News Articles: Jonathan Wayne Barrows

This is the article that was printed in the Carroll County Times on August 29th 1998, the day after Jonathan Barrows was murdered.  I will be scanning a copy of it to display here, but here is a transcript as well.

Former resident killed in Alabama

“A former Carroll resident was shot and killed early Friday in northern Alabama after an apparent argument with two men.

Jonathan Barrows, 19, formerly of Old Washington Road (Westminster), was shot in the head after an argument with the men in a shopping center parking lot in a small town north of Huntsville, Lt. Blake Dorning of the Madison County Sheriff’s Department said Friday evening.

Thomas David Rozell, 45, and Eric Brandon Rozell, 18, were arrested and were charged with capital murder Friday afternoon, Dorning said.

Barrows was set to testify against Thomas Rozell in an upcoming court case for reckless endangerment, Dorning said. Rozell had fired a weapon at Barrows several months ago after some type of dispute, Dorning said, adding that he did not know the details of that incident.

In Alabama the state can seek the death penalty if a person is killed when he or she is about to be a witness in a court case against slaying suspects, he said.

Barrows is the son of Shirley Barrows, who was outspoken in Carroll about drug users in her community.

The Barrows’ Old Washington Road barn was burned down and a baby pig being kept inside was mutilated in 1996. Shirley Barrows said at the time the burning was carried out as a retaliation after she turned several youths in to the police for drug use, she said. Three men were later sentenced to six years in prison for the crime.

Shirley Barrows was said at the time that her family was going to leave Carroll County because of all the problems they had had with drug users. She said she was planning to write a book about her family’s ordeal.

– Laura Beck”