PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A man who confessed six years ago to executing a Philadelphia couple pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and was sentenced Tuesday morning to decades in prison. The defendant is already serving a life sentence.
James Barrow admitted to wrapping Nakeisha Finks and Jonathan Pitts in duct tape, binding together their wrists and feet, taping their faces, and executing them in 2009 inside a West Philadelphia apartment during a robbery.
Barrow and Tyreh Smith were charged, after Barrow confessed to the killing, and prosecutors tied Smith to the case through a fingerprint found on a piece of duct tape.
Detectives say Barrow overheard Pitts at a bar talking about how he recently got a lot of money, and that he called his childhood friend Smith to help him in the robbery.
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The case has previously been tried by prosecutors before against Nafis Pinkney, who was later acquitted in the case. He sued the city and settled.
During the sentencing hearing, Finks’ mother and sisters described her as “the rock of the family” and that people like Barrow “are the reason the world is so broken.”
One wished for him to rot in hell.
Barrow declined to say anything, and the judge told the family it was one of the most brutal cases she has seen and signed off on the negotiated plea of 25 to 50 years in prison.
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Barrow already serving a life sentence for another case. Smith pleaded guilty to third-degree murder as well and was sentenced to 24 to 48 years in prison.
Barrow went to trial for another case similar to the way Finks and Pitts died. He’s serving a life sentence for binding Kamari Joseph’s wrists, ankles, and face in duct tape and shooting him once in the head on Aug. 24, 2009.
On Feb. 1, 2016, Barrow called the FBI in Delaware and confessed to the killing and agents, and a homicide detective from Philly interviewed him and began their investigation.