Hi From SE England - Missouri Case

Hi from the South East of England, this is a great idea:) Jennie sent the link, so thank you. My name is debs, and I'm the wife of a DR inmate. We MWI, and will have been married six years this September. We were married in Potosi Correctional Center, Missouri.

My husband's name is Walter Barton, more commonly known by us all as Arkie, the nickname his Drill Sergeant gave him during his military service, because he'd been raised in Pine Bluff, AR. We met through a penpal organisation (now defunct) called the League of Life. I worked for them in a voluntary capacity, shortly after joining, for a few years.

Arkie had been in trouble before, twice. He didn't 'fire the gun' with this crime, but he certainly gave them the ammunition to have them place him right in the frontline - a not uncommon occurrence with many on DR, sadly. His crimes were assaults against women during the course of robberies in gas/liquor/grocery stations.

In 1991, he'd stayed at a trailer park. The landlady, Gladys Kuehler, knew of his past. He'd told her about it, rather than have her find out about it after he'd moved in. She agreed to give him a chance, and they established a friendship. He'd go with her to collect the rents from troublesome tenants, and do some DIY jobs for her. It was a 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours' relationship, and if Arkie was in a slight problem with money, she'd loan him until payday, but only a few bucks. He's not the world's most organised person, it has to be said.

The night before the murder, Arkie had been out, and his car had run out of gas. It was parked three miles away. He decided the next day to ask Ms Gladys for a loan for a few bucks to get some gas so that he could get his car,and then go collect a paycheck he was due from work. To cut a long story short, she agreed but told him to come back later. As he was leaving the trailer at 3.15, the phone rang and it was the trailer park owner, Bill Pickering. He'd received a message that Ms Gladys had wanted to speak with him about a tenant issue. Arkie told BP that Ms G. was in the bathroom, he'd leave her the message. He then left and was seen by another tenant within minutes, and then continued back to the trailer of Carol Horton, a tenant who he'd been doing a DIY job for earlier that day. He was also seen by some other friends who'd seen him earlier that day, and did take him up to his place of work to get his paycheck - by now it's 4:10pm. He went back to Ms G's trailer at 4:30 but received no answer.

During this time, Carol Horton had also been over to the trailer, and received no answer. The granddaughter, Debbie Selvidge, said that she had been calling and had also received no answer. In her first statement, she said that she had spoken to her grandmother for twenty-five minutes after 3pm, thus providing Arkie with a bonafide alibi. She then changed that statement to two calls, and receiving no answer on the second call. The alibi statement was suppressed by the judge from being part of the defence's original closing statement, and the same judge also wrote to the judge in another ocunty commending a jailhouse witness for testifying against the defendant in a case he was presiding over, Walter Barton. This particular jailhouse witness, Kathy Allen, was due to face charges in that county, but never went to trial - basically, a deal was made. The State revealed she was a Jailhouse trusty for six bad checks, but omitted to reveal that she also had at least twelve other counts against her for fraud, escape, assault, credit card fraud, and also having several false Social Security numbers and aliases.

Debra Selvidge drove over to her grandmother's trailer when she received no answer, and was down as coming away from the trailer at 4.30pm, when she said that there had been no reply. She was at her mother's calling around, picking up Carol Horton, and then driving around until she could find a cop - she eventually found Lyle Hodges. He agreed to meet her at her grandmother's trailer. On the way back, Debra called for Arkie at the trailer of another resident, Brenda Montiel, where he was having supper, and asked him to help. Arkie said that he'd be down in a minute, and went back into the trailer, while Debra and Carol Horton continued down to the trailer. Arkie walked down, and met them. They were banging at the front door and receiving no reply, so Arkie went around the back and started banging the wall underneath the bedroom window. Lyle Hodges arrived and both he and Arkie apparently offered to try to kick the door in, but Debra refused, and insisted that she go to the trailer of her great-uncle Benno who lived opposite and use his phone to call her mother to get permission for them to break in. Lyle Hodges called for a locksmith, but then received a message to attend another call. He left, and said he'd return, which he did.

The locksmith arrived, and Arkie helped him gain entry. They went straight into the main living area, and Ms G wasn't there. Her usual routine was to nap between the hours of 3-4pm on a daybed in the front room. She was 81 years old, 240lbs, and had degenerative disc disease. She'd had a busy day that day - she'd had Carol Horton over from 8:30 to 11:30 doing some chores for her, she'd had the trailer park owner's wife arrive to pick up the rents, and she'd also had ex-tenants who were in the area pop in for a visit, and Arkie at almost the same time. It was now 8:40pm, and the trailer was still as mid-afternoon with the curtains and lighting. It was clearly obvious something was wrong, so Arkie told Debra not to go down the hall, he would check. The locksmith was outside calling in that something was wrong, when he heard Debra scream. They had all three walked down the hall, and found Ms G.

She was laying on her bedroom floor, next to the bed. She had been beaten, stabbed, mutiliated, and her bedspread had been pulled over the lower half of her body. It also emerged that she had been penetrated, sexually, but they're not sure what with as there is no DNA at all present. Her throat had been cut, her eyes slashed, and two 'X' carved in her torso - this was a very personal crime. 51 injuries in all.

Here we have another version of events, changing once again. In the original two statements, Debra said that she ran over to her grandmother's body to see if she was still alive, and Arkie yanked her back - Carol Horton had yelled 'don't touch her!' Arkie had grabbed her from behind and around the ribcage as she went to lean over and as he pulled her back she stumbled and lost her footing, taking them both to the floor. They came down by the side of the bed, where the blood-soaked bedspread was half off the bed, and the rest covering Ms G. Debra demonstrated this fall to the police twice, but then changed her statement and said that Arkie hadn't entered the room with her - she'd been confused. Debra is a large woman, having seen her, would place her close to her grandmother's size, the fall seems possible, especially considering the minor amount of bloodon Arkie's clothing, and where that blood was. When we were in court in 2006, the jury came down to the table to check the bloodstains, and had to peer closely, one of them on his haunches, they're so small. This was Arkie's only possible explanation for this small amount of blood - Debra changing her statement removed that.

There was DNA evidence on Ms G, and it's not Arkie's. Ms G had a hair on her stomach, possibly from the head of the real assailant, as it's neither her's or Arkie's. She also had blood cell debris under her fingernails, but the DNA on that is consistent with her own. Debra Selvidge provided a motive of robbery, the police were told that Ms G had sold a car for several hundred dollars - but her jewellery, check book, and purse with money inside, were still openly displayed in the bedroom, and untouched. She also recalls seeing the toilet seat up, as they passed by the bathroom. A pair of women's white trousers were found, blood-stained, on the bathroom floor, which she believes may have been her grandmother's. The sexual assault - there is no transference of any form of DNA between Arkie and Ms G, and no seminal evidence whatsoever.

The trailer had not been broken into, no forced entry. Ms G knew her killer. There is a missing key - Debra admitted in court that she had a key, but her grandmother asked for the key back the night before she was killed, but she can't remember why. She didn't state whether she'd actually returned it, and it wasn't found in the trailer. A check was found on the morning of the 12th October, three days after the murder, 1 and 1/2 blocks from the murder scene. It was for 50 bucks and had been made out to Walter Barton, was dated the day of the murder. The State allege that check proves that Arkie was the killer, even though their own expert witness testified he couldn't confirm that - the check had been found and passed around a church group before being handed to the police. Too many fingerprints.

The case against Arkie is purely circumstantial - most of it was was actually in his favour, until Debra Selvidge started to change her stories. Debra Selvidge was included as a possible suspect in the last appeal before the State Supreme Court, and on the basis of her own statements. He has had five trials- the first two being mistrial, and hung jury. He has now had two prosecutors, and three judges. He's on his sixth defense team. The State, despite all their protestations of innocent error - have committed Misconduct. They used Jailhouse witnesses, and they've all retracted (apart from Kathy Allen who according to the sergeant at the jail at the time, isn't believeable), they leaked false motive to the media just weeks prior to trial, they used an expert witness who testified that he'd testified in court before on blood spatter and was a recognised expert -and who turned out to be firearms and tool marks, the only blood spatter case he'd ever testified on was Arkie's, who's been described by one judge as 'hired gun', and whose expertise was a week's course in Wisconsin and then self-taught. They forced the mistrial at Trial One through failing to endorse their witnesses, the defence had no real choixcr other than to ask for mistrial. At that point, the State had very little - this action gave them time to'find' these JW's.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/WalterBarton/
This is a petition that was raised on Arkie's behalf in 2006. The Missouri Supreme Court already have it, plus all attachments and links mentioned, and have acknowledged same. It was submitted at 250 signatures - an unusual amount but it had provoked a violent response from one individual, sowe submitted it as given the opportunity, they would have yanked it down.

http://www.topix.net/forum/city/springfield-mo/TKCE0Q50BVMOVV9JK
Part of the violent response. You don't really have to bother after 29th May,2006, but it should be pointed out that whoever this 'troll' is they posted several postings in anger that they've managed to have deleted since. There are 39 postings missing from this forum, in total, and practically all of them belonging to the 'troll'.

Hi Debs. I'm Scouse, Jen's fella. Thanks for coming and joining the boards. I hope we can all help eachother and share information. If you have any probs or ideas, just shout!

Have fun!

Thanks, Scouse, much appreciated:) Yes, I may be asking for help soon in the form of clemency letters for Dennis Skillicorn of Missouri, if and when his time comes:( He's Arkie's close friend, best man at our wedding, his wife is a really close friend, practically family, and the AG has asked for a date for him. Dennis is a guy who put his money where his mouth is in atonement, and is the editor of 'Compassion' the DR magazine that raises grants for MVFS to try to help them. Also didn't do the actual killing in this crime, but didn't stop it, either - the killer got life and said he'd probably have killed Dennis if he'd tried to stop it, anyway....

Hiya Debs

It's great to see you here!!!

How is Arkie and you doing?