DEL.ICIO.USWHAT EVER HAPPENED TO ... LANNY BARNES: McDonald's attacker
Man serving life needed bone marrow transplant
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday, November 17, 2008
Lanny Barnes will die in prison. But no one knows when.
Barnes, 48, is serving a life sentence at Valdosta State Prison for running over a family in the parking lot of a Covington McDonald’s in 2006, leaving a 2-year-old girl dead.
Newton County police photo
Lanny Barnes of Covington was sentenced to life in prison plus 80 years
RENEE HANNANS HENRY/2006 photo
No motive was found for why Lanny Barnes ran over this family. Isaac Casola (right), 3 then, recovered, as did his brother, mother Stephanie Casola (left) and his aunt Anita King, but his cousin Avery King died. Father Paul Casola holds Isaac.
Barnes has leukemia. Before he was tried and sent into the state prison system, the Newton County sheriff and district attorney said Barnes needed a bone marrow transplant.
Authorities are not saying if Barnes actually received the transplant.
The Department of Corrections will not release any medical information about prisoners; the sheriff and district attorney say they don’t know.
Barnes’ family did not return calls seeking comment.
Gone untreated, acute leukemia can cause death within a few months of diagnosis, according to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. With treatment, patients can live five to 10 years or longer.
One thing is certain: Barnes cost Newton County a lot of money.
Newton County Sheriff Joe Nichols said last week that county taxpayers spent $470,000 for Barnes’ care at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, wiping out one-third of the sheriff’s medical care budget for the 17 months Barnes was in his custody.
“By far, this is the most extreme case I’ve ever seen,” said Nichols, who’s been with the sheriff’s office for 40 years.
Barnes appeared frail in October 2007 when he pleaded guilty to the murder of Avery King, 2, of Asheville, N.C., and aggravated battery against four survivors of the May 23, 2006, attack.
He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for murder, plus 80 years for the battery charges.
No motive has been established. Barnes’ mother, Mary Barnes of Covington, has been quoted by The Associated Press as saying her son had suffered from depression for many years.
Four people were seriously injured: Avery King’s mother, Anita King, aunt Stephanie Casola of Covington and Casola’s sons, Jacob and Isaac Casola, then 4 and 3.
Witnesses said Barnes laughed during the attack.
“He just laid on the gas,” Stephanie Casola told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in August 2006. “I knew immediately that it was not an accident. I thought I was going to die that day.”
Barnes was diagnosed with leukemia, or cancer of the blood or bone marrow, shortly after his arrest. He was expected to undergo a bone marrow transplant, although the Department of Corrections would not say whether that ever happened.
“That’s just not something we can release,” said spokeswoman Kristen Stancil, citing federal health privacy laws.
The state is required to notify the victims when Barnes dies, Nichols said.
Multiple attempts to reach Paul and Stephanie Casola and King last week were not successful.
“What ever happened to …” is a weekly feature catching up with people and issues in the news. Are you wondering about the fate or fortune of former newsmakers? Tell us who and e-mail dgibson@ajc.com. Please put “what ever happened to” in the reference line.
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