In January 2000, my brother, Scott Barmore, was convicted of three counts of robbery in St. Charles, Missouri and sentenced to 60 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. The ONLY evidence used against him at trial was a written statement and 3 “eyewitness” testimonies and a gun retrieved by police from Scott’s father’s home, who Scott did not live with.

The written statement came from Scott’s ex-girlfriend, Terry Garcia, who was arrested for forgery and, as she admitted in an affidavit years later, made a deal with police not to do jail time if she identified Scott in a very distorted black-and-white video of the robbery that only shows the back of the robber. Terry had a prior criminal record and was given probation for the forgery charge. She is fully cooperative on Scott’s behalf today and says she cannot identify the robber’s voice at all.

That written statement prompted the St. Charles Police department to place a warrant out for Scott’s arrest. Scott cooperated with the police, interrogating him without a lawyer and he also volunteered to participate in a lineup the next day, again without a lawyer present.
The victims of the two robberies stated that the robber had an “African American Slang”. Besides his approximate height, this was the only identification they gave the police. Scott was cleverly placed in a lineup with all foreign exchange students from St. Kitts with Jamaican-like accents. Scott was born and raised in America so inevitably he was chosen as the robber.

The third victim stated the main identification of the robber as being between 6’2 and 6’4. Again, the police cleverly placed Scott on a photographic lineup where the heights of the men were; 5’2, 5’3, 5’4, 5’6, and Scott who was 6’4. The St. Charles police were determined to charge Scott with these crimes, one way or the other.

Scott had 2 trials with all white jurors in both trials. A police detective admitted telling one witness that Scott was the “right person” to pick from the lineup. These same detectives fingerprint was the only print found on an unusable gun taken from Scott’s father’s home, which was theorized by police as the robber’s weapon.

Absent these highly questionable identifications and an unusable gun with a police’s fingerprint on it, there is not any evidence linking Scott to these robberies nor is there any motive for Scott to have committed them. He worked as a sales rep at AT&T, graduated from real estate school, was soon to register at Maryville University, and had a promising future. He has been fighting these false charges for 25 years now, and I believe the more people who learn the details of his case, the better his chances are of receiving justice and rebuilding his life.

Please let your voice be heard against this injustice by signing this petition demanding that Scott be granted a new trial.

Thank you,
Dwight Barmore, Jr.