Man Who Killed Boy, 4, Receives 6-Year Sentence

With teary-eyed relatives of the late 4-year-old Demont Beans looking on, a 23-year-old South-Central Los Angeles man was sentenced Friday to six years and eight months in state prison for killing the youngster last February when his gun discharged after a quarrel with his girlfriend.

James Barnett, an auto mechanic, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting of Beans, who was struck in the head by an errant bullet as he rode his tricycle on the sidewalk next to his house in the 1500 block of East 53rd Street.

The district attorney’s office had sought a second-degree murder conviction, but Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dion G. Morrow, after a two-day nonjury trial fraught with conflicting eyewitness testimony, ruled that Barnett had not shown malice in committing the shooting.

Victim’s Relatives Applaud

Beans’ relatives applauded as Morrow sentenced Barnett to the maximum term allowed. “I think the conduct involved here was such that I should give him every day I can,” Morrow said.

Afterward, however, Beans’ mother, Betty Mobley, 21, emphasized that the punishment was nonetheless insufficient.

“He should have been convicted of murder,” Mobley said. “My baby suffered and he took his life and he only gets six years. It’s not fair.

“Demont was a happy, very intelligent boy. He never bothered anybody. He always listened to what he was told to do.”

The midday shooting occurred shortly after Barnett had a quarrel with his girlfriend, who lived next door to the child, and his girlfriend’s brother. Barnett, standing in the front yard of his girlfriend’s house, took out a miniature .22- caliber revolver that subsequently discharged.

Sentence Called Excessive

Although the prosecution accused Barnett of firing at his girlfriend’s brother, key witnesses testified that Barnett may have been just playing around with the gun and that it went off accidentally.

Deputy Public Defender Ilona Peltyn, who termed the sentence excessive, said outside the courtroom that Barnett “felt terrible about the incident and really didn’t intend to hurt anybody.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Mark Merrick said that although he was disappointed with the verdict, the sentence was “the best I could get.”

Barnett, who surrendered to police hours after the shooting, will serve an additional eight months in prison for a 1984 Long Beach auto theft conviction. He was free on bail on the theft charge when he shot Beans.