Thursday, December 15, 2016

THE PERILS OF O.R. WHEN GIVEN TO A FOUR-TIME EX-CON

BY Bob Walsh

Any form of conditional release for someone with a long criminal history has its potential issues. I offer a case in point.

Mathew Wade Barnec, 33, is a resident of beautiful Stockton. He was arraigned yesterday on charges related to the hit-and-run deaths of three people in Stockton last Thursday. Somebody, presumably Barnec, ran down and killed a bicyclist on the Hwy 99 frontage road about 7:40 p.m. After responding to that collision the cops found a stolen Honda with significant front-end damage and two dead people in it. Those people died from collision injuries.

Barnec told the judge that he did not want a public defender and has the ability to hire his own counsel and therefore his arraignment was put off two weeks.

Barnec has, since 2003, served four prison sentences, primarily for stealing automobiles. (That's barely a crime in the formerly great state of California any more.) He was out of custody on O. R. (own recognizance) on two other charges when his three most recent alleged victims were killed. He was awaiting sentencing on one of those cases when this most recent situation went down.

Barnec is being held against a $1.4 million bond in this case. He is also being held without bond on the additional, previous charge that he had previously been out on O.R. on.

Clearly this is a man who refuses to play by the rules. I hope they hang him, after a fair trial of course.

EDITOR’S NOTE: You can say that about any form or amount of bail for someone who has a track record of repeated criminality. Whoever authorized O.R. for Barnec must have been smoking some funny tobacco.

No comments: