8.Barry Sowards — Direct
153 linesBARRY SOWARDS, being first duly sworn, testified as follows:
COURT CLERK: If you'll have a seat, please. State your name, spelling your last for the record.
BARRY SOWARDS: My name is Barry Sowards. Last name is spelled S-O-W-A-R-D-S.
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. MADSEN:
MR. MADSEN: Sergeant Sowards, where are you employed?
BARRY SOWARDS: I'm employed with the Lexington County Sheriff's Department.
MR. MADSEN: And how long have you been employed with them?
BARRY SOWARDS: Nineteen years, 19, 20.
MR. MADSEN: Is that your entire law enforcement experience?
BARRY SOWARDS: No.
MR. MADSEN: Can you tell me about what you did prior to coming to Lexington County?
BARRY SOWARDS: Prior to that, I worked four years on street patrol at Columbia Police Department. Then prior to that, I did a five-year stint in the United States Air Force.
MR. MADSEN: And since you've -- you said you've been at Lexington County 19 to 20 years, all with the Sheriff's Department, correct?
BARRY SOWARDS: Yes, that's correct.
MR. MADSEN: Can you tell me, when you started off there, what was your job?
BARRY SOWARDS: When I first started Lexington County Sheriff's Department, I was hired to be a school resource officer. I worked in that capacity for approximately six years. I was promoted to the rank of sergeant, where I was a patrol sergeant in the west and south region of Lexington County. And then in late 2009, I was lateral transferred to my current position, which is the fugitive task force sergeant for Lexington County.
MR. MADSEN: Can you tell me what the sergeant for the fugitive task force, what do you do?
BARRY SOWARDS: So we locate -- we go after folks who have warrants and it's our job to locate those folks who have warrants and then bring them back to Lexington County so that they can stand trial for the crimes they are accused of.
MR. MADSEN: And as part of that job, have you been in court or transporting Tim?
BARRY SOWARDS: Yes, I have. I've been with him pretty much the entirety from the time he was originally picked up.
MR. MADSEN: Coming around almost five years?
BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.
MR. MADSEN: And is it fair to say then that you've got extensive experience dealing with inmates and/or defendants in your job?
BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.
MR. MADSEN: Have those individuals been rude to you before?
BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.
MR. MADSEN: Gotten physical with you?
BARRY SOWARDS: Absolutely.
MR. MADSEN: Tried to fight you?
BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.
MR. MADSEN: I mean, unfortunately, that's kind of a common thing in your job, correct?
BARRY SOWARDS: It is.
MR. MADSEN: And can you just describe to the jury during, I guess, the last six to seven weeks, including the picking of the jury, what has your job kind of been?
BARRY SOWARDS: So my superiors have put me in charge of, basically, being Mr. Jones' handler for the duration of the trial, either myself or my team members, in which we'll go to the jail every morning, pick up Mr. Jones, make sure he's on time, that he's properly dressed and that he makes all of his court dates during this trial through its entirety.
MR. MADSEN: And were you part of the team that extradited Tim from Mississippi?
BARRY SOWARDS: I was.
MR. MADSEN: Kind of give the jury an idea, how long of a drive was that?
BARRY SOWARDS: My recollection is somewhere in the area of maybe nine hours.
MR. MADSEN: During that time, did Tim give you any problems with the transport?
BARRY SOWARDS: No.
MR. MADSEN: Was he compliant to you?
BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.
MR. MADSEN: Was he courteous?
BARRY SOWARDS: He was.
MR. MADSEN: Did he ever do anything in the transport that made you as a law enforcement officer feel uncomfortable?
BARRY SOWARDS: I never felt uncomfortable. Of course, transporting someone with those charges, you know, obviously, have a heightened level of security more so than most. But he never did anything while I transported him that raised my suspicion.
MR. MADSEN: At some point in time, I guess, during the transport, you stopped to get food. Did Tim ask you something or say something to you at that point in time?
BARRY SOWARDS: He did. We had stopped at a restaurant. Two of my detectives went inside to get some food. I stayed inside the vehicle with Mr. Jones. I had a H&K UMP automatic weapon on my lap. And Mr. Jones looked at me and said, you guys don't need an automatic weapon for me. I'm not going to hurt you.
MR. MADSEN: And after you ended up bringing Tim back to South Carolina, did you have more interactions with him?
BARRY SOWARDS: I did. Most every time he was transported, it was done by either myself accompanied with other team members pretty much for the last five years.
MR. MADSEN: So any court hearings, any appointments, you were part of that transport team of Tim?
BARRY SOWARDS: Yes, that's correct.
MR. MADSEN: Can you give me an idea of how many times you think that might have been?
BARRY SOWARDS: I don't know the exact number, I would assume somewhere in the area of maybe 14 times. And each time consisted of, at least, an eight-hour day.
MR. MADSEN: So you were with him that entire time?
BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.
MR. MADSEN: And, initially, he was housed at MSU at Kirkland. What is that?
BARRY SOWARDS: It's the maximum security unit at Kirkland. It's the highest level of security in a prison that we have here in South Carolina. It's reserved for safe-keepers or individuals that have been charged with a violent, pretty violent crime.
MR. MADSEN: So that's over off of Broad River Road?
BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.
MR. MADSEN: And the maximum security, I mean, that's where generally people who have gotten in trouble at other institutions within SCDC go, correct?
BARRY SOWARDS: Yeah, that's one of the reasons that they're there.
MR. MADSEN: And then you had also mentioned safe-keepers. And I guess you said that that's what Tim was, was a safe-keeper?
BARRY SOWARDS: He was labeled a safe-keeper by the State Department of Corrections.
MR. MADSEN: And what is that?
BARRY SOWARDS: Safe-keepers are individuals that they keep away from every other inmate in the Department of Corrections no matter where they're housed. In the Department of Corrections, there's a number of prisons throughout the state. They are labeled with a special uniform that they wear where they're easily identified who they are and they're not to have any contact with any other prison inmate whatsoever within the facility.
MR. MADSEN: And so Lexington County made that designation and sent him to MSU, correct?
BARRY SOWARDS: It was Lexington County that made the decision to transfer him to the state prison, yes.
MR. MADSEN: And at some point in time, I guess, MSU at Kirkland went away and Tim was placed somewhere else. Where was that?
BARRY SOWARDS: He was transferred from MSU or supermax to the Lee County Correctional Institution, which is also governed by the State Department of Corrections in South Carolina.
MR. MADSEN: And is that in Bishopville?
BARRY SOWARDS: Yes, it is.
MR. MADSEN: So down I-20?
BARRY SOWARDS: About an hour and 15 minutes.
MR. MADSEN: And during those times that you would transport Tim back to appointments or court appearances, did he give you any problems?
BARRY SOWARDS: No, he didn't.
MR. MADSEN: Was he always compliant?
BARRY SOWARDS: He did what I asked him.
MR. MADSEN: Was he courteous?
BARRY SOWARDS: He was.
MR. MADSEN: Did he do anything during those transports that made you feel uncomfortable?
BARRY SOWARDS: No. At the time -- during that time at Lee County, he was on quite a bit of medication at that point, so he was pretty sedated.
MR. MADSEN: And I think as you mentioned early on, you've been basically security over Tim at the trial?
BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.
MR. MADSEN: Is it fair to say that you've been with him almost times 12 hours a day, five days a week?
BARRY SOWARDS: That would be accurate.
MR. MADSEN: I guess we're in either week six or seven?
BARRY SOWARDS: Correct.
MR. MADSEN: During the time that you've been bringing him here, been with him here, has he given you any problems?
BARRY SOWARDS: He has not.
MR. MADSEN: Has he been compliant with you?
BARRY SOWARDS: He's been compliant, yes.
MR. MADSEN: Has he been courteous?
BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.
MR. MADSEN: Has he done anything to make you feel uncomfortable?
BARRY SOWARDS: No. There were a couple times he stepped over the line where I asked him to be, but that was a mental mistake more than him just not complying with what I asked him.
MR. MADSEN: Nothing intentional that made you think he was trying to do anything?
BARRY SOWARDS: I don't believe so.
MR. MADSEN: And at some point in time during the trial, did you notice something different going on with Tim?
BARRY SOWARDS: Probably the second or third day of when the trial began, I noticed Mr. Jones had a couple different facial expressions that I was not used to. He was turning around really quick looking to the back of the courtroom, which initially raised my concern and then I realized what he was trying to do was look at the clock and see what time it was. After court was over, we went to the back. I noticed he was pretty quiet. Usually, since he's been off his medication, he's a little chatty. And he was quiet that day. And I said, Hey, what's wrong with you? I said, Are you okay? And I thought it was just, you know, he was down about the trial. And he said, I'm okay. I said, Well, if you're not okay, you need to let me know so that I can facilitate whatever you need since I've basically been put in that position to look -- be his overwatch, basically. And he was reluctant when he told me, he said, I'm hearing voices. I need to talk to a doctor. So it was at that point when I got him back to the jail. I notified the staff in the jail for his care so they could sit down and talk with him about whatever's going on.
MR. MADSEN: And did they change his medication after that?
BARRY SOWARDS: To my knowledge, the staff did say they changed his Geodon. I think it went from 40 to 60 milligrams of Geodon.
MR. MADSEN: And once they did that, did you notice a change back to kind of Tim's baseline?
BARRY SOWARDS: He did, yes. He wavered from day to day, depending on how the trial was going, but yeah, I did see a difference in him.
MR. MADSEN: And so this was something that you talked with Tim about, he didn't come to you with it?
BARRY SOWARDS: Yeah, I initially confronted him about it because he was quiet that day.
MR. MADSEN: During this almost five-year period, have you and Tim had non-job-related conversations?
BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.
MR. MADSEN: At some point during the trial, did y'all have a conversation about a banana?
BARRY SOWARDS: Yes. It was probably maybe the second week in the trial, he was eating a banana in the morning time. He made an odd comment about, you know gorillas or monkeys eat bananas the opposite of how we eat them. And I asked him, I said, What are you talking about? So he had the banana in his hand before he peeled and he turned it upside down and he started peeling the banana from the bottom, what we would consider the bottom, rather than the top. I said, Well, that's kind of neat. You taught me something. I didn't know that.
MR. MADSEN: I noticed yesterday that Tim did not -- or had not shaved. Can you tell me why or tell the jury why?
BARRY SOWARDS: Yesterday?
MR. MADSEN: Yes, sir.
BARRY SOWARDS: He -- when he came out of his holding area, I usually handcuff him and, you know, belly belt and get him ready for transport to bring in and I noticed he -- he had like a day's worth of growth on his face. And I asked him, I said, Hey, did you not shave? Why did you not shave? He said, Well, they gave me the opportunity to shave. He said, But I knew I was going to be running late and I didn't want to make anybody late, so I just went ahead and here I am.
MR. MADSEN: So he didn't want to make the transport team late getting here?
BARRY SOWARDS: That's what he said.
MR. MADSEN: In Lexington, it's customary for the litigants of both tables to kind of stand up when the jury is coming in and out as a show of respect for the jury. Has that seemed important to Tim?
BARRY SOWARDS: Oh, yeah, it has.
MR. MADSEN: Oftentimes, myself and the other attorneys might be working on something or preparing to get ready for a witness, what would Tim do if we were standing up when they started to come in?
BARRY SOWARDS: He would make a point to tell everybody to stand up. In fact, it has become an internal joke about that.
MR. MADSEN: And what was that internal joke that someone should do to Tim?
BARRY SOWARDS: The suggestion was made that one of the attorneys hold his shirttail down so he can't get up.
MR. MADSEN: And you perceive that would have upset him?
BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.
MR. MADSEN: And as part of your job as kind of his handler, you keep an eye on him the entire trial?
BARRY SOWARDS: I do.
MR. MADSEN: Have you seen him crying?
BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.
MR. MADSEN: Do you believe that those are crocodile tears?
MR. GRAHAM: Objection, Your Honor, speculation.
THE COURT: I sustain the objection.
MR. MADSEN: When you've seen him crying, do you believe that his remorse is real?
MR. GRAHAM: Objection, speculation.
THE COURT: Sustained.
MR. MADSEN: During the entire time, this five years that you've been with Tim, has he given you any problems?
MR. MADSEN: Has he been compliant with you?
BARRY SOWARDS: He has.
MR. MADSEN: Has he been courteous?
BARRY SOWARDS: He has.
MR. MADSEN: Has he made you feel uncomfortable?
BARRY SOWARDS: It's difficult to answer. In one point, he has not particularly made me uncomfortable. The level or the heightened sense of the charges is what makes me uncomfortable on a daily basis. Not necessarily with him, but the level of charges, what I deal with.
MR. MADSEN: Sure. So you're always on watch for that, but he hasn't done anything within the job that's made you feel uncomfortable?
BARRY SOWARDS: That's correct.
MR. MADSEN: Fair to say that Tim has been a model inmate?
BARRY SOWARDS: He has with me.
MR. MADSEN: That's all the questions I have.
THE COURT: Mr. Graham?
MR. GRAHAM: No questions, Your Honor.
BARRY SOWARDS: Thank you.
(Whereupon, a bench conference was held in the presence of the jury but out of the hearing of the jury.)
THE COURT: All right. We're done for the day, so y'all eat lunch wherever you like. Here's the reason, the State's witnesses went a little quicker than they anticipated. The Defense lining their witnesses up not knowing that, their witnesses are lined up for Monday morning. These two were available to call them. We're done for the weekend. So Monday morning 9:00 o'clock we'll start again. Leave it here. Don't discuss the case. Don't do any research. Don't let anybody influence you about your decision on what's going on. Don't talk about the case with anyone. See you Monday morning.
(WHEREUPON, the jury is excused from the courtroom for the day.)