Secrets In The Sand

A Wife Is Murdered, Her Husband Shot Four Times. Who Pulled The Trigger?

(CBS) 
Even though he had moved to Portland, Ore., far from the scene of April’s murder, Justin says she was always on his mind.

He wore his wedding band around his neck, "because I just wasn't ready to let it go. It was a reminder of her. And it was a reminder of my failure during our marriage."

So Justin distracted himself with work, and with a new woman.

Lisa, who asked 48 Hours not to use her last name, says Justin often re-lived what happened to April that night on the beach. "He felt like he just abandoned her. He never forgave himself," she says.

Justin never forgave April’s family either. It was because of them, he claims, that he remained the prime suspect.

April’s aunt Patty makes no apologies for putting the spotlight on Justin. "He planned every moment of it," she says. "This was premeditated, cold, calculated."

Yet months, and then years went by, without an arrest. So Patty, who is a judge in Oklahoma, stepped up the pressure on Florida prosecutors to arrest Justin.

But State Attorney John Tanner worried his prosecutors would get burned by the case. "We knew it was a case that could be lost," he explains. "You just don't expect a person to shoot themselves four times, or to seriously attempt to injure themselves. But, as we began to search for who did it, we determined that all the evidence led back to the husband."

After years of pressure, and painstakingly weighing the evidence—which was largely circumstantial—prosecutors finally rolled the dice. In July 2004, Justin was arrested for murder.

Speaking to Dow, Justin maintained he did not kill his wife or shoot himself to cover up the murder.

In June, 2006, four years after April’s murder, with his family behind him, Justin was finally put on trial in St. Augustine, Fla.

The state attorney’s office was seeking the death penalty, and two of its youngest prosecutors—Matt Foxman and Chris France—were trying this high-profile case.

"Justin Barber has insisted, and I believe, that he’s an innocent man. And the only thing we’re interested in is an exoneration," says defense attorney Bob Willis, who would try to convince jurors that a robber, and not Justin Barber, killed April on the beach.

"You will find that within a very short period of time after April Barber’s death, it was found on the evening of August 17, 2002 that the police focused exclusively their attention on Justin Barber," Willis told jurors during opening arguments.

But the prosecution’s star witness, Det. Cole, disagreed.

Cole testified that he asked Justin why he drove more than nine miles from the beach after the shooting. "He said he didn’t really remember much about that drive," Cole testified.

"Did you ask him why he didn’t stop at any houses?" Foxman asked.

"Yes," Cole replied.

"And what did he tell you?" Foxman asked.

"He said he didn’t want to get some old man out of bed," Cole testified.

Cole also testified that even though Justin said he dragged April by her waistband and had a bullet hole in his hand, his blood wasn’t visible on her pants.

But the defense struck, saying Justin’s blood was found on April.

"How about the blood that was here on her, right here, inside, upper left arm? Did you know at that time that that was Justin Barber's blood?" Willis asked Cole.

"No sir," Cole answered.

"You know it now though, don't you?" Willis asked.

"Yes," Cole acknowledged.