A dispute between the Otsego County Sheriff’s Office and its frequent partner, the District Attorney’s Office, about the handling of a Morris homicide investigation is spilling into public view.
Otsego County Court Judge John Lambert sentenced David S. Hand, 59, of Morris, to five to 15 years in state prison for second-degree manslaughter Monday, Sept. 28. Hand admitted to killing Barton, but said it was the result of Hand falling on some leaves while the two men were chasing a raccoon and accidentally firing his handgun.
Now-Acting District Attorney Christopher J. Di Donna said during court sentencing and in an interview Friday that it took more than a month after Barton was found dead in November 2025 for the sheriff’s office to secure Barton’s home as a crime scene. Items including Barton’s phone, keys and cigarettes could have been impacted, he said.
Di Donna said that under the leadership of Sheriff Richard J. Devlin Jr. and Undersheriff Cameron Allison, the sheriff’s office rejected offered assistance from the State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation. The office failed to analyze a data recorder in the suspect’s Ford SUV, which could have revealed information about Hand’s movement before and after he killed Barton with a gunshot to the head, Di Donna said.
Di Donna said in court that in his “heart of hearts,” he believed Hand intentionally killed Barton. “However, what’s in one’s heart is not evidence of a crime. It is not what we know but what we can prove that is the controlling principle in our criminal justice system.”
Di Donna told the court that if not for the alleged evidentiary deficiencies, “this death may not have been treated as a manslaughter but rather as a murder.”
“I recognize that the family of Mr. Barton is unhappy with the sentencing guidelines that are provided at this time,” Lambert said in court, according to a transcript obtained by The Daily Star.
“The case is what it is,” Lambert said. “I think Mr. DiDonna (sic) put it succinctly. How we got to where we are is exactly how we got to where we are.”
When the sheriff’s office announced Hand’s arrest Jan. 1, the day Di Donna became acting DA following the retirement of John Muehl, it was for second-degree murder and other charges. The news release stated the announcement came jointly from Devlin and Di Donna.
But Di Donna said Friday that happened without his advance knowledge or consent.
He said he received a call from Devlin on Dec. 31, 2025, inviting him to the sheriff’s office to discuss follow up on details in the case.
Di Donna said that at that point, he and other DA’s office staff — including Muehl — had met with the sheriff’s office several times in November and December, often urging the sheriff’s office to take its time building a case and to follow up on a variety of investigative leads because the it was not ready yet.
When Di Donna and another DA attorney, Bradley Moses, arrived, they met with Devlin, Allison and the two sheriff’s office investigators in the case, Di Donna said.
“The sheriff told us, ‘David Hand is on his way. We’re arresting him for murder. What do you think?’ And I was speechless because we had repeatedly told him, ‘do not make an arrest, work the case,'” Di Donna said.
As he and Moses were leaving, Di Donna said, Devlin requested the two men review the press release for typos; it had no typos, Di Donna said. It also did not have Di Donna’s name.
“At that point in time,” he said, “I’m thinking to myself, ‘they just don’t listen. They just don’t listen.'”
Devlin said via email Friday that “clearly, the Acting District Attorney either didn’t read or doesn’t understand the case file in this case.”
“The inaccuracies in his statements are so far removed from the facts that they border on negligence and are a complete affront to the hard work of the men and women of the Sheriff’s Office,” he said.
Devlin said Di Donna’s statements constituted a deeply concerning pattern of disregard for the law enforcement officers responsible for keeping Otsego County among the safest in New York.
Otsego County Board of Representatives member Andrew Marietta, D-District 8, called for an independent review by the Oneida County sheriff and DA of evidentiary deficiencies in the case in a Tuesday open letter to Devlin.
Marietta said Friday that he had emailed the letter to Devlin, the rest of the county board and County Administrator Steve Wilson. He said he has not received a response.