Jury: Business partner suffered but won't get damages

PORTSMOUTH

Larry Murphy and Lee Barnes started Highstar Industrial Technologies with a $10,000 investment and watched it grow to a $1 million-plus government contracting business.

But the partnership that went so far in 20 years ended in 20 minutes on Feb. 1, 2008.

It was a day that police would surround the building. And it was a day that one of the men would die.

This week - nearly four years later - Murphy gave a civil jury an account of the day he thought he would be killed.

It was one of three lawsuits that came out in the aftermath of Barnes' death that day in 2008, when, police determined, Barnes held his business partner hostage, then shot himself.

Barnes' widow, Diane, did not believe her husband killed himself, and she filed a wrongful death suit.

Murphy filed suit against Barnes' estate seeking damages for being assaulted and falsely imprisoned, and for the intentional infliction of emotional distress.

That was the case that jurors heard this week.

Murphy and Highstar employees testified that Barnes was behind on a big project and that a project manager from another company had been pushing him on it. Murphy said he gave Barnes some feedback, and that something he said offended the younger man, though he wasn't sure exactly why.

Murphy said he was sitting at his desk in his office when Barnes came in and shot toward him with a handgun.

Barnes repeatedly told Murphy one of them was going to die that day, he testified.

At one point, Murphy said, Barnes brought their secretary into the office and threatened both of them.

He accused Murphy of stealing from him and demanded that the secretary tell him what she knew.

The secretary, Stephanie Prince, told jurors that Barnes pointed the gun at her face and that she was so scared she could not control the jerking of her body or the catching in her throat.

Eventually, she said, he took her back to her office and told her that if she called 911 or ran, he would kill Murphy.

Prince said she watched him through the reflections in glass pictures in the hall. As soon as she could, she ran out the door, screaming, to a nearby building, where workers called 911.

Police positioned themselves around the building, and Barnes took a call from an officer urging him to come out.

But Barnes said he wouldn't leave the building to be handcuffed and taken to jail, according to Murphy.

That's when Barnes turned the gun on himself and fired, then slumped back in the chair, Murphy said. He died about two hours later during surgery, police testified.

George Brozzo, a former Portsmouth homicide detective, testified that he investigated and concluded that Barnes' death was an accident or a suicide.

Attorneys for Barnes' estate put on no witnesses and entered as evidence only one page of the medical examiner's autopsy.

The cause of death was the gunshot wound, but the medical examiner listed the manner of death as undetermined.

Circuit Judge Dean W. Sword Jr. ruled Thursday that Murphy had proved the estate's liability for assault and false imprisonment.

He left the decision about liability for intentional infliction of emotional distress to the jury.

Jurors deliberated for less than an hour and found the estate was liable on that count, too, but awarded no money for damages.

Diane Barnes' attorneys had argued that Murphy did not seek medical care and there was no diagnosis of mental distress to support the awarding of damages.

Robert Rigney, one of the attorneys, said the plaintiff had sued for $1 million, so he considered the jury's verdict a win.

Attorney Bryan Meals, who represented Murphy, said, "I'm gratified that the jury found for Mr. Murphy on liability, but I'm obviously disappointed they didn't award any damages."

He said he believed the two decisions were inconsistent and that he'd address that issue in a post-trial motion.

Meals said his client also plans to appeal the dismissal of a separate defamation lawsuit he filed against Jason Roper, the lawyer who first represented Barnes' widow.

The lawsuit, which also named the firm Roper worked for at the time, was based on a letter the lawyer had sent to Commonwealth's Attorney Earle C. Mobley in November 2008.

Meals said Murphy is looking forward to putting the "tragic episode behind him."

Meanwhile, Diane Barnes dropped her lawsuit against Murphy last spring, then refiled it in September.

In it, she asserts that it was Murphy who shot her husband.

Janie Bryant, (757) 446-2453, janie.bryant@pilotonline.com