A Gary man was sentenced to 65 years in a gas station murder that prosecutors called an “extra heinous” shooting in retaliation for his friend’s death.

Byron Barnes, now 21, was charged with murder and a gun enhancement in the July 31, 2022, shooting death of Tyrae D. Hayes, 25, of Gary.

Authorities alleged Barnes was one of two men who gunned down Hayes inside the station.

Hayes was a suspect in the Nov. 21, 2021 shooting death of Tobigah Goins, 17, on the 1000 block of Polk Street. He was never charged in the case.

It wasn’t a justification, but “part of the story of what happened,” defense lawyer Scott King said of Barnes, who was 19 when he shot Hayes.

He said Barnes will appeal. King asked for a minimal sentence to give Barnes a chance for rehabilitation.

Deputy Prosecutor Maureen Koonce said Barnes “ambushed” as he stood over Hayes and shot him dead. That, by itself, motivated her to ask for a maximum 20 years on the gun enhancement, something she said she rarely did.

The shooting was “exactly what (it is) intended for,” she said.

After the shooting, Barnes put on a face mask, turned his sweatshirt inside out, put a Lakers jersey over it and changed pants to hide his identity. At one point, he returned that day to the gas station.

“He knew exactly what he was doing,” she said.

Barnes was recorded on a jailhouse call telling a woman to lie in a deposition, Koonce said. He was cited for more than a dozen jail violations, ranging from fighting to throwing feces at a correctional officer.

Hayes’ mother, who spoke in court, would have to live with his death, the prosecutor said.

King told Magistrate Kathleen Sullivan that Barnes wouldn’t speak in court due to his appeal.

Sullivan said his jail record wouldn’t weigh as heavily, since it had not gone through a process where he could contest it.

However, it showed he was “violent,” with “no respect for authority,” she said.

The way he killed Hayes was a “coldness I’m shocked to find in someone so young,” Sullivan said. “I’m saddened by that, truthfully.”

Sullivan put in her order that Barnes would be eligible to do Lake County’s Community Transition Court in the last 3-4 years of his sentence.

Court filings show charges were dropped for co-defendant Michael R. Alexander and his case was expunged in February. A criminal case for a third man, Jimmijion T. Bailey, the driver, was rejected in 2022. His case was expunged in November 2022.

For both men, prosecutors wrote they couldn’t prove the case.

Gary police were called at 2:50 p.m. July 31, 2022, to a Citgo gas station, 901 E. 5th Ave., where they found Hayes inside “bleeding profusely” and lying on his back near the front counter with gunshot wounds to the head and body, the affidavit states.

The Lake County Coroner’s Office pronounced him dead at the scene, according to court records.

Surveillance footage showed three men pull up in a gray Hyundai to the gas station at 2:37 p.m. Two men, identified as Bailey and Barnes, get out and go inside, records state. As they pull off, a moped pulls up with Hayes riding as a back passenger.

Two minutes after Hayes enters the station, Barnes and Alexander appear on footage walking around the station, then follow him inside, records state.

Alexander appears to pull out a gun, shooting Hayes in the forehead, while Barnes pulls out his own gun, shooting Hayes “several times” in his body, the original charging affidavit alleged.

Both men ran out of the gas station, the affidavit states.

An hour later, Alexander, Barnes and Bailey were arrested at Marquette Park in Gary after police got reports of the three walking on the beach with guns, court records show.

mcolias@post-trib.com