A Time To Kill

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Sterling Barber** (0:11)
MUSIC Franklin County is a small country place.
And in Carlsville, there's nothing but a little speck. And nothing really much goes on there.

**Richard Schlesinger** (0:26)
Sterling Barber wants a life as quiet as his hometown in rural Georgia.

**Sterling Barber** (0:32)
I want to be a good dad, a good husband, raise my family right, and I want to take care of my mom, make it comfortable for her.

**Judy Barber** (0:43)
Sterling's got a heart as big as Texas.

**SPEAKER_6** (0:46)
From the day he was born, he's taken a big bite out of life.

**Judy Barber** (0:50)
Everything he's done has been full speed ahead.

**Braxton Wyatt** (0:53)
Hey Sterling.

**Richard Schlesinger** (0:55)
But Sterling's simple goals had to be put off after what happened on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. He was just 17 the night he met Gerald Douglas Wyatt.

**Sterling Barber** (1:07)
It's the most fear you'd ever have. You can't describe how it was.

**Richard Schlesinger** (1:13)
To his wife, Wyatt was the perfect family man.

**Pat Wyatt** (1:17)
He was a very kind, caring man.

**Richard Schlesinger** (1:23)
To others, he was a predator.

**June Temple** (1:26)
What I saw was a very evil man.

**Melvin Hooper** (1:29)
Sterling Barber done one eye always. Wasted God ought to die.

**Sterling Barber** (1:34)
I had no other choice. There was nothing else I could have done. And if they consider that wrong, then I just have to accept it.

**Richard Schlesinger** (1:42)
If you believe Sterling, on the night of November 27th, 1995, he was just killing time at a truck stop, one of the few public places open near his home.

**Sterling Barber** (1:53)
I was at Petro. I got off from night school. I went up there to get something to eat and hang out a little bit. And I was watching a movie.
And whenever I came out of the movie room, he approached me.

**Richard Schlesinger** (2:05)
According to Sterling, Wyatt said he was a private detective and asked him for help.

**Sterling Barber** (2:10)
He was checking out a lawyer's wife that was supposedly cheating on him. And they were fixing to get a divorce, and he needed evidence.
He said, I looked like a local. I wanted some help.

**Richard Schlesinger** (2:21)
Wyatt offered Sterling $40 to drive him around town. But things started to go bad soon after they left the truck stop in Wyatt's car.

**Sterling Barber** (2:31)
I said, isn't it about time we go back to Petro?

**Richard Schlesinger** (2:34)
Barber says his new acquaintance told him he had to relieve himself.

**Sterling Barber** (2:39)
Whenever he came back in, his pants were unbuttoned and unzipped. They climbed over on top of me. And he put his forearm in my throat.
And he was trying to choke me out. I started to pass out. And whenever I did, I stopped struggling. I stopped trying to fight him. And he loosened his grip on me. And that's whenever I grabbed my knife and I stabbed him.

**Richard Schlesinger** (3:03)
Sterling stabbed Wyatt once in the shoulder with his hunting knife.

**Sterling Barber** (3:07)
What else was I supposed to do? Just let him do it?

**Richard Schlesinger** (3:09)
Then he stabbed him five more times in the groin.

**Sterling Barber** (3:13)
He said, why'd you do that? And I said, because you were trying to rape me. And that's whenever he said he was sorry.
And I told him it was too late for that now.

**Richard Schlesinger** (3:24)
Wyatt slumped forward in the car.

**Sterling Barber** (3:26)
And then I just wanted to go home. I didn't know what else to do. So I just pulled him out of the car and I left. I went back home.

**Richard Schlesinger** (3:34)
Would that have been a time to go for help?

**Sterling Barber** (3:39)
I don't know.
Only thing I knew to do was just to get away. That's all.

**Richard Schlesinger** (3:44)
Sterling took Wyatt's car and drove home to his mother, Judy Barber.

**Judy Barber** (3:51)
I lost it. When Sterling needed me the most, I lost it.

**Sterling Barber** (3:56)
She asked me what happened. I said, Mom, a guy tried to rape me and I stabbed him.

**Richard Schlesinger** (4:01)
Did you tell him to call the police? Did you want him to call the police?

**Judy Barber** (4:05)
No, I wanted to get an attorney, which is a very difficult thing to do when you don't know anybody in the middle of the night.

**Richard Schlesinger** (4:12)
But Judy told Sterling to take Wyatt's car back to the truck stop and Sterling went on the run. Meanwhile, Doug Wyatt was bleeding to death on the side of a road.