During the early hours of July 5, 2020, 42-year-old Jessica Smith was murdered in her Olathe home.

The assaillant — 45-year-old Clyde Barnes Jr., who had previously been in a relationship with Smith — took off his ankle monitor before entering the residence and killing her with a pickaxe or sharp tool. Between the time he broke house arrest and killed Smith, roughly an hour-and-a-half had passed.

But despite Barnes removing the monitor, attorneys for the woman’s family say no warning went out to Smith or police.

“What good is getting a protection from stalking order if nobody can help you enforce it?” Dustin Van Dyk, an attorney for the family, told The Star in an interview Thursday.

Smith’s family is now suing GPS surveillance company B.I. Incorporated for failing to monitor Barnes, who faced stalking charges against the woman at the time of the murder.

The Johnson County Department of Corrections was put on notice of the claim and will also be added as a party defendant, according to the lawyer and court documents.

Tampering alert issued before grisly murder

In May, Barnes was found guilty of killing Smith. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Before Smith was killed, Barnes was out on bond and ordered not to go within 100 yards of his victim or her residence.

But around 1:15 a.m. that morning, a tamper alert and proximity alert were issued, indicating that Barnes had taken off his monitor, according to documents filed in Johnson County District Court earlier this month.

Minutes later, the tamper alert stopped but the proximity alert persisted, showing that Barnes had reassembled the monitor’s strap but the device was still not on his ankle.

In response to the alerts, B.I. sent a single text to the Johnson County Department of Corrections, but did not attempt to contact Barnes or notify Smith and police, the lawsuit indicates.

Sometime after 2:45 a.m., Barnes killed Smith before fleeing the scene, according to court documents.

Officers responded to a burglary call at Smith’s home on the 800 block of N. Hamilton Street around 3 a.m. and found the woman dead.

Barnes was arrested hours later and charged with first-degree murder, aggravated burglary, unlawful tampering with electronic monitoring, criminal threat and violation of a protection order.

According to the lawsuit, B.I. entered a three-year contract with the Department of Corrections in 2019, though the department says their partnership ended in 2021.

The department now uses electronic monitoring company SCRAM Systems, according to Jody Hanson, director of public affairs for the Johnson County Manager’s Office.

The county declined to speak further on the lawsuit.

‘I missed it’

In a May 2021 testimony at Barnes’ preliminary hearing, a house arrest supervisor with the Johnson County Department of Corrections said the alert was received at 1:15 a.m. but missed because the person tasked with monitoring the defendant was sleeping.

“I was asleep and I overslept,” the employee testified, according to court documents. “I missed it.”

The man said nothing was immediately done about the alert because he had not seen it. Ordinarily, the department would have attempted to contact Barnes to inquire what happened to his monitor.

“If we didn’t get ahold of them, we would call the victim,” the employee stated.

In his testimony, he explained that the monitor can sense when wearers slide off or cut the bracelet, and a notice is issued.

Attorneys for the family argue the case highlights a lack of needed protections for women who have been domestic violence victims.

“They were told repeatedly, ‘You gotta get a protective order,’” their attorney said. “And then nobody was there.”

Another employee with the Department of Corrections testified that when he began his shift at 5 a.m., he noticed activity on Barnes’ monitor and contacted him, instructing Barnes to report back for inspection. Court documents allege Barnes did not put the monitor back on until 5:02 a.m.

Later that morning, another employee contacted the Olathe Police Department.

‘Losing faith’

Before Smith was killed, she filed a petition from protection of abuse, saying she feared for her life.

In a statement to the court entered in November 2019, Smith said she feared Barnes was on drugs. The man would sexually assault her in her sleep and become belligerent while accusing her of cheating, she said.

“He has been causing me to feel scared because I do not know what he will do physically,” she wrote in her petition filed in Johnson County District Court.

After returning home from work one day, Barnes seemed especially agitated, so Smith said she fled to her neighbor’s house. Before going back to the home, she instructed her neighbor to “just call police” if she heard yelling.

When she returned home, Barnes inquired about who she had been with and accused her of infidelity. He then said he had “something for her” and stuck his hand in his pocket.

“I ran down the stairs to my neighbor’s and called 911 … I told him he just tried to shoot me and attack me.

“I am losing faith that the police are here to protect me if they would let someone like that drive off after a situation like that,” Smith wrote.

Barnes was arrested in March 2020 and charged with stalking. He was released on $1,500 bond a few days later and was on house arrest until the murder, just months after his initial arrest.

B.I. could not be reached for comment.