T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Joseph Edward Barton appears with Greg Meyers of the Ohio Public Defender’s Office during his sentencing for the murder of Julian Townsend. The Seventh Appellate District Court of Appeals recently upheld Barton’s conviction.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Joseph Edward Barton, now 39, will remain behind bars for the rest of his life for a murder that shocked the community of Shadyside.

Earlier this month, the Seventh Appellate District Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of Joseph Edward Barton, who was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the murder of 69-year-old Julian Townsend of Shadyside in October 2014. Officials responded to Townsend’s mobile home on Wegee Road to find the structure burned down with his body inside.

Townsend’s remains were recovered by agents of the Ohio State Fire Marshal’s Office and crime scene agents of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, Bureau of Criminal Investigation. An autopsy later showed that Townsend had been beaten, stabbed and dismembered before being set on fire.

After a week-long trial in December 2015, the jury deliberated for three hours and found Barton guilty of the crime.

The trial included extensive forensic evidence from the scene, phone records from the Townsend and Barton residences, as well as emotional testimony from friends and family of both the victim and defendant.

Barton maintained his innocence throughout the trial, including during his own testimony. He took the witness stand and offered explanations for what prosecutors portrayed as suspicious behavior. He said had had been cutting wood and had suffered several injuries from tree branches. These included a blow to the face from a branch. He added that he had gotten gasoline on his hands while working and then touched his face and hair.

The prosecution cross-examined Barton regarding his actions after the fire and his struggles with alcohol abuse.

They also pointed out that Barton had left two high-quality power saws at the Townsend residence and never went back for them. During closing arguments, Belmont County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Flanagan described Barton as having convenient recollections of facts during testimony.

“His evasiveness, his explanations, in some cases his inability to explain – these, ladies and gentlemen, are the products of a guilty mind,” Flanagan said at the close of the trial.

According to court records, Barton filed his notice of appeal in December 2015. After numerous extensions, court-appointed counsel filed an appeal in May 2018, challenging hair comparison evidence.

Barton, through those attorneys, also argued that the evidence only proved he was present on the day of the murder. Barton was Townsend’s neighbor and often assisted Townsend in cutting firewood.

The appellate court ruled the hair recovered from a barber shop where Barton had had a haircut after the fire that tested positive for gasoline was appropriate evidence.

The court found that Barton’s behavior after the fire and DNA found at the scene provided sufficient circumstantial evidence of Barton’s guilt.

“(Barton’s) conviction is not against the manifest weight of the evidence,” Judge Gene Donofrio wrote in the judgment. “The jury likely did not find (Barton) to be believable.”

Fellow appellate Judges Cheryl L. Waite and Kathleen Bartlett concurred for a unanimous finding.

Belmont County Common Pleas Judge Frank Fregiato, who sat on the bench during the jury trial and passed sentence on Barton, said he was pleased with the appellate court’s decision.

“I fully expected the decision in the Barton case to be affirmed by the Court of Appeals and it was, and I don’t expect the Ohio Supreme Court will do anything with the case at all, so the issue as far as I’m concerned is completely closed,” Fregiato said. “I think we feel very comfortable with what we’ve been doing, and we’ll continue to go forward.”