North Carolina National Guard Sgt. Rhett Michael Barlow has been charged with a single count of solicitation to commit first-degree murder, according to authorities. Barlow is accused of attempting to arrange the death of the man who killed his mother seven years ago in a traffic crash. (Wake Forest, N.C., Police Department)
A North Carolina National Guard soldier is accused of attempting to arrange the death of the man who killed his mother seven years ago in a traffic wreck, law enforcement officials said.
Army Sgt. Rhett Michael Barlow is accused of soliciting a Wake Forest, N.C., man in November to kill Donald Caulder Jr., who in March 2016 was driving a dump truck that crashed into the minivan driven by the soldier’s mother, Michelle Barlow, and killed her, according to court documents. Barlow was arrested Saturday at Fort Liberty, N.C., where he was training in his part-time National Guard role, according to Wake Forest police and the Army Criminal Investigation Division. CID agents arrested Barlow on the Army post and transferred him into Wake Forest police custody, officials said.
A judge Monday ordered Barlow, 22, of Raleigh, N.C., to remain held in Wake Forest jail and undergo a mental health evaluation.
The soldier faces a single count of solicitation to commit first-degree murder, a felony that carries a possible life prison sentence. Barlow is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 29, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said Barlow took steps that showed he was serious about the murder plot in the weeks after he attempted to hire the would-be killer. They claimed he sought a transfer within the North Carolina National Guard that would put him closer to Caulder, and he purchased an AR-15 rifle and at least one other firearm for use in the killing.
But the scheme was not to be. The man Barlow approached about committing the crime, Benjamin Miceli, instead informed police about Barlow’s plans, said Bill Crabtree, a spokesman for the Wake Forest police. Miceli does not face any charges in the incident.
Barlow is assigned to the North Carolina Guard’s 130th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade based out of Charlotte, N.C., according to the state’s Guard. He had been a member of the Guard since 2019.
North Carolina Guard officials declined to comment Tuesday about the incident. A spokesman said North Carolina Guard leaders “continue to monitor the situation and work with local authorities during the investigative process.”
Barlow was 15 years old when the dump truck that Caulder was driving rear-ended Michelle Barlow’s minivan and smashed it into the back of a tractor trailer stopped at a traffic light on a busy road just south of Wake Forest, according to a March 24, 2016, news report in The News and Observer in Raleigh.
Court records show Caulder, 29 at the time of the crash, was eventually charged with a misdemeanor count of death by vehicle. He was convicted in January 2017 and received a sentence of 12 months of probation and a suspended jail sentence.
The News and Observer at the time reported a State Highway Patrol investigation found the dump truck that Caulder was driving was loaded with unsecured logs and pulling a trailer with a 9,800-pound Bobcat loader. The probe found the trailer’s brakes had not been attached properly to the truck and malfunctioned at the time of the crash. Investigators also believed Caulder was likely distracted at the time of the wreck, according to the newspaper report.
Michelle Barlow, 42, was an English teacher at Wake Forest High School at the time of her death. In news reports, she was described as well-liked by her students.
A statement issued by the school described her as “a wonderful person,” and her students told Raleigh’s CBS 17 television station that they were “heartbroken” and in “shock and disbelief” to learn of her death.
Her son graduated from Wake Forest High School in 2019.
