Campus standoff trial: Suicide his only plan, Bartelt says

He testifies ASU stop was impulse

Brad Bartelt
Brad Bartelt

JONESBORO -- Brad Kenneth Bartelt was looking for a remote area to kill himself Dec. 10 when he drove onto the Arkansas State University campus in Jonesboro, parked his pickup on the student center lawn and then held police at bay for an hour and a half before surrendering, he said.

Bartelt, 48, testified Thursday in the fourth day of his trial in Craighead County Circuit Court. He wove a tale of frustration, anger and depression over his inability to get disability benefits after he was injured in an accident while enrolled in a truck-driving course at ASU's Newport campus in 2012.

Bartelt is charged with five counts of aggravated assault and one count each of making a terroristic threat and terroristic threatening. If convicted, Bartelt could receive a maximum sentence of 66 years, said Craighead County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Grant DeProw.

"I couldn't get anyone to help me," Bartelt told the jury of six men and six women regarding his disability benefits. "I was done."

He said he had no vendetta against the university, countering what prosecutors said earlier this week that he targeted the school because he was angry at it. Instead, Bartelt said, he drove around Jonesboro on a near-empty tank of gas looking for a place to shoot himself, then he spotted ASU.

"I had good memories about ASU," said Bartelt, who attended the university on an ACT scholarship some 25 years ago.

"It was one of the few places I remembered fondly in my adult life."

The defense wrapped up its case late Thursday afternoon. Closing statements are set for today, and jury deliberations are expected to begin after noon.

Bartelt testified Thursday that he was critically injured in April 2012 when he tried to remove a barrel that another student had hit and gotten lodged under a truck while training at ASU-Newport. As he was working to remove the barrel, the driver's tractor-trailer moved forward, pinning Bartelt under its wheels and dragging him more than 20 feet.

"As the truck was crushing me, I remember saying, 'God save me. I'm dead,'" Bartelt said.

Medical personnel flew him to a Memphis hospital where he remained for 28 days. He testified that he died twice during operations, "flat-lining" once for 4 minutes and again for 6 minutes.

He had broken several bones and lacerated his lungs and liver.

Afterward, he could no longer drive a truck, he said, because he was taking pain medication.

At first, Bartelt testified, ASU-Newport administrators said they would pay for his medical care. The university later denied payment, and Bartelt's world began crashing down on him, he said.

He sued the university and eventually won a settlement of $787,000. A third of that went to lawyers. The rest went to pay for eight major surgeries and follow-up care, he said.

Bartelt also sought disability benefits but testified that his attorneys did not return telephone calls, put him off and missed deadlines. He claimed that a federal judge in Little Rock "lied 22 times" about evidence that eventually led to his denial of benefits.

Bartelt's wife divorced him soon after his accident, he said. He remarried in May 2015, but his new wife left him in August 2015.

He testified that he sought help Aug. 24, 2015, at St. Bernards Behavioral Health Unit in Jonesboro because he wanted to kill himself, and received treatment there for five days.

"I checked myself in because ... I was at my wits' end," he testified. "I told them I was about to go hunt the [federal] judge down."

Bartelt said the unit treated him and told him to return Oct. 6, 2015. He returned but missed his appointment by half an hour, he testified.

"I never got a response back," he said.

On Dec. 10, Bartelt decided to commit suicide, he testified.

He left his Hall Street home in north Jonesboro around noon and began driving, seeking a remote, quiet area where he could kill himself. When he drove by ASU, he entered the campus, and drove past barricades and onto a lawn near the Carl R. Reng student union center. His pickup sputtered and ran out of gas.

Two ASU students testified Thursday that they were near Bartelt when he drove up. Each said Bartelt asked him to leave the area because he "didn't want any innocents to get hurt."

Bartelt called the Jonesboro 911 center and told a dispatcher that he had a propane tank in the back of his pickup, a can of gasoline and a shotgun with one shell in it.

"I was trying to give them what they might think was a threat," Bartelt said of calling police.

"I wasn't making a threat. That shotgun shell was for me. I planned to shoot myself in my truck.

"I wanted my story out," Bartelt said. "I wanted them to ask 'Why did he take the top of his head off at ASU?'"

He draped a yellow "Don't Tread on Me" flag over his pickup because he had told a friend a week earlier that he wanted that flag in his coffin.

After an hour and a half, Bartelt surrendered to police and was arrested.

He said he didn't kill himself because while praying for his grandchildren's safety, Bartelt could not remember the name of his sixth grandchild who was born only two weeks earlier.

"I couldn't ask God to bless my sixth grandchild," he said. "By the grace of God, the police officers didn't shoot me."

Bartelt apologized while testifying.

"I apologize to the Jonesboro police and the students and faculty," he said. "But not to the [ASU] Newport administration. I didn't mean to scare any people. Looking back, I did it wrong."

Bartelt spoke rapidly while testifying, and at times his attorney, Chet Dunlap of Trumann, bade him to speak slower so jurors could understand him and the court recorder could transcribe all of his testimony.

On cross-examination, an angry DeProw shot questions at Bartelt.

"Do you honestly have the guts to say you're a victim?" DeProw asked.

"Yes, sir. It's all in the file," Bartelt replied, referring to a notebook he had with him at ASU on Dec. 10 that contained his medical reports and denial of benefits.

"What right did you have to make your personal anguish the problem of the citizens of Craighead County?" DeProw asked.

"I didn't have that right," Bartelt said. "That was a mistake."

Dunlap said Bartelt had no intentions of hurting anyone but himself Dec. 10, and the charges that prosecutors filed against his client were unwarranted.

Dunlap said in his opening statement that ASU overreacted when it issued an active-shooter alert to students and the university staff, causing undue panic in regard to Bartelt on Dec. 10.

ASU System President Charles "Chuck" Welch testified Thursday that he felt that the university followed policy when it issued the alert.

"Our first priority was the safety of our students," Welch said. "We were unsure of what all could be potentially happening. We were unsure if other individuals were involved.

"We did the best we could in that circumstance to make sure our students and staff were safe."

A Section on 08/26/2016

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