Sobers' lawyer said his client is not guilty and does not acknowledge any guilt in the killing of Monalisa Barber of Westfield.
SPRINGFIELD – Michael Sobers, acquitted four years ago in the 2005 killing of Monalisa Barber in Westfield, has agreed to pay one of the woman’s daughters $100 to end a wrongful death civil suit against him.
The payment is not an admission of guilt in the civil matter, said Jeffrey S. Brown, who represented Sobers in the criminal trial and civil suit.
“He didn’t admit to anything. He’s not guilty. He didn’t kill Monalisa Barber,” Brown said.
The family takes the settlement “as acknowledging he (Sobers) was civilly responsible for her death,” said John D. Ross III, the lawyer for Barber’s daughter Mimi Silver.
Ross, who said he handled the case for free, said the family believes the agreement shows Sobers admitted he is more than 50 percent responsible for Barber’s death, which is the way matters are judged in civil trials.
Brown said Sobers agreed to pay to end the suit but admitted no guilt, because he is not guilty. Brown said many civil suits are ended with a payment short of trial for a variety of reasons, but usually for much more than $100.
The document in court files signed by both lawyers on behalf of their clients simply indicates Sobers pays $100 to Silver and the suit is ended.
Silver, in the wrongful death suit she filed in 2008 as administrator of Barber’s estate, asked for $5 million from Sobers.
The suit said the estate was entitled to the money for “expected income, service, protection, care, assistance, society, companionship, comfort and advice” of Monalisa Barber.
A Hampden Superior Court jury in June 2007 acquitted Sobers, then 22, of Springfield, of murder in the killing of the 44-year-old Barber in her apartment on Union Street in Westfield on March 3, 2005.
Then-Hampden District Attorney William M. Bennett said at the time he was very disappointed in the jury’s verdict, saying evidence of Sobers’ guilt was overwhelming.
The prosecutor at the trial told jurors Sobers was stealing money and prescription drugs from Barber when she surprised him, and he beat her and stabbed her to death.
Brown told the jury that Sobers found Barber dead – that someone else had committed the crime.
Sobers testified that he loved Monalisa Barber, and said that she had vehement arguments with her daughter Kathy Barber and the father of Kathy Barber’s baby.
Sobers was a personal care assistant for Monalisa Barber but had known her before he began that job.
Monalisa Barber suffered about 30 stab wounds and showed signs of having been beaten with several objects.