In the moments on the run after three roommates were stabbed to death at their Jacksonville home, Austin Lee Fisher told at least four people he “snapped” and “killed everybody.”
On Tuesday, June 23, the 30-year-old confirmed it for a judge by pleading guilty to three counts of second-degree murder and one count of armed robbery. Per the terms of the negotiated plea, Judge Tatiana Salvador sentenced Fisher to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the State Attorney’s Office
The Sheriff’s Office said in the early morning hours of May 28, the three victims were slain in a domestic-related attack on Exodus Way off Lenox Avenue. They were later identified as Savannah Renee Barber, 27, her stepfather Edwin Fitzgerald Barber, 49, and boyfriend Shad Branden Cole, 37.
Initially the officers were called to a neighbor’s house where the older victim fled bleeding and died later at a hospital, the Sheriff’s Office said. Then they found the woman slain in their home and the other man on a front porch at another neighbor’s.
Later that evening they were tipped to a nearby hotel and arrested Fisher.
The arrest report said all three victims were stabbed multiple times and that a pink kitchen knife with blood on it was found in the kitchen area.
“During the investigation, JSO dispatch received multiple calls from different individuals advising the suspect later identified as Austin Lee Fisher admitted to multiple people that he stabbed the victims,” according to the arrest report in court records.
An Uber driver only identified as “H.L.W” in the report said he received a request to pickup a passenger at Lenox Avenue at 7:15 a.m. to take him about 17 minutes away to Cottontail Lane. The ride had been arranged by another man identified as “Chase” who told the driver when he arrived that it was for a friend. He told investigators that after getting in his Uber, the fare gave him a $100 cash tip.
“H.L.W. observed the suspect was breathing heavily,” according to the report. “H.L.W. stated that approximately four minutes into the trip, he asked the subject if he was OK, at which point the subject stated, ‘I basically snapped. I snapped man. I snapped.'”
In disclosing details about an altercation, the suspect said he was bullied by Cole.
“The suspect stated he stabbed Shad ‘like 12 times,'” according to the account in the report. “The suspect stated he stabbed another occupant, Edwin, in the stomach but did not specify the number of times. The suspect stated that both males ran away, leaving a female behind. The suspect stated he then stabbed the female ‘a couple times’ and that he did not believe she had survived.”
He asked the driver to take him to a corner store and buy a shirt, a lighter, aluminum foil and two Gatorades before driving him to his mother’s house. When she wasn’t home, the driver dropped him off at the Executive Inn at 6560 Ramona Blvd., the report stated.
In another interview with a man identified as his boss “D.S.G.,” he advised Fisher called him at 7:37 a.m. about stabbing the victims. During the brief call, Fisher told him he would not be able to come to work because he “got into it” with Cole and “bad things happened,” according to the report.
D.S.G. said Fisher thanked him for what he had done for him and “stated he was heading to his mother’s house and would then turn himself in.”
A woman identified as “M.J.” told investigators Fisher arrived at her hotel room at the Executive Inn saying he did what he did because they caught him stealing from them. He also told her he stole money and drugs “after he stabbed all of them,” according to the report.
Also at the hotel was “C.J.N.,” who advised the room was under his name for about a month and a half and he lived there with his girlfriend and mother.
“He said the suspect knocked repeatedly on the hotel room door, entered quickly when the door was opened and began pacing. C.J.N. reported the suspect simultaneously produced two ‘sandwich bags’ of controlled substances and … said he ‘killed everybody,'” according to the report. After identifying them, he said he “got them all.” He said it started with a physical altercation with Cole.
“C.J.N. stated the suspect possessed approximately $2,700 in cash and said he had taken it and the bags of controlled substances from Shad’s house before he left,” the report said. “C.J.N. stated the suspect distributed money in varying amounts to persons in the room, including $300 to cover the hotel room.”
Two GoFundeMe accounts have been set up by friends and familly of the Barbers and Cole.
(This story has been updated to fix the date.)
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: After saying he ‘snapped’ in triple slaying, suspect pleads guilty
Reporting by Scott Butler, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Scott Butler, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union | USA TODAY Network
