Johnathan Ismael Harriel, the 20-year-old Concord man who was one of three accused in connection with the slaying of former Benicia High School cheerleader Shelby Elizabeth Barnes, was set to be released from jail this week, according to reports.
Harriel was sentenced to six years in prison Monday in Contra Costa Superior Court, Martinez, by Judge Terri Mockler.
Based on conditions of an agreement in which Harriel pleaded guilty to residential burglary, his time served and good behavior credits meant that by Tuesday he had completed that sentence and could be freed.
In January, another of the three defendants, Randi Len Dees, 22, formerly of El Sobrante, who also had been charged in the killing, was sentenced to at least 15 years in prison after she entered a no contest plea to murder.
In another agreement, made in February, the third defendant, Donald Paul Waldecker, formerly of Turlock, traded a guilty plea to first degree murder for a sentence of 25 years to life.
According to the slain woman’s mother, Charlene Barnes, and Shelby’s sister, Sara Royer, the three defendants had plotted to kill Shelby Barnes, 21, who at the time was living in a Concord house that was owned by her father, Brad Barnes.
The house, in the 2900 block of Glenside Court, Concord, was about to be taken by a bank through foreclosure. The mother said her former husband mistakenly believed that if Shelby were living in the house, the bank couldn’t proceed with its acquisition.
Shelby met Waldecker, then 23, and Dees through Harriel, a mutual acquaintance, and she invited the two to stay in the house’s “mother-in-law” apartment because she thought they were down on their luck, her mother said in an interview last February.
Charlene Barnes said Waldecker assumed that house ownerships worked like acquiring pink slips for cars, and thought he could get the house’s deed if Shelby were out of the way. Adding to the circumstances, Dees had told Waldecker she was pregnant with his child.
Shelby wasn’t romantically involved with any of her murderers, her mother said.
Waldecker recruited the other two to help him, she said, then beat Shelby with a table leg Oct. 25, 2011, until she was helpless. With the others’ aid, Waldecker taped Shelby’s mouth and body and wrapped her in a rug. After that, she said, Waldecker and Dees threw her daughter down two flights of stairs. After Shelby was dead, Waldecker cut her throat.
Her body was discovered later during a security check of the property.
Concord police, with help from Richmond police, arrested Waldecker and Dees on Oct. 27, 2011. Harriel, a minor at the time, was arrested later.
Originally, the three claimed innocence in their charges before accepting plea agreements.
Shelby was a popular cheerleader who had been speaking with other members of her squad about a reunion. After her 2008 graduation from Benicia High School, she attended Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, where she studied early child development.
She moved into her father’s Concord home after his invitation to use it for free while he was in Oregon.
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