A Miami domestic abuser shot his ex in the face, claimed self-defense. He’s going to prison.
A toxic and stormy relationship ended in Sean Barnes and his ex-girlfriend, Brooke Tuchinksy, meeting in a North Miami diner in August 2013. They argued. She walked away into the bathroom.
Barnes followed, shot her in the face and then tried to claim self-defense — even though she was unarmed.
A jury rejected his self-defense claim in October, and on Monday, a Miami-Dade judge sentenced Barnes to 35 years in prison, plus 20 years of probation when he’s released. The bullet barely missed her brain.
“It was just fate, providence, luck that you did not kill Miss Tuchinksy. Because you tried to,” Circuit Judge Miguel de la O said during a sentencing hearing on Monday.
The sentencing capped a long-running legal saga for Barnes, who has been awaiting trial for nearly a decade on a charge of attempted murder with a firearm. He sought freedom under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, which has been criticized for fostering trigger-happy vigilante justice, and giving killers a way to beat murder charges.
The law eliminated a citizen’s duty to retreat before resorting to using deadly force.
Barnes, 46, and Tuchinksy, 39, had a relationship marred by mutual allegations of domestic abuse. On Monday, Tuchinsky recalled Barnes breaking into her home, attacking her, body shaming and threatening her.
“Many victims do not get the opportunity to speak because they do not make it through the abuse,” she told the judge. “It was a close call for me.”
The close call came at the Denny’s on Biscayne Boulevard and Northeast 121st Street, where the two met. Barnes claimed that Tuchinsky had sent a slew of text messages, using racial slurs against him, while insisting they meet to answer questions for “real closure.”
At Denny’s, they got into a heated argument inside the restaurant and had to be separated by employees. She left to the bathroom while Barnes remained eating at the table.
But then he followed her inside the bathroom and shot her in the jaw. Barnes, who testified at trial, later claimed he saw her reach for her purse and retrieve a “shiny object” he believed was some sort of weapon. Jurors didn’t buy it, although they did not find he acted with premeditation.
“He managed to shoot her in the face with a .45 and she managed to walk, crawl out of the bathroom alive,” said Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Amy Drever. “It was just her luck where he shot her in the face, it did not go into her brain.”
Barnes declined to speak at Monday’s sentencing.
The state asked for life in prison. His defense attorney, Fallon Zirpoli, asked for 25 years — the minimum mandatory sentence under Florida law — saying he could still contribute to society, as evidenced by his behavior in jail since his arrest.
“He was for all intents and purposes a model inmate,” Zirpoli said.
Judge de la O wasn’t sold on the most lenient sentencing — but also didn’t think he deserved the max. Barnes could be released when he is in his mid-70s, the judge said.
“I wasn’t necessarily convinced you went there to murder Ms. Tuchinsky. Something happened at the table. Something made you snap,” the judge said. “Clearly unjustified. But I don’t believe you went there with the intent to murder her. If I believed that, I would have sentenced you to life in prison. You have a chance to get out. You’ll have some sort of life left. It’ll be up to you what you make of it.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2021 at 12:58 PM.