Man sentenced to life in prison for brutal murder of Johnston County grandmother
A Wilmington man will spend life in prison without the possibility of parole after a jury found him guilty Monday of first-degree murder in a 2020 Johnston County stabbing.
David Alan Brinson, 56, was arrested June 4, 2020, one day after the body of 54-year-old Karen Barney was found in her Clayton apartment, The News & Observer previously reported. Brinson’s trial began Oct. 21, lasting just over two weeks, prosecutors said.
Brinson and Barney were friends, and Brinson had been staying with Barney at her apartment, Johnston County Assistant District Attorney Paul Jackson told The N&O on Wednesday. There was “no real evidence” of the two being in a romantic relationship, Jackson said.
Barney, a mother of three and grandmother, was stabbed at least 34 times, including to her head, neck and torso, according to the autopsy report.
Neighbors had last seen her alive about 3:45 p.m. on June 1, 2020, through her sliding-glass door in an apparent altercation, the medical examiner’s investigative report states. After loved ones didn’t hear from Barney, her sister went to check on her two days later and discovered her body inside a closet, according to the report.
Brinson emerged as a suspect after investigators talked with Barney’s neighbors and reviewed footage from surveillance cameras outside the apartment, the report said.
“[Barney] told family members that she was afraid of [Brinson],” the report states. “The camera footage shows him leaving the apartment 6/1 and discarding two knives in the parking lot.”
Investigators found the two knives, a folding knife with a 4-inch blade and a kitchen knife, according to the report. Forensic technicians at Barney’s apartment also uncovered evidence that someone had tried to clean up the blood spatter in her apartment.
‘Long and violent history’
Brinson had a long history of violence predating the murder, Jackson said.
He was sentenced to 150 days in jail in Wake County in November 2015 after pleading guilty to a charge of assault inflicting serious injury tied to domestic violence, court records show. His wife testified during the murder trial about “the long and violent history that she suffered at the hands of Brinson,” a Johnston County District Attorney’s Office press release states.
“Anything would set him off,” Jackson told The N&O on Wednesday. “He made a telephone call to a friend basically saying that [Barney] was just getting in his face and was getting on his nerves. To quote him, ‘I killed that [expletive] I cut her [expletive] head off.’”
Brinson, meanwhile, claimed he was drunk and on drugs at the time of the murder and acted in self-defense, court documents show. Brinson told an expert witness he’d consumed beer, vodka, cocaine, marijuana and amphetamine in the 24 hours leading up to Barney’s death.
“He described to me Karen Barney approaching him with a knife and experiencing fear at the time,” the witness wrote in a statement. “He also stated Ms. Barney had not slept for four days due to the use of the powerful stimulant Adderall (amphetamine).”
Toxicology reports show Barney’s blood alcohol level was 20 mg/dl or 0.02% at the time of her autopsy, though several days had passed between her death and the exam and decomposition can naturally produce ethanol, the chemical used to determine blood alcohol content.
“I think that he was using alcohol as an excuse,” Jackson said. “We know that after he murdered her, he did go buy some beer, but ... there’s no real evidence other than the defendant’s statements that they were drinking.”
Assistant District Attorney Lindsey Patterson expressed sympathy for Barney’s family.
“We hope that this verdict will allow them to turn the page on this very painful chapter,” she said in a press release. “Our community is immeasurably safer now that David Alan Brinson will spend the rest of his life in prison.”
This story was updated Nov. 7, 2024, to correct Brinson’s marital status.
This story was originally published November 6, 2024 at 5:31 PM.
