Sixteen-year-old Brendan Barnes, left, and his cousin Antonio Henry, 25, are charged in the death of Rev. David Strong.A Hamilton County Criminal Court judge will rule if two cousins, charged in the beating and stabbing death of a local pastor, should receive separate trials.
“Both of these two individuals will be pointing at the other,” attorney Dan Ripper said Monday during a court hearing.
Ripper represents Antonio Xavier Henry, 26, and had filed a request that the cases be severed, granting separate trials for Henry and his cousin Brendan Barnes, 17, who is represented by Executive Assistant District Public Defender Karla Gothard.
The cousins have told police and the Chattanooga Times Free Press that they beat Pastor David Strong, but each blames the other for the 29 stab wounds that a medical examiner says killed the 55-year-old man in his Glenwood Drive home.
Police found Strong’s body Oct. 10, 2010, but think he was killed days earlier.