On the evening of November 29, 2024, a dispute between neighbors in the small community of Rose Bud, Arkansas, ended in the death of Gary Knight, a 54-year-old White man. At 9:04 p.m., White County Dispatch received a call from Violet Holifield, who reported that her fiancée, Gary Knight, had been shot at their residence on County Line Road. When deputies and emergency services arrived, they found Knight outside his home with injuries consistent with two gunshot wounds. He was rushed to Unity Health Hospital in Searcy, where he succumbed to his injuries. His death was later ruled a homicide.
The investigation quickly centered on Knight’s neighbor, James Trenton Barley. About 15 minutes after the initial 911 call, Barley contacted dispatch himself and admitted his involvement in the shooting. Deputies went to his home on Lone Star Road, where Barley was detained. At the scene, he gave investigators a verbal statement acknowledging his deliberate actions.
A search warrant was executed on Barley’s property, which extended into the early morning hours of November 30. Authorities collected several firearms, ballistics, and other evidence related to the incident.
In the hours following the shooting, James Trenton Barley was arrested and preliminarily charged with first-degree murder. He was booked into the White County Detention Center. During the investigation, it was determined that Knight was unarmed at the time first responders arrived at the scene. However, when the 17th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney’s Office formally filed charges, it was for the lesser offense of negligent homicide.
Barley’s attorney maintained that his client’s actions were a “textbook case of self-defense” under Arkansas’s Stand Your Ground law. The defense argued that Barley only fired after Knight had threatened to kill him and shot at him first. While initial witness statements and evidence at the scene suggested Barley was the only one to fire a weapon, the defense claimed to have uncovered information to the contrary.
In August 2025, the negligent homicide charge against James Trenton Barley was dismissed in White County Circuit Court. The prosecuting attorney’s office filed a motion to nolle prosequi the charge, stating that it had “received additional information which could prevent it from meeting its burden beyond a reasonable doubt” to disprove Barley’s self-defense claim. With the dismissal of the charge, the criminal case was concluded.
