48 Hours - A Time To Kill

Episode Date: August 19, 2026

Sterling Barber was 17-years-old when he violently stabbed a man to death. Sterling said the accused attacker, a father and church Deacon, tried to sexually assault him. But was it self-defense or murder? "48 Hours" correspondent Richard Schlesinger reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 9/13/1999. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays and stream on demand on Paramount+.

Franklin County is a small country place. This country. And in Carnesville is nothing but a little speck. Nothing really much goes on there. Sterling Barber wants a life as quiet as his hometown in rural Georgia. I want to be a good dad, a good husband, raise my family right, and I want to take care of my mom, mom make it comfortable for her. Sterling's got a heart as big as Texas. From the day he was born,

he's taking a big bite out of life. Everything he's done has been full speed ahead. Hey, Sterling. But Sterling's simple goals had to be put off after what happened on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. He was just 17 the night he met Gerald Douglas Wyatt. It's the most fear you'd ever have. You can't describe how it was. To his wife, Wyatt was the perfect family man. He was a very kind, caring man. To others, he was a predator. What I saw was a very evil man.

Sterling Barber done one I always. Waste of God I'd have done. I had no other choice. There was nothing else I could have done. And if they consider that wrong, then I just have to accept it. If you believe Sterling, on the night of November 27, 1995, he was just killing time at a truck stop. One of the few public places open near his home. I was at Petro.

I got off from night school. I went up there to get something to eat and hang out a little bit. And I was watching a movie. And whenever I came out of the movie room, he approached me. According to Sterling, Wyatt said he was a private detective and asked him for help. He was checking out a lawyer's wife that was supposedly cheating on him, and they were fixing to get a divorce, and he needed evidence. He said, I looked like a local, and he wanted some help.

Wyatt offered Sterling $40 to drive him around town. But things started to go bad soon after they left the truck stop in Wyatt's car. I said, isn't it about time we go back to Petro? Barber says his new acquaintance told him he had to relieve himself. Whenever he came back in, his pants run button and unzipped, and he climbed over on top of me. And he put his forearm in my throat. And he was trying to choke me out. I started to pass out.

And whenever I did, I stopped struggling. I stopped trying to fight him. And he loosened his grip on me, and that's whenever I grabbed my knife and I stabbed him. Sterling stabbed Wyatt once in the shoulder with his hunting knife. What else was I supposed to do? Just let him do it. Then he stabbed him five more times in the groin. He said, why'd you do that? And I said, because you were trying to rape me.

And that's whenever he said he was sorry. And I told him it was too late for that now. Wyatt slumped forward in the car. And then I just wanted to go home. I didn't know what else to do, so I just pulled him out of the car. And I left, I went back home. Would that have been a time to go? for help.

I don't know. The only thing I knew to do was just to get away. That's all. Sterling took Wyatt's car and drove home to his mother, Judy Barber. Ah, I lost it. When Sterling needed me the most, I lost it. She asked me what happened. I said, Mom, I said, a guy tried to rape me and I stabbed him.

Did you tell him to call the police? Did you want him to call the police? No, I wanted to get an attorney. which is a very difficult thing to do when you don't know anybody in the middle of the night. But Judy told Sterling to take Wyatt's car back to the truck stop, and Sterling went on the run. Meanwhile, Doug Wyatt was bleeding to death on the side of a road. He was on a Sunday. Pat Wyatt, his wife of 21 years, did not know where he was.

He was missing like for three days. And during that time, I always had hope. I always had hope that he was still alive until I got a call when night. Well, his pants was down around his ankles and he had a shirt on, laying out there with his eyes open. Sheriff Hugh Roach got a tip and tracked down Sterling Barber. When the deputies found him, Sterling confessed and told them where to find Wyatt's body. We come up here and we found Mr. Wyatt's body laying right in here, laying on his back.

The sheriff's still not buying Sterling Barber's story that he killed Wyatt in self-defense. I don't believe it. You don't believe any of it? No. I don't believe any of it. Why not? Why would he stab him so many times if all he was trying to do was get away from him? If he had got out of that car when he got loose from White, come to us, they wouldn't have been nothing done. But because Sterling never called the police and in fact took Wyatt's car and ran, he was charged with armed robbery and murder. A Franklin County teenager pleads not guilty to murder charges. Do you think what he did after the fact was wrong? How can anybody say, I would have done this or I would have done that?

You've got no idea what happens when you face evil. Is Sterling Barber a murderer? Yes. You don't even hesitate. Not even for a minute. There's no doubt in your mind. No doubt in my mind. He's a murderer.

And according to one witness who saw Sterling Barber that night, he didn't act anything at all like a scared boy who had just fought off a sexual attack. He came in and it was 4 o'clock in the morning. and sat down on the end bar stool. He ordered a ribby steak, order of french fries, double order of ice cream and a Coke with refill. Marion Pritchett says she knew Sterling from working with him at the Echo Diner. I rung up his order.

He paid me with a $20 bill. He had blood on it. I said, why is this money so bloody? He said, I killed a deer and dressed it. And I always get blood all over me when I dress the deer. Okay, I didn't have a problem with it. Never in a million years would I have thought that he had even been in a fight, much less had murdered anybody. He was too calm.

Way too calm. Was there blood on your money? No, sir. There wasn't any blood on my money. You didn't tell her that the blood was from a deer? No, sir. That never happened. No, sir.

I don't understand why she said that. Sterling says he never trusted the law. He's had several run-ins with Sheriff Roach before, for shooting a kid with a BB gun, for beating up his older brother, and for running away from home. But Sterling Barber had never been charged with a violent crime before, and his friends do not think he's capable of committing one. He's such a good person. He really is.

He talks like a gentleman. Nice all around. He's a real good guy. Just always been a real good friend to me, and as far as I know everybody else over here, just a good person. Sterling was a standout baseball player. The boys played ball with Sterling to tell you, he was awesome. Sterling was one of my star players, just an excellent kid. His coach, Scotty Atkinson, says he never saw a violent side to Sterling.

I can't see it. I can't see what he's already been through. Sterling was too good. In my eyes, he was just too good. I wish we could go back. Life stopped dead that night. Life stopped for the Wyatt family as well. It flashes in my mind time after time of what he had to endure.

How much he suffered, the pain that he went through. The Wyatt's had two children, their son, Braxton. He was brutally murdered by some of the same. by someone with no thought for life, no thought for pain, suffering. Lee is their daughter. He was a loving dad. You know, he would do anything for anybody, and he was just a good dad. He loved people a lot, and it showed.

Wyatt made a living as a hairdresser and a used car salesman. He was my beautician. He was my friend. He was just fantastic. Never been a better person, in my opinion. He had lots of customers that just loved him because he'd go to their house and pick him up and do their hair at home if they needed it. He'd even fold their laundry when he picked him up sometimes. Wyatt was a deacon in his church.

A respected citizen of Danielsville, Georgia, population 297. But there was another side to Doug Wyatt. Was he a predator? Most definitely. Well, it happened to me when I was 13 years old. This is where we drove in at. Doug Wyatt's wife knew. I know. I told her. People are saying that your husband was a child molester. You know that.

Yes, I know that. When we come back, the secret life of Doug Wyatt. He said, if you ever tell anybody about this, I keep. It's got 58,000 miles on it. Real good car. It's a pretty good deal. $5,500 for this car. These new tires? That is, if you don't mind. its history.

They're practically new. It belonged to Gerald Douglas Wyatt. He was stabbed to death in it by Sterling Barber. Had a little bit of blood on the door side there, but not on the seats. Doug Seeger's, Wyatt's old friend in the used car business, doesn't think it's a tough sell. Do you feel a little funny selling this car? Not really. I don't think he actually died in the car anyway.

I think he died in a ditch up there later. Does I make you feel better? Well, yeah. It runs clean. No sign. of trouble. A lot of folks say the same thing about Doug Wyatt. When you first walk up and meet him, he was a nice guy. He looked pretty good too. On the outside. But any young boy that he could come in contact with, he was going to try something with him. He was a child molester, and he saw Sterling

as his next victim. I thank God, Sterling Barber done what he did. These men had never met Sterling Barber, but they had met Doug Wyatt when they were young boys. When they heard Barber's story that he stabbed Wyatt because Wyatt was trying to rape him, they believed him instantly. I knew it happened the way he said it did. You knew it? Right. You didn't doubt it for a minute.

No. And the reason? Because I knew Gerald Wyatt and the kind of man he was. John Davis was a 12-year-old boy playing basketball when he says Wyatt lured him into his car by pretending to be an old family friend. He said that he had to go to the bathroom and walked, I don't know, 15 yards away from the vehicle and made a remark something to the effect that it was hard to use the bathroom with a hard on. Davis ran home, shaken, but unhurt. The same thing happened with me. James Watkins was 13 years old when Wyatt asked him for help hauling trash.

But before they got to the dumpster, Wyatt, once again, pulled down a dirt road to relieve himself. When he got back in, he still had his pants down, playing with himself. And he reached over and started to unzipping my pants or whatever. And I just opened the door and got out and run. Well, it happened to me when I was 13 years old. Melvin Hooper says Wyatt tried to molest him almost 30 years ago. Wyatt was just 17. and to this day, Hooper is haunted by the experience.

Sterling Bob had been doing one I always. Wish to God I'd have done. It stabbed him, shot him anything, anything like that. Wyatt lived in this White House here. Was he a good neighbor? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Nobody ever pressed charges against Wyatt until Joe and Cindy Duncan noticed something strange

between their 12-year-old boy and Wyatt. When I asked him what was going on between him and Wyatt. He just turned around and looked at me. He said, Daddy, he's molesting me. Sometimes it happened in the woods on the way home from school. Sometimes it happened when Joe sent his son next door to get a haircut from Doug Wyatt. The guilt that I feel in my child is something that I don't think I'll ever be able to make good again for my son. And when he finally told you what your friend, what your neighbor had been doing. What did, what did you do? I basically went to kill him. Literally. Literally.

Duncan burst into his neighbor's house and to this day swears he would have killed Wyatt if Wyatt had been home. Pat Wyatt said her husband was out. But later that night, the Wyatt's came over here to talk to Joe and Cindy Duncan, who secretly recorded their conversation. Eventually, the Duncan's calmed down. We didn't want to prosecute our friend. We didn't want to put him away. We thought this guy's sick. He needs help. They accepted a plea bargain where Wyatt would serve 20 years probation, get counseling, and get out of town. But incredibly, just one week before his sentencing. This is where we drove in at. It's pretty secluded. Nobody's Ryan James says Wyatt tried to molest him here.

How many other people has he brought to the same location and might have succeeded on? Because you get down here, what's down here? Who's here to help you? And about eight months later, Wyatt was charged again, this time for aggravated sodomy. This time, police say he used a gun. While he was waiting for trial in that case, Doug Wyatt met Sterling Barber. After he was killed, his wife was killed. killed, his wife Pat was left to cope with her husband's death and all the questions about his life.

Was your husband a child molester? No. You're sure of that? You're asking me, was he? Okay. I can only answer for what I believe. That's all I'm asking. He wasn't a man that would hurt someone. You know, he would not force himself on someone. I think a lot of people would ask, what does it take for this lady, you, for his wife, to believe it?

You know, I'm not saying that he didn't have problems, you know. I'm very aware that he did have some problems in his life. But I don't believe that he was a child molester. Pat Wyatt has got to be in deep denial to believe that none of these acts are true. He's gone and why keep focusing on his past. The focus is supposed to be a murder. He took a life, and he should have to pay for taking that life. Next, Sterling Barber's murder case goes to trial.

But will the jury hear the whole truth? It's almost as if Gerald reaches from the grave to... I told the truth, and so I figured everybody would know the truth. But it didn't happen like that. I learned how things really worked. And now Sterling Barber is praying this community will show him mercy for killing Gerald Douglas Wyatt. He says it was self-defense. The authorities say it's murder, despite Wyatt's extensive criminal record.

It's almost as if Gerald reaches from the grave to manipulate. June Temple first knew Doug Wyatt as a deacon of the church. There were times when I thought there was some Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde there. But then she came to know Doug Wyatt as a predator. He knew that I knew. Not a sexual predator, but rather the kind that preys on elderly women, like her friend, Sally Fanny Daniel. He provided her with alcohol and he provided her with pills.

And as a result, what did she give him? Anything he wanted. Her house? Her house. Money? Money. She didn't know that she'd signed over her house to? She had no idea.

When he got caught, a judge ordered him to give everything back, and June Temple saw it all. To be perfectly honest, I quit the church because I could not stomach the thoughts of taking communion from his serving. What's amazing about Gerald Douglas Wyatt's life is that many of his neighbors in Danielsville either didn't know about his problems or didn't want to know. I knew that he had things bottled up inside that he didn't talk about. But as long as it didn't affect my life, and it wasn't, I never saw him hurt anyone, never. He was a believable character to those that he chose to be believable to. And Wyatt was able to beat the system, say the sheriffs who had run-ins with him. The justice system was a long way from perfect.

He should have been off the streets a long time ago. And we win some, we lose some. We lost in this case, and there's poorly little kids paying the price. Judge William Grant handled two of the criminal cases against Doug Wyatt. After all that, he presided over Sterling Barber's trial for killing Doug Wyatt, but he did not give Sterling a lot of breaks. At Sterling's trial, Judge Grant kept out most of the evidence of Wyatt's criminal history. Of all those men whose stories are so similar to Sterlings, only two were allowed to testify and only very briefly. Here's what Judge Grant said in court.

To me, all these men showed is that it's possible to fight off a sex deviant and not kill him. Judge Grant refused our request for an interview. Deliberations began again this morning. They presented us with evidence and, you know, we deliberate and they wanted an answer. You know, it was real fast-paced for that type of case, I thought. After a two-day trial, these jurors found Sterling Barber guilty on all counts, including murder. Barbara was found guilty on five counts. I don't believe I could have ever left a human being to die.

It don't take much to stop and, you know, get your sanity back in heaven. What hurts Sterling in the jurors' minds was that after stabbing Wyatt, he ran away and ate a steak dinner. If you go out to eat after you've done a crime like that, it just doesn't seem civil at all. But then we told the jurors about the evidence they weren't allowed to hear. Would you like to have heard from men who would tell the exact same story? Would that have influenced your decision at all? Yes, I think we should have.

I don't believe any of us can sit here and say what we would have done if we would have heard that evidence. But I feel like we should have. That was what the whole case was about, you know. He faces a minimum of 26 years. After Sterling was convicted, Judge Grant threw the book at him. Sterling Barber, at 17 years old, got life in prison. plus 40 years.

How can you do this? How can you protect a child molester and send this child to prison for life and 40 years? After the trial, Sterling's mother, Judy Barber, became his best advocate. They got their conviction, but we're appealing. And before we left that day, I put my hand on his arm and I said,

son, we're appealing this. No, you're coming home. Although she suffers from arthritis, she and her boyfriend Daryl have worked harder than any lawyer or investigator to prepare Sterling's appeal. The laws depend a lot on who you are. I was nobody. There's some records we need to check. My mom's been great.

She's worked almost every day. She doesn't even like to take breaks. This is the case. She just kept going and kept going writing letters, writing people going to courthouses, In me letters, she just stays going 24-7. I will not leave one stone and turn until my son's home. Judy found a lot of information, and most importantly, she found a new lawyer to represent her son during the appeal.

Ed Talley is our savior. I think he will be acquitted if we do our job. He is the first strong man to stand up and fight for this child. He did not get, in my judgment, a sufficiently fair trial, and the jury, rendered their verdict with inaccurate and incomplete information. Ed Talley is taking Sterling's appeal very personally. A lawyer's worst nightmare if they're worth a damn is to represent somebody that's innocent.

It's the kind of burden that upsets your stomach that cause you to lose sleep that makes you cry when the verdict comes out whether you win or lose. Is that the way you feel about this case? Absolutely. As Sterling waits, this ordeal has brought his family closer together. Today, his mother, and sister Lynn have come to tell him that his aunt and his grandfather have died. And Papa died this morning. Sterling can't go to the funeral.

You're coming home. But he has some reason for hope. That's next. When I first got there and I seen it, it was the most violent crime that I have ever observed. The buddy was laying right there. Jimmy LaCroy is the sheriff's deputy who investigated the killing of Doug Wyatt. You have a white male that's laying on his back and his pants pulled down to his knees. The body was dragged from the car and left for dead. Despite his first impression, when LaCroix learned about Wyatt's criminal history, he began to understand why Sterling Barber stabbed him.

I do believe that Wyatt did come on to Barber. But there's one thing that's always troubled LaCroi about Sterling's story. How many times do you have to stab him in? to feel like you've done enough damage. Barber stabbed Wyatt six times and was convicted of murder. I would hope that I wouldn't have to stab someone more than one time to get out of any situation. You're in the, you know, it's dark, you're in the middle of nowhere, and the guy's on top of you.

Would you know when to stop? Would you know where the line was between self-defense and murder? Truthfully, if I was in that situation, I don't know if I'd be thinking about where the line is divided. Because my main objective was to be getting out of the car. I think Sterling had that opportunity to get out of the car. So why did Sterling react so violently that night? Why didn't he just stab Wyatt at once to stop the attack and run for help? Sterling says he still doesn't know, but we've been talking to him for about a year and a half,

and just recently he started talking about another incident on another night. When he was just six years old in a foster home, where authorities had placed him after his mother hit him. Well, I was asleep one night and the guy came in on me while I was asleep. And he molested me. Did you fight him off? I couldn't. Shoot, I wasn't nothing but about two and a half foot tall, three foot tall. This was a big old dude.

Sterling says he was sodomized. He doesn't like to talk about it. And there was never a police report filed. Does that attack on you earlier in your life have anything? anything to do with the way you behaved in that car that night? I don't believe so. No, uh-uh. See, how could it not?

I didn't have time to think, well, this happened to me when I was six. This is fixing to happen to me now. What am I going to do? There was that. There wasn't that much time to even think that. There was no time. It just happened that quick. It's something Sterling's first lawyer might have wanted to know,

but Sterling never told him. The jurors in Sterling's first trial never heard about his earlier experience. And they never heard that Gerald Wyatt was a convicted child molester with another charge pending. The reason? Well, it's hard to believe, but Georgia state law did not consider child molestation to be an act of violence that would justify killing in self-defense. Sterling is hoping his appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court will overturn that law and give him another chance to prove he stabbed Wyatt because he had to. to sentence Sterling Barber to life in prison.

I don't know. That's a question I have from a sale. I don't know. Next, the Georgia Supreme Court answers that question. Will Sterling Barber get another chance? A fellow was attacked by Chimelester. Convicted Chimelester. Judy Barber's been singing the same song since 1995,

telling anyone who will listen that when her son killed Gerald Douglas Wyatt, It wasn't murder, it was self-defense, and he should go free. My dream is when I open that door and Sterling walks out and I hand him his driver's license and say, son, drive me home. And her dream just might come true. The Georgia Supreme Court has overturned Sterling Barber's conviction and he'll get a new trial. Oh, I'm so happy.

It's hard to describe. I'm praying for a long time. He's coming home. But in fact, he's just coming closer to home. He's being transferred to a jail near his mother where he'll wait for a new court date. I give the credit to the Lord, but my mom is right in behind him. In a landmark decision, the court ruled child molestation is an act of violence that could justify killing and self-defense. To prove why it was a child molester, his entire criminal history can be introduced in court in a new trial.

I think if a jury has the right to make an informed decision, Sterling's coming home. As you sit here today, it's a brand new case, it's a brand new day. It's just like it was the day you got arrested. Ed Talley is the lawyer who argued the appeal for Sterling. I don't intend to lose this case, but you and I have to be realistic enough to know that it could go south. Tully knows that even if he can present all of Wyatt's previous victims and their stories that are so strikingly similar to Sterlings, there is still one huge problem, how to explain Sterling's behavior after the killing. Twelve people listened to the story, and they decided that Sterling was guilty.

Doug Wyatt's widow, Pat, is horrified by the news that Sterling's conviction has been overturned. How can the system turn around and take this away? The Wyatt's decide to write a letter to the judge. Someone needs to hear how we feel. This letter is to explain. express our failings. People are going to believe what they want to believe. I know.

Because I knew him. I live with him. That was my dad. The system, we feel like, has failed us. Judy Barber feels the system failed her, too. I love you. I love you, too, Mama.

Sterling may have won this round, but the Barbers have a long way to go. Today, we are baking as many homemade goodies as we can so that we can go sell and raise money for Sterling's defense. Good morning. Need some homemade goodies. Ma'am, would you be interested in some homemade goodies? Despite all the bake sales, Sterling's family cannot post the $100,000 bond. So Sterling has to stay in jail.

He celebrates his 19th birthday behind a plexiglass barrier. I love you. Love you too. Hi, hi, guys. Happy birthday. His family tries to make the best of it. Boy. Well, here's your cake.

Just trying to taste self. Don't cry too much because I don't want him too depressed. But it's been two years. You go be home next birthday. I know that. Mom tries to stay strong in front of me, but she doesn't have to do that. I know how sad she is and how much it hurts her. Whoa.

Dude. Boy, y'all looking good, man. Sterling's friends come to visit too. All right. It's been a long time. Have a birthday. I appreciate it. I miss you, man.

Miss you too. I got to see my best friend for the first time in two years, and that's very special to me. Y'all ready? Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. My 19th birthday is the best birthday I've had in my whole life because my life was taken from me,

and I got a chance at life again. Where will Sterling Barber be in a year? The answer may surprise you next. It's all going, Brian. It's been more than a year and a half since Sterling Barber won a new trial for killing Doug Wyatt. Sometimes it feels like I'm dying inside. But he's still waiting. A trial date hasn't even been scheduled.

I just sit here just like the grass does, slowly dying, slowly withering away. He's now been locked up for a total of... three years and three months. I'm in no man's land. There ain't nothing going on right now. I'm just out alone. In that time, he's grown four inches and gained 40 pounds. Look at the difference.

He was such a young and then. He's grown up in jail. Happy birthday. He celebrated three birthdays. Happy birthday, happy birthday. And four Christmases. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas. I guess I don't got another inch on him. Sterling is now 20 years old. Everybody seems shorter. But he seems much older, says his mother, Judy. He's about 50 years old now. Sterling's an old person and a young person. There's no peace in prison.

You can't be yourself. You always have to put up a front. Act a certain way. Can't be nice to people. When you're nice, there's always somebody there that's going to mistake your kindness for weakness. Something's got to happen. Get him out of there or go to trial.

Do something. Why is Sterling Barber still in jail some 500 days after being sent back to that county? Well, the short answer is that the wheels of justice turn slowly, as we all know. But the practical answer is because, you know, at this point, we're really on our fourth prosecutor and our third judge. And every time we get a new judiciary in the case or a new prosecutor in the case, essentially the process starts all over again. Sterling's lawyer, Ed Talley, has had a tough time finding an impartial judge and prosecutor in this small Georgia county.

I think for the sake of justice, the case is better tried anew in another county that's larger where there's not been so much publicity and conversation about the case. But Tully, who is not being paid, feels he's partly to blame for all the delays in this case. My schedule is demanding. I'm doing this pro bono. I'm working this case as I can and when I can with what I can. And it has slowed it down. While the lawyers do what they can, Sterling does what he can to make the most of his life here. Right here is my little cubby hole. I got the top bunk. It's where I do my reading and writing. Got my store sat. Got all my munchables. Got donuts and skittles and honeybuns. popcorn, all the comforts of home.

Sometimes I just come and sit, just look, think, dream. Sometimes if you look hard enough, seems like there's not even a fence here. Pat Wyatt is doing what she can to keep her husband's memory and his case alive. It's very hard as time goes by and nothing is done. done. To me, sometimes it seems that no one cares. Even with all the terrible things people say about him, she still believes her husband was killed for no reason, murdered in cold blood by Sterling Barber.

He took a life, and now he should have to pay for it. He should have to answer for his action. What will happen to Sterling? Sterling comes home. You believe that? Yes, sir. If I come back and talk to you in 10 years. In 10 years, he will be a common. graduate. He'll be married to a beautiful lady and have beautiful children. Ms. Barbara, that is a very happy ending to what so far has been a very scary story. Yes, sir. And he deserves it. I don't want anybody to feel sorry for me or anything like that. I just want people to understand that I didn't do this out of meanness or cold blood.

I did this because I didn't have any other choice. I just did what instinct told me to do. It just happened. There's going to be a day just waiting on it to come. To avoid a possible life sentence, Barbara pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to five years in prison and 12 years on probation.

He was released from prison in 2000.