Fred Orson Barnes, a 46-year-old male, became the center of a family tragedy that unfolded near Gillett, Pennsylvania, after he went to his brother’s property in Ridgebury Township, Bradford County, on the night of June 21, 2016. Online reporting identified Fred as being from Elmira, New York, while the shooting occurred at the Hillside Acres residence of his brother, Daryl Lynn Barnes Jr., in the Gillett area.
According to state police accounts reported afterward, Fred had gone to the property to retrieve belongings from a utility room. Police said the confrontation began after Daryl confronted him, and the argument became physical. Investigators reported that Fred was allegedly intoxicated and that, during the struggle, he grabbed Daryl and slammed his head into a wall by the neck. The confrontation then moved from a fight between brothers into a fatal shooting.
Police said Daryl retrieved a loaded 20-gauge Mossberg bolt-action shotgun and pressed the barrel into Fred’s lower chest area. Fred reportedly told his brother that Daryl would have to shoot him. Daryl later told police that his finger was on the trigger and that the gun went off, striking Fred in the chest. Fred was taken to Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, where he died from his injuries; the Bradford County coroner pronounced him dead at about 4 a.m. the following morning and ruled the manner of death a homicide pending further examination.
Daryl Lynn Barnes Jr., then 51, was arrested and charged by Pennsylvania State Police with criminal homicide in the shooting death of his brother. He was arraigned before District Judge Michael Shaw in Sayre and sent to the Bradford County Correctional Facility without bail. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for June 29, 2016, before District Judge Jonathan Wilcox.
The case later moved toward resolution in Bradford County court when Daryl Barnes pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. Reporting on the plea said prosecutors alleged that he killed Fred after the argument at Daryl’s home near Gillett, and that the plea left him facing up to 20 years in prison at sentencing. The online sources located described the arrest, charge, and guilty plea, but did not provide a final sentencing outcome.
