A woman who shot a real estate closing attorney and nearly killed another woman who just happened to be in the proverbial wrong place was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison.
Jshanine N. Barish, 24, pleaded guilty in Columbia County Superior Court to two counts of aggravated assault and one count of false imprisonment.
Attorney Robert McDonald told Chief Judge James G. Blanchard Jr. that he was furious to learn that a prosecutor from the Augusta Judicial Circuit extended a plea offer of 10 years in prison, and that the current prosecutor from the Columbia County Judicial Circuit was bound by that agreement.
He told the prosecutor who called him about the plea deal that there was no way he would accept that, not considering what Barish did. He was under the impression that that deal was off.
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But Assistant District Attorney Natalie Paine couldn’t refuse the plea agreement because it wasn’t rescinded by the former prosecutor, and Barish agreed to it. Under Georgia law, that’s considered a binding contract, Blanchard ruled June 21 in an order enforcing the agreement.
“It’s been an absolute nightmare,” McDonald told Blanchard Wednesday, Aug. 10, during Barish’s sentencing hearing. The morning of Aug. 29, 2020, Barish waited in the parking lot of McDonald’s office for three hours. She shot him and as he ran, she repeatedly tried to shoot him again.
McDonald had only met Barish and her husband through his work as the closing attorney on the house they were going to purchase. Their VA loan had been approved, and the closing was set.
Brenda Smith, who was in town to handle personal business before returning to her home in Tennessee, was at the office complex sitting in her vehicle when she saw McDonald run from an office covered in blood. As a nurse, she knew that he had suffered a serious injury, and she was surprised he was even able to still stand let alone run, she told the judge Wednesday.
McDonald ran to her car and asked her to call 911, which she was doing when Barish came after McDonald with the gun in her hands. She came up to the open window of the passenger side of Smith’s car and fired through the car at McDonald, who was standing next to the driver’s door, Smith said. She dropped her cell. The bullet passed right in front of her, and McDonald seemed to drop to the ground. She wasn’t sure if he was still alive until she saw in her vehicle mirrors that he had made it to the rear of her vehicle.
Barish said to Smith that she would shoot her in the face if she tried to help McDonald, Smith said. She sat with her hands up, trying to get the 911 operator to send police to the scene, telling her it was an active shooter situation.
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McDonald made it to a nearby barbershop and safety. He needed surgery on his shoulder, and while the surgery was successful, he still cannot raise his arm above shoulder height nor can he lift anything, McDonald said. He had always been active, a marathon runner who engaged in several sports, until he was shot. And he will need the surgery again in 10 years, his doctor told him.
Paine said that it had been McDonald’s paralegal who Barish was really after that day, but when McDonald got there first, she tried to kill him. Barish texted her husband during the event to say, “I just killed someone,” Paine said.
Smith said she still suffers from PTSD. Because she needs medication, she cannot work in her trained profession as a nurse practitioner. She’s reduced to working as a licensed practical nurse.
While the Columbia County district attorney’s office was bound to the plea agreement for 10 years, Blanchard wasn’t required to accept it, and he did not. Barish chose to go forward with her sentencing anyway.
Blanchard imposed a total sentence of 55 years with the first 30 to be served in prison.
Sandy Hodson is a staff reporter covering courts for The Augusta Press. Reach her at sandy@theaugustapress.com.
