"I am the monster the monsters created" — Jury convicts Barner of prison murder after on-stand confession

A dramatic second day highlighted by a Northeast Correctional prison murder suspect willingly confessing his guilt on the stand ended with a "guilty" verdict from a Johnson County jury.That man, Gregory Barner, already in prison for a 2015 second-degree murder conviction, will likely spend the rest of his life in prison. The first-degree murder verdict handed down Wednesday following Barner's hour-long confession carries a life sentence. The prosecution did not seek the death penalty in Barner's Jan. 24, 2023, Northeast Correctional murder of 71-year-old Robert Henry Hicks, Jr."I killed Mr. Hicks. I premeditated it. I planned it," Barner said to the jury, one of his multiple confessions while on the stand.The jury's deliberation Wednesday afternoon took around 45 minutes.After the verdict, which came at 4:35 p.m., Judge Lisa Rice agreed with defense attorney Ryan Curtis in scheduling sentencing for 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 8."These prison cases are difficult because we have to try them in the jurisdiction they occurred in," said Assistant District Attorney General Dennis Brooks after the trial. "But the environment that those people live in is totally foreign to the rest of us. And that's the oddity of how we do things. This is a clear-cut, guilty result, there's no question about it. But what do you do with these folks? This is the only thing we can do. So instead of having a sentence where he had some release eligibility available to him, now he probably won't ever."Assistant District Attorney General Leon Marshall said he was glad there was some closure for the family. The Hicks family and Curtis declined to comment on the verdict."I ain't ever murdered anyone who didn't deserve it"Most of Barner's testimony focused on life at Northeast Correctional, saying it was the worst prison he's ever been in. Barner claimed that gangs run the prisons and drug use and selling were rampant.Barner said he "made a conscious decision to remove myself" from Northeast in murdering Hicks.Speaking to the jury, Barner said he "saved a life by taking a life," saying he chose to kill Hicks instead of killing James Cox, a Northeast Correctional unit manager. Barner claimed Cox targeted him by moving him in with troubled prisoners and singled him out in one instance, threatening to cancel the unit's Christmas party unless Barner moved.Barner said he didn't know Hicks, not giving a reason for choosing to kill him, later saying he was a "teeny tiny guy." Barner apologized to Hicks' family, who attended both days in court, for the murder.Barner later said he intended to "torture" Hicks and that "he deserved a very, very slow death."Barner claimed his mother, who has since died, talked him out of killing Cox, something Barner said he planned to do on three different occasions.Cox was the defense's first witness earlier in the day. Cox claimed multiple times he couldn't recall details on speaking with Barner. While Cox testified, Barner could be heard throughout the courtroom breathing heavily while staring at the witness stand. Later during cross-examination, Barner said he hated Cox "with every bit of my being."Barner said he went to Hicks' cell, waiting an hour for him to return, which Hicks did before 9 p.m., shortly before lights out. Barner said he knocked Hicks out with one punch, then stabbed him and kicked him multiple times for upwards of 20 minutes. Barner claimed he didn't stab Hicks with the "wooden shank" shown at the trial, but with another knife, but didn't offer any more details. As testified to by numerous officers the day before, Barner started shouting, "Hey, I did it," and noticed a sheet put up over the window.Barner also talked about killing Kevin Scrimager in January 2013, for which he was convicted in May 2015 and sentenced to 30 years in prison for second-degree murder. Barner claimed Scrimager was about to sexually assault a woman outside of a club, so Barner said he grabbed a knife and stabbed him in the chest, later disposing of his body."A conglomeration of injuries"The prosecution began Wednesday morning with its expert witnesses. Andrea Orvik, a medical examiner from ETSU who conducted Hicks' autopsy, said Hicks was pronounced dead after being transported to Johnson City. Orbik said there were 14 categories of blunt force trauma, which was the cause of death. Orbik said she couldn't detail all the injuries, but everything was consistent with this being a homicide.TBI Special Agent Kim Lowe, who specializes in forensics and DNA analysis, said the DNA from the wooden shank matched the DNA of Hicks and Barner.Jonathan McClain, an investigator at Northeast Correctional, showed audioless surveillance footage. The video showed Barner entering Unit 9, using the phone and walking into Cell 8. There are no cameras in individual cells at Northeast.An hour later, Hicks is shown entering Cell 8. Later, officers are shown responding to Cell 8 and medical teams soon after to retrieve Hicks and take him to the infirmary. Footage also showed Barner being brought out along with Alfred Brooks, who was Hicks' cellmate and whom Barner told to stay on his bunk while the incident took place.