Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 14, 1990 TAG: 9003142701
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: POMPANO BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
Through Dryfka's writings, telephone records and tales from the back streets of south Florida, police pieced together a bizarre tale of obsession in which Dryfka allegedly was stalked by a former homosexual lover. The man had boasted the hunt would end in death, authorities said.
"This guy said he would not rest until Jeff Dryfka was dead," said Detective John Donadio. "If he couldn't have him, no one could. It's much weirder than the movie `Fatal Attraction' because it's true."
Last week, a grand jury indicted James Charles Barfield, 47, on a first-degree murder charge in the Feb. 17 slaying. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty.
"The poor victim was hounded," said Broward County State Attorney Brian Cavanagh.
The story of Dryfka, 26, and Barfield, which began with small talk on a park bench, illuminates a shadowy side of south Florida. Each night young runaways, prostitutes and junkies - and those who prey off their weaknesses - bargain and barter away under the bug-encircled street lamps.
"This is a good lesson of how someone can get caught up in the sick side of society without even knowing it at first," Donadio said.
The beginning of Dryfka's journal describes how at 18 years old he was sent from his mother and stepfather's home in San Diego to his father's apartment in West Palm Beach.
"I had the perfect life," he wrote of San Diego. "I had a pool in the back yard, a skateboard, friends and girlfriends."
But in Florida, he was lonely. His father worked at sea for a salvage company. Dryfka began hanging out at a park where he could buy marijuana.
He befriended Barfield, a chain-smoking man with a limp who lived off welfare and disability checks, and over the strong objections of his family, soon moved in with him.
Barfield had spent 16 years in prison for convictions including sodomizing a 13-year-old boy at gunpoint, said Donadio.
From 1982 to 1989, Dryfka exchanged sex for housing and money, some of which was spent on cocaine and marijuana. Police say Dryfka tried for years to leave, but each time Barfield would find him and persuade him to return.
On Sept. 18, Dryfka moved out for good. He told Barfield he was moving back to San Diego, but remained in Florida, dyed his hair blond, painted his pickup truck black and began dating a woman.
Barfield took a bus to San Diego and discovered Dryfka was not there. He then began a string of threatening telephone calls to Dryfka's family, making at least 150 calls to Dryfka's mother from September to January, Donadio said. Barfield sometimes demanded money.
"He'd say stuff like, `You want to see your next birthday?' " said Donadio. "Then he'd laugh. He has this Charlie Manson-type laugh. . . . This guy is totally wacko."
During the hunt, Barfield posed as a police officer, a banker and other officials, authorities said. Knowing Dryfka's Social Security number, credit cards and date of birth helped him persuade others to give him information.
The break came Feb. 3 when Barfield contacted Palm Beach County probation officials who were monitoring Dryfka after he violated probation on cocaine possession charges. They told him Dryfka turned in an electronic ankle bracelet that's used for tracking violators ordered confined to their homes.
Dryfka knew Barfield was getting close. On Feb. 15, the day he had gotten engaged, a car sped by and the driver shouted at him.
"He knew that was Barfield," said Donadio. "His girlfriend - who was very naive about the whole thing - was traumatized, to say the least."
The next day, Dryfka told his landlord he wanted his fiancee to have all of his possessions if he was killed.
Police say Barfield took a cab to an air-conditioning repair company where Dryfka worked. There he let the air out of a tire on Dryfka's truck. Dryfka drove about a half-block before realizing the tire was flat. When he got out, he was shot in the back.
Dryfka's father has since moved to West Virginia. His fiancee now lives somewhere in the Northeast, police said.
"So many lives messed up by this one guy," said Donadio. "I'm sure this was the farthest thing from Jeffrey's mind that first day he met Barfield."
The subtitle of Dryfka's journal: "I have my own life, too."
by CNB