Earl Forrest (courtesy; Missouri Department of Corrections)
An execution date has been set for a man convicted of killing a Dent County Sheriff’s Deputy and two other people 13 years ago. Earl Forrest has been scheduled to die at the state prison in Bonne Terre between 6 p.m. May 11 and 5:59 p.m. May 12.
In December 2002 Forrest fatally shot Chief Deputy Sharon Joann Barnes when she came to his home after he had killed Harriet Smith and Michael Wells. He also shot then-Dent County Sheriff Bob Wofford and his then-girlfriend, both of whom survived. He was sentenced to death for each of the three murders.
Dent County Deputy Sharon Joann Barnes
Forrest had gone to home of Smith to demand she keep her end of a deal in which he introduced her to a source of methamphetamine. He killed her and Wells at her home and killed Deputy Barnes in a shootout with law enforcement at his own home.
Forrest’s execution is the first scheduled since November, when Ernest Lee Johnson’s execution was stayed. The last person executed in Missouri was Roderick Nunley in September.