Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 26, 1990                   TAG: 9004260732
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DRIVER GUILTY IN FATALITY/ JURY SETS SENTENCE AT 3 YEARS IN PRISON

Herman Ray Barber, 41, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of William L. Martin, 79.

A jury in Roanoke Circuit Court fixed his sentence at three years in prison.

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Joel Branscom had argued during the three-day trial that Barber was drunk and out of control the day his speeding sports car slammed into an oncoming car on Ogden Road Southwest.

Barber, a counselor for the Veterans Administration, testified that he was sober the day of the March 18, 1989, accident.

However, the jury chose to believe laboratory tests showing that Barber had a blood-alcohol content of .15 percent, well over the legal limit of .10 percent at which someone is considered too drunk to drive.

Barber maintained he had a single bourbon and water the day of the accident.

But a forensic scientist testified someone would have to down at least six drinks within an hour to reach the alcohol level found in Barber's blood shortly after the accident.

"He made the decision to drive after drinking . . . and because of that a man is dead," Branscom said.

But defense attorney Charles Phillips, who called the prosecution of his client a "witch hunt," questioned the reliability of equipment used to measure Barber's blood alcohol content.

And Phillips called witnesses ranging from a baby sitter to paramedics who had all been in close contact with Barber the day of the accident. They all said the same thing: that he had shown no signs of intoxication.

However, a police officer and a physician who treated Barber in the emergency room of Community Hospital both said they smelled alcohol on his breath.

Barber testified that his car went out of control after he hit a pothole. Witnesses said Barber's car was going as fast as 70 mph when it struck Martin's car sideways, sailed 80 feet through the air and landed on an embankment.

Martin, who was on his way to a dinner party when the accident happened, was pronounced dead at the scene.

When he learned that Martin had died, Barber said, he was devastated. "I thought of myself as someone who saves lives instead of someone who could be responsible for an accident," he testified Tuesday.

Barber, a Roanoke native, has a past that includes professional distinctions and criminal convictions.

In 1974, he was convicted of robbing and shooting a man who was making a bank deposit at Crossroads Mall. He went to prison, escaped briefly, and was paroled in 1979, Branscom said.

At that point, Phillips said, Barber "pulled himself up in society" - going back to school and earning a master's degree in social services.

Barber has served as a drug and alcohol counselor and as president of a local chapter of a national social workers' association.

His victim also had a distinguished past.

Martin, a senior partner with Martin, Hopkins, Lemon and Carter, had been active with the firm until his death - often being the first to show up for work in the morning.

He taught law classes at Washington and Lee University, served as president of the Roanoke Bar Association and once ran unsuccessfully for the House of Delegates.

A judge allowed Barber to remain free on bond until he is sentenced in June.