After a year of going over his sister’s death, Ernst Cajuste still couldn’t find an answer.
Four lives were shattered Jan. 23, 2017, the day Joseph Edwards Barner shot and killed his ex-girlfriend, Carmelle “Erbie” Cajuste, Ernst Cajuste told the courtroom Tuesday. Two of her cousins were gravely wounded and her mother saw her daughter dead on the floor of the Hammond apartment, he said.
Judge Diane Ross Boswell sentenced Barner, 33, of Lansing, Ill., to 76 years in prison — 55 years for Cajuste’s death, and 9 years and 12 years respectively for aggravated battery against Carmelle Cajuste’s two cousins. Barner pleaded guilty but mentally ill in the incident last month.
Calling the whole situation “senseless,” Cajuste through tears told Barner he hoped Barner revisits that day “over and over over.”
“I hope you can find the significance of your actions … and it slowly eats away at you as you spend the rest of your life in prison,” Ernst Cajuste said.
Defense attorney Linda Kollintzas, however, reminded the court that Barner suffers from schizophrenia that wasn’t controlled at the time.
The family stared stoically at Barner as he apologized for his actions.
“It all went out of my reach,” he told them.
On Jan. 23, 2017, Barner arrived at an apartment in the 1300 block of Truman Street, and “an argument quickly ensued” about money, according to the plea agreement.
Barner pointed his handgun at Camelle Cajuste and two others at the apartment, firing four times before fleeing the scene, records show. Camelle Cajuste died of a gunshot wound to the head, the deal states.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
