[color="Blue"](He should have just shot the nigger and been done with it.)

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/14983344.htm

Posted on Fri, Jul. 07, 2006

State won't prosecute Lambert

REBECCA BLUE
Herald Staff Writer

BRADENTON - The State Attorney's Office says [highlight]Jamaal O. Lambert - standing at 6 feet, 7 inches tall and weighing 240 pounds[/highlight] - was acting in self-defense when he beat [highlight]72-year-old James Ervin Barfield, all of 5 feet, 2 inches tall and weighing 100 pounds.[/highlight]

Barfield died two weeks after their fight.

Police and prosecutors disagree on what killed Barfield.

Detectives say it was homicide, but prosecutors said Thursday "the direct cause of death" was pneumonia. Any injuries Lambert caused during the fight were in self-defense, according to the State Attorney's Office

Prosecutors said Barfield had threatened to shoot Lambert. But Bradenton Police Department officials said they aren't convinced it was self-defense when Lambert knocked Barfield several times to the ground on May 10, sending him to Manatee Memorial Hospital with a broken jaw, other facial fractures and bleeding on the brain.

Police had charged Lambert with manslaughter, after Barfield died on May 24.

Bradenton Police Department Major William Tokajer said Thursday that his department plans to meet with prosecutors "to have the charges continued."

Barfield's family also is lobbying prosecutors to re-consider.

"We're talking about a 72-year-old versus a 25-year-old," said Barfield's son, Ervin. "Whether he (Barfield) deserved it or not I really hope detectives come up with something here. ... Even if they have to go to (State's Attorney) Earl Moreland himself. I just can't see dropping all charges."

The State Attorney's Office on Thursday released a "decline letter" that explains why Lambert will not be prosecuted for Barfield's death.

Assistant State Attorney Angel Colonneso wrote, "The victim confronted the defendant. The victim chased the defendant, yelling racial slurs and the victim threatened to get a gun from his car and shoot the defendant."

The confrontation between Barfield and Lambert happened outside a small apartment complex Barfield owned in the 1300 block of Third Avenue West in downtown Bradenton, where Lambert's girlfriend rented a unit. She was in jail at the time of the incident and Lambert was staying there, according to his arrest report.

Barfield was visiting a tenant he was "romantically involved with," according to the decline letter.

The tenant, the only witness in the case, told prosecutors she accompanied Barfield, who she said was "very intoxicated," to his vehicle later that night and assumed he drove away. She also said she noticed Lambert in front of the apartment complex, "ducking out of sight" because he knew Barfield "did not like him" and had yelled at him in the past about being on his property, prosecutors said.

The tenant walked back to her apartment as she said "hello" to Lambert, whom she knew.

The tenant told prosecutors she then heard Barfield yell racial slurs at Lambert, while he approached him on foot.

That's when the tenant said Barfield chased Lambert around a vehicle and told him to leave his property. He continued to chase Lambert and yell obscenities when Lambert asked him to refrain from the racial slurs. Barfield responded by putting his finger in Lambert's face.

Lambert then "slapped the victim (Barfield) with an open hand." Barfield swung at Lambert, missed and fell to the ground, according to the statement.

As Barfield tried to get back up, Lambert "slapped him with an open hand across the face," the statement said.

As Barfield got up, he swung at Lambert and missed. Lambert again, "slapped the victim (Barfield) in the face and the victim fell to the ground."

Nearly 20 minutes later, from her apartment, the tenant heard commotion again outside.

At that moment, Lambert told prosecutors Barfield said he was going to get his gun, as he walked toward his vehicle. Lambert followed. Barfield attempted to strike Lambert but instead, Lambert struck him and Barfield once again, fell to the ground, according to the statement.

The tenant cleaned Barfield up as he sat up on the cement. Barfield then drove a couple blocks, to the Bradenton Police Department to file a report against Lambert.

Lambert never filed a report and did not receive any injuries, according to authorities.

Barfield told investigators he was beat up for no reason, according to the statement.

A hostile Barfield refused treatment and had to be detained under the Baker Act for authorities to get him to seek treatment at the hospital. Once at the hospital Barfield had to be restrained as he tried to leave and became "violent and restless," according to the prosecutor's statement.

Two weeks later, on May 24, Barfield died at the hospital.

Autopsy: Death a homicide

Two days later, on May 26, Lambert turned himself in but wasn't charged because it wasn't clear yet what had caused Barfield's death.

[highlight]On June 9, he was arrested when an autopsy report indicated Barfield had "facial fractures, facial injuries and trauma to the brain."

The Medical Examiner's Office ruled Barfield's death a homicide, caused by a beating, according to police officials.[/highlight]

In its decline statement, the State Attorney's Office said it was discovered in the hospital that Barfield had the onset of cirrhosis of the liver and had developed pneumonia in the hospital, which prosecutors referred to as "the direct cause of death."

A robbery charge against Lambert in connection to the May 10 incident was dropped in early June after the tenant changed her story about what had happened before she cleaned Barfield up and sent him on his way.

After he hit Barfield the final time, Lambert told investigators he then went up to the tenant's apartment to give her $100 he owed her, which didn't completely coincide with her initial story.

The tenant first told investigators that Lambert met her in the stairway, gave her $1,700 and told her to hold it, before running downstairs, according to the statement. That prompted the robbery charge against Lambert.

It was later discovered that the tenant had lied and that she had taken the money, which she found lying next to Barfield, when she went to check on him downstairs. She also admitted that Lambert only gave her the $100 he owed her, which resulted in the robbery charges being dropped.

The tenant's conflicting accounts caused prosecutors to rule her out as a witness, according to the decline statement.

The only remaining witness was Lambert, the suspect in the case.

In the decline statement, Colonneso suggested that Barfield's past influenced the decision not to prosecute Lambert.

"Additional investigation revealed that the victim was known to keep a gun in his vehicle and the victim had previously threatened the defendant with a gun. The victim had been arrested for aggravated assault with a firearm and fired a gun at a person who he believed to be Hispanic, while calling the person by racial slurs," Colonneso wrote.

In that case, Barfield was charged with improper exhibition of a dangerous weapon or firearm. Barfield's adjudication was withheld and he was ordered to forfeit his gun, according to court records.

[highlight]Lambert has spent more than four years in prison on burglary charges out of Sarasota County, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.

He also has been convicted of battery, resisting an officer, trespassing, criminal mischief and loitering, according to the Sarasota County Clerk of Court.[/highlight]