The Killing of Jim and Oby Barnett
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The Killing of Jim and Oby Barnett
Here is a story I thought you might like to read. Jim and Oby Barnett were my Great-Uncles.
From the book: 35 ° 24’ North – 91° West: A Town Called Hickory Ridge
Written By: James O. Jeffers, Johnny H. Wilson, Isaac A. Bratcher & Don Evans.
Used with Permission. Publisher: Trafford Publishing ISBN 1-4120-2298-3
Pages 421 - 427
The Killing of Jim and Oby Barnett
An incident occurred in the town of Hickory Ridge in 1922 that divided the people of the town and surrounding areas for many years. Early in the evening of Saturday, April 1, 1922, in the name of the law, five men took the lives of two brothers, young men of the community, and turned the community upside down. The incident made enemies forever of some folks and plowed asunder the friendships of many others, turning many friendships into mere acquaintances. It so inflamed the people of the area that at one point they almost turned into a lynch-mob.
It involved the killing of two Barnett brothers, 30-year-old Jim and 23-year-old Oby. Killing the boys was bad enough but the way it was accomplished made it even harder for the people of the community to accept.
From all accounts, the Barnett family was well liked by their neighbors and many others of the community, but Jim Barnett was something of a devil-may-care person, doing whatever he wanted to do and whenever he wanted to do it regardless of the outcome or feelings that might be trampled in the doing. He still lived at home with his parents, apparently unmarried, but he was not as well liked as the rest of his family. His occupation was listed as “Rice Farmer” in the census records of 1920 but reportedly, he was also both a moonshiner and bootlegger, a maker and peddler of illicit whisky and one who, if he wanted a beef or hog, he simply went out and got one regardless of whomever might be the animal’s owner. He has also been described as a womanizer and, at the time of the incident, involved with the girl friend of one of the deputies who shot him. As far as is publicly known, except for the whisky making and selling, these were unproven allegations only.
Prior to the incident, Jim Barnett had been arrested, charged and convicted on the illicit whisky-making and selling charges. He had been sentenced to serve one year in the penitentiary but the sentence had been suspended by the court in a compromise settlement in return for Barnett’s promise to leave the state. According to accounts, he did leave the area but did not stay gone; he soon returned to Hickory Ridge Township and his home, then he went into town. Upon learning of Jim’s return to the area, law enforcement officials apparently caused a warrant to be issued by the court ordering him to report immediacy to the court, or otherwise be arrested.
Upon his return, Jim reportedly boasted that he would not allow himself to be “taken” by McBurnett and his deputies. According to statements collected after the shooting from witnesses and others who were acquainted with all the parties, Jim had previously had trouble with some or all of the deputies even before they were sworn peace officers and, further, that he had sworn vengeance against each of them. It also was reported that he had said he would never submit to arrest by McBurnett or any of his men but that he would submit to arrest by Ed Cooper, the County Sheriff.
The Deputy Sheriff involved was 51-year-old James E.B. McBurnett. Reportedly, he had deputized Loman E. Pollett, W.R. Malone, William Love Banks, and Emmett Phillips to assist him with the chore at hand. McBurnett was not a longtime resident of the area but was listed in the 1920 census as running a line-shack on a stock ranch in the area. In that same census record, 36-year-old Loman Pollett was shown to be a “Druggist”. W.R. Malone may have been the 21-year-old general merchandise salesman Willis Malone but, if not, he was not listed in any of the census records for either Hickory Ridge or Brushy Lake Townships. Emmett Phillips is also absent from any census records of the two townships but William Love Banks shows up in the Hickory Ridge census of 1930. Banks was a large land owner and farmer, a prominent businessman and entrepreneur as well as a strong supporter and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Agricultural College located in Jonesboro. With the prominence and reputation that Banks enjoyed, one might wonder why such a man as he, or even Loman Pollett would allow themselves to become involved in such an incident as was then apparently taking shape.
So the stage was set. Jim Barnett was back in the area and a warrant had been issued for his arrest. When he went into town that night, he must have known that he would be arrested or that an attempt would be made to do so. He must have known that his enemies wanted to get rid of him and that his going into town would only be helping them to do so. If he had previously had problems with the named deputies as alleged, and if he had actually sworn vengeance against them publicly, it seems as if he may have been baiting them by even going into town that night.
Jim Barnett did go armed into Hickory Ridge that night, April 1, 1922, and he entered a store. It has been stated that he went into his brother’s Oby’s store but it has also been reported that he was in the store of John E. Hargis and that there were seven others in the store when the shooting occurred. Regardless of which store he was in at the time, some witnesses claimed that, when Deputy McBurnett entered and made the arrest statement to Jim, Jim resisted and attempted to draw his weapon but was shot by McBurnett before he could fire. Other witnesses including Barnett himself, claimed that McBurnett immediately opened fire, with no prior words uttered, upon entering the store. At least one report has several of the deputies shooting at Barnett but others state that Barnett was shot by Deputy McBurnett. Some said that Barnett opened fire on the deputies while others said he did not fire a shot and that he did not draw his weapon until McBurnett had shot him. In any case, only Jim Barnett was hit by the bullets during the shooting. He was mortally wounded but was still alive immediately after the smoke cleared.
Jim Barnett’s younger brother, Oby, owned and operated a store in Hickory Ridge. Oby is listed as a restaurant manager in the census of 1920 so the store may have been a restaurant. He was married to a young wife and was the father-to-be of a young daughter who would later be named for him. When Oby learned what had happened to his brother, he became incensed, probably as most brothers would be in similar circumstances. He immediately procured a weapon and started out to avenge his brother.
McBurnett and his men must have known that Oby Barnett would attack them in retaliation for what they had done to his brother, for it is said that they lay in wait for him to appear; that they ensconced themselves behind barricades and ambushed him when he showed himself. One report stated that Oby appeared armed with a double barrel shotgun while another stated that he appeared in front of his store armed with a pistol. Some witnesses said he was gunned down in the middle of the Cotton Belt Railroad tracks near his store with fire from the deputies’ shotguns before he was near enough to fire at the deputies. Oby, too, was mortally wounded but managed to temporarily elude the deputies.
Oby somehow managed to flee the scene and get to the nearby home of a relative. There he begged admission to the home but was at first denied entrance because of the presence in the home of several young children. The relative soon relented, though, on condition that Oby first surrender his weapon before entering the home. That done, Oby was helped into the home and made as comfortable as possible.
McBurnett and his deputies soon arrived and immediately demanded entrance for the purpose of placing Oby under arrest. They were also at first denied entrance for the same reason that Oby was denied entrance. They were told that Oby was in the house mortally wounded and that he was unarmed but that they would not be allowed into the house armed and in their present frame of mind. Eventually, it was agreed that McBurnett would disarm himself and enter the house to place Oby under arrest, which he did.
Oby was then removed from the house of his relative. Both of the brothers were still alive so they were placed on cots and loaded aboard a Cotton Belt passenger train to be taken to a hospital in Jonesboro. Upon arrival in Jonesboro, the brothers were removed to St. Bernard’s Hospital where they were given medical attention. But it was too late to save either of them. Oby’s body, it was reported, had been penetrated by between twenty to thirty buckshot. Oby Barnett died in the night about 2:00 AM on Sunday April 2nd, while his brother Jim, lingered on until about 10:30 AM on Monday April 3, 1922.
Sunday was bad enough and hard to get through but by Monday morning, the people of the Hickory Ridge area were ‘up in arms’. They were shocked and hurt and enraged that something of that nature could be allowed to occur in their peaceful little town. Something of the nature of this incident was supposed to happen only in places with names like Dodge City, Silver City or Tombstone. It was straight out of the Wild West and it certainly was not finished yet, not by a long shot.
The situation in the community was volatile for many days. The five deputies seemed not to have many friends. After all, while they had supposedly attempted to serve a valid warrant on Jim Barnett and shot him during the attempt, they apparently had laid in wait and ambushed Jim’s brother, Oby, when he attempted to approach them. Perhaps it was thought or known that Oby had a high temper and was armed, and the deputies feared for their own lives. They knew for certain that he was highly agitated by what they had done and he was armed. He undoubtedly was very dangerous in the state he was in at the time but why were the deputies so fearful if their handling of the situation with Jim was completely legal and on the up and up. The way the incident was handled and the way it happened tends to make one think that those deputies knew they had done something wrong and that they were then each fearful of the ultimate outcome so, naturally fearing for their own personal safety, they set a trap for Oby in order to end the threat as quickly as possible. *
*(Authors note: Monday morning quarterbacking serves no purpose other than to analyze a situation and doing so at this late date is really more akin to January quarterbacking, but if there was prior animosity between Jim and any of the deputies, those deputies should not have been the ones to serve the arrest warrant on him.)
The people of the community demanded justice. They seemed to think the death of Jim could have been prevented, but since he apparently did resist an arrest which was authorized by a valid warrant, there was not much to be done about it except to say that it could have been handled differently. However they seemed to view the shooting of Oby as out and out murder. They wanted revenge but, in the end, they wanted the five deputies arrested and charged with the murder of Oby Barnett.
On Monday, the town of Hickory Ridge was a mob scene with a lot more people in town than was normally the case. They were gathering in small groups and larger groups, talking about the situation and wanting something to be done about it. They were angry and they were threatening the deputies. The deputies were advised to leave the vicinity of the town because of the mob. It was reported that the deputies left Hickory Ride and gathered at the home of Deputy McBurnett where they spent the night. Sometime during the first week, McBurnett received an unsigned threatening message which had been mailed from Jonesboro. The message stated “Your bunch will get yours in thirty days”. The mumbling and grousing and mob scenes went on for all that first week.
On Thursday, April 6, 1922, Sheriff Ed Cooper and Prosecutor Cecil Shane spent the day in Hickory Ridge examining the witnesses and generally investigating the shooting of the previous Saturday night. It was reported that the law officers were met by a group of as many as 150 men upon their arrival in the town. The group asked for a “fair square investigation”. They claimed there was proof that neither of the Barnett men had fired a single shot. They demanded that the deputies be arrested and charged and further stated that the community would abide by the honest findings of a thorough and lawful investigation. After this encounter, Sheriff Cooper did place the five deputies, James E.B. McBurnett, Loman E. Pollett, William Love Banks, W.R. Malone, and Emmett Phillips under arrest.
Late in the week, a group of concerned area citizens, headed by Thomas F. Sullins, went to Jonesboro and retained the law firm of Lamb and Frierson to assist in the prosecution of the five deputies accused of murdering Oby Barnett.
A preliminary hearing of the case was held in Cherry Valley on Friday, April 14, 1922, before two justices of the Peace, Ross and Pitts. The state was represented by Prosecutor Cecil Shane, Deputy James Robertson, Judge N.F. Lamb and Judge Samuel A. Gooch. Attorneys for the accused men were Giles Deering of Wynne and Lem Banks of Memphis. Per a pre-hearing agreement, the defendants heard the charges brought against them by the State, and then waived further examination to let the case go to the grand jury. The accused were held over and denied bail but, soon afterward, a writ of habeas corpus was obtained from the court of Judge Hutchins in Forest City which afforded the five men the chance to obtain their temporary release on bond.
In a curious turn of events, a “mysterious stranger” apparently attempted to kill William Love Banks as he was returning by train to Hickory Ridge on Memphis on Wednesday, April 26, 1922. Or did he really? It was reported that the “mysterious stranger” watched Banks on the station platform at Fair Oaks all the time he was awaiting the arrival of the Northbound passenger train but made no attempt on his life until after he boarded the train. Reportedly, Banks even noticed the stranger watching him. After Banks boarded the train and found a seat, the stranger allegedly tried to shoot him through a window but was thwarted in the attempt by some of the train crew and some bystanders.
In an interview a few days later, Banks claimed to know the man as Cecil Holmes of Hickory Ridge. Banks stated that Holmes was one of the state’s witnesses against him and the four others who had been charged with the murder of Oby Barnett. Banks further stated that Holmes had met him sometime after April 14th and had told him that he (Holmes) had known enough to have exonerated all of the deputies during the preliminary hearing but could not afford to speak at that time. Banks claimed that he then replied to Holmes telling him that only the truth was wanted from him.
Sheriff Ed Cooper later arrested Cecil Holmes and took him before a Justice of the Peace charged with carrying a firearm and disturbing the peace but no charge of attempted murder was brought against him. Holmes paid a fine and court costs and was released.
The trial of the five deputies indicted for the murder of Oby Barnett was set to be held in Wynne and to begin on Wednesday, September 13, 1922. At that time, the defense attorneys immediately asked for a change of venue on grounds that the defendants could not get a fair and impartial trial in Cross County. The change of venue was granted and a new trial date was set early in December, 1922, with the trial to be held in Paragould, in Greene County.
The trial was held in Paragould and apparently began on about December 5th. The state opened with fifteen witnesses the first day and several more on the day following. State’s witnesses testified to prior enmity between the five deputies on trial and the Barnett brothers. The state contended that the enmity led to the killing and it was further testified that the deputies fired upon Oby without warning as he approached his store, where his brother, Jim, had taken refuge. The defense attorneys stated for the press that day that the defendants would offer evidence to show that Oby had opened fire upon them from the darkness and that they fired in self-defense. They also stated that they would have as many as 35 witnesses ready to testify in the coming days in defense of the five deputies.
The trial continued until Saturday, December 9th, when after only fifteen minutes of deliberation, the Greene County jury found the accused deputies…not guilty. All five, James E.B. McBurnett, W.R. Malone, Loman E. Pollett, William Love Banks and Emmett Phillips were acquitted of the murder of Oby Barnett.
From the book: 35 ° 24’ North – 91° West: A Town Called Hickory Ridge
Written By: James O. Jeffers, Johnny H. Wilson, Isaac A. Bratcher & Don Evans.
Used with Permission. Publisher: Trafford Publishing ISBN 1-4120-2298-3
Pages 421 - 427
The Killing of Jim and Oby Barnett
An incident occurred in the town of Hickory Ridge in 1922 that divided the people of the town and surrounding areas for many years. Early in the evening of Saturday, April 1, 1922, in the name of the law, five men took the lives of two brothers, young men of the community, and turned the community upside down. The incident made enemies forever of some folks and plowed asunder the friendships of many others, turning many friendships into mere acquaintances. It so inflamed the people of the area that at one point they almost turned into a lynch-mob.
It involved the killing of two Barnett brothers, 30-year-old Jim and 23-year-old Oby. Killing the boys was bad enough but the way it was accomplished made it even harder for the people of the community to accept.
From all accounts, the Barnett family was well liked by their neighbors and many others of the community, but Jim Barnett was something of a devil-may-care person, doing whatever he wanted to do and whenever he wanted to do it regardless of the outcome or feelings that might be trampled in the doing. He still lived at home with his parents, apparently unmarried, but he was not as well liked as the rest of his family. His occupation was listed as “Rice Farmer” in the census records of 1920 but reportedly, he was also both a moonshiner and bootlegger, a maker and peddler of illicit whisky and one who, if he wanted a beef or hog, he simply went out and got one regardless of whomever might be the animal’s owner. He has also been described as a womanizer and, at the time of the incident, involved with the girl friend of one of the deputies who shot him. As far as is publicly known, except for the whisky making and selling, these were unproven allegations only.
Prior to the incident, Jim Barnett had been arrested, charged and convicted on the illicit whisky-making and selling charges. He had been sentenced to serve one year in the penitentiary but the sentence had been suspended by the court in a compromise settlement in return for Barnett’s promise to leave the state. According to accounts, he did leave the area but did not stay gone; he soon returned to Hickory Ridge Township and his home, then he went into town. Upon learning of Jim’s return to the area, law enforcement officials apparently caused a warrant to be issued by the court ordering him to report immediacy to the court, or otherwise be arrested.
Upon his return, Jim reportedly boasted that he would not allow himself to be “taken” by McBurnett and his deputies. According to statements collected after the shooting from witnesses and others who were acquainted with all the parties, Jim had previously had trouble with some or all of the deputies even before they were sworn peace officers and, further, that he had sworn vengeance against each of them. It also was reported that he had said he would never submit to arrest by McBurnett or any of his men but that he would submit to arrest by Ed Cooper, the County Sheriff.
The Deputy Sheriff involved was 51-year-old James E.B. McBurnett. Reportedly, he had deputized Loman E. Pollett, W.R. Malone, William Love Banks, and Emmett Phillips to assist him with the chore at hand. McBurnett was not a longtime resident of the area but was listed in the 1920 census as running a line-shack on a stock ranch in the area. In that same census record, 36-year-old Loman Pollett was shown to be a “Druggist”. W.R. Malone may have been the 21-year-old general merchandise salesman Willis Malone but, if not, he was not listed in any of the census records for either Hickory Ridge or Brushy Lake Townships. Emmett Phillips is also absent from any census records of the two townships but William Love Banks shows up in the Hickory Ridge census of 1930. Banks was a large land owner and farmer, a prominent businessman and entrepreneur as well as a strong supporter and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Agricultural College located in Jonesboro. With the prominence and reputation that Banks enjoyed, one might wonder why such a man as he, or even Loman Pollett would allow themselves to become involved in such an incident as was then apparently taking shape.
So the stage was set. Jim Barnett was back in the area and a warrant had been issued for his arrest. When he went into town that night, he must have known that he would be arrested or that an attempt would be made to do so. He must have known that his enemies wanted to get rid of him and that his going into town would only be helping them to do so. If he had previously had problems with the named deputies as alleged, and if he had actually sworn vengeance against them publicly, it seems as if he may have been baiting them by even going into town that night.
Jim Barnett did go armed into Hickory Ridge that night, April 1, 1922, and he entered a store. It has been stated that he went into his brother’s Oby’s store but it has also been reported that he was in the store of John E. Hargis and that there were seven others in the store when the shooting occurred. Regardless of which store he was in at the time, some witnesses claimed that, when Deputy McBurnett entered and made the arrest statement to Jim, Jim resisted and attempted to draw his weapon but was shot by McBurnett before he could fire. Other witnesses including Barnett himself, claimed that McBurnett immediately opened fire, with no prior words uttered, upon entering the store. At least one report has several of the deputies shooting at Barnett but others state that Barnett was shot by Deputy McBurnett. Some said that Barnett opened fire on the deputies while others said he did not fire a shot and that he did not draw his weapon until McBurnett had shot him. In any case, only Jim Barnett was hit by the bullets during the shooting. He was mortally wounded but was still alive immediately after the smoke cleared.
Jim Barnett’s younger brother, Oby, owned and operated a store in Hickory Ridge. Oby is listed as a restaurant manager in the census of 1920 so the store may have been a restaurant. He was married to a young wife and was the father-to-be of a young daughter who would later be named for him. When Oby learned what had happened to his brother, he became incensed, probably as most brothers would be in similar circumstances. He immediately procured a weapon and started out to avenge his brother.
McBurnett and his men must have known that Oby Barnett would attack them in retaliation for what they had done to his brother, for it is said that they lay in wait for him to appear; that they ensconced themselves behind barricades and ambushed him when he showed himself. One report stated that Oby appeared armed with a double barrel shotgun while another stated that he appeared in front of his store armed with a pistol. Some witnesses said he was gunned down in the middle of the Cotton Belt Railroad tracks near his store with fire from the deputies’ shotguns before he was near enough to fire at the deputies. Oby, too, was mortally wounded but managed to temporarily elude the deputies.
Oby somehow managed to flee the scene and get to the nearby home of a relative. There he begged admission to the home but was at first denied entrance because of the presence in the home of several young children. The relative soon relented, though, on condition that Oby first surrender his weapon before entering the home. That done, Oby was helped into the home and made as comfortable as possible.
McBurnett and his deputies soon arrived and immediately demanded entrance for the purpose of placing Oby under arrest. They were also at first denied entrance for the same reason that Oby was denied entrance. They were told that Oby was in the house mortally wounded and that he was unarmed but that they would not be allowed into the house armed and in their present frame of mind. Eventually, it was agreed that McBurnett would disarm himself and enter the house to place Oby under arrest, which he did.
Oby was then removed from the house of his relative. Both of the brothers were still alive so they were placed on cots and loaded aboard a Cotton Belt passenger train to be taken to a hospital in Jonesboro. Upon arrival in Jonesboro, the brothers were removed to St. Bernard’s Hospital where they were given medical attention. But it was too late to save either of them. Oby’s body, it was reported, had been penetrated by between twenty to thirty buckshot. Oby Barnett died in the night about 2:00 AM on Sunday April 2nd, while his brother Jim, lingered on until about 10:30 AM on Monday April 3, 1922.
Sunday was bad enough and hard to get through but by Monday morning, the people of the Hickory Ridge area were ‘up in arms’. They were shocked and hurt and enraged that something of that nature could be allowed to occur in their peaceful little town. Something of the nature of this incident was supposed to happen only in places with names like Dodge City, Silver City or Tombstone. It was straight out of the Wild West and it certainly was not finished yet, not by a long shot.
The situation in the community was volatile for many days. The five deputies seemed not to have many friends. After all, while they had supposedly attempted to serve a valid warrant on Jim Barnett and shot him during the attempt, they apparently had laid in wait and ambushed Jim’s brother, Oby, when he attempted to approach them. Perhaps it was thought or known that Oby had a high temper and was armed, and the deputies feared for their own lives. They knew for certain that he was highly agitated by what they had done and he was armed. He undoubtedly was very dangerous in the state he was in at the time but why were the deputies so fearful if their handling of the situation with Jim was completely legal and on the up and up. The way the incident was handled and the way it happened tends to make one think that those deputies knew they had done something wrong and that they were then each fearful of the ultimate outcome so, naturally fearing for their own personal safety, they set a trap for Oby in order to end the threat as quickly as possible. *
*(Authors note: Monday morning quarterbacking serves no purpose other than to analyze a situation and doing so at this late date is really more akin to January quarterbacking, but if there was prior animosity between Jim and any of the deputies, those deputies should not have been the ones to serve the arrest warrant on him.)
The people of the community demanded justice. They seemed to think the death of Jim could have been prevented, but since he apparently did resist an arrest which was authorized by a valid warrant, there was not much to be done about it except to say that it could have been handled differently. However they seemed to view the shooting of Oby as out and out murder. They wanted revenge but, in the end, they wanted the five deputies arrested and charged with the murder of Oby Barnett.
On Monday, the town of Hickory Ridge was a mob scene with a lot more people in town than was normally the case. They were gathering in small groups and larger groups, talking about the situation and wanting something to be done about it. They were angry and they were threatening the deputies. The deputies were advised to leave the vicinity of the town because of the mob. It was reported that the deputies left Hickory Ride and gathered at the home of Deputy McBurnett where they spent the night. Sometime during the first week, McBurnett received an unsigned threatening message which had been mailed from Jonesboro. The message stated “Your bunch will get yours in thirty days”. The mumbling and grousing and mob scenes went on for all that first week.
On Thursday, April 6, 1922, Sheriff Ed Cooper and Prosecutor Cecil Shane spent the day in Hickory Ridge examining the witnesses and generally investigating the shooting of the previous Saturday night. It was reported that the law officers were met by a group of as many as 150 men upon their arrival in the town. The group asked for a “fair square investigation”. They claimed there was proof that neither of the Barnett men had fired a single shot. They demanded that the deputies be arrested and charged and further stated that the community would abide by the honest findings of a thorough and lawful investigation. After this encounter, Sheriff Cooper did place the five deputies, James E.B. McBurnett, Loman E. Pollett, William Love Banks, W.R. Malone, and Emmett Phillips under arrest.
Late in the week, a group of concerned area citizens, headed by Thomas F. Sullins, went to Jonesboro and retained the law firm of Lamb and Frierson to assist in the prosecution of the five deputies accused of murdering Oby Barnett.
A preliminary hearing of the case was held in Cherry Valley on Friday, April 14, 1922, before two justices of the Peace, Ross and Pitts. The state was represented by Prosecutor Cecil Shane, Deputy James Robertson, Judge N.F. Lamb and Judge Samuel A. Gooch. Attorneys for the accused men were Giles Deering of Wynne and Lem Banks of Memphis. Per a pre-hearing agreement, the defendants heard the charges brought against them by the State, and then waived further examination to let the case go to the grand jury. The accused were held over and denied bail but, soon afterward, a writ of habeas corpus was obtained from the court of Judge Hutchins in Forest City which afforded the five men the chance to obtain their temporary release on bond.
In a curious turn of events, a “mysterious stranger” apparently attempted to kill William Love Banks as he was returning by train to Hickory Ridge on Memphis on Wednesday, April 26, 1922. Or did he really? It was reported that the “mysterious stranger” watched Banks on the station platform at Fair Oaks all the time he was awaiting the arrival of the Northbound passenger train but made no attempt on his life until after he boarded the train. Reportedly, Banks even noticed the stranger watching him. After Banks boarded the train and found a seat, the stranger allegedly tried to shoot him through a window but was thwarted in the attempt by some of the train crew and some bystanders.
In an interview a few days later, Banks claimed to know the man as Cecil Holmes of Hickory Ridge. Banks stated that Holmes was one of the state’s witnesses against him and the four others who had been charged with the murder of Oby Barnett. Banks further stated that Holmes had met him sometime after April 14th and had told him that he (Holmes) had known enough to have exonerated all of the deputies during the preliminary hearing but could not afford to speak at that time. Banks claimed that he then replied to Holmes telling him that only the truth was wanted from him.
Sheriff Ed Cooper later arrested Cecil Holmes and took him before a Justice of the Peace charged with carrying a firearm and disturbing the peace but no charge of attempted murder was brought against him. Holmes paid a fine and court costs and was released.
The trial of the five deputies indicted for the murder of Oby Barnett was set to be held in Wynne and to begin on Wednesday, September 13, 1922. At that time, the defense attorneys immediately asked for a change of venue on grounds that the defendants could not get a fair and impartial trial in Cross County. The change of venue was granted and a new trial date was set early in December, 1922, with the trial to be held in Paragould, in Greene County.
The trial was held in Paragould and apparently began on about December 5th. The state opened with fifteen witnesses the first day and several more on the day following. State’s witnesses testified to prior enmity between the five deputies on trial and the Barnett brothers. The state contended that the enmity led to the killing and it was further testified that the deputies fired upon Oby without warning as he approached his store, where his brother, Jim, had taken refuge. The defense attorneys stated for the press that day that the defendants would offer evidence to show that Oby had opened fire upon them from the darkness and that they fired in self-defense. They also stated that they would have as many as 35 witnesses ready to testify in the coming days in defense of the five deputies.
The trial continued until Saturday, December 9th, when after only fifteen minutes of deliberation, the Greene County jury found the accused deputies…not guilty. All five, James E.B. McBurnett, W.R. Malone, Loman E. Pollett, William Love Banks and Emmett Phillips were acquitted of the murder of Oby Barnett.