A former Mebane realtor and volunteer in Mebane civic organizations has been convicted of felony indecent liberties with a child – who was 13 at the time of the offense – following a trial in Alamance County superior court.
John Barnhart, 56, white, male, now of 5067 Pioneer Drive, Sanford, has been convicted of taking felony indecent liberties with a 13-year-old victim in November 2016.
Several years passed before Barnhart was ultimately charged in that case, in July 2021, and booked in the Alamance County jail on a $25,000 secured bond. The court file gives no other details about the circumstances that ultimately led to Barnhart’s arrest.
At the conclusion of his trial in Alamance County superior court last week, Barnhart was sentenced to serve six months in jail and complete 36 months of supervised probation. He immediately gave notice of his intention to appeal at the conclusion of his weeklong trial.
Barnhart’s sentence will be “activated” only after the appeal is heard, providing the state Court of Appeals upholds his conviction and sentence, Alamance County district attorney Sean Boone told The Alamance News Tuesday.
“He actually got sentenced to 19 to 32 months,” the prosecutor, Alamance County assistant D.A. Kevin Harrison, elaborated in a subsequent interview Wednesday. The judge placed Barnhart on supervised probation for 36 months and ordered him to comply with multiple conditions.
As part of his probation, Barnhart will have to serve the six months active jail time, Harrison explained. “He actually would serve the six months in Alamance County, even though his probation is transferred to Lee County,” the assistant D.A. said.
“My understanding is that probation and any conditions associated with it will actually start after the appeal,” Harrison told the newspaper Wednesday.
Barnhart will also be required to register as convicted sex offender for 30 years, based on the findings that Alamance County superior court judge Andrew Hanford entered at the conclusion of the trial last week.
Two other criminal cases had been previously filed against Barnhart in Alamance County.
Barnhart had been charged in November 2018 with one count of misdemeanor sexual battery and two counts of misdemeanor assault after allegedly making sexual advances toward two minor female students at Eastern High School.
A magistrate’s order that had been filed in Alamance County criminal court at the time alleged that Barnhart had unlawfully engaged in sexual contact with the alleged victims, identified as “SW” and “KO” (initials were used to protect the identities of the minor victims).
Barnhart had been accused of assaulting SW by “pulling the victim into him and pressing her breasts against his chest” and assaulting the minor female “by rubbing her leg.”
He had been accused of assault and sexual battery against KO by grabbing the victim “on her butt,” against her will, according to the magistrate’s order.
Barnhart, then 51 and living at 16 Leeds Court in Mebane, was arrested on November 5, 2018 and booked in the Alamance County jail on a $10,000 secured bond, which he posted two hours later, according to documents filed at the time in Alamance County court.
However, the November 2018 charges against Barnhart were ultimately dismissed in January 2020 by Alamance county assistant D.A. Morgan Whitney because the victims could not be located, according to his court files.
Barnhart also was charged in January 2019 with misdemeanor assault on an adult female, for an incident that also occurred in the fall of 2018. He was accused of grabbing the victim – identified in the court file as Reed Meador, owner of the now-defunct Reed’s Coffee + Art along Clay Street in downtown Mebane – during an apartment showing at the Lofts at White Furniture on East Center Street in Mebane.
Barnhart was later found not guilty of assaulting a female in Alamance County district court in August 2020 by a visiting retired district court judge from Rockingham County, Frederick B. Wilkins, Jr.
Barnhart had previously been employed as an agent with the Coldwell Banker real estate firm in Mebane. He continues to be an active licensed real estate broker, according to the North Carolina Real Estate Commission. The commission is an independent state government agency that’s responsible for licensing and regulating real estate agents and brokers in North Carolina.
Barnhart had previously served on an advisory board that raised funds for and oversaw the construction of a new field house at Eastern High School several years ago.
Prior to his initial arrest by the Mebane police department in late 2018, Barnhart had served on the board of directors for Destination Downtown Mebane; in several leadership roles at Hawfields Presbyterian Church; and on a bicycle and pedestrian commission that developed a long-range transportation plan for the city of Mebane several years ago.
Barnhart had been previously convicted in Florida with aggravated assault, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and failure to appear in court between November 2000 and May 2002, according to the sentencing worksheet that was entered following his conviction last week of indecent liberties with a child.
Evidence of any prior criminal convictions greater than 10 years old is not allowed to be introduced into evidence under North Carolina’s rules of criminal procedure.
