“This sends a message that when you attack a police officer it is not tolerated,” prosecutor Mike Waldman said. “It was an awful attack by a habitual criminal. He worked hard at it and deserves everything he got.”
A jury convicted Barry Dean Garrett of aggravated assault on a public servant with a deadly weapon on Dec. 3. Sentencing in the case was delayed to gather information to help mete out fair punishment for Garrett.
The pre-sentence investigation revealed that Garrett has been in and out of at least three state mental institutions and suffers from schizophrenia. He was arrested at least 18 times in the past 20 years with seven felony and eight misdemeanor convictions. He has had his parole revoked nine times.
“Everything indicates you can’t make it on the outside,” said Judge Martha Trudo of 264th State District Court.
The charge came about after Temple police officer Gary Smith saw Garrett walking down the middle of an unlit street late at night on May 10 in east Temple.
Smith questioned Garrett and found out he had warrants. Garrett and Smith fought before backup units could arrive.
Audio evidence recorded by Smith’s patrol unit indicated Garrett was the aggressor. It took the jury less than 30 minutes to come back with a guilty verdict in the case.
The fight between the men was protracted, beginning in the street but also carrying the pair through a neighborhood bar.
During the struggle Smith’s right shoulder was dislocated.
“It was the most intense pain I ever felt,” Smith said. “The pain was unbelievable.”
Smith testified he suffered tendon and ligament damage to his shoulder and that the ball of his shoulder had two cracks in it as a result of in the incident. The injuries required surgery.
He believes the shoulder was damaged further when he rolled onto it during the fight to prevent Garrett from getting to his gun.
As Smith writhed in pain on the ground Garrett tried to gouge his eyes and repeatedly hit him in the head with a plank of wood.
A passerby who saw what was going on “laid on her horn” and averted the beating.
“I thank God for the young lady who stopped and honked her horn because I don’t think his head could take another blow,” said Smith’s wife, Cristie Smith.
Mrs. Smith testified she has noticed her husband’s memory has suffered since the incident. He needed seven staples to close his head wound.
When the beating subsided and backup had finally arrived, Smith was transported to Scott & White Memorial Hospital, where his wife is an emergency room nurse. Instead of meeting her husband there for a lunch break, which is what the couple had planned, she was surprised to see him as the victim of a violent crime.
“There he was with blood all over his face, shoulder hanging down and his T-shirt all ripped up,” she said. “I’ll never forget that.”
Eight months after the incident Smith is not back at work yet and said he still has trouble sleeping. He expects his doctor to allow him back to work on Jan. 22.
Garrett apologized to the state, Smith and his family before the sentence was handed down.
“I hope someday I can be forgiven,” he said.
His attorney, Joe Wiener, argued that Garrett’s mental illness should be a factor in the length of sentence. He said 25 years would send a message.
Prosecutor Kara Schneible called Garrett’s crimes significant and serious and said anything less than 60 years would be disrespectful to Smith.
Waldman asked Judge Trudo to consider the lives of both the victim and the defendant when she determined the sentence.
“From a young age Smith has helped people,” Waldman said. “He is a devoted professional who has made a career out of helping folks, enforcing the law and making Temple a better place.”
Waldman said Garrett is at the other end of the spectrum.
“He has devoted his life to being a habitual criminal, always in trouble, always getting arrested,” he said. “In his mid-40s he caps off his habitual criminal career with nearly killing a Temple police officer. Sentence this thug for what he has earned for himself - life in prison.”
Garrett told Judge Trudo he planned to appeal the judgment. He will be eligible for parole in 30 years, when he is 77.
Before the trial Wiener said prosecutors had offered Garrett a 45-year sentence in exchange for a guilty plea.
“My client has maintained his innocence from the start,” Wiener said.
