Layton • In the hours leading up to a fatal shooting, a group of friends had been playing cards and drinking games in a basement apartment. But a fight broke out that ended in a man shooting his friend, believing his, his girlfriend and his baby’s lives were threatened.
Robin William Lundin, 29, is accused of shooting 30-year-old Colby Scott Barney in the chest after Lundin’s face was cut with a razor blade during the fight in the early hours of Nov. 5.
At a preliminary hearing Friday morning, 2nd District Court Judge David Hamilton heard evidence and then ordered Lundin to stand trial on a charge of first-degree felony murder.
Defense attorney Randall Richards said Lundin fired the gun to protect himself and his family after Barney attacked.
In an interview at Davis County Sheriff’s Office two days after the shooting, Lundin detailed the events of the evening. Detective Ty Berger on Friday read a transcript of Lundin’s interview.
Lundin had invited Barney to drink with his friends in the apartment he rented with his girlfriend in a house in West Point. Lundin and Barney had met through work, and became “inseparable,” Lundin told Berger.
The group played cards, and drinking games with wine, whiskey and beer. Things were “copacetic,” Lundin told Berger.
But just after 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 5, Barney died from a gunshot wound to the chest.
Jerry Wood, who rented the apartment to the couple and their 1-year-old son, heard the scuffle from upstairs, where he lives in the house, he testified on Friday.
Standing at the top of the staircase and looking down into the basement apartment, Wood saw blood on the wall and the railing, and heard his female tenant screaming, “You hurt my man.”
Wood saw Lundin come into the basement kitchen with a 9mm gun, he testified.
“When [Lundin] walked into the kitchen area, he said, ‘I’m bleeding,’ ” Wood testified. “I heard another voice, Colby, say, ‘We’re both bleeding.’ ”
Wood said he saw Barney get down on one knee, pleading with Lundin to not shoot him.
Then Wood saw Lundin shoot Barney.
He remembers seeing smoke surround the gun, he said. Then he heard a second shot, and saw Lundin’s girlfriend run up the stairs, screaming. Right behind her was Lundin, screaming at Wood to call the police, and saying that Barney had tried to hurt them.
According to defense attorney Randall Richards, the fight started when Barney stabbed and later slashed Lundin’s face with a red, foldable razor blade. A small part of the blade broke off in Lundin’s skull, Richards added.
Lundin’s wound required 28 stitches to close.
In the interview with detectives, Lundin said that he’d been drinking “heavily.” Barney had brought high-point beer and whiskey, which Lundin told detectives he usually stayed away from because they’re too powerful.
The fight started after Lundin’s other friends left and only Barney and the couple remained in the apartment. (The couple’s baby was in the bedroom, according to Wood.)
Barney’s mood “changed,” Lundin later told Berger. Barney asked about Lundin’s life. After Lundin said his life was good, Barney attacked him with the knife, Lundin told the detectives. They both threw punches, and Barney dragged the razor down Lundin’s face.
During the fight, which prosecutors called “nasty” and “violent,” Lundin suffered wounds to the nose and the top of the head. Lundin also punched Barney, and knocked out his front teeth.
Barney then retreated to a corner of the kitchen. He put the blade in his pocket and held his hands out to surrender, according to prosecutors.
Lundin got the gun from his bedroom because he felt threatened, he told detectives. He went back to the kitchen. He said he remembered Barney throwing his girlfriend to the side and charging.
“It was him or me,” Lundin told detectives, according to Berger’s testimony.
Barney was shot twice, in the sternum and across the cheek, Wood said. A bullet also grazed Lundin’s girfriend’s finger, testified Davis County Sheriff’s Detective John Peirce.
Lundin left the house, according to Wood. But as police were interviewing witnesses, he came back and was arrested.
The prosecution played body camera footage taken from an officer who responded to the shooting. The recording showed a shouting Lundin, his face and neck smeared with blood.
“My life is over,” Lundin sobbed in the recording. “What would you do? He came after my girl, my baby ... ”
Barney had been released from Utah State prison in August, three months before the shooting. He had served 20 months in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated assault resulting in serious bodily injury, a second-degree felony, and commission of domestic violence in presence of a child, a class B misdemeanor, in connection with a 2012 attack. He returned to prison for four and a half months for a parole violation before being released in August.
In 2011, Lundin pleaded guilty in Roy Justice Court to driving under the influence, a class B misdemeanor, and drinking alcohol in a vehicle, a class C misdemeanor.
The next year, Lundin pleaded guilty in Box Elder Justice Court to a class C misdemeanor count of intoxication.
Lundin is being held in the Davis County jail in lieu of $100,000 bail. At Friday’s hearing, the judge knocked the bail down from $250,000. Lundin hadn’t been able to afford to post bail, Richards said.
Being jailed has been hard on both him and his family, according to Lundin’s mother, Tammie David. Lundin’s girlfriend just moved out of David’s house and has had to adjust to take care of her son without the baby’s father, she said.
“He always had the baby in his arms,” David said. “He’s a family man. He’d do anything to protect his family.”
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