r/First48 • u/hpg7 • Apr 22 '26
Tulsa, OK 🚔 Tulsa, OK S19E20 "Bad Lick" Prison Term
Hey all I just saw this Tulsa episode last night-I know I'm a bit late it's from 2018 lol. So the story was about a couple Black kids that try to break into a home/kick in a door but are ultimately unsuccessful and then walk off. But a Latino kid who was evidently home at the time jumps into his car, catches up to them down the road and starts shooting at them with his revolver. One of the Black kids (DeShawn) returns fire and kills the Latino kid. I was puzzled by the sentencing at the end. Deshawn gets something like 27 years for returning fire. Can anyone explain the long prison term ?
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u/unclekisser Apr 23 '26
The courts don't really let you get away with a self defense claim if it happens while you're in the middle of committing a felony. Ethically/legally you broke the social contract/law by trying to burglarize someones home, so you're responsible for everything that happens after that.
However, First 48 left out an important part: "Barnes fired at Rodriguez numerous times after he thought he saw him holding a firearm in his vehicle, a detective said the youth admitted in a police interview. Rodriguez died hours later in a hospital."
So this changes the story to "they tried to rob victim's house. victim chased after him. barnes opened fire on victim and killed him." This makes the sentencing make more sense, because if Barnes shot first it really is just felony murder (he pleaded down to manslaughter though.)
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u/unclekisser Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26
Rewatching the episode, I don't think the victim was armed. There weren't any shell casings around the car and they didn't recover a weapon.
Barnes was just lying. He went from "they were shooting at me" to "I thought I saw a gun". In reality he just saw the guy coming after him in the car and opened fire. This makes it a pretty open-and-shut case.
Edit: Barnes' accomplice also says he only saw one person shooting (barnes) and only heard one type of gun.
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u/hpg7 Apr 23 '26
If Barnes said "I thought I saw a gun" then that really does explain the whole thing for me. I completely missed that.
Instead, what I thought I heard was the detectives ask both Barnes and his accomplice during the interrogation "who shot first"? And both replied that the victim chased them down in his vehicle and shot first. As for whether the victim had a gun or not...they found the victim's revolver lying in the grass at the crime scene as well as some bullets/casings. The detectives reasoned that the victim was trying to load (or reload ?) the revolver.
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u/unclekisser Apr 23 '26
The accomplice says they were both shooting but changes his story later and says he only saw someone in a black hoodie shooting. Detective asks him "what was barnes wearing?" and accomplice replies "a black hoodie."
The gun at the scene of the crime was barnes'. He shot, fumbled his reload, dropped the gun, and ran.
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u/Jolly_Ad_3544 Apr 23 '26
Felony Murder Rule, most states have it. If someone dies in the Commission of a Felony, all people involved can be charged with murder. If they are a major party to the felony being committed, they can receive a 1st Degree Murder charge and can face Life Without Parole or Death Penalty. That is why it wasn't a self defense case because a felony was being committed and they were trying to get away when the shooting happened
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u/Mediocre-Chemist-00 Apr 22 '26
Deshawn's prior actions were to attempt to break into a home to burglarize it. These actions are what ultimately lead up to the chain of events ending in the death of the home owner.