Judge Continues Preliminary Hearing In Stacey Barker Murder Case

Katfishponders has been reporting since March 2009 on the story of Emma Leigh Barker. Emma was an 18 month old little girl who allegedly died at the hands of her mother Stacey Barker, 24 , of Lancaster, CA. I'll give a short summary in this entry but for full coverage and links to media coverage click here.
When Emma was first reported missing, Stacey Barker claimed she had been knocked out by "the kidnapper" as she loaded her daughter into her car seat as they left playtime at a local park on March 19. Barker claimed the next thing she knew she came to six hours later in her car now parked several miles away in a Palmdale park and ride lot, partially unclothed, injured and her daughter was missing. Because Barker did have injuries consistent with a struggle she was transported to the hospital for treatment and an Amber Alert was issued for Emma.


The next day Barker admitted making up the abduction story. She said the little girl died accidentally, causing her to panic (afraid she would be blamed) and leave the girl's body near the freeway. It was a month before Stacey Barker was arrested. Barker plead Not Guilty to charges of Murder, and one count each of assault on a child causing death and child abuse at her Arraignment on May 11 at the Antelope Valley Courthouse in Lancaster, CA . It was reported by the Sheriff's office spokesman that "Detectives believe that based on interviews and the condition of the victim that she likely suffocated."

Since Emma went missing and Stacey Barker was charged with killing her there has been next to no coverage of the case by the accredited press, locally or nationally. If this continues the defense shouldn't need to file a Motion for a change of venue, there would be no basis to support it.

Because of the lack of coverage, the information from here on will be based on reports by a woman named Toria who has been attending the hearings in this case, Toria has graciously allowed me to share her reports with you. Most of the "in the courtroom" report is in Toria's own words, I did change a few things because the information is culled from a number of posts versus one report so I have tried to piece them together in a way that makes sense. Thank you Toria. There are MANY who are interested in this case.


On July 21 the Preliminary hearing was held At the Antelope Valley Courthouse with Judge Carlos A. Chung presiding.

Deputy District Attorney S. Kelly Cromer represented the people and the defendant is represented by Deputy Public Defender, Roberto F. Dager.

The Defendant was non emotional except when the Coroner or Detective said something she didn't like, then she sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes and bitched to the PD...anything but tears!
Her hair was a rats nest, someone must have stolen her brush..hair down almost covering her face. When they were taking her handcuffs off the deputy was telling her not to try to touch any family members.


The Barker family and Stacey Barker's boyfriend Brendan (BB) were there. Emma's father Anthony and his mom were there also.


There were 2 motions filed by the defense:

1. The defense motion to exclude media coverage is denied.

2. The defense motion to allow defendant change into civilian clothes is denied.


The coroner, Dr. James Ribe was the first witness on the stand.

Dr. Ribe did not say a time of death at the hearing, what he did say was the state of the body when he got to it, full rigor mortis. According to the Coroner's report, Emma was allergic to peanuts, so her Dr. gave her dimeatapp(?) wellllll, she had 2x the dose for her age! The Coroner said Emma should have .15mpl allergy med in her system if the baby had a reaction, but Emma had .30mpl.

Dr. Ribe also commented on the froth that was found, if she had choked on a baggie it would have had to have been stuffed way down in her throat and the froth from her lungs could not have passed the baggie so he KNOWS IT WAS SUFFOCATION.

Emma also had white rock type material in her belly (SB reported it was a piece of granola bar) Blood in both nostrils, among other things they found hairs on her vagina (coroner did not elaborate on what kind of hairs), blanket material on her face and grass and dirt on her back!


(I had to laugh at the Attorney for SB , he kept saying ,"SUFFERCATED" AND "SUFFERCATION". I was SUFFERIN' just listening to him. SSSUFFEREN SSSSUCCOTASH, LMAO. He should really learn how to say "suffocate" the right way.)


Second on the stand was the Deputy that arrived at the scene first, his name is John Alvares. When the sheriff arrives at the Park and Ride, all SB does is complain about HER HEAD..SHE MENTIONS EMMA ONLY1 OR 2 TIMES!
B I T C H......
Third was Elliot Uribe, I think he was the first Detective that SB talked to, I am not quite sure.

Next were Detective William Marsh and Detective Sandra Nava.
The information that Detectives William Marsh and Sandra Nava testified to was from the taped interview with Stacey Barker the morning she got out of the Emergency Room.

The Deputy District Attorney (DDA) wanted to play the video of the interview in court so the judge could see and hear for himself her cold demeanor when SB was telling the story, no tears or emotion...the judge said it is already 3:00 and that tape is 2 hours long so just do a summary for now.

According to Detective Sandra Nava"s testimony:

Stacey Barker (SB) and her boyfriend, Brendan (BB) were out until about 2 or 3 am on St.Patty's day at Coaches or some other bar and grill, the Detective could not remember the name SB told her. SB told Nava that her mom was watching Emma that night.

The next morning SB got up at her regular time and got dressed like she was going to work, went to BB house where they slept most of the day and other things, watched tv and then went to Pollo Loco for lunch, then she redressed in her work clothes and goes home like she worked all day!

Stacey feeds Emma dinner.....some dinner, a lunchable! Stacey and her mom get into a fight because mom feels SB is spending more time with BB and not Emma, so mom tells her that she is not going to watch Emma anymore for her to go party, only for work! SB gets pissed off and tells her brother that she is taking Emma to the park, in reality she is heading to Long Beach to see if Anthony (Emma's father) will give her more support money for Emma. I guess the answer was no!!!


On the way back to Antelope Valley(AV), the freeway is packed, stop and go traffic, Emma is getting restless at the length of the drive so SB gives her a purse to play with that has an empty zip lock baggie in it. (I always carry a empty baggie don't any of you?)Emma puts the baggie in her mouth, SB notices it but instead of removing it , she says she starts to play peek a boo with beautiful Emma putting a blanket over her face. While the baggie is still in her mouth, SB put her hand over Emma's mouth and nose and held it there for 2 to 3 minutes. Emma was trying to get Bitches hand off her face pulling at her arm with one hand at first, then struggling pulling at her arm with both hands...then EMMA'S LITTLE HANDS JUST FELL (hearing this the whole family was crying even BB..Anthony and his mother were sobbing..and I cried too).


Barker told detectives she removed the blanket and Emma's head is slumped to the side and the baggie is still in her mouth, she drives another 45 minutes with Emma dead with the baggie in her mouth, until she finds the off ramp at Roxford where she rids herself of Emma. SB said she took the baggie out of Emma's mouth and drives for about 15 minutes then throws the baggie out the window, goes to the park and ride and fakes the rest.



Detective Nava testified that SB said she did it because she didn't want Emma to turn out like her, knocked up early and living at home with the parents! Her mom and dad lost it when she said that! witch!


Truth is BB did not want a ready made family, he claims to be single and loving his life with no kids to hold him down, that is what he told the Detectives!


Before they finished for the day the DDA started talking to Detective Nava about cell phone records but did not get past "yes we have them". Detective Nava's testimony will continue on Monday.


On Monday, they will show pictures of Emma's dead body and autopsy pics, I caught a peek at them when the DDA was looking at them....Just horrible, made me sick to see them.
I will be back on Monday for Emma.

Court ended at 4:30 and the Preliminary hearing will be continued on Monday, July 27 at 9:30 am.
Here is a link to the conclusion of this preliminary hearing.

Katfish here again, Barker is being housed in the Century Regional Detention Facility in the city of Lynwood on$1 million bail.

The maximum penalty Barker faces is 25 years to life in prison. Sphere: Related Content