CHARLOTTE — Two weeks ago Thomas Barnes was brutally murdered and Sunday afternoon his family remembered him.
Everywhere you looked there were photos and memories of a life well lived.
“You always think this could happen to another family, another person. But when it’s your brother and totally unexpected, it’s just shattering,” said John Barnes, the bother of Thomas.
John hosted his brother’s celebration of life event at his home.
“I still feel like it’s not all real, like I’m looking through a kaleidoscope,” said Lynn Baynard Benjamin, Thomas’ wife.
Police said that Barnes was working in his warehouse when Adam Mercado entered and brutally stabbed him to death. He’s charged in a triple murder, which includes Barnes and two men from Monroe.
The killings appear to be random.
“Career criminals are being rereleased, not because they deserve it, but because it’s the easier thing to do,” said Jessica Vogt, Thomas’ daughter.
She believes the system let her family down, that Mercado’s priors should have kept him locked up and not on the street.
“As a family we are calling out District Attorney Merriweather and Prosecutor Alana Burns,” Vogt said. “We’re asking that they do not take a plea deal. We’re asking that they try this man, this person to the fullest extent.”
“So it is very important for me to know that people are gonna remember him,” Benjamin said.
Mercado is in the Mecklenburg County Jail under no bond.
His next court date is Dec. 11. The family plans to be there and they look forward to meeting with prosecutors.
Mercado’s criminal history dates back to 2009. He was already out of jail when the murders happened.
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