On September 9, 2017, 37-year-old Terry Barnes Sr. and his girlfriend were filling up their vehicle at a Marathon gas station in Cleveland, Ohio. The gas station was a popular neighborhood hangout.
While at the pump, Barnes and 27-year-old Leah McLaurin, who was described as intoxicated, engaged in a heated argument. Barnes and his girlfriend left without further incident.
Later that same day, Barnes returned to the gas station alone. McLaurin was still there when Barnes approached to discuss their earlier argument.
According to records, a bystander called 34-year-old Jeffrey McLaurin, and told him that Barnes was arguing with his sister. Jeffrey went to the gas station with a firearm, approached Barnes, and struck him in the face with the weapon.
At 2:39 am on September 10, 2017, Barnes, drew his weapon and began to exchange gunfire with Jeffrey. Interior and exterior surveillance cameras showed the two exchanging gunfire, and a third, unknown, person also firing a weapon.
Two bystanders, Cortez Ruffin and Yavonne Blackmon, were shot. Barnes was shot in the elbow, and Leah McLaurin was shot in the thigh. She later died from the injury.
On September 10, 2017, Barnes went to the hospital for the injury to his elbow, where he was arrested for Leah’s death. Police were unable to identify who fired the fatal shot and also arrested Jeffrey McLaurin at the hospital.
On September 19, 2017, Barnes was indicted in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas on one count of murder, one count of voluntary manslaughter, three counts of felonious assault, and two counts of discharging a firearm. Barnes pled not guilty at his arraignment.
The camera footage from the gas station was provided by the state to Barnes’s defense counsel, but it was labeled “counsel only.” This designation meant that the evidence could be viewed only by Barnes’s attorneys.
Barnes and McLaurin were initially charged as co-defendants. However, on November 21, 2017, McLaurin’s counsel, Angelo F. Lornado, moved to sever the defendants for the purpose of the trial.
At his bond hearing on January 31, 2018, Barnes testified that he acted in self-defense.
On September 19, 2019, Barnes pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter. In exchange for his guilty plea, the state asked the trial court to amend the voluntary manslaughter charge to involuntary manslaughter, to dismiss the remaining counts, and to dismiss the firearm specifications.
The trial court granted the state’s requests, accepted Barnes’s guilty plea, and scheduled a sentencing hearing for October 31, 2019.
Because one of Barnes's attorneys was unaware of the counsel-only designation, Barnes was inadvertently given access to the footage the night before his sentencing hearing.
Barnes believed that the audio of the footage would establish that he did not shoot first, supporting his self-defense claim.
On October 31, 2019, at 12:47 PM, 13 minutes before the sentencing hearing, Barnes filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea. Barnes said he was not guilty and that he had acted in self-defense.
On November 6, 2019, Barnes supplemented his motion to withdraw his plea, arguing that when he pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter, he was unaware that any video footage of the incident contained audio.
On November 15, 2019, the trial court held a hearing on Barnes’s motion to withdraw his plea and appointed new counsel to represent Barnes.
Barnes reiterated that he first learned about the audio evidence the day before his sentencing hearing.
Barnes testified that his trial attorney never showed him the footage from the night of the incident. According to Barnes, he only became aware that audio existed the night before his sentencing hearing when a member of his legal team inadvertently gave him access to the footage in violation of the counsel-only designation.
The state offered no rationale for the counsel-only designation, stating only that the typical reason for the designation was to prevent witness intimidation, which did not apply in Barnes’s case
Barnes, a veteran, said the audio footage supported his claim of self-defense because his military training allowed him to distinguish among his weapon, Jeffrey’s weapon, and the weapon of the unidentified shooter.
On December 18, 2019, Barnes’s attorney told the trial court, “[t]he point is: Mr. Barnes believes that if he had seen that video he would not have pled guilty, and that's what we're about.”
The court did not make a ruling and held a second hearing on Barnes's motion to withdraw the plea. Two of Barnes’s four trial attorneys testified that they recalled viewing the video with Barnes, and one testified that the video was at least available to Barnes. The fourth attorney testified he was not able to recall showing Barnes the footage. However, none of the attorneys recalled showing him the video with audio.
Barnes’s newly appointed counsel argued that because Barnes did not know about the audio, “that ignorance alone is enough to require withdrawal.”
The court reconvened on December 23, 2019 , and denied the motion, affirmed Barnes’s conviction for involuntary manslaughter and sentenced him to community-control sanctions for five years.
On January 29, 2020, Barnes appealed to the Eighth District Court of Appeals of Ohio, arguing that the trial court erred in denying his motion.
Barnes also moved for court-appointed appellate counsel, which the court of appeals granted on February 7, 2020, appointing Andrew S. Pollis and Joseph Shell of the Kramer Law Clinic at Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
Barnes contended that he had a legitimate reason to withdraw his plea, claiming defense counsel did not make the potentially exculpatory evidence available to him before he pled guilty, and his motion to withdraw was filed within a reasonable time.
Barnes argued that his trial counsel had been ineffective for failing to hire an expert witness, failing to review the audio footage, and for failing to challenge the counsel-only designation.
On March 18, 2021, a three-judge panel from the Eighth District Court of Appeals affirmed the lower-court ruling, holding that Barnes failed to demonstrate a reasonable basis for withdrawing his guilty plea and that the trial court’s judgment denying the motion was not unreasonable, arbitrary, or unconscionable.
Barnes applied for reconsideration and a review by the full appellate court. His application was denied.
On April 12, 2022, Barnes filed a discretionary appeal, which was accepted by the Supreme Court of Ohio.
On December 15, 2022, the Supreme Court of Ohio reversed the appellate court. Writing for the court, Justice Melody J. Stewart held that when a defendant discovers evidence that would have affected his decision to enter a guilty plea, he has a reasonable and legitimate basis to withdraw his guilty plea before sentencing. The court further held that the trial court abused its discretion when it denied Barnes’s presentence motion to withdraw his guilty plea.
Barnes’s conviction was reversed, and the case was remanded to the trial court. On December 27, 2022, the State filed a motion for reconsideration. On December 29, 2022, the Supreme Court of Ohio denied the motion.
By this time, Jeffrey McLaurin had pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter. Barnes’s case was dismissed in 2023 53 .
On June 12, 2024, Barnes filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Cleveland, the Cleveland Police Department, the Clerk of Court of Cuyahoga County, the State of Ohio, and the Ohio Attorney General.
Barnes sought $7.3 million in compensatory damages, claiming that the defendants continued to negligently and with malice defame his character without any regard for the truth.
On September 10, 2024, United States District Judge Pamela A. Barker dismissed Barnes’s lawsuit, ruling that defamation actions are governed solely by state law.
– Eliana Rose Assouline-Sampson, Kyrina Brianne Barrett, Emily Paola Cervantes, Alan Felipe Esparz, and Audrey Elise Stanton, supervised by Sofia Okuma.
Posting Date: 07-06-2026
