Into the woods: Second man finally tried for McCormick Avenue homicide

FORT WAYNE, Ind. ---It was still light outside on April 10, 2022, when the silver SUV driven by William Kintzel pulled up on Birchwood and McCormick avenues and parked.

Kintzel, a 63-year-old floor tile artisan known as “Jeff,” and Anthony Lopez, 41, at the time, slipped into a wooded area, but only Lopez returned to the silver SUV.

Michael Barker, 45 and an alleged accomplice, his hair in a razor cut that would later be used to identify him, was already in the driver’s seat.

No longer with an unusual haircut, Michael Barker was still identified by other means and stands trial this week for the 2022 homicide of William Kintzel.

According to a neighbor who unknowingly watched the crime from his living room and who took the stand Tuesday at Barker’s trial for felony murder and Level 2 robbery resulting in death, the driver (Barker) was constantly looking in his rear view mirrors.

When Lopez emerged from the woods with his hood hiding his face and quickly got into the car, “he was out of there,” the neighbor said on the stand.

The woods at McCormick and Birchwood avenues where Kintzel's body was found four days after he was killed.

That he heard three “bang, bang bangs” didn’t startle him, he said, because, honestly, it wasn’t that unusual to hear gunshots, even though the streets in this particular neighborhood were quiet and friendly, he said.

What he heard was the shooting death of Kintzel after he’d been subdued by blunt force, something revealed in the October 2022 trial of Lopez who was convicted and sentenced to 67 years for murder plus another 20 years for using a gun to commit the crime.

Kintzel’s body was discovered four days later when a teenager, now 20, took the stand Tuesday to say he was 17 when he and a friend were walking through the woods around 7 p.m. and stumbled upon the dead man.

“I thought maybe he was a drug addict who was asleep,” the witness said. Standing from about 20 feet away, he called out “hey, hey dude,” he recalled.

What kind of sordid exchange went on in that woods that evening will not be discussed in court, according to the prosecution. Chief Deputy Prosecutor Tom Chaille and his second, deputy prosecutor Megan Campbell, are not required to give an explanation or a motive.

There were gossipy rumors during the time of Lopez’s trial and really, there are only so many ways you could play it.

Anthony Lopez was convicted in October 2022 for the murder of Wiliam Kintzel.

What Lopez and Barker, now on trial,  failed to do was think through their actions. Kintzel was found with the fob to the silver SUV around his neck and Lopez didn’t bother to take it after shooting him and leaving Kintzel to crawl through the brush in a desperate act of survival until he died. 

He was shot twice in the back and once in the leg, the two shots to the back catastrophic to internal organs, according to Chaille in opening arguments.

Lopez also left Kintzel’s wallet with his driver’s license in his pocket. Police were able to quickly identify the South Whitley victim and find the vehicle that had been abandoned  behind a shopping center complex on East State Boulevard and then towed to a lot, according to court documents.

If detectives couldn’t pick out the two in surveillance camera from the old Harvester neighborhood, Lopez and Barker were much more easily identifiable in video surveillance from the shopping center and stores.

There the two were inside the Dollar General where they bought bleach and Clorox wipes. Then cameras found them using those items to clean out the silver Durango, according to the probable cause affidavit written by homicide detective Jeff Marsee.  

There they are again, looking around to see if anyone is looking before throwing a bag in a dumpster behind Ziffles. One of them throws in his jacket for good measure.

In court, Detective Robert Geiger with the Fort Wayne Police Department said he recognized both Lopez and Barker because they were schoolmates of some relatives and they all knew each other growing up.

Why they even killed Kintzel is baffling. Even if Lopez had thought it through and left with the key fob, how long would it have taken FWPD homicide to track the stolen vehicle?

The trial continues, Judge Fran Gull presiding, through this week. Closing arguments will likely take place Thursday. 

Public defender Jerad Marks will have to battle through the video surveillance that has shaped this case as he works to cast doubt on the prosecution’s evidence. 

Barker isn't the one who did the shooting, but he "acted in concert" which makes him just as guilty in this state. Felony murder is committing a crime while in the midst of committing another. In this case, the second felony is robbery because the two stole Kintzel's car and the tools inside, Chaille said.

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