By Joe Johnson
A violent, lifelong criminal is back behind bars and police have given kudos to members of the community for making that happen.
Antonio Luvara Barnes has been in and out of jail over the past two decades.
He was 25 when first arrested in 2002, on a family violence battery charge.
He went on to commit increasingly more serious crimes in Athens-Clarke and Madison counties that sent him to prison four times.
In 2021 Barnes was sentenced to four years in prison upon conviction of aggravated assault for beating beating an ex-girlfriend and choking an elderly man during a domestic altercation.
He was released in December 2023 after having served only two years, and just two months after that, Barnes committed another violent assault again by strangling a 28-year-old homeless woman.
It was only because of community involvement that police even learned that the crime had been committed.
“In February of 2024, the Athens-Clarke County Police Department received tips with minimal information regarding an unnamed homeless individual who had been violently assaulted,” ACCPD said on its Facebook page. “With the limited information provided, the Special Victims Unit worked hard to identify the victim and suspect. The suspect was charged and convicted.”
That suspect was Barnes who, in a negotiated agreement with prosecutors, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and was sentenced to 20 years, with the first 10 to be served in confinement.
“Without the assistance of our community this case might have gone unreported and unsolved,”ACCPD said.
Now 47 years old, Barnes began serving his sentence on October 29 at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Butts County.
He will be eligible for parole in February 2034.
Citizens who have information about crimes in the community can call the confidential Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 706-705-4775.