8.Barry Sowards — Direct

BARRY SOWARDS: My name is Barry Sowards. Last name is spelled S-O-W-A-R-D-S.

BARRY SOWARDS: I'm employed with the Lexington County Sheriff's Department.

BARRY SOWARDS: Nineteen years, 19, 20.

BARRY SOWARDS: No.

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.

BARRY SOWARDS: Yes, that's correct.

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.

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.

BARRY SOWARDS: Yes, I have. I've been with him pretty much the entirety from the time he was originally picked up.

BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.

BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.

BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.

BARRY SOWARDS: Absolutely.

BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.

BARRY SOWARDS: It is.

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.

BARRY SOWARDS: I was.

BARRY SOWARDS: My recollection is somewhere in the area of maybe nine hours.

BARRY SOWARDS: No.

BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.

BARRY SOWARDS: He was.

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.

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.

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.

BARRY SOWARDS: Yes, that's correct.

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.

BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.

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.

BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.

BARRY SOWARDS: Yeah, that's one of the reasons that they're there.

BARRY SOWARDS: He was labeled a safe-keeper by the State Department of Corrections.

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.

BARRY SOWARDS: It was Lexington County that made the decision to transfer him to the state prison, yes.

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.

BARRY SOWARDS: Yes, it is.

BARRY SOWARDS: About an hour and 15 minutes.

BARRY SOWARDS: No, he didn't.

BARRY SOWARDS: He did what I asked him.

BARRY SOWARDS: He was.

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.

BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.

BARRY SOWARDS: That would be accurate.

BARRY SOWARDS: Correct.

BARRY SOWARDS: He has not.

BARRY SOWARDS: He's been compliant, yes.

BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.

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.

BARRY SOWARDS: I don't believe so.

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.

BARRY SOWARDS: To my knowledge, the staff did say they changed his Geodon. I think it went from 40 to 60 milligrams of Geodon.

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.

BARRY SOWARDS: Yeah, I initially confronted him about it because he was quiet that day.

BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.

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.

BARRY SOWARDS: Yesterday?

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.

BARRY SOWARDS: That's what he said.

BARRY SOWARDS: Oh, yeah, it has.

BARRY SOWARDS: He would make a point to tell everybody to stand up. In fact, it has become an internal joke about that.

BARRY SOWARDS: The suggestion was made that one of the attorneys hold his shirttail down so he can't get up.

BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.

BARRY SOWARDS: I do.

BARRY SOWARDS: Yes.

BARRY SOWARDS: No.

BARRY SOWARDS: He has.

BARRY SOWARDS: He has.

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.

BARRY SOWARDS: That's correct.

BARRY SOWARDS: He has with me.

BARRY SOWARDS: Thank you. (Whereupon, a bench conference was held in the presence of the jury but out of the hearing of the jury.)