BARNES
A deadly 2023 Richmond County road rage incident has yielded three guilty pleas from a Westmoreland County man.
Appearing in Richmond County Circuit Court last week, James Anthony Benjamin Barnes, of Hague, entered guilty pleas to shooting from a vehicle, shooting into a vehicle, and felony murder as part of a plea agreement.
The charges were in connection with an August 16, 2023 shooting along the westbound lanes of U.S. Route 360 near the Warsaw Village Shopping Center that claimed the life of Kaylee Smith of Fredericksburg.
Barnes was in a white GMC SUV when a firearm was discharged into another vehicle, operated by Latasha Bushnell, striking Smith who was a backseat passenger. Barnes was operating the GMC in which Diane Becerra was a passenger.
According to Richmond County Commonwealth’s Attorney Elizabeth Trible, there was no agreement on a sentence, and the court ordered a presentence investigation.
Sentencing is scheduled for August 25.
In exchange for his guilty pleas, charges of destruction of property, use of a firearm, and assault on a law enforcement officer were not prosecuted.
During Trible’s proffer to the court, she submitted photographs, the medical examiner’s report, Barnes’s advice of rights form, and two jail calls into evidence.
In a summary of evidence presented to the court, Trible said the episode began when two vehicles turned westbound on U.S. Route 360 in Warsaw.
The white GMC drove into Bushnell’s lane, prompting a verbal exchange between Bushnell and Becerra, according to Trible.
The incident escalated at a stop light at the Warsaw Hardee’s with Bushnell unsuccessfully attempting to exit her vehicle, Trible noted.
The prosecutor said Bushnell caught up to Barnes’s vehicle during which time her son, Daekwon Mabry who was a front seat passenger, produced a pistol.
According to Trible’s statement of facts, “Barnes advised Becerra to “duck,” and shot his handgun out of the white car. Several of Barnes’ shots hit the driver’s side rear door of Bushnell’s car, and one hit her back driver’s side tire. Barnes then left at high speed; Bushnell initially tried to keep up, but her tire had been damaged. When she stopped, she saw that Kaylee had been hurt, and that two of the slugs shot by Barnes’ gun passed through her car door.”
Barnes was ultimately captured in South Carolina following a high-speed chase in which he crashed the vehicle he was operating.
Following his arrest, Barnes told Richmond County Sheriff’s Office investigators about the interactions with Bushnell and Mabry, and told the officers that he had shot not to hurt Mabry, according to Trible. Barnes said he intentionally shot into the backseat to scare Mabry instead, Trible noted.
The Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office determined that a piece of shrapnel and two bullets struck Smith. One passed through her left lung and traveled to her right lung, filling each lung with blood and resulting in her death.
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