MICHAEL BARBER: GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS

NILES – What started with a Mishawaka man speeding down the U.S. 31 freeway south of Berrien Springs on a stolen motorcycle Feb. 20 ended last week with him being convicted of six felony counts in connection with his assault on a Michigan State Police trooper during his arrest.
Barber, 21, will be sentenced June 19 and faces a maximum penalty
of 15 years in prison on the most serious charges, assault by strangulation and assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, both as a habitual offender. His bond was revoked at the conclusion of the trial last Thursday and he remains in jail.
Other charges he was found guilty of included third degree fleeing and eluding police, assault of a police officer causing injury and receiving, concealing and possession of stolen property and attempting to disarm a police officer of a weapon.
The incident occurred Feb. 20 when Michigan State Police Trooper Garry Guild saw Barber speeding southward on the U.S. 31 freeway. After a chase, Barber went off the road and crashed the stolen motorcycle. He then attacked Guild who also had to deal with attacks from Barber’s half-brother, Trevor Wise, 19, of Middlebury.
Wise got out of a car trailing Barber and put Guild in a chokehold. Guild said he was within seconds of losing consciousness when two Good Samaritan motorists stopped and came to his assistance.
Wise’s trial has been delayed pending a forensic examination to see if he is competent to stand trial. Wise faces similar charges to Barber.
Testimony during the two-day trial came from Guild, the two men who stopped to help him, medical expert Dr. Stephen Cohle and Buchanan Police Officer Dave Capron who was the next officer on the scene. Jurors also saw the dashcam video from Guild’s vehicle. They deliberated four hours before reaching their verdict.
“I’m thankful they were there and stepped up,” Guild said after the verdict about the actions of the two bystanders. “When I needed them, they rose to the occasion. This was one example of where I was a victim of a crime and other citizens stepped up to help me.”
Guild said sitting through the two-day trial last week was emotionally and mentally taxing. “Seeing the dashcam video over and over was mentally taxing,” he said. “Every time I looked at it, it was traumatizing to a deeper and deeper degree.”
Guild said it was especially emotional to hear the testimony of Keith Pepple of Plainwell. He was the first Good Samaritan who stopped. “If he got there even seconds later, the outcome could have been different,” he said. “… It was very emotional for me to reflect that I could have been the third law enforcement officer killed in Berrien County over the last year.”
In trial testimony, Cohle testified about the effects of strangulation and said Guild could have been within minutes of dying from Wise’s chokehold on his neck if two bystanders had not stopped to help.
Pepple said he stopped after seeing Guild struggling with Barber. He said that he grabbed Wise to get him off of Guild and saw Barber reaching for Guild’s gun belt which caused him to fear that both he and Guild could have been shot and killed.
Jerry Burnham of Berrien Springs said he stopped at the urging of his wife. He ran up and worked with Pepple to subdue Wise as Guild put handcuffs on Barber. He recaptured Barber after Barber escaped from Guild’s patrol car.
Capron was the last to testify in the trial. Capron said he heard Guild say he had had trouble breathing after Wise choked him.
After the verdict, defense attorney Scott Sanford called it a victory for his client as he was not convicted of the most serious crime, assault with intent to murder which carries a maximum penalty of up to life in prison. Jurors instead convicted Barber of the lesser charge of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder.
During the trial, Sanford had not disputed several of the charges but had disputed the claim that Barber had intended to murder Guild. He claimed in closing arguments that the case had been “overcharged” by the prosecution. He called the incident a matter of two brothers looking out for each other.
Assistant Prosecutor Gerald Vigansky relied on testimony and the dashcam video during his closing argument and emphasized the importance of the bystanders coming to Guild’s aid. “The testimony was clear that Mr. Pepple was so concerned about the defendant finding the trooper’s weapon and killing both of them,” he said.
“Without them, Trooper Guild wouldn’t be here and he’d be immortalized on the bluff in St. Joseph,” he added. “ … If they hadn’t shown up, he would have been in the deathhold for over three minutes before Officer Capron came. He would have been dead.”