Nearly 25 years after she was sentenced to life in prison without parole for arranging the murder of her ex-husband outside his Santa Clara home, Judith Barnett is a free woman. Barnett was released from a prison in Chowchilla on the morning of Oct. 16.
“I had this little alarm that went off in my head this morning,” said Barnett’s adopted daughter Marie Witkin on the morning of Barnett’s release. “This alarm went off in my head, she’s getting out.”
Witkin says nearly four decades later she’s still sick to her stomach with what Barnett did.
“My father doesn’t have a life and she shouldn’t be having a life either,” said Witkin. “Part of me really wanted to stand at that [prison] gate and say, ‘Hey, now that it’s you and me, face to face, with nobody around but you and me and the man upstairs, tell me to my face. For once don’t lie and say what you did and I’m just going to walk away.’ I want her to admit it to my face.”
Barnett’s second husband, Robert Singer, was initially convicted of hiring someone to murder Howard Witkin in the spring of 1980. Witkin was gunned down outside his townhome in Santa Clara.
Singer was convicted in the murder for hire case, but found out in prison that Barnett was having an affair with his lawyer. Singer asked for a new trial and was granted one. During his new trial, Singer agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors and told them Barnett was the one who told him to get rid of her ex-husband.
Barnett was later convicted of being the mastermind behind the murder for hire plot. In 1994, she was sentenced to life in prison without parole. That sentence was changed to 27 years to life when then Governor Jerry Brown commuted her sentence in November of 2018.
In June of this year, the Parole Board granted her request for parole.
As a condition of parole, Barnett is not allowed to have contact with any members of the Witkin family, including her children.
Barnett told the Parole Board she would be staying with a friend in Central California when she was released, but she would like to move back to Detroit, where she’s from.
“I really want to go home and home is Michigan. And I don’t know how long it will take till I can do that or if I can get the parole officer to allow me to transfer,” Barnett told the Parole Board during her June 4 hearing.
Barnett is wheelchair-bound and in poor health. She told the Parole Board she hopes doctors at the University of Ann Arbor Harbor Hospital could help her get healthy enough to get out of the wheelchair.
She also told the Parole Board, there’s a lot she needs to learn if she returns to society.
“I need to learn technology. I need to reestablish ties with people that I care about,” said Barnett at her June 4 parole hearing. “I need to find a place to live other than my sister’s. I know I’m welcome there, but I have to find some other way to take care of myself. I would like a job. I hope that I’m employable. How do you get around? How do you take a bus when you have a wheelchair? There’s a lot of things that I worry about.”
Barnett has never admitted to arranging to have her ex-husband killed and denied it even during her parole hearing when she was asked point blank if she wanted Witkin killed.
“No. I wanted the situation fixed. And that’s what I was used to. Everything getting fixed,” said Barnett. “I do a lot of things like say things like, I wish somebody would take a long walk on a short pier…I might have said, I wish he’d dropped dead if I wasn’t angry about something. I can’t deny saying that.”
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Barnette (Judith Singer) fell for the tricks/wiles of the devil (Ephesians Chapter 6 verses 10-17) and had her ex-husband murdered. Satan used her weakness against evil to ruin her life en route to conquering her soul. October 1994, she was sentenced to LWOP. In a will chair due to bad health coupled with overcrowding and 25 years in prison, she was released. Satan gave her the desire of her heart and then turned his back on her. Remember, Satan is a MASTER OF DECEPTION and has been practicing the same for centuries. READERS BEWARE!!! 24/7 Satan is analyzing your weaknesses planning your demise at this very moment. Do not look for some man in a red suit with a pitchfork, long ears, and fire red eyes seeking the devil. Look in the mirror at yourself, relatives, friends, and associates. Satan will stir the weaknesses of all people in a pot adding his deceptive plots and there you have it; full proof if you don’t see the writing on the wall✝️✝️✝️
Amen.
Judy Singer's actions that she set in motion destroyed a good family. Liberal America will now take care of her needs.
Lawrence Smith, you're right and that's so unfortunate tax payers are now her bank source. She's so worried about her needs as b4 her jail time. Selfishness is also a sin so she's no winner. Boy, Satan has a special place waiting for her DEEP in Hell!
Oh you better believe theres a reservation in her name at the gates of “HELL”!!! And carma is on her heels!!! Best believe when she is dead n buried ill have a gallon of urine to drop on her grave!!!!
This is an old friend of yours Marie from MI and AZ. I was not happy to hear of her release either. They told us she would never get out and yet there she is- free. People think they know her...... I don't think they do. She is such a vengeful person that I believe she would like nothing else but to "punish" everyone who did what was right for society and helped build the case against her.