ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996 TAG: 9606240074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Above
A MAN already wanted on charges that he firebombed his ex-girlfriend's apartment is now being sought on new charges - that he killed her Saturday at her mother's house.
Eight weeks ago, Robin Williams survived a firebombing at her apartment in Northeast Roanoke. But neighbors say she still feared for her life, because the ex-boyfriend who was charged with the attack, Aquilia Marcibicci Barnette, was still at large.
An hour after sunup Saturday, police say, he came to her mother's house with a shotgun to finish the job. Police say Barnette chased Williams outside and then shot her in the chest. Williams, 23, died at Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
Police were still looking for Barnette, also 23, as of late Saturday.
Barnette, who is from Charlotte, N.C., has been wanted since April 30 on five charges in the firebombing of Williams' Keswick Street apartment. Police said Barnette had tried to kill her because she had broken up with him and then rebuffed him when he tried to talk her into getting back together.
"He thought he owned her," said Doris Coleman, one of Williams' neighbors. "He just didn't want to let go."
Williams had been out of the hospital a few weeks and living with her mother, but she was still returning to get therapy for her burns.
Police say that around 7 a.m. Saturday, Barnette showed up at Williams' mother's house on Loudon Avenue Northwest. Police say witnesses told them Barnette fired a shotgun several times into the back door, then forced his way in and confronted her mother, Bertha Williams.
Robin Williams fled the house, police say, but he chased her down and caught her near Ninth Street and Loudon Avenue. Police say Barnette was trying to force her back into the house when he shot her in the chest.
Then, they say, he sped away in a dark blue Honda Civic.
Williams' killing left two of her neighbors complaining that police don't do enough to protect victims of domestic violence.
"They didn't take it serious enough," Coleman said. She said she saw Barnette riding around Roanoke a couple of days after the firebombing and called police, but he was already gone.
"I know there's some things you can't do," Maude Hubbard, 75, said. "But there's a whole lot more they could do. They can do more about domestic troubles."
Roanoke Police Lt. William J. Beason said the department takes domestic violence cases "very seriously. We encourage victims to place charges and prosecute them."
In Barnette's case, Beason said, "everything we had indicated he had gone back to Charlotte. We were in constant contact with the Charlotte police. We passed on any leads we had to them."
Charlotte police say Barnette is also wanted in North Carolina on an unrelated burglary charge. They said he was charged in North Carolina in 1992 with assault with a deadly weapon, burglary and two counts of kidnapping. Two years later he was charged again with kidnapping and with two counts of rape. It couldn't be determined Saturday what had happened in the courts with those charges.
Coleman said Williams and Barnette had moved into the Keswick Apartments together about a year ago.
Hubbard said Williams was a "hard-working girl, a good girl" who sang in her church choir. Williams had a good job working in the insurance claims office at Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley, Hubbard said.
"She was a wonderful person," Williams' brother, Kenny, said. "She loved everybody. She was the sweetest person you ever wanted to meet."
Hubbard said Williams "got tied up with the wrong people" and starting seeing Barnette.
Another neighbor, Tony St. Clair, said he had often heard Barnette and Williams arguing, and that he had called police three times.
Police say that after she rejected Barnette, he told her to "watch out."
About 4 a.m. April 30, Williams and Benjamin Greene, 23, who was staying at her apartment, were awakened by smoke. When they looked outside, they saw that Greene's car windows had been smashed and the car was on fire.
They later told police that they saw a man - whom they identified as Barnette - throw an object through the apartment window. It was a firebomb, and it ignited the couch.
Greene pulled a handgun from his duffle bag and fired three shots at the man. The man fled in a car.
Williams and Greene escaped the flames through a second-story window. Greene was not hurt, but fire scorched Williams' right arm and she suffered bad cuts to her chest, stomach, legs and knees.
After Williams got out of the hospital, Hubbard said, "she came back and dedicated her life to Jesus Christ."
But many nights she couldn't sleep because of her fears that Barnette would return, Hubbard said. "She was looking to see him any time."
Hubbard said "some men think that they can take possession of a young girl." She said people need to get angry about domestic violence - and do more to stop it.
"I think this ought to wake Roanoke up," Hubbard said. "Young women are losing their lives. It's so sad to let this child die like this."
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Aquilia Marcibicci Barnette, 23, is wanted in theby CNBslaying of his ex-girlfriend. Police describe him as 5-foot-6, 140
pounds with brown eyes and black hair. KEYWORDS: ROMUR