In his episode of I Am A Killer, Barnett talks of being abused physically and sexually by John Barnett, the man who adopted him at the age of seven. In the documentary, David Barnett notes that by the age of eight he was being abused more than once a week, of which he says “I started to black out when I sat on his lap.”

Later, he says that he also blacked out during the attack on his grandparents that led to their deaths. On February 4, 1996, the young David Barnett decided to tell Leona and Clifford Barnett about what his adopted father was doing to him. The documentary then shows David Barnett’s best friend say: “He told them what John had done to him, what John had done to Eric [his adopted brother] and it just did not go the way David thought it was going to go.”

According to The Associated Press, Barnett stole the couple’s car and money after he stabbed them over 20 times. David says of this in the doc: “I went into a state of overkill, of manic rage. I lost consciousness and killed two innocent people.”

After hearing Barnett’s account of the killing, true crime Twitter was full of viewers saying he should be released from prison. One, for example, wrote: “Was watching #IAmAKiller on Netflix. Man, David Barnett’s story is absolutely heartbreaking. I was in tears by the end. I hope he gets out of prison one day,” while another tweeted, “I hope when he appeals that David Barnett from #iamakiller gets out. I can’t imagine all the horrors he has faced literally since birth. The world failed him as a child in ways I can’t even imagine…”

Originally, David Barnett was sentenced to death after he confessed to the crime, but this sentence was overturned in 2015, with the judge saying that David Barnett’s original lawyers should have given more evidence about their client’s traumatic childhood. In March 2019, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole, though his attorneys have appealed this decision.

In the documentary, when asked about a potential future release, David Barnett says that he hopes to one day become “a productive member of society.”

I Am A Killer Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.