Ventnor woman charged with killing mother and grandmother once attacked her kids’ nanny as they watched
Before Heather Barbera killed her mom and grandma, the Ventnor woman beat her children's nanny as her kids watched in an assault that left the victim's face bruised and scarred.
Long before police say Heather Barbera bludgeoned her mother and grandmother to death in their condo on the Ventnor, N.J., boardwalk, she pummeled her children's nanny in an attack that left the victim bruised, scarred, and shaken.
In April 2016, shortly after her marriage fell apart, Barbera drove to her ex-husband's Freehold home and attacked the nanny who was looking after her two children, court records show.
She punched the woman in the face, threw her to the floor, and repeatedly kicked her in the head and body while loudly cursing as her son and daughter, then 9 and 11, looked on. Barbera was later charged with defiant trespass and assault.
The shaken nanny was "outrageously upset beyond the pale" when she spoke at a July 2016 hearing in Freehold Municipal Court, records show. Barbera, who pleaded not guilty, was convicted. The judge sentenced her to three years' probation, and she underwent anger management and drug treatment.
Her uncle, Richard Rosen, now questions why she was not sent to jail.
"She should have been in prison and my mom and sister would be alive," he said. "I have no idea how she got out of this."
Rosen said that Barbera's ex-husband, Louis, got custody of their children after the divorce and that she had been jealous the nanny was spending so much time with her kids.
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The nanny, Rosen said, entered therapy and was unable to work after Barbera attacked her. Photos of the woman taken after the assault show purple bruises under her eyes and scars on her cheeks.
"I didn't realize how bad it was," he said. "The nanny was traumatized."
Efforts to reach the nanny and Barbera's defense lawyer were unsuccessful.
The assault was not the first time Barbera had been violent, court records show.
In April 2014, she was charged with assaulting her husband. According to court records, she threw an object at him and injured his head and abdomen.
Six months later, the couple split after 10 years of marriage. Louis Barbera dropped the assault charge three months later, but subsequently filed a temporary restraining order against her.
Barbera violated the restraining order in December when she began sending her ex-husband multiple emails, calling from a blocked number, and stalking him via Facebook, according to court records. She was charged with harassment and stalking and is scheduled to appear in Freehold Municipal Court in September.
Louis Barbera did not respond to phone calls or a message left at his house.
The Brooklyn-born Barbera has a history of drug use, her uncle said. She was unemployed and had recently moved in with her mother and grandmother at the Shore, despite objections from Rosen, who said he had warned against it.
Barbera's mother had been trying to steer her daughter onto the right path, Rosen said, urging her to apply for jobs at casinos in Atlantic City.
Then, last month, police say, Barbera beat her mother, Michelle Gordon, 67, and grandmother Elaine Rosen, 87, to death with a nightstick in their eighth-floor condo. Richard Rosen discovered the two bloodied bodies after driving to the condo because he had been trying to reach his mother and she had not been answering her phone.
After the killings, police say, Barbera stole her mother's credit cards and fled to New York City. Authorities captured her three days later at the Port Authority in midtown Manhattan, and she confessed to the crimes, police said.
At Barbera's first court appearance, her public defender, Holly Bitters, called the situation "very sad." Barbera's brother died of a heroin overdose earlier this year, Bitters said, and she spiraled further into addiction.
"She really went downhill. … [His death] was pretty recent," Bitters said after Barbera's detention hearing two weeks ago.
Bitters did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
In a 911 call on the night of the killings, Richard Rosen told the dispatcher he suspected that his niece was behind the bloody scene. He said he had warned his mother and sister not to allow Barbera to live with them.
"I think my niece must have done this," he said in the call. "She's a drug addict. … I knew this would be no good."
Staff writer Amy S. Rosenberg contributed to this article.