Verdict: Accomplice Michael Barker found guilty in 2022 homicide

FORT WAYNE, Ind. --Michael Barker, a kid from the neighborhood who was best pals with now convicted murderer Anthony Lopez, might not have known what his friend was going to do when he walked into the woods with victim, William Kintzel.

But chances are he did on that evening, April 10, 2022, around 7 p.m.

Michael Barker

That’s what the jury decided Thursday, finding Barker guilty of felony murder and robbery for the homicide of Kintzel, a 63-year-old talented artisan, known for laying tile floors. It was necessary for Barker to be found guilty of robbery in order for the felony murder charge to stand.

The shooting death was quick and brutal. Four shots were fired. Thirty seconds after Lopez walked into the woods with Kintzel, he exited and hopped in to Kintzel’s running Dodge Durango, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Tom Chaille said in closing arguments Thursday.

Barker ,who had been sitting in the back seat, had already moved to the driver’s seat in anticipation of his friend Lopez returning.

The two friends in their early 40s drove off leaving Kintzel to die in the leafy woods and on muddy ground.

What were they even after? It’s unclear what Lopez and Barker did for a living, if anything, but they both had multiple drug charges and seemed to have a fondness for cocaine, per a conversation with a local detective.

READ ABOUT THE FIRST DAY IN COURT HERE:

https://www.theprobablecause.com/post/into-the-woods-second-man-finally-tried-for-mccormick-avenue-homicide

It’s also understood what desperate younger men will do to get those drugs. The world is not always a nice place.

This was no pique-nique à l’herbe planned on a spring day, but rather some kind of sleazy reckoning. 

Lopez took a life, hitting his victim with blunt force before shooting Kintzel in the back twice and once in the leg. Chaille told the jury Kintzel struggled to survive, tried to pull himself up a tree and crawled toward a wooded opening.

Anthony Lopez

His injuries were survivable, according to testimony Wednesday by Dr. Scott Wagner, a forensic pathologist who testifies at nearly every murder trial and has decades of experience.

That the two “hightailed” out of the neighborhood, as Chaille noted, a neighborhood they knew well and never once returned to check on him was significant and showed guilt.

Barker’s public defender Jerad Marks countered in his closing remarks that Barker may not have had a clue what had happened in the woods, that not every claim made by the prosecution made Barker guilty. The friendship between Lopez and Barker went back decades.

The jury apparently listened closely to Marks’ points. During their 3-hour deliberation, they had lunch, yes, but they also sought more advice on accomplice liability, and asked to review two videos presented in court: one at the Dollar General where Lopez and Barker went to buy bleach and Clorox wipes and the other from the neighborhood, presiding judge Fran Gull noted.

The neighborhood video shows Kintzel in the driver’s seat pulling up at Birchwood and McCormick avenues before he gets out with Lopez to walk into the woods.

Where the victim was clubbed and shot. He struggled to leave the woods, but didn't make it.

When the two now convicted partners in crime left in Kintzel’s Durango, they drove 15 minutes to a Dollar General to buy bleach, Clorox wipes and some snacks, Chaille said.

In the Dollar General video,  Barker went to pay for the items and didn’t have enough money, so  Lopez covered for the rest.

The wipes were used to erase DNA inside the Durango, more actions which showed guilt, Chaille said. Video not available to those in the gallery showed them wiping down all the vehicle's surfaces.

But this crime, one of the more dimwitted put to trial this year, led to nothing for the friends. Neither one got the key fob from around Kintzel’s neck., so once the car was turned off at a shopping center, they didn't have the fob to start it.

Nor did they take the tools which they could have sold.

Instead, once they couldn’t start the Durango, they walked away.

Four days after Kintzel was clubbed and shot, two teens found Kintzel face down and detectives start to build a case, Chaille said. Two days after that, the suspects were identified. 

From April 10 to 16, Lopez and Barker communicated 53 times on their cell phones. Then Barker’s phone went dark, Chaille said. Probably not a coincidence.

Lopez was arrested on April 16 and convicted in October 2022 of murder and using a firearm in the commission of a crime.

But Barker went on the lam and wasn’t picked up until December 2023. U.S. Marshalls found him in Cleveland, homicide detective Jeff Marsee said after the verdict.

Marks said his disappearance didn’t mean he was in hiding, but that, along with the fact that Barker’s phone went dead on April 16 right after Lopez was arrested for murder, raised enormous suspicion.

Kintzel had a tight group of female relatives in court every day. Outside the courtroom, they reminisced about their brother, laughing when they remembered some of the things he used to do when he popped in and out of their lives.

They were relieved, they told Chaille, when the verdict came down. 

Barker will be sentenced Feb. 13.