OXNARD : Man Gets Prison for Choking His Wife

An Oxnard sheet-metal worker was sentenced to life in prison Friday for attempted murder with premeditation and use of a weapon in the choking of his wife, despite his wife’s desire to have him return home and undergo therapy.

Napoleon Barber, 27, must serve eight years before he will be eligible for parole, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Kathleen M. O’Brien. He was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Frederick A. Jones.

Barber was convicted in July by a Ventura County Superior Court jury of attempting to kill his 25-year-old wife, Michelle, with a speaker wire.

Michelle Barber reported the crime to 911 the night of April 21, telling a police dispatcher, “My husband strangled me.”

However, during the trial, Michelle Barber said she and her husband were playing “commando” during sex when the incident occurred.

But testimony from Dr. F. Warren Lovell, the Ventura County medical examiner, disclosed that the choking was so severe it left bruises on Michelle Barber’s neck and caused tiny blood vessels in her eyes and cheeks to burst.

O’Brien said after the sentencing that she was very pleased by the decision, which will shield the victim and her children from what she said was Barber’s unstable and unpredictable nature. “The victim has continued to say she wants him back in her home. I feel, and apparently the judge does as well, that she won’t protect herself and her two small children,” O’Brien said.

A report by the state Department of Corrections had advised the court to place Napoleon Barber on probation and order him to undergo counseling.