: Front Page News; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: chestercounty; felon; gun; joke; ketchup
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I bet this guy will show up on the yearly Darwin list pretty soon.
1 posted on 05/06/2002 11:48:12 AM PDT by visagoth
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To: visagoth
What an idiot.
2 posted on 05/06/2002 11:51:19 AM PDT by Rodney King
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To: visagoth
Yes, wives find it endearing when husbands try to scare the crap out of them, and the cops just love it when they're called to a murder scene and the ketchup-covered corpse leaps up and says "I was kidding!"

This guy's too stupid for anything but jail.

3 posted on 05/06/2002 11:52:04 AM PDT by hellinahandcart
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To: visagoth
what a CLymer! what a .. a ..DEMOCRAT!
4 posted on 05/06/2002 11:53:04 AM PDT by camle
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To: visagoth
"I bet this guy will show up on the yearly Darwin list pretty soon."

Not soon enough, unfortunately. The time to jump up and say "Surprise!" would have been right before she dialed 911... but not for this moron.

5 posted on 05/06/2002 11:57:33 AM PDT by Own Drummer
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To: visagoth
The closest I ever came to doing something like this was when I was working on the roof one winter day. My wife left for the store and I put my coat, hat, gloves and boots in the snow, face down, and went inside to watch a football game.

My wife was not amused.

6 posted on 05/06/2002 11:58:16 AM PDT by 11th Earl of Mar
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To: hellinahandcart
Tha wife should have finished the job when she found him...
7 posted on 05/06/2002 11:59:23 AM PDT by Preech1
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To: hellinahandcart
Bet the homies in the joint are going to be very amused by this story.

Poor guy, most everyone else can make some pretense of innocence but he seems to be stuck. Why could his excuse be? I was eating a burger, cleaning my gun, ketchup spilled on my shirt and when I reach down to clean it up, the gun, which I didn't know was loaded, went off. In shock, I fell to the floor.

8 posted on 05/06/2002 11:59:46 AM PDT by LarryLied
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To: LarryLied
The only way I can see him getting out of this was if he'd set off a firecracker instead of firing the rifle. Then he wouldn't have "possessed" the rifle. He had felony convictions, he should have known better.

Not too bright...

9 posted on 05/06/2002 12:04:34 PM PDT by hellinahandcart
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To: 11th Earl of Mar
My wife was not amused.

Would it make you feel any better to know that you just amused the heck out of me?! I just keep imagining this Wiley-E.-Coyote-flattened-by-boulder look that you must have created, and laughing my head off.

10 posted on 05/06/2002 12:04:46 PM PDT by Anamensis
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To: 11th Earl of Mar
Now THAT was mean. LOL.
11 posted on 05/06/2002 12:05:08 PM PDT by hellinahandcart
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To: visagoth
Look, this guy isn't the sharpest tack in the tool box, but fifteen years sounds a wee bit much to me. Fifteen years? Five more years of supervised parole?

This is double what the average person serves for murder.

12 posted on 05/06/2002 12:05:23 PM PDT by DoughtyOne
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To: visagoth
Oh yeah, that's a million laughs.
13 posted on 05/06/2002 12:07:53 PM PDT by DonQ
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To: visagoth
He must be a hoot at parties.
14 posted on 05/06/2002 12:08:00 PM PDT by ZinGirl
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To: visagoth
There is justice after all. What a maroon.
15 posted on 05/06/2002 12:09:40 PM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts
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To: DoughtyOne
I'm guessing it was a "three-strikes" situation, since they mention that his previous felony convictions led to mandatory sentencing this time around.
16 posted on 05/06/2002 12:10:13 PM PDT by hellinahandcart
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To: visagoth
"Because previous felony convictions for violent crimes prohibited him from having a gun..."

Some people, continually get out of the wrong side of the bed......others do things like this.He must've really wanted to be locked up.Imagine,here was an ex-con,who had his freedom,and now has to go to Prison for 15 years!
And to think that I thought Mike Tyson was stupid! LOL

17 posted on 05/06/2002 12:11:07 PM PDT by Pagey
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To: visagoth
Man imprisoned for practical joke

That headline is grossly misleading. He was imprisoned for illegal firearm possession, which happened to be his third felony conviction, hence the long sentence. The practical joke was a freebie.

18 posted on 05/06/2002 12:15:38 PM PDT by Steve0113
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To: DoughtyOne; hellinahandcart
This is double what the average person serves for murder.

This was a Project Exile prosecution - felons in possession of a firearm. Another common-sense, just do it for the children, reasonable, modest, feel-good gun law doing its thing: 15 years mandatory no parole sentence for firearms possession. If you think the sentence is harsh for the crime - thank the NRA, they support Project Exile, which hands down sentences like this all the time. (Very few Exile convictions are of violent criminals having actually committed violent crimes with guns.)

19 posted on 05/06/2002 12:16:17 PM PDT by coloradan
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To: Rodney King
I bet he got all A,s when he was in school.
20 posted on 05/06/2002 12:20:09 PM PDT by chiefqc
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