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PANGUITCH, Utah (AP) -- The man charged in the killing of a Garfield County deputy has admitted to the crime, court documents say.
Barnes made the statements to a National Park Service law enforcement officer in Page, Ariz., and later to an officer with the Arizona Department of Public Safety, according to an affidavit filed in 6th District Court Tuesday.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported Wednesday that the affidavit was in support of a search warrant to examine the suspect's personal belongings and medical information.
Barnes, 53, was charged in a Flagstaff hospital room Monday with aggravated murder in the shooting death of the 44-year-old Deputy David Jones. The charge is punishable by death.
Jones was shot during a shootout Sunday afternoon involving Barnes and another man Jones had pulled over on a road about five miles south of Escalante.
The deputy suspected the driver, William Allred of Salina, Utah, was intoxicated and called for a tow truck and routine backup before being shot, the sheriff's department said.
Investigators recovered an audio recording of the incident in which it appears that Jones stopped Allred's car after witnessing Allred drinking alcohol while driving.
Officials said the tape indicates Jones ordered Barnes three times to drop his weapon. The next sound on the tape is the exchange of gunfire. Authorities say Barnes fired the shot that penetrated Jones' bulletproof vest and killed him.
Garfield County Attorney Wallace Lee said Barnes was operated on Monday and again on Tuesday to remove a bullet from his lung. He also suffered an arm wound in the shootout.
When the tow truck arrived about five minutes later, the driver found the deputy and called for an ambulance.
Allred and Barnes were arrested a few hours later when the car was spotted parked on a dirt road by officers in an Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter that was called in to help with the search.
In a Tuesday hearing, Allred was denied bail but had not been charged. The county attorney asked if he could wait until Friday to file charges against the 50-year-old man.
A funeral is planned for Jones in Escalante on Friday. He will be buried Saturday in Orem, where much of his family lives.
Jones was one of six deputies who patrol the sprawling southern Utah county. Jones, who worked for the county for only 16 months, had a wife and five children in Escalante. He had celebrated his 23rd wedding anniversary just a few weeks before the shooting, Hatch said.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
