Preliminary hearing begins for woman charged with killing husband

Tuesday, April 11th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- A woman charged with killing her husband 20 years ago sat in a wheelchair as her former daughter-in-law testified that the woman received a gun shortly before the killing.

Patsy Jean Barbour, 68, is charged with first-degree murder in the 1980 shooting death of Andrew "Mac" Barbour Jr. at the couple's Tulsa residence.

Patsy Barbour was arrested at her Las Vegas home three days after the murder charge was filed in July 1999. She was released after posting a $100,000 cash bond and allowed to return to Nevada.

Also known as Patsy Woofter and Patsy Hardesty, Barbour maintains she is innocent. She used a wheelchair during part of her courthouse stay Monday, the first day of her preliminary hearing. Defense attorney Paul Brunton has said she has multiple health problems.

Kariene Rimer, Patsy Barbour's former daughter-in-law, testified that Barbour was given a gun by her son a few weeks before the shooting.

Patsy Barbour's now-deceased son, Randy Hardesty, "hated Mac" and "let his mother know that in no uncertain terms," Rimer said.

Patsy "always tried to smooth it over" and tried to reduce the anger of her son "any way she could," Rimer testified.

After Barbour was killed, Hardesty made it clear to Rimer that "he had gotten the gun" and that he had known how "it was going to be done" and "how it was going to be paid for," according to Rimer.

Randy Hardesty died in June 1983 in Nevada of an accidental, self-inflicted gunshot wound, Tulsa County Assistant District Attorney Mark Collier said.

Rimer, who indicated that she had been with Hardesty since the summer of 1979 and subsequently married him, said "Randy always had a firearm with him." She said she saw him give a stolen.38-caliber revolver to his mother in the kitchen of the Barbours' home.

After Andrew Barbour was killed, Patsy Barbour did "not really" express an interest in the investigation, Rimer testified.

Patsy Barbour's attitude appeared to be that "the cops were stupid" and that "they completely screwed everything up," she said.