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# Jury deciding the fate of accused cab driver killer
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/jury-deciding-the-fate-of-accused-cab-driver-killer/
- Published: 2004-01-30T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T03:41:55.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Crime, Pico, #archive-import

*Cops: Cabbie was ambushed*

*By MICHAEL TITTINGER Daily Press Staff Writer*

The fate of a 24-year-old Santa Monica man accused of viciously attacking and killing an unsuspecting cab driver nearly three years ago, now rests with a 13-member jury deliberating today at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center.

Closing arguments were delivered Thursday in the murder trial of Antonio Barba, accused of robbing and stabbing Keum Kim more than 30 times in the head, neck and chest during an attack in the Oakwood section of Venice.

Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry instructed the jurors on Thursday, following three days of witness testimony. The jury, selected from a 55-member pool during a lengthy inquisition on Monday, will begin deliberating in earnest today. Perry, who will not be in attendance at the courthouse today, will return to the courtroom should a ruling be rendered by the jury, according to a court clerk.

Barba is charged with one count of murder and one count of armed robbery in connection with the July 8, 2001 slaying of Kim. Hailing from the 1800 block of 16th Street in the Pico section of Santa Monica, Barba has entered pleas of not guilty to all of the allegations.

According to police, Barba hailed Kim’s cab around 1:40 a.m. along the 1800 block of Santa Monica Boulevard. After being picked up, Barba is said to have repeatedly stabbed the driver with a butcher knife he took from his mother’s kitchen and robbed him as he delivered Barba to the 800 block of Brooks Avenue, just off Lincoln Boulevard.

The prosecution’s case centered on the belief that Barba, then 21 years old, called a cab for the specific purpose of killing and robbing the driver. The defense countered that all of the evidence in the case was circumstantial.

The prosecution is not seeking the death penalty in the case.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 30, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/013004.pdf?ref=smdp.com)